‘PEACE CHILD’ THIS WEEKEND : MUSICAL RECRUITS RESIDENTS FOR CAST

About 30 performers milled around the stage at Laguna Beach High School one evening this week, waiting for director Dharaj Maxfield to rehearse the next scene.

“Don’t look so relaxed,” he admonished the troupe. “I need to see you think about the words you are singing--’I want to live.’ ”

Maxfield and the performers, ages 5 to 45, were preparing for this weekend’s performances of “Peace Child,” a two-hour musical designed to be a thought-provoking but entertaining treatise on peaceful solutions to global conflict.

Twenty-five children and adults from Orange County will join a 10-member touring cast from Santa Cruz to perform the play at 8 p.m. Saturday and at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the Artists’ Theater at Laguna Beach High School.

Laguna Beach is the third stop of the Santa Cruz-based Theatre of All Possibilities, a professional, nonprofit acting troupe sponsored by the Peace Child Foundation in Washington. The troupe, which raised $20,000 for the summer tour, will be taking the show through California and Oregon. In each community, residents audition for parts in the play, then rehearse with the professionals for a week before giving performances.

“We want to involve the community, not just come with a nice peace message and go away,” explained Maxfield. “The people who participate will continue to live here, and so will the message.”

The plot of “Peace Child” centers on the friendship between a Soviet girl, Katya, and an American boy, Bobby, who set in motion a global effort that leads to planetary peace.

“The issue is not sugar-coated,” said tour director Madelyn Keller. “The kids confront the hard issues of economics and military strength and arguments as to why war is ‘necessary.’ ”

“Peace Child” was written in 1981 in conjunction with the United Nations’ International Year of Disarmament. Author David Woollcombe, formerly a film director with the British Broadcasting Corp., adapted the play from “The Peace Book,” a best seller by Bernard Benson. The music was written by David Gordon.

The play was first performed in London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1981. A year later, Woollcombe formed the nonprofit Peace Child Foundation to promote the play and its message, and “Peace Child” had its U.S. premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington. In July, 1985, the Peace Child Foundation sent 17 American children to Moscow to join 24 Soviet children in a joint video production of the play. The film was broadcast to 60 million viewers in the United States and 100 million viewers in the Soviet Union.

Laguna Beach resident and cast member Antonio Aguilar said he got involved in “Peace Child” because he liked its message. At age 13, he already aspires to a political career. “A play won’t change someone’s mind, but it might make them think,” he said. “We’re hoping it might make people aware of what is going on.”

Not all of the cast members are involved for ideological reasons, however. Sarah James, 13, also of Laguna Beach, just wants to learn more about acting. “It’s turned out to be hard in some ways but fun in others,” she said.

A rekindled childhood friendship laid the groundwork for the “Peace Child” performances in Laguna Beach. Cast member Ruselle Revenaugh moved to Santa Cruz after graduating from Laguna Beach High School in 1980 and subsequently joined the Theatre of All Possibilities. While brainstorming for tour ideas, Revenaugh contacted an old acquaintance, Wendy Milette, 27, of Laguna Beach.

Milette, who produces videos and recently returned from a pro-peace tour in the Soviet Union, became Peace Child’s local liaison. She publicized the auditions, found host families for the Santa Cruz cast members and sold advertising for the program to Laguna Beach merchants. (Proceeds from the local performances will be divided between Milette and the acting troupe, Keller said.)

Participants in the Laguna Beach production will be invited to perform at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 with the U.S.-Soviet Youth Exchange Program sponsored by the Peace Child Foundation. The production will feature a cast of Soviet and American children. The Youth Exchange also will perform the play in nine other American cities and in the Soviet Union, Keller said.

The Laguna Beach performance is part of a nationwide pro-peace effort. The play is being staged across the nation by local troupes that raise money for expenses under the auspices of the Peace Child Foundation.

For additional information, call (714) 497-5207.