Rep Stage

Philip Yordan wrote his 1940s melodrama, Anna Lucasta, about a Polish immigrant family. But the play is best known in its African-American version, first mounted by the American Negro Theatre in Harlem in 1944 and released on film five years later. Directed by Jennifer Nelson, this version - which helped launch the careers of Sammy Davis Jr., Eartha Kitt, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Sidney Poitier - opens the season tomorrow at Rep Stage in Columbia. The cast is headed by Deidra LaWan Starnes in the title role of a young woman whose circumstances drive her to a life as a streetwalker.

As it starts its 16th year, Rep Stage is like many teenagers: trying some new things, working to establish its identity and hoping to attract more attention. In its new season, which begins next month, the professional theater company in residence at Howard Community College will offer a world premiere and two regional premieres among its six productions. It also plans to take a new approach to its holiday show, return to the freshly renovated Smith Theatre for two productions and throw its first gala fundraiser.

The Rep Stage Company, the professional theater company in residence at Howard Community College, is seeking manuscripts for its 1996 Reading Series in the spring.Unpublished one-act plays, full-length plays and adaptations that have not been professionally produced are eligible.Translations, musicals, screenplays and television plays will not be accepted.The Reading Series will feature rehearsed, public readings of selected plays using professional actors and directors. A discussion with the playwright and audience will be held after the reading.

Variety will be the theme of the 2000-2001 season at Rep Stage, the professional theater in residence at Howard Community College in Columbia. The four-play season is equally divided between American and British works. It will feature two area premieres and will range in tone from a dark comedy about murderous Irish brothers to the pure froth of "Pageant," a beauty queen spoof in which all the contestants are played by men. "We have a diverse population here in Howard County," says Valerie Costantini, Rep Stage's producing artistic director.

The Virgin Mary as a fiery women's libber? Joseph as an insecure, self-doubting man? The angel Gabriel as an inexperienced, error-prone teenage boy? William Gibson's quirky, colorful and spectacular take on the Christmas story - The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut & the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree - is at Rep Stage through Jan. 4. The compendious title recalls the names given to Christmas pantomimes in Victorian England, such as Harlequin and the Old Man of the Sea, the Emperor, the Ogre, the Good Fairy, and the Princess.

Nestled in the heart of Columbia, Rep Stage sits like a hidden jewel.In its six years as a professional theater company, Rep Stage -- Howard Community College's theater company in-residence -- has seen its reputation flourish and its regional fan base grow.Rep Stage productions are unlike what some theatergoers have come to expect of community theater: no sagging backdrops, overly melodramatic performances by amateur actors or kitschy revivals of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.Instead, a ticket to a Rep Stage show buys a couple of hours of risky, energetic, modern professional theater.

Like almost everything else in Columbia, what is happening at Rep Stage is the result of planning. When the theater company in residence at Howard Community College first raised the curtain in 1993, officials there knew exactly what they wanted: quality shows featuring talented actors playing to packed houses made up of audiences from around the state. Eight years later, that's what they have. "Rep Stage should not be considered `college theater' simply because it's in residence at a community college," said Nigel Reed, an actor who has worked frequently with Rep Stage.

Two Columbia theaters have been recognized among the best in the Washington area for the eighth consecutive year. At the 21st Helen Hayes Awards celebration this week, David James was named outstanding supporting actor in a resident musical for his role in Godspell at Toby's Dinner Theatre. His nomination was one of seven Toby's received this year, bringing the theater's total over the years to 45 nominations and six awards. Rep Stage, a professional theater company in residence at Howard Community College, received one nomination this year.

In a string of comic sketches where women play women, women play men and women play women playing men, no gender, age or ethnic group is safe from biting sarcasm."

Would it be a blessing if we knew what the future was going to bring? Or are we better off not knowing? Richard Greenberg explores that question in his brilliant comedy-drama The Violet Hour, which Rep Stage is presenting through Nov. 20. It's April 1, 1919. (Greenberg never makes the point, but April Fool's Day is an appropriate time for the surreal things that are about to happen.) World War I is over; the Twenties are just around the corner. The audience knows that a flowering of American art and literature is on the way, as well as a revolution in manners and morals that will banish the last traces of Victorianism.