Little space, big ideas
Anaheim storefront theater the Chance, a proving ground for unknowns, has a full schedule and lofty ambitions.
by Mike Boehm, photo by Robert Lachman, Los Angeles Times

February 7, 2005

Oanh Nguyen sits at a table in the middle of a bare-floor playing space that he and his friends and colleagues have washed with years of sweat. As he gives his account of the Chance Theater, the Anaheim storefront company he has led since 1999, he pauses to apologize that the tale isn't coming out more colorfully.

"I think I've always been a storyteller, although you probably can't tell that from this interview, because I don't do interviews well," says the stocky actor-director. He's wearing a business suit with an open-collared dress shirt, and though his conversation is amiable, there's a guardedness that runs counter to what others say about him: that when kicking back, he is a life-of-the-party raconteur, and when engaged in watching or directing a play, he's a passionate philosopher of the theater who can talk aesthetics tirelessly for hours and sometimes irk the thin-skinned with his incessant Socratic questioning of their premises.

If Nguyen (whose name is pronounced "on win") summons different, seemingly contradictory, qualities for different occasions — well, so does his theater.

The 70-seat Chance has been one of the most prolific small companies in Southern California, staging seasons of 12 or 14 productions, usually with two shows running concurrently. The Chance prides itself on having brought scores of unseen works by unknown playwrights to first life, and Nguyen, 31, also has directed well-received stagings of dark, tough contemporary plays by established writers, including "Tape" by Stephen Belber and Neil LaBute's chilling "Bash." He's now in rehearsals for "Porcelain" by Chay Yew, which revolves around a murder in a trysting place for gay men in London.

Before classifying Nguyen and the Chance as young-and-edgy types, one must consider that two years ago he co-directed "The Fantasticks." And during the 2004 season, the Chance struck up a Rodgers and Hammerstein revue, "A Grand Night for Singing," right after it had closed Sophocles' "Oedipus at Colonus," a challenging leap into ancient Greek drama. The Chance has staged Chekhov and Beckett. It also has done "It's a Wonderful Life" and made a cottage industry of putting on pocket versions of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, including "The Mikado," twice.

One of its two current productions splits the difference: "Closer Than Ever" is the latest Chance dip into that crowd-pleasing form, the musical revue. But it features little-known material by a lyricist-composer team, Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire, that isn't bankably famous. To make things fresher, Nguyen extracted six consistent characters and a simple plot line out of Maltby and Shire's late-'80s song sequence relating emotional bumps on the path from youth to middle age. "Closer Than Ever" previously had been staged as a collection of song-and-dance numbers; Nguyen's innovations were a few words of added dialogue and a great deal of visual storytelling.

The Chance started doing musicals and adaptations of hit films out of necessity, after an opening season of 10 new shows by unknown writers left the company's founding partners $75,000 in debt, most of it on Nguyen's credit cards. But what began as sheer economic prudence has, the artistic director says, turned into a test of artistry.

"Now it's about finding a new way into it; it's about taking a chance with not just the edgy pieces, but also with the well-known pieces." Nguyen adds that even "The Fantasticks" proved susceptible to tweaking, as he turned the musical's conspiring fathers into a father and a mother, aiming for a more wistful hint of balked romance.

Jocelyn Brown, now the company's producing artistic director, came to the Chance in 2000, having apprenticed as an unpaid assistant director on three shows at South Coast Repertory. Her initial aim was to sell the Chance on a never-produced script by a fellow alumnus of the UC San Diego theater department.

"I was struck by their professionalism," she says. "The whole thing felt as if they were [a major] theater, even though they didn't have the finances yet."

In the early days, the Chance's stake came mainly from Nguyen's modestly successful acting career — which he limits to film, television and commercials, having never performed on his own stage because he doesn't want to be distracted from his directing and managerial duties. Now, he says, the company is debt-free after paying off that initial $75,000, and an additional $50,000 invested in 2003 when the Chance found a bigger, more visible and less noisy spot in the suburban office and industrial park where it first took root.

Nguyen earns his main living as a Web designer, a skill learned as a do-it-yourselfer hoisting the Chance onto the Internet. He and five other company members share a rented house 10 minutes from the theater.

With a budget that Nguyen places at more than $150,000 a year, the Chance has begun to get grants and receive donations — and recently began paying its nonunion actors $150 each for the run of a play. Ambitions are large: to raise $3 million over the coming three years and, by 2008, establish the Chance as a 250-seat professional company for inland Orange County.

Nguyen sometimes gets recognized from a popular Sprint commercial that ran last year, and he recently received his first-ever fan e-mail, from somebody who enjoyed his turn as a complex Cambodian prince driven to prove his manhood by abusing the feline heroes of "Two Brothers," Jean-Jacques Annaud's 2004 film about the adventures of sibling tiger cubs.

