Director Raises Curtain on Bold Ideas

Whether turning the adventure classic “Treasure Island” into a musical or setting “Romeo and Juliet” in 1840s California, Ventura County drama director Lane Davies has often pushed for ideas no one else thought would work.

And, more often than not, he has succeeded.

“He is a real dreamer,” said Rick Rhodes, a producer and composer for the Santa Susana Repertory Company and the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, both founded by Davies.

“Sometimes his dreams sound like pipe dreams and none of us is really sure if he has all his marbles, but I’d say 99% of the time he’s right,” Rhodes said. “From Lane’s dreams come wonderful realities.”

Davies earns a living acting in television shows such as “3rd Rock From the Sun,” in which he plays Chancellor Duncan. But he spends more of his time working for almost nothing to bring his visions to Ventura County stages.

One of the Simi Valley man’s dreams was to do free Shakespeare in the park. He and Cal Lutheran University drama professor Michael Arndt started the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival, which last year drew 10,000 people to an outdoor theater at the Thousand Oaks college. At least 15,000 are expected to see “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Taming of the Shrew” during the fourth season, which starts June 30.

Another of Davies’ ideas was the Santa Susana Repertory Company, the county’s oldest professional theater group. Its always-popular production of “A Christmas Carol” will mark its 11th year this winter with performances at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Over the years, the core group of people active in the Santa Susana and Kingsmen companies has learned to trust Davies, but it hasn’t been easy, Rhodes admitted.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see what he is seeing,” Rhodes said. “We’ve been frightened about a lot of things, not just artistic things, but financial things. But they’ve all worked out.”

Take “A Christmas Carol,” which had always been the Santa Susana company’s sure thing. Until two years ago, the company had always done the same traditional version, and it was always a hit. Then Davies decided he wanted a new script, a new director, new music and new costumes.

“We tried desperately to talk him out of it. We wanted to play it safe,” said Rhodes of Oak Park.

Davies got his way, as usual. The new play was a success and the company staged the same version last winter and plans to stick with it, Rhodes said.

“Lane felt we were getting a little stale and we weren’t growing,” Rhodes said. “He forced us to grow and be creative again.”

Other Davies innovations include turning “Treasure Island” into a musical and setting “Romeo and Juliet” in 1840s California for a performance in a circus tent behind Simi Valley City Hall. Davies is particularly proud of the twist on Shakespeare’s doomed romance. Although audiences were small, critics liked it.

Sure, Davies has strong opinions and he fights for them, but he is also a nice country boy at heart, said Tom Mitze, director of the Civic Arts Plaza theaters.

A Georgia native, Davies made a country album in 1987 and spends his free time fly-fishing, backpacking with his 8- and 9-year-old sons and helping his father-in-law with chores on his ranch near Yosemite.

“He comes across as sophisticated and urbane and the Hollywood leading man type, but there is still a country boy core to him,” Mitze said.

Davies’ charm and vision haven’t won over everyone, though. Two years ago, he and Gold Coast Plays founder Larry Janss severed the alliance between Santa Susana and Gold Coast because of creative differences. Davies wanted to focus on serious theater, while Janss preferred to produce more popular shows that could bring in big audiences.

“I wanted to do ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ They ended up doing a revival of ‘Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!’ ” Davies said, giving an example of the broad chasm between them. “If I’m going to spend my free time doing plays, I want to do plays of substance.”

Two years later, the financially troubled Gold Coast Plays is on a one-year hiatus to try to raise money and public support. Santa Susana has scaled back its seasons to feature just “A Christmas Carol,” in which Davies plays the Ghost of Christmas Present.

But Davies has been able to focus on serious theater through the Kingsmen festival, which got its start when he wanted Santa Susana to produce “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” but couldn’t afford to do it at the Civic Arts Plaza. This summer he will serve as artistic director and star as Petruchio in “The Taming of the Shrew.”

“There’s so much to love about Shakespeare,” said Davies, whose booming voice makes it sound like he is reciting Shakespeare even when he is just leaving a message on an answering machine. “He showed us how English should sound. He had an amazing eye for human behavior, coupled with an eye for the minutiae of nature and folklore and just day-to-day life.”

Even when Davies was playing Mason Capwell, the J.R. Ewing of the soap opera “Santa Barbara” in the 1980s, he managed to slip several Shakespearean references into his lines. There was a two-week period when he not only filmed 11 episodes of “Santa Barbara” but also took the stage as Hamlet seven times.

Davies looks at his current television work, which includes guest appearances on shows including “Just Shoot Me” and “Jesse,” as a way to support his theater habit.

“One feeds my soul and the other feeds my family,” Davies said.

FYI

“Romeo and Juliet” and “The Taming of the Shrew,” along with food, swordplay, music, activities and pre-show entertainment for the whole family; Friday-Sunday, June 30-Aug. 6. Grounds open at 5:30 p.m., and shows begin at 8. Cal Lutheran University Kingsmen Park, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Free. 493-3415.