‘50 Years Ahead of Her Time’ : Readers Theatre Will Present Work About Edna St. Vincent Millay

Readers Repertory Theatre will present “Love Is Not All: The Passions of Edna St. Vincent Millay,” a two-act play by Jordan R. Young of Orange, in Laguna Niguel tonight, the first of four performances this week at Orange County libraries.

“Love Is Not All” begins at 7 p.m. at the Crown Valley Library, 30341 Crown Valley Parkway, Laguna Niguel, and is free to the public.

The genesis of “Love Is Not All” is a one-woman show Young was commissioned to write in 1985 for actress Bettye Ackerman.

The current multicharacter play had its first stage reading during the annual Playwrights Festival at Fullerton College two years ago. But Young said he has rewritten it for the Laguna Niguel-based Readers Repertory Theatre, which this season is focusing on literary greats.

Millay (1892-1950) was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She also was a humanist, activist and pioneer feminist who, according to Young, “lit up Greenwich Village like a Roman candle.”

“She was 50 years ahead of her time,” he said. “In the ‘20s, she was writing about love and sex as I don’t think any other woman had. She was certainly a pioneer in that.”

The 90-minute reading, produced and directed by Edith M. Schwartz, features 16 characters played by eight actors.

But don’t expect any sets or costumes.

“Readers theater is almost like radio without the microphones,” said Young. The actors read from their scripts “and the audience has to imagine the setting and costumes.”

Readers theater, he said, “is very much about the word.”

“Love Is Not All” also will be performed at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Newport Beach Public Library, 1000 Avocado Ave.,; at 7 p.m. Friday at the Mesa Verde branch of the Costa Mesa Library, 2969 Mesa Verde Drive; and at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Mission Viejo Library 25209 Marguerite Parkway.

For more information, call (949) 499-3665.

*

Jane Scovell, whose bestselling biography “Oona: Living in the Shadows” chronicles the life of Oona O’Neill Chaplin--daughter of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O’Neill and wife of Charlie Chaplin--will speak at the Round Table West literary luncheon at noon Thursday at the Balboa Bay Club, 1221 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. Also on the bill: Shirley Taylor Haizlip and Harold C. Haizlip (“In the Garden of Our Dreams: Memoirs of a Marriage”) and former Los Angeles Times writer Charles Hillinger (“Charles Hillinger’s Channel Islands”).

Cost: $40. For reservations, call (323) 256-7977.

Coming Up:

* Barbara DeMarco Barrett will interview Mary Morris (“Angels & Aliens: A Journey West”) on “Writers on Writing” at 6 p.m. today on KUCI-FM (88.9) in Irvine.

* Jason Kelly will discuss and sign “Y2K: It’s Already Here” at 7 p.m. Friday at Barnes & Noble in the Huntington Beach Mall, 7777 Edinger Ave.

* William A. Gordon will present a slide show illustrating his “The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book” at 2 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble in the Huntington Beach Mall, 7777 Edinger Ave.

* Tom Nolan will sign “Ross MacDonald: A Biography” at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Nevada Barr will sign “Liberty Falling” at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange.

* Gregg Main will discuss and sign “Every Trace” at 1 p.m. Sunday at Coffee, Tea & Mystery, 13232 Springdale St., Westminster.

* Novelist and English professor Gordon McAlpine (“Joy in Mudville,” “The Persistence of Memory”) will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. General admission: $5.

Send information about book-related events at least 10 days before event to: Dennis McLellan, O.C. Books & Authors, Southern California Living, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.