Friday, October 31, 2003

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Editor

Small arts groups often have big hearts -- and some have ambitions to match. This weekend, Prime Stage, which bills itself as "the next generation of youth theater," opens not one play but two. The special event is "Rachel Calof" (through Nov. 6), staged in partnership with the "Jewish Immigration to America" exhibit at the Squirrel Hill JCC. Meanwhile, Prime Stage's seventh regular subscription season opens with "Holes" (through Nov. 15, then Nov. 25-26), staged at a new home base Downtown.

	'HOLES' AND 'RACHEL CALOF' 'HOLES': Prime Stage at 937 Liberty Ave., Cultural District; through Nov. 15: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2:30 p.m.; $15 (youth $8), 412-897-8249. Also student matinees at Byham Theatre, Nov. 25 (10 a.m. & 1 p.m.) and Nov. 26 (10 a.m.); the 1 p.m. show is open to home-schoolers and senior groups; 412-766-1390. 'RACHEL CALOF': Prime Stage at Katz Performing Arts Center, Jewish Community Center, Squirrel Hill; Sun. 2 p.m.; matinees Mon., Tues. and Thurs. 10 a.m.; $6; 412-521-8011, ext. 105.

That's the biggest news of all: Prime Stage is invading new territory, braving the neighborhood of the behemoths, colonizing the Cultural District on behalf of other small arts groups.

That's how it looks to artistic director Wayne Brinda, who launched Prime Stage in 1996. For the past two years, it was based at the 450-seat Hazlett Theater on the North Side, where it regularly drew audiences in the 120 to 150 range. Now, it's squeezing into a 75-seat theater, but Brinda figures the gain in visibility will help both Prime Stage and other small arts groups who haven't yet been able to make common cause with the powers of the Cultural District.

And Prime Stage was in a bind: When the city pulled the plug on the Hazlett's temporary financing and no one came forward to keep it open (that's another story -- waiting for a happy ending), it waged a frantic hunt for a home.

"We're really indebted to [Trust head] Kevin McMahon," says Brinda. "Without him, we'd be in trouble. It's wonderful to have someone who really means it when he says he cares for small arts groups."

So, after "much negotiating and hair-pulling," Prime Stage makes its debut tonight in its newly configured 75-seat space at 937 Liberty Ave on the first floor of what was recently the Associated Artists building. Built in 1910 as the Deluxe Arcade, it was bought earlier this year for $575,000 by the Cultural Trust.

The space was used previously by Attack Theatre as a studio and performance space. Prime Stage has taken the improvements Attack Theatre made both to the large front lobby and the theater itself, then added soundproofing panels to cover the white tile walls, installed lights and sound equipment and brought in its own seats -- handsome high red seats from the Buhl Planetarium and stackable chairs bought from the Ballet.

Presto, a new home -- what Brinda calls "a real mini-theater."

It was still coming together as of yesterday morning. Busy with a crew was Prime Stage managing director Robert Wood, who has had just two weeks to transform the space. He pointed out the sprung floor, which belongs to Attack Theatre, and the lights, rented from South Park Theatre, so that other groups using 937 in the coming months will be able to rent them along with the space.

Prime Stage is ameliorating 937's small size by simultaneously going to the other extreme, planning student matinees at the very much larger Byham Theater. There are three such planned for "Holes."

What Prime Stage really needs, as do several other performing groups, says Brinda, "is a 200-, 250-seat flexible space." But in lieu of that, he sees the value of showing the big guys Downtown what small arts can do to increase Cultural District activity. "They really don't understand small arts organizations," he says -- but they can learn. The Byham, for example, has discovered that student matinees attract audiences who have never before come to the Cultural District.

Prime Stage's season theme is "bringing literature to life." "Holes" fits because it is Louis Sachar's adaptation of his own popular, Newbery Award-winning novel (also a Disney movie). Wood directs a cast of 20 adults and youth, ages 10 to 50. He points out that, since "Holes" is "about people from diverse backgrounds encountering each other, [it's fitting that] in our production, suburban kids meet inner-city kids."

The "books into plays" season will continue with Barbara Robinson's "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" (Dec. 5-20), Nigel Williams' adaptation of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" (Feb. 20-March 6) and "Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" (April 16-May 1). The first two will be at 937, but "Wrinkle" is being produced in partnership with the Carnegie Science Center and may be staged there.

While Wood directs Downtown, Brinda has been busy directing in Squirrel Hill.

The impetus for "Rachel Calof" came from the American Jewish Museum at the JCC, looking for a show to accompany its exhibit on Jewish immigration. The Grable Foundation suggested they contact Prime Stage. Brinda searched nationally and found the unproduced "Rachel Calof," based on "Rachel Calof's Story," an autobiography of a Russian Jewish teenager who immigrated to the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century. It dramatizes her struggles of faith and survival as a mail-order bride in Devil's Lake, N.D. -- "hell on earth," Brinda calls it.

Of just five performances, three are weekday matinees -- but the general public is invited to these in addition to school groups.

Featured are Audrey Castracane, Ross Blumen and Chelsey Shannon as Rachel, with accompanying live cello music by high school senior Cecile Leroy. This fills another of Prime Stage's goals, which, in addition to filling the niche between children's and adult theater productions for families and adolescents, is to have young people perform, as well.

"What's neat about kids is when you give them a challenge and a little direction, it's amazing what they come up with," says Brinda.

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