Egloff’s ‘Swan’ to Join 1992 Season at Playhouse

The La Jolla Playhouse will produce “The Swan,� a new play by Elizabeth Egloff, as part of its 1992 10th anniversary season, according to Egloff’s agent, Wiley Hausam.

The show is due to start previews in September at the Playhouse. It joins “Tommy� and Athol Fugard’s yet-to-be-formally announced “Playland� as part of the Playhouse’s yet-to-be-announced season.

Egloff’s play is an odd mix of the quirky and romantic. It takes off on the legend of Zeus appearing to Leda in the form of a swan.

Except this Leda is a nurse with a married milkman boyfriend. And the swan is not a god that turns into a swan, but a swan that turns into a man. The play, which is printed in full in the January edition of American Theatre magazine, is being produced by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Mo., through Feb. 2.

Susan Gregg, associate artistic director of the company there, described it as “an adult fairy tale� with “a touch of Peter Pan.�

The swan gives the nurse, Dora, “a sense of reaching into the sky, a yearning for something that we all instinctively want, but we don’t know what it is. She’s trying to reach to the stars.�

It’s a play, too, that Gregg said touched her in unexpected ways.

“I’m not a concept director, I’m a nuts-and-bolts director,� she said from her theater office. “I worked on this play almost completely through intuition. And that’s something I almost never do. It really struck a chord.�

It struck a chord with St. Louis critics, too.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described it as “an intriguing play, filled with fantasy and strange allusions and dependent on considerable suspension of disbelief.� Radio station KFUO-FM described it as “a beautiful mix of metaphor and mythology . . . truly a beautiful piece of theater.�

The play debuted in the fall of 1988 at the Yale School of Drama, where Egloff earned her master of fine arts in 1989.

Jack O’Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre, drew rave reviews for his direction of “Two Shakespearean Actors,� which opened on Broadway last Thursday.

Most critics liked the play, a retelling of a riot that ensued in 1849 when a British version of “Macbeth� opened the same night in the same city as an American version. Richard Nelson’s script was universally acclaimed for its humor, but the New York Times found it less than profound. Still, all praised O’Brien’s staging and the performances by Old Globe veteran actors Brian Bedford and Victor Garber.

“Jack O’Brien has given the play a superb production,� Howard Kissel wrote in the New York Daily News. Frank Rich of the New York Times praised “the elegant staging by Jack O’Brien,� and Jerry Talmer of the New York Post referred to “direction by Jack O’Brien that nurses every ounce of relish from the text.�

The show might be taped for public broadcasting. O’Brien, now back in San Diego, said he would love to direct that, but the timing is critical. He has just begun work on Jack Heifner’s “Bargains,� opening March 19 at the Old Globe Theatre. So he is hoping for the show to keep running while he fulfills his Globe obligations.

“I’m just praying on my knees that a sufficient run ensues,� he said. But that’s an iffy matter because the show, which is produced by the nonprofit Lincoln Center, was set from the beginning to close Feb. 9. Still, if demand warrants, contracts could be negotiated with the actors to extend the show as an open-ended commercial run.

“It was a knockout, it was one of the greatest openings of my life. With ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Porgy and Bess,’ it was as good as anything I’ve done,� O’Brien said.

Because of the expense of its large cast--27 actors--you won’t see it at the Globe, O’Brien said.

“But I’m thrilled about it. It was exhilarating, it was thrilling. I’ve had a wonderful romp. Now I’ve just got my fingers crossed.�

In 1949, Peggy Markham starred with Shirley Booth in the Broadway production of “Come Back, Little Sheba.�

After a career that included television’s Studio One and Playhouse 90, Markham left show business to marry and raise a child in San Diego.

Now the child plays football at San Diego State University, and for the past three years, Markham has been inching her way back on stage via the Actors Alliance, formerly known as the San Diego Actors Co-op.

She is about to travel back in time to play the mother in “Dear Ruth,� the Actors Alliance staged reading of Norman Krasna’s gentle comedy, set in 1944.

“Dear Ruth� will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre. A $5 donation is suggested.

Markham, who plays roles from 48-68 (and that’s as specific as she will get about her age), said she remembers seeing “Dear Ruth� as a girl growing up in Chicago. The play tells the story of a soldier who falls in love with his female pen-pal--only to find out that the young woman whom he thought was writing him letters wasn’t. It was her precocious teen-age sister.

“It takes me back to the time when a parent’s big worry was if the kids didn’t come home at 1 a.m., when kissing was a big thing, when people defended cigarettes, saying no one had proved they weren’t harmless,� Markham said.

Adding to the feeling of nostalgia will be authentic radio commercials for Lucky Strikes, deodorants and detergents.

Those attending the reading are entitled to $2 off the ticket price of the Actors Alliance’s upcoming Festival ’92 of 45-minute scenes, selected by, directed by and starring members of the Actors Alliance.

The festival begins Feb. 14 and continues through Feb. 23 at the Sushi Performance Gallery, 852 8th Ave. Call 238-7396.

PROGRAM NOTES: For those suffering through “Forever Plaid� withdrawal, the Old Globe cast (which was also the New York cast) is resurfacing at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, beginning Feb. 9. It will be produced in association with the Old Globe Theatre for an open-ended run. . . .

The Fresh Dish series, featuring gay and lesbian performance artists, continues Jan. 31 with the Los Angeles-based “Queer Rites,� a four-person gay and lesbian performance piece at Sushi Performance Gallery (but not produced by Sushi) that deals with growing up gay in traditional Jewish and Latino households. For information, call 223-2041 or 296-0306.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

A TALE OF LIFE

Wendy Wasserstein tells a poignant, bittersweet story of one woman’s odyssey through the wildly changing mores of the last three decades in her Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play, “The Heidi Chronicles.� Director Will Roberson elicits sensitive and darkly funny performances from a first-rate ensemble in the Gaslamp Quarter Theater Company’s San Diego premiere of the show, playing through Feb. 23 at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre. Performances at 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, with Sunday matinees at 2. Call 234-9583.