Margulies’ ‘Stories’ at North Coast Rep
North Coast Repertory Theatre Artistic Director David Ellenstein stages Donald Margulies’ affecting literary two-hander, “Collected Stories,” continuing at the Solana Beach Theatre through July 30.
Those who’ve seen Old Globe Associate Artist Kandis Chappell as Prof. Ruth Steiner in past productions of Margulies’ play ” either at the Old Globe or South Coast Repertory, where she created the role ten years ago ” may want to take another look at the incomparable artist, especially as she is paired so wonderfully with UCSD graduate Amanda Sitton, who portrays Lisa, the older woman’s student, protégée, colleague and eventual betrayer.
The fascination of the piece is its carefully constructed, gradual shift in confidence and power. The insecure young Lisa appears at Ruth’s apartment for a graduate school tutorial, then becomes her assistant. Over six years the two form a close, sometimes difficult relationship ” Ruth is more than a bit prickly. Lisa successfully publishes a short story, then a collection of short stories, and finally places a first novel with a top rank publishing house.
The novel is based directly on Ruth’s confidences about her youthful affair with acclaimed poet Delmore Schwartz. When a writer has mined her life story fully, may she breach confidence to borrow another’s? Ruth thinks not; Lisa feels her act is justified. Their 11th hour confrontation is devastating.
“Collected Stories” plays at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, with selected Saturday matinees, at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987-D Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach. Tickets, which are $30-$35, are available by visiting www.northcoastrep.org or calling (888) 776-6278.

La Jolla director stages his daughter
La Jolla playwright/stage director Robert Salerno stages two Bishop’s School graduates, among others, in performance of Christopher Durang’s comedy, “The Actor’s Nightmare” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, July 20 and 22, during the 2006 Actors Alliance Festival at the Lyceum Theatre, Horton Plaza.
Headed for Princeton University, Salerno’s multi-talented daughter (drama, improv, music and sports) Dominique Salerno plays multiple roles, including Amanda and Gertrude, in Durang’s play, which concerns one’s nightmarish dream of stepping onto a stage not knowing how one got there, what one’s lines are, or even what play one is performing.
Winner of the Judith Haxo Award at The Bishop’s School, Taylor Henderson is a freshman at New York University. He portrays George, an accountant who stumbles onto an empty stage with actors that spout lines from plays by Noel Coward, Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. Others in the company are Andrea Maida, John Martin and Sara Beth Morgan.
Featuring more than 80 actors, the 16th annual Actors Alliance Festival plays July 19-30 at the Lyceum Theatre, Horton Plaza. Information is available at www.actorsalliance.com or by calling (619) 544-1000.

‘Hot Mikado’ opens Starlight season
Starlight opened its 60th anniversary season with David H. Bell’s “Hot Mikado,” a facile and enjoyable update of Gilbert & Sullivan’s popular operetta, “The Mikado,” performed as written last year at Lyric Opera. “Hot Mikado” sets the comic opera in the 1940s and transmutes the music to jazz, blues and gospel, the men’s kimonos to zoot suits, the Three Little Maids to the Andrews Sisters, the Mikado to Cab Calloway. It works wonderfully well and the talented cast assembled by director Mauricio Mendoza is terrific, though once again the amplification is decibels too many.
I was pleased to note when reading biographies that Danny Bolero, so marvelous and suave as Che in the Welk Theatre’s recent “Evita,” was in the company. Meanwhile, I was so carried away with the vocalism of Brian Krum’s Pish Tush and Laura Dickinson’s Pitti Sing that when the show was over I wondered where Bolero was. Imagine my surprise when I realized I’d failed to recognize him in the comedy role of Ko Ko, played in early Jerry Lewis style replete with glasses, a nebbish demeanor and a yellow zoot suit. This is one versatile guy and a super funny and enjoyable take on the old chestnut. Too bad they played it for only a week. n