Hot topic, but there’s no heatA performance...

Hot topic, but there’s no heat

A performance troupe doesn’t name itself Culture Clash without some awareness that its material -- which often skewers racial, ethnic, religious and gender stereotypes -- might occasionally result in just such a clash with its audience.

But Culture Clash -- Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza, three guys from L.A. -- reports that the group has met with no resistance to a hot-button theater piece about a religious institution in its current show, “Culture Clash in AmeriCCa.”

The piece is based on the true story of a Bostonian who tracked down and confronted the priest who abused him when he was a child -- and then forgave him as the priest lay dying. The troupe has performed the show in Los Angeles, Chicago and Syracuse, N.Y., to mixed but mostly favorable reviews.

But now, the trio is telling the “Catholic Survivor” story in the wake of the death of Pope John Paul II and in the city where the scandal occurred.

Speaking from Boston, where the show is running through May 8, Montoya acknowledged that the story resonates perhaps more strongly among the Massachusetts capital’s Roman Catholic faithful than in other areas of the country.

But he added that audience reaction has been positive, with the segment evoking more tears than shock or anger. He believes that’s because the troupe has chosen to forgo its trademark humor in presenting this particular story.

“It gets quiet, like a church,” Montoya said. “You have little old Irish ladies coming up to you after the show and saying, ‘I know the boy you are speaking of, and the priest and the parish.’ And they are giving us the thumbs up.”

True to form, Culture Clash segues directly from “Catholic Survivor” into a segment about a transgender character who provides a humorously clinical description of how his male genitalia were transformed into a female’s. “It gets a little quiet after that too,” Montoya said.

-- Diane Haithman

New venue, same name -- almost

Could one pitfall of expansion at the Orange County Performing Arts Center be scenes of pre-curtain zigzags as eventgoers scurry to find the right venue?

Come September 2006, the new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall is scheduled to open, complementing the existing auditorium, Segerstrom Hall, which is right across the street. Both are named in honor of shopping mall magnate Henry T. Segerstrom and his family, who over the years have contributed 12 acres and more than $60 million to building the Costa Mesa center.

For the sake of user-friendliness, might some more differentiated nomenclature be in order?

Queried on the matter before a recent ceremony announcing opening-month programming at RHSCH and its older sister hall, Henry Segerstrom said he did not foresee substituting any convenient shorthand.

“I don’t think so. We’re referring to it as the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.” But couldn’t that be confusing in tandem with Segerstrom Hall? “We all learn quickly,” Segerstrom said.

Jerry E. Mandel, the center’s president, offered one pithy key word on the subject: “signage.”

Arriving at the center, he said, audience members will be greeted by signs specifying the event -- “opera,” “ballet” or “Broadway” most likely for Segerstrom Hall, and “symphony” on most nights at Segerstrom Concert Hall. If they follow the signs, they’ll end up in the appropriate parking garage.

At least that’s the plan.

“We’ve thought about it a lot, and it’s going to work,” Mandel said.

But never underestimate the power of the people to get lost. Over the last month, many wanderers looking for OCPAC’s presentation of “The Lion King” have ended up across the street on the doorstep of South Coast Repertory -- where the main stage is officially the Segerstrom Stage -- prompting the posting of signs in the box office window directing them to Simba and friends.

-- Mike Boehm