Laguna Playhouse

Re "Claremont Hate Crime Called Hoax," March 18: I am fascinated by the curious turnaround in the matter of the vandalism of Claremont professor Kerri Dunn's car, with the police falling back with the accusation that she ruined her own car. They threaten to prosecute her for that supposed lie to them. What is most fascinating is the fact that, if a citizen lies to his or her own police, that is a misdemeanor or felony. When the police lie to their citizens, a regular occurrence, however, there is no punishment.

The worlds of art and education provide the backdrops to four plays, all of them new to Southern California, that the Laguna Playhouse has announced for its 2004-05 season. "Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie" (Sept. 11 to Oct. 10) is Jeffrey Hatcher's stage adaptation, with Albom, of the journalist's book about the life lessons he learned from his old college professor, Morrie Schwartz, during weekly visits while Schwartz was dying of Lou Gehrig's disease.

The Laguna Playhouse's Youth Theatre program, known for decades of well-mounted plays for young audiences based on children's literature, began expanding its reach in 2001 with a series of serious "issue" dramas for ages 13 and up. Its newest offering for this older audience, "Cut," playing March 19-21, explores a subject serious enough to warrant post-show discussions with a therapist.

She enters an empty apartment, sees a note and picks it up. Softly, she begins to sing, her voice hollow as she acknowledges the end of her marriage. Mid-song, her soon-to-be-ex-husband enters the scene. He's in another place and time, however, and when she has finished singing, he lets out a whoop and launches into a giddy song about the girl he's just met.

If audiences had heeded the critics, the Laguna Playhouse would have prospered with "The Romance of Magno Rubio," the theater's first attempt to delve into the experience of a nonwhite immigrant group in America. Lonnie Carter's play, closing tonight, depicts the struggles and vitality of five Philippine farm laborers who inhabit a California bunkhouse during the Depression. The Times' Don Shirley said it packs "a rejuvenating jolt."

The Laguna Beach City Council has approved a 40-year lease for the Laguna Playhouse -- an effort, some say, to show serious support for the arts in a city where two other major arts organizations have threatened to leave in recent years. Richard Stein, the Playhouse's executive director, said he viewed the new lease as part of "an enlightenment" in the city partly because of the near loss of the Laguna Art Museum and Festival of Arts.

"As the evening wore on -- the evening wore on! That's a nice expression. With your permission I'll say it again. The evening wore on." So says Elwood P. Dowd, the kindly man whose companion is an invisible white rabbit, in Mary Chase's "Harvey." He's describing a night on the town with Harvey and Dr. Chumley, a psychiatrist who wants Dowd committed to his sanitarium. Unfortunately, Dowd's words also describe opening night of Charles Nelson Reilly's staging of "Harvey" at Laguna Playhouse.