Relative Calamity

Christopher Titus has heard that 63% of American families are considered dysfunctional.

By those standards, Titus infers, he’s normal.

In the monologue “Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding,” Titus tells about his family for 80 minutes.

At the very least, it will make you feel better about your own relatives and upbringing.

“Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding” is the most recent in Ojai’s Theater 150’s series of single-actor performances. Told in the first person, it could be considered a stand-up monologue--certainly, the opening-night audience was laughing from beginning to end.

But Titus’ piece, which seems to be at least partly drawn from real life, is one of the more harrowing experiences one might pay, willingly, to sit through.

His birth mother was insane and institutionalized early in his life, Titus explains, and afterward his alcoholic father married a succession of women. Nevertheless, he continues, he “wasn’t an evil kid, I just pulled a lot of pranks that happened to be felonies.”

His life was a series of calamities, he continues, “but once you’ve driven a drunk father to Mom’s parole [hearing], what else can happen?”

Titus’ craggy good looks and shattering intensity are more than a little reminiscent of Gary Busey and Denis Leary; his material wouldn’t sound out of place coming from either.

Aside from a couple of cliched or out-of-place bits that could be easily excised (the bit about mass murderers being quiet is stale; nobody but the French and Miss Piggy should be allowed to refer to themselves as “Moi”), this is funny, original and thought-provoking material. And Titus is just the guy to put it across.

His credits include “Star Search” and opening for singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins; presumably, both were with material other than this.

DETAILS

“Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding” concludes Sunday at Theater 150, 918 E. Ojai Avenue in Ojai. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Admission to all shows is $20. For reservations (highly recommended) or further information, call 646-4300.

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The More Things Change: It seems that the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival is under new management.

Formed a few years ago as a joint project of Cal Lutheran University and the Santa Susana Repertory Company, the event is now being produced by “The Kingsmen Shakespeare Company.”

What gives? We asked Michael Arndt, Cal Lutheran’s point man on the project.

“Although a lot of the same players are involved,” Arndt said, “it’s totally different leadership; in many ways, it’s a different organization, structured differently.”

Said Santa Susana artistic director Lane Davies, “It was always the hope and the intention that we could generate this new cultural collaboration.

Ninety percent of the new Kingsmen Shakespeare Company come from a prior involvement with Santa Susana or Cal Lutheran.”

Davies will star as Macbeth this summer on the lawn at Cal Lutheran, directed by Arndt, with Allan Hunt, another name familiar to Santa Susana fans, directing the second play, “A Comedy of Errors.”

The festival will again feature at least eight professional actors for each show and is introducing an apprentice program that started earlier this month.

“We auditioned regionally for apprentices,” Arndt said, “and signed six from other colleges and universities as well as six from CLU.

These are actors with a long list of credits who are willing to do this for professional credit and a small amount of money.”

As for the 10-year-old Santa Susana--which has been staging plays at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza for the past few years--it’s “sort of running on one cylinder for a while,” said Hunt, confirming that the traditional performance of “A Christmas Carol” will continue come the holidays.

DETAILS

The third annual Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival will be held at Kingsmen Park on the Cal Lutheran University grounds at 8 p.m. weekends from June 25 to July 25. Festival seating is free for those who bring their own chairs; limited reserved seating is available for $10.

The grounds will be open for picnicking from 5:30 each evening, with wandering musicians, sword-fighters, singers, dancers and other informal entertainment. Alcoholic beverages are prohibited. For further information, call 493-3415.

Todd Everett can be reached at teverettconcentric.net.