Nguyen, a Vietnamese American, has stayed outside the orbit of identity-based theaters and plays. "Porcelain," about a gay Chinese man, will be the first Chance show with an Asian protagonist, "The Mikado" notwithstanding.

He was 2 years old when Saigon fell and he fled with his mother and his naval officer father. In the chaos, they were cut off from his infant brother; the family did not reunite for nearly 30 years, when that brother finally was able to emigrate.

His parents, who now run an insurance agency, insisted that Nguyen speak only English at home. The Chance grew out of friendships from high school and junior college; he never had experienced a play until he arrived at Anaheim High School and saw the drama department's adaptation of "Rebel Without a Cause."

As a child, Nguyen stayed home a lot while his parents worked six or seven days a week. "All through summer, my little brother and I would be locked up in the house. A lot of the time, I'd sit around and imagine things."

The plays that capture his imagination as a director often revolve around war — among them last spring's staging of Richard Nelson's "Goodnight Children Everywhere," about English siblings scattered during World War II, and the 2000 world premiere of "The Stroop Report," a play about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that was the Chance's first box office hit.

"It's absolutely personal," Nguyen says. "Everything I do is."

The Chance's highest-profile moment to date was especially personal: Nguyen directed his wife, Erika C. Miller, a Chance co-founder and core actress, in the 2003 world premiere at the Getty Center of "Lee Miller: The Angel and the Fiend," the story of Erika's great aunt, a fashion model, photographer and war correspondent. The play, by Miller's son, Antony Penrose, ran in conjunction with "Surrealist Muse," an exhibition of the art she created and inspired.

Nguyen would also like to tell stories from the community he grew up in, — but he says he hasn't found anything compelling yet. Last summer, he went on a Little Saigon cable TV show to promote "Two Brothers," was chided for declining to speak Vietnamese on the air, and fielded pointed questions about why his theater hasn't programmed plays about the Vietnamese and Vietnamese American experience. "I have to say, 'Get me a script that you truly believe in,' " Nguyen says. "I'm definitely interested."

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Shoestring and a prayer
The Chance Theater offers innovative fare in an 80-seat venue nestled in a strip mall
by Pat O' Brien, photo by Steven Lewis, Press Enterprise

February 11, 2005

The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills is a find.

Just off Highway 91 west of Corona, the theater is housed in a strip mall near an In-N-Out Burger. But what goes on inside the 80-seat black box theater is anything but mundane.

It's contemporary theater with a tickle and bite. Clever. Provocative. Smart.

Currently playing is Closer Than Ever, which was originally a Maltby & Shire musical revue without story. In the hands of Chance co-founder and artistic director Oanh Nguyen, it becomes moving and hilarious vignettes about relationships.

"These are the most challenging, the most scary and the most wonderful projects," Nguyen said of the risk-taking works the theater often tackles. "We have been lucky the audiences enjoy it a lot and critics do, too."

On a recent Saturday, Ricky Culbertson, whose credits include the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz national tour, sang of his bizarre behavior standing in the rain to spy on his girlfriend. "Rain" was sprayed on him with plastic bottles. The audience burst into laughter and did again and again during many scenes in the Closer Than Ever show.

Also playing is The Rover, a modern adaptation of 17th-century novel that is the most recent of a whopping 82 world premieres presented by the theater now in its seventh season.

This piece is cleverly staged with four young women at a slumber party who play-act the old story, sometimes using stuffed animals for characters.

The original story was written by Aphra Behn, a spy for the English crown, who took witty and rapier-sharp jabs at sexism. It was adapted by Josh Costello, who was founder and artistic director of Impact Theatre in Berkeley, and who recently directed The Eight: Reindeer Monologues at Chance.

The theater was also commissioned by the Getty Museum to produce a play about famed photographer Lee Miller (1907-77), who was the great-aunt of Erika C. Miller, the theater production manager and Nguyen's wife.

"What was amazing, the first performance on her life happened to be ours. It was thrilling and humbling," Miller said of the 2003 event at the Getty.

One of the goals of the nonprofit group is to become a first-tier, 250-seat Equity theater. This will mean getting more grants and corporate sponsors to boost its already impressive ability to pay 80 percent of costs from ticket sales.

Lisa Giffi of Costa Mesa was pleased with the value she got when purchasing a package deal of show tickets with dinner.

"I enjoy live stage productions more than anything. This was a little bit of a drive but well worth it," she said.

The theater offers dinner deals with two nearby restaurants, Café Europe and Yves' Bistro. The package deal has set menu choices and reservation times to fit show time.

In 2004, Arts Orange County gave the Chance Theater an outstanding organization award for accomplishment and growth.

Nguyen, who fled Saigon in 1975 with his parents, is a graduate of Anaheim High School. He bankrolled the early days of Chance with money he earned in a national 7-Up commercial that aired during a Super Bowl.

