Modjeska Playhouse

May 8, 2008 – Orange County (OC) Register: South County acting trio is looking for a stage.

South County acting trio is looking for a stage

Members of Rancho Santa Margarita-based Modjeska Playhouse need a place to perform.

By JOHN CRANDALL
STAFF WRITER

The newest acting troupe in Rancho Santa Margarita has passion, talent and dreams. What it doesn’t have is a theater of its own.

Modjeska Playhouse – a recently-created theater company made up of longtime actors and friends Christopher Sullivan, Joe Alanes and Joshua Stecker – is preparing for its summer season.

Following its first performance as a company in April, the performers say they’re looking to provide theater services to a region that sorely lacks them.

“(We’re) trying to give them something that quite frankly doesn’t exist in Rancho Santa Margarita,” Alanes said.

The men met in 1990 at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo, where they fell in love with acting. Their lives took many turns, but they never stopped being friends.

Alanes, 34, works as a program coordinator for Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Programs; Stecker, 33, is the manager of magazine publications for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach; and Sullivan, 35, works part-time for the Ocean Institute. Alanes and Sullivan also teach at South Coast Repertory.

Alanes and Sullivan are Rancho Santa Margarita residents, and Stecker lives in Irvine.

The group’s credentials are impressive. Sullivan was trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and South Coast Repertory’s Professional Conservatory, Stecker was trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and Alanes graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in theater.

“We’re not a community theater. We’re a professional theater for the community,” Sullivan said.

The trio displays a friendship that’s immediately evident: They finish each other’s sentences and jokes.

“We are nonprofit and donations can be written off,” Stecker said.

“Begging isn’t beneath us,” Sullivan said, without missing a beat.

The group is choosing between seven plays for its summer season. They plan to have a play ready by July, but they’re seeking a location.

“We’re looking for one right now, so if you know anyone in Rancho with deep pockets, who wants to donate to a nonprofit …” said Stecker.

Sullivan originally suggested forming the acting troupe at a TGI Friday’s last year while the three men were having dinner. Their first performance, the “Complete Works of William Shakespeare” (abridged) ran from April 9-12 at Trabuco Hills High School.

The members named their playhouse after Helena Modjeska, a celebrated Shakespearian actress for whom the local canyon and northernmost peak in the Saddleback mountain range are named.

The trio hopes to use the company as a means to help students study acting as well as provide quality performances to the area.

What do they want do they plan for the next 10 to 15 years?

“We’d just like to create a theater culture in Orange County,” Stecker said.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a space by then,” Sullivan adds.

For more information, visit www.modjeskaplayhouse.org.

Contact the writer: 949-454-7308 or jcrandall@ocregister.com