Theater scene sprouts in Lake Forest
Northeast on Bake Parkway just off the 5 Freeway sit a number of white, boxy buildings housing executive offices.
It’s hard to imagine activities beyond meetings and paperwork, certainly not the creative work of thespians.
But look deeper.
Nestled in the Lake Forest business complex is a new community theater, the Modjeska Playhouse, and on a late Monday night, actors and directors were bustling throughout the nondescript space to prepare for their upcoming play.
“There will be kitchen here, an actual door there and an orange grove,” Joshua Stecker, the theater’s co-artistic director, said to his team.
“It’s going to be a busy night,” co-artistic director Christopher Sullivan said.
Stecker, Sullivan and third co-artistic director Joe Alanes are the founders of Modjeska Playhouse, which produces plays and other performances for an area — South Orange County — not often represented by the theater arts.
World premieres and Broadway shows are typically billed at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. And when asked about smaller community venues in South County, a person might automatically think of the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach and the Camino Real Playhouse in San Juan Capistrano.
But since February 2015, the co-founders have been on a mission to produce professional theatrical works in the Saddleback Valley.
The three founding artists — who were born or raised in South Orange County — said the idea to create theater in an area not known for it originated when they were drama students at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo.
It was 1990 and Stecker, Sullivan and Alanes were rehearsing for the theater department’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors.”
During breaks, the three would talk about how they wanted to start their own theater company, but when they graduated from high school, they lost touch for a few years while pursuing careers in the performing arts as actors, directors, writers and educators.
Nine years ago, the friends reconnected at TGI Fridays in Rancho Santa Margarita to discuss their dream of opening a theater.
“We wanted to start something in South Orange County because this region really didn’t have a professional theater,” Alanes said.
“We’ve been friends for so long and we come together with our charm,” Sullivan said. “We go into the trenches together.”
To see if the community would be interested in seeing plays, they presented three shows at their alma mater’s theater, joined Mission Viejo’s Cultural Arts Committee and produced several shows with the city, selling out tickets and drawing in more than 600 guests.
“It gave us confidence and we felt wanted,” Stecker said.
They conceptualized Modjeska Playhouse — named after Shakespearean actress Helena Modjeska, who lived on the banks of Santiago Creek in Modjeska Canyon and died in Newport Beach in 1909 — and set forth on finding a permanent location for the theater.
But it wasn’t an easy feat, Sullivan said.
The owners looked in Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita and worked with four real estate agents, but their offers fell through.
The cities welcomed them, but landlords didn’t want to convert a property into a theater or handle parking and fire marshal issues.
That changed when the three found a space in a vacant office complex in Lake Forest.
Once the owners’ application was accepted, they worked for three months on gutting the office space before being able to build a main stage and install 53 seats. They hosted a grand opening with their first show, “The 39 Steps,” in 2015.
The theater’s current season features its ninth show, “I Ought to Be In Pictures,” with performances until April 9. The comedic drama by Neil Simon focuses on a woman who hitchhikes from Brooklyn to Hollywood to pursue an acting career.
With the company’s growth, the owners have presented “American Tall Tales,” “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” abridged and “Secrets of a Soccer Mom.” They have expanded the children’s acting program at the playhouse, offering classes all year with a theater summer camp, introduced improvisation nights and collaborated with actors and educators from all over Orange County to create a broader network.
While expanding cultural arts experiences and education in the community, they also take responsibility for the theater’s website, ticket sales and social media updates.
Sullivan and Alanes currently teach improvisational theater and acting at South Coast Repertory’s Theatre Conservatory in Costa Mesa, and Alanes is the theater arts teacher at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
Stecker is the publisher and editor-in-chief of San Pedro Today magazine and a senior writer for the screenwriting magazine “Script.”
A few years ago, the group participated in a community outreach program at the James A. Musick Facility and taught improvisational exercises to inmates at the low-security jail.
The prisoners are incarcerated for crimes such as driving under the influence, minor drug possession and failure to pay child support.
“They looked us in the eye and said, ‘Thank you,’” Stecker said. “We would definitely do that again. We know it’s going to be a challenge to grow, but we bleed this art we love and live. It’s what we enjoy most, and our hope is that Saddleback Valley can come in to see a show.”
Modjeska Playhouse is at 21084 Bake Pkwy., Suite 104, Lake Forest. For more information, call (949) 445-3674 or visit mphstage.org.
