The Alternative Repertory Theatre has had its hassles opening its new playhouse in Santa Ana's funky Artists Village. Construction delays with everything from the floor to curtains to the stage lighting caused ART to postpone its opening twice.
But now, organizers say all is in place and the world premiere of its commissiond "Barrio Everyman" by Roy Conboy is ready to christen the theater in the Grand Central Arts Center on North Broadway.
The play by Conboy, a longtime Orange County resident who now lives in Northern California, opens tonight and will continue through Feb. 27.
Conboy visited the theater in November when he met with the cast and participated in the first readings of "Barrio Everyman." Like everybody else associated with ART, he's eager for the run to begin.
"Yeah, I'm really ready, just like they are," Conboy said with a laugh during a recent telephone interview from his Rohnert Park home, about 40 miles north of San Francisco. "This has been put off and put off and put off, but now it's going to happen.
"They've [ART's staff] been friends of mine for years and I'm happy for them. . . . Of course, this is a premiere and I'm excited too. It'll all be a surprise."
Conboy knows most of ART's regulars from his late-'80s, early-'90s days teaching drama at Santa Ana College and as founder of the Santa Ana-based Cucucuevez Multi-Cultural Theatre Company. So when ART, which spent its first 10 years putting on plays in a south Santa Ana industrial park, went looking for a writer to create a contemporary version of "Everyman," the frequently produced medieval morality play, Conboy was an easy choice.
Conboy, who is active in the Bay Area theater scene and teaches at San Francisco State, is known for his use of streetwise language in his comedies and dramas. That edgy style appealed to ART, as did the opportunity to take a classic like "Everyman" and give it a contempo shake-up.
"The challenge was finding ways to reflect the original piece, it's themes and story," he said. "I was trying to reflect that [while] having it resonate in this more secular and diverse time that we live in."
The story of "Everyman," as any literature or drama student can tell you, centers on a regular guy who is confronted by death and must evaluate and change his life. He has various encounters, all leading to an understanding of both morality and mortality.
