Itinerary: The Play’s the Thing

It takes a lot more to put a play together--a good one, anyway--than just shouting, “Let’s put on a show!” Before the rehearsals ever start, before actors are cast, plays go through readings and rewrites and tryouts. (In movies, it’s called development hell. But in the theater, they call it a “reading” and charge admission.) Several shows this week--only some actually in theaters--reveal parts of the play-creating process.

Today

For South Coast Repertory, putting on an annual playwrights festival is perfectly self-serving. During the first three years of the festival, 25 plays were developed. Four of those are part of the current season, including “The Beard of Avon,” which is playing at South Coast Repertory (655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $28-$49. [714] 708-5555) tonight and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Inspired by theories that William Shakespeare didn’t actually write the plays he’s credited with, Amy Freed’s witty comedy supposes the Bard is a front for the Earl of Oxford, who doesn’t want it widely known that he’s cavorting with theater people.

The theater’s 4th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, meanwhile, is also underway, developing plays for future seasons. A workshop production of “Nostalgia,” a mystery the theater commissioned from playwright Lucinda Coxon, plays on its Second Stage at 7:45 tonight through Sunday, and also Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18.

Readings ($8) start Friday with “Hold Please” by Annie Weisman at 1 p.m. and “Eye to Eye” by Kevin Heelan at 3 p.m. On Saturday, readings are “Getting Frankie Married--and Afterwards” by Horton Foote at 10 a.m. and “Scab” by Sheila Callaghan at 2 p.m. On Sunday at 2 p.m. is “The Falls” by Hilary Bell. Throughout the weekend, the site-specific work “California Scenarios” will run at 8 p.m. at Noguchi Garden (Anton Boulevard and Park Center, Costa Mesa. $10.)

Friday

Like “The Beard of Avon,” Austin Pendleton’s “Orson’s Shadow” is a play that deals with creating theater. In this case, a real-life production of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist “The Rhinoceros,” directed by Orson Welles and starring Laurence Olivier, provided the inspiration.

The play-within-the-play is a disaster, with Olivier (Jeff Sugarman) undermining Welles (Robert Machray) while also breaking up with his anxious wife Vivien Leigh (Dreya Weber). The shadow hanging over them all--or one of them--is Welles’ inability to live up to his early successes, “War of the Worlds” and “Citizen Kane.”

“Orson’s Shadow,” directed by Matt Shakman, is in its last week at the Black Dahlia Theatre (5453 Pico Blvd., L.A. $15. [323] 525-0070), running today through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.

Saturday

The Ensemble Studio Theatre, a New York-based company that is known for developing new American plays, is having its own series of readings this weekend. First Look/Full Lengths 2001 (Theatre/Theater, 6425 Hollywood Blvd., Pacific Building, fourth floor, Hollywood. $10. [213] 368-9552) is where the company’s West Coast members will present staged readings of works in progress.

Today and Saturday at 8 p.m., they’ll read “The Law Makes Evening Fall” by Sherry Kramer. Friday and Sunday, the play is “And Still the Dogs” by Brian Cousins.