San Diego Magazine / January 2005 / Scores and Stories

 Email  Print  Feed

Scores and Stories

Genius on Stage

WHEN DAVID ELLENSTEIN MET MARC SILVER—working with the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company in Thousand Oaks— they discovered something in common: Both had portrayed Albert Einstein on stage. Ellenstein played the renowned genius in the Laguna Playhouse’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and Singer had several times essayed Relatively Speaking, a oneman play about Einstein for children. That conjunction of background and interests spurred them to collaborate on an Einstein play for adults.

The result, Einstein Comes Through, is on view January 19–February 6 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach, where Ellenstein is artistic director. He’ll stage the work, with Silver doing the role of an actor whose portrayal of the great physicist helps him deal with his personal problems. “Without giving too much away,” Ellenstein says, “the actor has tragedy in his own life, and Einstein’s ideas help him deal with what he has going on.” But, Ellenstein adds, it’s not downbeat: “It’s seriocomic.” Einstein, he points out, had a great sense of humor: “His laugh was described as sounding like a contented seal.”

What about the science? Will audiences have to be knowledgeable about the Theory of Relativity? “No,” Ellenstein says, “There’s some theory and intellectual challenges, but basically it’s a human drama. And it has elements of sci-fi.” He says when he and Silver workshopped the play in Los Angeles, audience responses included “charming” and “engaging.” Ellenstein also is happy to talk about another major North Coast production—the company’s new twin-theater complex to be built near the Solana Beach Amtrak station. Plans call for the present parking lot to be moved underground, with the area developed for commercial and residential use, with the new theaters as a prime tenant.

Details, Ellenstein says, are still being worked out with the various entities involved, including NCRT, the city of Solana Beach and the North County Transit District. But everything looks good. And he’s excited by the prospect. “I love doing theater productions,” he exults, “but they’re ephemeral. It’s great to think about leaving something for generations to enjoy in the far future.”

THE THEATRE IN OLD TOWN has been so successful in booking popular-appeal shows that it changes productions only slightly more often than the Chargers go to Super Bowls. And the company’s picked another winner—Robert Dubac’s uproarious The Male Intellect; An Oxymoron?, which garnered a 2003 San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award for touring production. At the awards presentation, Dubac joked that he had vowed if he won, he’d move down here. Well, it turns out he did and he did. If past Old Town runs are any predictor, he’ll be here for a while. Intellect opens January 6, following the current musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, which closes January 2.

WHEN KAREN CARPENTER RESIGNED as Old Globe Theatre artistic director in September, theater folks speculated the post might go to Kirsten Brandt, the artistic head of Sledgehammer, who’s demonstrated her writing and directing talents not only in her own venue but on several stages, including the Globe and La Jolla Playhouse. Alas, it was not to be. Brandt is leaving Sledge but relocating to Santa Cruz, where husband David Lee Cuthbert teaches. Cuthbert’s skill at lighting design has also shone many times locally. Brandt plans to freelance nationally, but will direct Sledge’s world premiere of Bright Shiny Objects, February 10–March 20, and the Globe’s production of Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero, May 21–June 26.