Lagunatics, ‘Lilly’ offer fun in Laguna Beach

Tom Titus

Two new shows will be opening next door to one another in Laguna

Beach this weekend, one geared toward the younger set and the other

more suitable for mature audiences.

Lagunatics, the annual satirical jab at the Art Colony that’s

raised thousands of dollars for charity, bows in for two performances

only, Saturday and Sunday in the Irvine Bowl on the Festival of the

Arts grounds.

Meanwhile, the Laguna Playhouse’s Youth Theater will be raising

its curtain on “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse,” featuring young actors

from 11 to 18 years of age in a show revolving around a cute little

mouse and her troubles in school.

“We’re having fun with the pageant again this year, after not

doing one in the show for a few years,” reports Bree Burgess Rosen,

director of Lagunatics and the creative force behind the show since

its inception 11 years ago.

“This year, the narration for the ‘Pageant of Disasters’ will be

done live, as it is, of course, at the real one,” Rosen notes. “Our

voice talent for this is the wonderful Bill Harris, the movie critic

and satirist read weekly by Enquiring minds and seen nightly on E!”

Rosen and four of her cohorts -- Debbie Meeker, Melissa Verdugo,

Adam Hemming and Kevin Patterson -- previewed the show at a

fundraiser at the Disneyland Hotel two weeks ago which, she declares,

was “very well received, even though we were doing material we hadn’t

had much time to rehearse.”

Rosen is doing a parody on Stephen Sondheim’s “Not Getting

Married,” which, she says, “is enough to keep me far away from the

bar until that number, and my brain and my mouth, have accomplished

the tongue-tying feat of enunciation and memory required.”

Sunday’s performance will be a benefit gig for the No Square

Theater, the community players which Rosen also organized. Curtain is

7 p.m., an hour earlier than Saturday’s, but a benefit gala is slated

for 5:30.

Choreographer Paul Nygro “has done miracles with this cast of

mostly left-footers,” Rosen says. “He’s the best choreographer I have

worked with in my entire career” -- which goes back a few years and

covers much professional work.

Although there’s enormous space in the Irvine Bowl, seating will

be limited to the front 1,000 seats. For reservations and more

information, call (949) 497-2584 or visit the group’s Web page,

www.lagunatics.info.

Meanwhile, next door at the playhouse, director Donna Inglima is

putting the finishing touches on “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse,”

adapted by Kevin Kling from three of Kevin Henkes’ children’s books.

“This play has a little of everything,” Inglima says, “High drama,

dancing, scary dreams, the FBI and scooter-riding, tennis-playing

mice.

The world of the play feels fairly human, but there are some cute

mousy twists.”

Wally Huntoon, head of theater design at Saddleback College,

created the fanciful set and South Coast Repertory’s Julie Keen is

designing the costumes -- including the expressive mouse ears for the

rodent-playing youngsters. Dave Edwards is sound designer (“tackling

a first-act sound nightmare,” Inglima says) and Michelle Jones is the

lighting designer in her first assignment at the playhouse.

Performances of “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” will be given

tonight and Oct. 22 at 7:30, Saturday and Oct. 23 at 2 and 7:30, and

Sunday and Oct. 24 at 1 and 5 p.m. Call (949) 497-2787 for more

information.