The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 41

20 Part Nov. 18, 1976 iM 3ngtlt CtltlKt STAGE NOTES Alumnae Meeting FOUNTAIN VALLEY The Alpha Gamma Delta Alumnae Club of Orange County will hold its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the home of Mrs. William H. Reed, 17239 Buttonwood St.

A white elephant auction will follow a short business meeting. children's view of economics and money management will be staged at 3 pm. Friday at the Cypress Community Center, 5700 Orange Ave. Titled "What This Country Needs Is a Good Five-Cent Bubblegum Cigar." the production was created by South Coast Repertory Theatrp Tickets should be purchased in advance at the Community Center. Musical to Offer Children's View of Economics CYPRESS An original educational musical production presenting a A Theater's New Lease on Life ft lillfc Order this now for everyone you can name: DIGGING IN Artistic director Rudy Solari, top, with actors Gene Dynarski and Rick Goldman in pit of the transformed Beverly Canon Theater.

was stopped," he alleged. "There's been a constant motivation in me to fight the things that degrade us and champion the ones that are positive." BY SYLVIE DRAKE Tinrn Staff Writer For all the 255 tons of dirt and concrete that had to be excavated by hand from the floor of the Beverly Canon Theater to convert it from a film house to a legitimate theater, the gargantuan undertaking was only the manifestation of exceptional commitment, not its cause. Its cause, like most causes, was the realization of a lifelong ambition by actor-director-teacher Rudy Solari to create his own theater ensemble and call its shots out of his own theater. Hence he's formed the Solari Theater Ensemble and will launch its first season of plays out of the newly converted Beverly Canon (to be known most likely as the Solari Theater) on Jan. 5 with Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound" and Peter Shaffer's "Black Comedy." "But the story really is about the building of this theater," Solari insisted.

"We signed a five-year lease on the theater in July of last year. It took until January to get the necessary clearances to start the conversion job, and because we couldn't go up or out, we had to dig underground for storage and dressing-room space and pull out some seats in order to build a stage." Also, because there was no way of bringing heavy equipment into the building, the work had to be done by hand, chiefly by members of the ensemble and friends. Will Operate Year -Round In its completed form, the theater will operate year-round as a 399-seat house under a Hollywood Area Theater Equity contract, with shows scheduled for six-week runs and time allowed for possible two-week extensions. If a production is exceptionally well received, consideration will be given to running it in repertory with the upcoming show on the schedule. The operation will be strictly commercial and a patron support group headed by Ann Mann, former Beverly Hills mayor Phyllis Seaton and Sooky Goldman has already passed the 150 mark and is aiming for a starter group of 400 supporters by January.

Solari is not an unknown quantity. He founded the Actor's Theater here in 1961 which became the original tenant in what was later to be renamed the Oxford Playhouse (currently the home of the Los Angeles Actors' Theater), then moved to Horace Mann High School Auditorium in 1966 because of a convenient arrangement with that school and a new association with Guy Stockwell's Los Angeles Art Theater. Contractual problems with Actors' Equity, however, ended the project after only one season. Production activity was resumed briefly at the Gallery Theater in 1970 but since then Solari has worked chiefly as an actor in films and TV and as a teacher. The people who constitute the nucleus of his Solari Theater Ensemble include actor-director Stockwell and Mitchell Engelmeyer, co-owner and co-managing director Niki Solari (Solari's wife), attorney Sheldon G.

Bardach, architect Olcg Lopatin, and two actors, Dirk Harvey and Gene Dynarski, who double as business manager and master carpenter, respectively. Plans to Continue Academy Solari said he plans to continue his acting academy (where Stockwell and Tom Orth also teach) and hopes to involve the STE in community programs. But the major emphasis will be production. "We are here as artists," he explained, "and we want people to respond to that." What will be the theater's philosophy? "Our point of view? The simplest way that I can express it is a desire to elevate people to a threshold of humanity. Theater is a humanizing force.

I'd like to offset the vast amounts of senseless violence we are fed on television and in films. When I was in Garrison's Gorillas, I actually campaigned against the show because of its violence. Bobby Kennedy was finally responsible for seeing that the show The first double bill makes light of people's malevolent This key gift has a strong metal ring and a clear, big lucite tag that shouts its owner's name. We have popular names in stock. Or, well custom order that special nickname up to 8 letters (takes 2-3 weeks).

Just fill in the names you want above, clip and send this ad--a personalized gift for a piddly 3.50! By Tagakey, Stationery, 15. The Broadway Personal Shopping Service, P.O. Box 2072, intentions and foibles probably a good place to start. Call 550-7154 for further information. Producers Mike Merrick and Don Gregory, who on Tuesday bring us Julie Harris in "The Belle of Amherst," a one-woman portrayal of poet-recluse Emily Dickinson, at the Huntington Hartford Theater, have just signed Kirk Douglas to star in yet another one-person show: "Citizen Tom Paine," written by biographer-novelist-turned-playwright Howard Fast, to be directed by Arvin Brown, artistic director of New Haven's Long Wharf Theater, and to be produced by Merrick and Gregory in association with Douglas' Bryna Company.

The occasion will mark Douglas' first return to the legit: imate stage since 1963, when he appeared as Randle Mc-Murphy in the only modestly successful New York production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." It also marks Merrick's and Gregory's third venture in the one-person format, the first one having been "Clarence Dar-row," which featured Henry Fonda, was written by David Rintels and directed by John Houseman. Los Angeles, California 90051. Please send me tags, at 3.50 each. I've added 6 sales tax in California. Enclosed is a total of Rehearsals for "Citizen Tom Paine" begin here Dec.

6 and the show is set to open at The Playhouse Wilmington, on Jan. 11. Other playdates have been set in Memphis, Cleveland, Boston and Philadelphia and the producers are confident that the show will eventually reach both Broadway and Los Angeles in much the same successful pattern followed by "Darrow" and "Amherst." "We'll always rehearse in Los Angeles," explained Gre check or money order, or D'charge it to my account. My Broadway number is Send to: Name (Please print) Address City State Zip Telephone orders welcome. From any where in Southern California dial toll-free 1-800-252-9174.

The Broadway gory, "but we wouldn't want to open here simply because we don consider Los Angeles a try-out town. It too ma jor a cultural center and we would only want to play it as we would New York when the show is fully ready. As things stand now, we anticipate the show will probably run here sometime next fall. Keep your face looking younger. longer QUEEN HELENE GTNSENG CREME Our Jltanhyiviny Qift to IJou ONE FREE PUMPKIN NO TRICKS WITH ANY PURCHASE SUBJECT TO STOCK ON HAND BRING THIS COUPON With VITAMINS and (2,000 I.U.'s of Vitamin in every jar) EXPIRES 11-24-74 A new moisturizing creme- i.

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All of our stores are loaded with selections to make things as convenient as possible. All Fashion Island stores will be open evenings and Sundays beginning November 26. FASHION 3 ISLAND SsHUi! NEWPORT CENTER Pacific Coast Highway Between Jamboree and MacArthur.