Battle Scenes

John Slade’s nerves were edgier and edgier as the days passed late last week. The world premiere of “Shiloh,” his original dramatization of the novel by prominent Civil War historian Shelby Foote, was approaching rapidly, and he still hadn’t heard from Foote, who had the power to cancel the show if he didn’t approve.

Permission to write the adaptation had been gained and contracts signed, but what did Foote think of Slade’s script?

The answer came Friday morning, in the form of a handwritten memorandum from the author, who lives in Memphis. (The battle took place in 1862 in southwest Tennessee.) “You did a good, imaginative job,” read the Foote note, “and I congratulate you and wish you every possible success.”

After its staged reading premiere at Cal Lutheran University this weekend, “Shiloh” will have its first full-scale production at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza next month in a joint venture between the university’s drama department and the Santa Susana Repertory Company. Playwright Slade is also the director.

The notion of a theatrical version of Foote’s fictionalization, written in 1952, of the crucial Civil War battle came from Santa Susana artistic director Lane Davies. The Georgia native read the novel on an airplane trip and suggested the adaptation, explained Cal Lutheran drama professor Michael Arndt.

“The script is complete,” Arndt said less than an hour before Slade received the handwritten missive from Foote. “We had several readings last fall, but [this weekend’s] is more formal. But it’s still a work in process.”

“I read the book three times,” said Slade, “and decided that it was possible to dramatize. Shelby Foote’s nifty idea was to be a sort of fly on the wall of the battle; the story is from the point of view of several foot soldiers who are some distance from the generals. That presents a problem, because [Foote] moves from one character to another--there’s no main [protagonist].”

Slade directed the Santa Susana group on its productions of “Quilters” and “The Foreigner” (and as an actor, his scenes from “L.A. Confidential” and “Titanic” were lost, he says, on the cutting-room floor).

He has developed an interest in “the myth of the American frontier,” and rose to the challenge of adapting Foote’s work. Between the original writing and various stages of rehearsals, he spent three months in China as one of the few American actors in the Chinese film “Burning Bay.” (“It’s like ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai,’ and I have the Alec Guinness part,” he explained).

While he must be pleased with his recent accomplishments, he seemed particularly excited by the encouragement and praise he received from Foote’s letter, which arrived during our chat. “I only wish I could be there for the opening,” the historian said. “. . . the theater is badly in need of such experiments.”

* The staged reading of “Shiloh” will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday only at Preus-Brandt Forum of Cal Lutheran University, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Admission is free. The full staged production will take place at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Forum Theatre from March 13-29. Tickets, $22-$25. For information on either production, call 493-3415.

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Psychological Thriller: Trouble’s afoot in “The Business of Murder,” but this is one mystery in which the audience isn’t even sure what the crime is until seconds before the final curtain. While the play, by British writer Richard Harris, is no “Sleuth,” it does keep the audience guessing. The play, directed by Aron Eisenberg, is the current production of the Conejo Players’s Conejo Afternoon Theatre series of weekend matinee performances.

The main characters are Detective Hallett (John McKenna); Dee Redmond (Bailey Spencer-Jackson), a playwright specializing in murder; and Stone (Anthony Silk), a mysterious fellow who invites them, separately, to his home.

The rest is left for the audience to discover, with a caveat that the murky (and mercifully brief) first act will be more than compensated for in the second half, if one doesn’t mind extreme chattiness. And you may wonder why anybody, given the choice, would remain in Stone’s company for an instant longer than necessary. Maybe, in fact, that’s the real mystery.

* “The Business of Murder” continues at 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 21 at Conejo Players Theater, 351 S. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks. Tickets to all performances are $5, at the door only. For information, call 495-3715.