Laguna Playhouse expands its commissions

In an effort raise its profile as a center for the development of new plays, Laguna Playhouse has scheduled for its 2006-07 season two world premiere commissions by writers who have enjoyed long associations with the theater.

On the schedule are “The Verdi Girls” by Irish playwright Bernard Farrell (Jan. 6-Feb. 4, 2007) -- the fifth of his plays to be produced at the playhouse -- and “The Pursuit of Happiness” by Richard Dresser (June 2-July 1, 2007), whose Little League comedy, “Rounding Third,” had its West Coast premiere at Laguna Playhouse in 2003.

For 2001, the Playhouse commissioned the comedy “Who’s Hot, Who’s Not” from Laguna Beach novelist Sherwood Kiraly, but until now “there had been no real concerted effort on the part of our theater to be active in commissioning new works,” executive director Richard Stein said Tuesday. “We have done a lot of West Coast and Southern California and even some American premieres, but our program has been to offer second or third productions to plays -- which, in the kind of premiere-itis of the past 15 or 20 years, can be difficult for authors to secure.” Stein said the theater plans to commission “at least two more plays” for the 2007-08 season.

Also on this year’s schedule is the West Coast premiere of “Sonia Flew” by Melinda Lopez (Sept. 16-Oct. 5). Stein said that by presenting the work of a Latina playwright, the theater hopes to help fill what he perceives as a gap in local support of plays by minority writers after last year’s much-publicized dismantling of Center Theatre Group’s Latino, Asian American and African American labs.

The rest of the season includes Paul Portner’s interactive whodunit “Shear Madness” (July 15-Sept. 3); “A Marvelous Party: The Noel Coward Celebration” (Nov. 18-Dec. 17); the Southern California premiere of David Rambo’s drama “The Ice-Breaker” (Feb.17-March 18, 2007) and the U.S. premiere of “The Master of the House” by Shmuel Hasfari (March 31-April 29, 2007).