Tough Childhood Provides Playwright With Fodder

Her mother was a midwife who ran a brothel on the side. She had three “daddies,� but never knew her natural father. Her brothers were the town drunks.

And then things started to get tough for Endesha Ida Mae Holland.

At 11, she was raped. At 12, she became a prostitute and then a stripper and a petty thief. Years later, she followed a man who she thought was a potential trick into the local offices of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

And through that chance 1963 encounter, she became involved in the civil rights movement, building a new life for herself--as a political activist, a student, a successful Ph.D candidate at the University of Minnesota (who now teaches at New York State University in Buffalo) and most recently as a playwright.

Holland’s autobiographical play, “From the Mississippi Delta,� opened Off Broadway in November, 1991, when she was 47 years old, with Oprah Winfrey as one of its co-producers. Now, it will have its San Diego premiere on the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, replacing “Spite for Spite,� Sept. 9-Oct. 25.

The Old Globe has been waiting since last year for Holland’s work to become available and didn’t want to linger before producing it. Doing it now, also gives the theater a chance to move “Spite for Spite� onto the larger Old Globe stage in another season, the Old Globe’s managing director, Thomas Hall, said this week.

The title, “From the Mississippi Delta,� refers to Greenwood, Miss., where Holland grew up in the 1950s. The show, originally produced at the Ujima Theatre in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1986, was later produced by the New Federal Theatre in New York and the Negro Ensemble Company. It had an informal five-performance production in November, 1991, at the 95-seat Itchey Foot Ristorante as part of the Mark Taper Forum Literary Cabaret. For tickets, call 239-2255.

What a difference a century makes.

Arthur Schnitzler wrote his cutting 1897 satire, “Reigen,� more commonly known as “La Ronde,� about sexual seduction between the classes in Vienna at the turn of the century. Now nearly 100 years later, Ralph Elias, artistic director of Blackfriars Theatre, is readying a contemporary adaptation of the play, set in San Diego, and taking contemporary views of sexual relations into account.

The show, adapted by Elias with USIU student Christine Vogele (who translated from the original German), opens Sunday at the Bristol Court Playhouse.

“In some cases, there’s gender reversal because the sexual stereotypes are worn out and some don’t apply anymore,� Elias explained.

The play is structured in a series of dialogues; each scene shows one couple who eventually fall into bed together, with each subsequent scene showing one partner from the previous scene having a tryst with another. And the circle goes on.

Schnitzler was a doctor with a strong interest in psychiatry. And Elias found his insights into human nature perceptive. But he felt a modern spin was needed for audiences to see the show’s relevance.

“I don’t want people to sit and look at the play as a period piece because our society is not classed in the same way as his,� Elias said.

So goodby to references about fin-de-siecle Vienna and hello to our own fin-de-siecle in Hillcrest and La Jolla. Farewell to Schnitzler’s parlor maids and the aristocrats. And greetings to a Navy flight officer, a doctor, a medical technician and a rock ‘n’ roll star.

And scratch the scene in which a man seduces a woman; Elias has recast it as a woman seducing a man. Also, instead of a woman’s husband having an affair with another woman, he has it with another man. But the dialogue is still pretty faithful to Schnitzler. The images may have changed, but as Elias sees it, the things we say to each other haven’t. For tickets, call 232-4088.

The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company expects to continue its tenancy at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre, despite the bankruptcy proceedings filed by its landlords last Thursday, the Gaslamp’s managing director, Steve Bevans, said.

But everything is up to the judge presiding over the Horton Grand Offices Ltd.’s Chapter 11 proceeding, which could take months to resolve. The judge could give the Horton Grand Offices Ltd. another chance to pay off its debts and run the property. Or HomeFed Bank, which holds the loan, could get permission to foreclose and take over the building, becoming the Gaslamp’s new landlords.

Complicating the situation is HomeFed’s own precarious financial situation; federal regulators have served notice that they plan to seize and sell off HomeFed in whole or part later this year. And, because of the bank’s troubles, it might choose to quickly sell the building to the highest bidder.

The Gaslamp is in its fifth year of a 34-year lease at the 250-seat Hahn Cosmpolitan. It is currently producing the final play of its 1991-92 season, David Mamet’s “A Life in the Theatre,� through May 10 and has scheduled an independent production, “Memory Tricks,� a one-woman show written by and starring San Francisco-based comic actress Marga Gomez beginning July 23.

Bevans said he is planning the 1992-93 season at the Hahn.

PROGRAM NOTES: Blackfriars has reduced the cost of its Thursday and Friday shows to $10 for “Getting Around,� opening Sunday. Prices for Saturday shows remain $18 and Wednesday evenings and Sunday matinees cost $14. Call 232-4088. . . .

The Centro Cultural de la Raza will present staged readings of six works by Latino and Native American writers beginning Monday at 7 p.m. with “Heroes and Saints� by Cherrie Moraga. Tickets are $4 at the door. A discussion follows. Call 235-6135. . . . Lamb’s Players Theatre will present two school day performances of “To Kill a Mockingbird� at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and May 13. The show opens Friday. Call 474-4542.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

AIDS GROUPS TO BENEFIT FROM VARIETY SHOW

The cause and the line-up are hard to beat. All the performers (and the administrative help) in Monday’s variety show, “Together Again . . . For the First Time� are donating their talent and time so that 100% of the ticket price will go to benefit local AIDS service organizations.

The performers--from the original “Forever Plaid� crooners to The Flying Karamazov Brothers--will be helping the AIDS Foundation San Diego, Teen AIDS Outreach Project of San Diego Youth and Community Services, Being Alive San Diego, Logan Heights Family Health Center and the Alliance Against AIDS/Allianza Contra el SIDA.

This production of Creative Response of the Arts, a new not-for-profit organization established by San Diego’s arts and cultural community, will also present selections from the San Diego Opera’s sold-out “Carmen,� the Malashock Dance and Company and the Old Globe’s “A . . . My Name Is Still Alice.� Also featured are the San Diego Men’s Chorus, the UCSD Gospel Choir and Karen Morrow, who will star in Starlight Musical Theatre’s upcoming “Gypsy.�

The tickets, which range from $15 to $50, are tax-deductible and can be purchased at the San Diego Civic Theatre, where the event will be held, as well as at Times Arts TIX and TicketMaster. Tickets can be charged by phone at 236-6510.