Show Turns Her Loss Into Audience’s Gain

She was 15 when they met. He was 17. She went on to become class valedictorian, he the star of the football team.

She was excited about college life when they moved onto UCLA. He discovered drugs and booze. After they married, she went into computers, he became a dentist. She got the house she always wanted, he got his dream Porsche.

He became dependent on drugs and alcohol. She went into a depression as they grew apart. At age 33, she actually contemplated suicide. The same year, at age 35, he died. The autopsy showed a combination of cocaine, alcohol and a painkiller to which he was addicted.

She is Susie Vanderlip, 45, of Orange, and she tells their story as part of a one-woman show for young people that she has taken all over the country. And having seen her show this week at Richland school in Orange, I can tell you: She is terrific.

You think it’s easy to face a crowd from a theater stage? Try performing solo for an audience of young people in a continuation school who find skepticism easy on any subject related to their lives.

Vanderlip combines dance, drama and comedy to impress upon her audience the dangers of alcohol, drugs, gangs and teen sex. But her overall message is upbeat, that they can overcome difficulties if they find positive outlets for their emotions.

All the characters she portrays, she told the Richland students, have something in common with each other “and with all of you. We all have feelings. . . . We can convert them into understanding, and from understanding comes compassion.”

Vanderlip told me later that it took her several years to overcome the events surrounding her first husband’s death. (She’s now married to psychologist Kenneth Vanderlip.) But her love of dance helped: She’s part of the local Dance Kaleidoscope troupe. And in 1991, she started her one-woman show. She calls it Legacy of Hope.

The show was introduced at Richland without mention of her name. That’s because her first character is Julio, a cap-over-the-ears gang member. And when “Julio” later doffs his cap, the students reacted with surprise, as she knew they would, that “Julio” is a she.

Vanderlip, who has turned the shows into a career, markets them herself ([714] 997-2158), and is booked well into next year in Northern California, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, Virginia and Okinawa. Last week, she was performing in Hawaii; she told the Richland students: “The young have serious troubles in paradise too.”

Vanderlip may not reach all of them with her message. But I’m sure many of them at Richland felt she understood some of the upheaval in their own lives. She’s one who’s been there.

Adieu, Halos: A friend of mine took the afternoon off from work to join me at the Big A on Wednesday afternoon for the final Angel home game. He was telling me that the end of the baseball season is always a letdown for him, a reminder that another summer of his life is gone.

I doubt we would have been engaged in such soulful conversation had the Angels been in the hunt for a playoff spot.

I well remember attending opening day April 2, watching Angel starter Chuck Finley stride toward the mound with confidence--only to get pounded by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Wednesday’s game did mark the end of one era: Next time you attend a baseball game at the Big A, it won’t look the same. Demolition crews soon move in to tear out much of the outfield seating. The idea is to give fans the panoramic view they had in the ‘60s, before the Rams moved in to join the family and needed more seats.

Dividing Time: If you were one of the 13,000 people who participated in AIDS Walk Orange County in June, you likely want to know how the money raised was spent. Here’s a breakdown of the $370,000 raised at the 10th annual walk:

The AIDS Services Foundation received the largest amount, at $78,000. Next highest was the Gay & Lesbian Center and its AIDS Response program, at $74,000. The local chapter of the American Red Cross got $60,000. Laguna Shanti, a nonprofit group that concentrates on AIDS testing and education, received $45,000. Another $40,000 went to the Laguna Beach Community Center. Six other local nonprofit groups with AIDS-related programs took shares of the rest of the money raised.

AIDS Walk Executive Director Joann Ruden points out that all the money raised remains in Orange County. The walk has raised $2.6 million since the annual event began in 1987.

Finding Clients: The Orange County Breast Cancer Partnership will be offering free clinical breast exams and mammograms at the Crystal Cathedral on Oct. 7 and at the Disneyland Hotel on Oct. 15. Both places are donating their facilities. Officials at the partnership say they need women who qualify to call them now ([714] 806-2037 or the toll-free number, [800] 298-0800) in order to process the paperwork. The free screenings are for low-income women who have little or no health insurance. Says spokeswoman Thyme Hampton: “Every day, five women in Orange County hear the devastating words: ‘You have breast cancer.’ ”

Wrap-Up: I’ve always had great respect for live performers willing to reach down deep to bring out such raw emotions. I wondered, though, whether the Richland students were mature enough to appreciate just how much Vanderlip gave of herself to entertain and educate them. I asked several afterward. Their responses went like “it was OK,” “good, I guess,” “cool enough.”

But later, one of them met privately with Vanderlip. He told her that he was a former gang member who had broken away to find a better life for himself. He had started a Bible group but was having trouble attracting interest in it.

Vanderlip said to me: “I told him: You’ve taken the first step. You’re planting seeds. Take it one day at a time. That’s what I had to do.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com