"By the end of the first year, we were $75,000 in debt, all on credit cards. I balanced 10 credit cards, and by the end of the fifth season, we were out of debt," he said.

The theater took on another $15,000 in bills when it moved into the current building from a more obscure one. But that is also paid off. "We are very proud of that," Nguyen said.

But the talented company members -- including Corona residents Dean Anderson, the musical director, and Sarah Moreau, the youth coordinator -- are mostly volunteers.

"We're at that point where we need to find our sponsors. People are working hard long-term and making peanuts," Nguyen said.

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Grass Skirts Optional
At this year’s OC Weekly Theater Awards starring George W. Bush. Maybe.
by Joel Beers, O.C. Weekly

March 11, 2005

OC Weekly Theater Awards started nine years ago as an intimate soiree at a posh restaurant in Laguna Beach—and a ukulele player in a grass skirt. Just because.

This year’s awards, March 21 at South Coast Repertory’s Julianne Argyros Stage, may or may not repeat the skirt thing, but OC Weekly is still hosting, and they’re still open to all comers. So anything, in theory, is possible. (If you think you might be a comer, e-mail sarahc@ocweekly.com, and we’ll put you on the list.)

The social climbing begins at 7 p.m. with free cocktails and munchies, followed by the awards at 8—lightly toasted being a great way to cushion watching your peers take home all the OCIEs (trophies we named after the Village Voice theater awards, the OBIES).

This year, for the first time in the event’s history, we’ve asked a handful of performers to reprise some of the best monologues heard on local stages the past year. You’ll hear people like Jeremy Gable, who shone in the Hunger Artists’ The Gog/Magog Project, and Patty Cumby, who delivered a wonderfully manic commentary on depression in Stages’ Roscoe Spitzer is Afraid of Dying. And George W. Bush may make an appearance—with special guests. It’s that kinda night.

Here is the full list of nominees:

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE BY A MALE
Anthony Cohen, Dial M for Murder, Vanguard Theatre Ensemble
Jay Fraley, Candy and Dorothy, Rude Guerilla
Jeremy Gable, The Gog/Magog Project, Hunger Artists
Mark Harelik Cyrano de Bergerac, South Coast Repertory
Casey Long, Tape, The Chance Theater
Steven Parker, Dinner With Ribbentrop, Rude Guerrilla
Brian C. Weed, Goodnight Children Everywhere, Chance Theater

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE
Jocelyn A. Brown, Goodnight Children Everywhere, Chance Theater
Kandis Chappell, Intimate Exchanges, South Coast Repertory
Linda Gehringer, Retreat from Moscow, South Coast Repertory
Christa Jackson, Always . . . Patsy Cline Musical Theatre West
Angela Lopez, Jack and Jill, Insurgo Theater Movement
Maggie Peach, Master Class, Long Beach Playhouse
Eliza Pryor Nagel, Mr. Marmalade, South Coast Repertory

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE
Michael Irish, Poona the Fuckdog, Rude Guerrilla
Steven Lamprinos, Roscoe Spitzer is Afraid of Dying, Stages
Steven Parker, Eye of God, Rude Guerrilla
Howard Patterson, Redwood Curtain, Newport Theater Arts Center
Beach Vickers, Goodnight Children Everywhere, Chance Theater

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE
Jill Cary Martin, Wuthering Heights, Insurgo
Karen Harris, Eye of God, Rude Guerrilla
Beth Kennedy, The Comedy of Aerosmith, Troubador
Entia Lawal, The Old Settler, Vanguard Theatre Ensemble
Marnelle Ross, Equus, Rude Guerrilla
Bonnie Wickeraad, Company, Chance Theater

BEST ENSEMBLE
Assassins, Hunger Artists
Company, Chance Theater
Goodnight Children Everywhere, Chance Theater
The Eight Reindeer Monologues, Chance Theater
Red Noses, Stages
Rube, Orange County Theater Festival
Tabletop, Laguna Playhouse

BEST NEW PLAY
Kristina Leach, The Medea Project, Hunger Artists
Jason Lindner, The Gog/Magog Project, Hunger Artists
Alex Bueno, Eric McGregor and Oanh Nguyen, Lord of the Screen: The Fellowship of the Pen, Chance Theater
Myles Nye, Dirt-Cheap Musicals, Stages Theatre

BEST MUSICAL
Company, The Chance Theater
Comedy of Aerosmith, The Troubadour Theater Company
Constant Star, Laguna Playhouse
Hot Mikado, Musical Theatre West
Jesus Christ Superstar, Stages
Roscoe Spitzer is Afraid of Dying, Stages Theatre
The Tin Pan Alley Rag, Fullerton Civic Light Opera

BEST PRODUCTION
Goodnight Children Everywhere, The Chance Theater
The Gog/Magog Project, Hunger Artists
Mr. Marmalade, South Coast Repertory
The Retreat from Moscow, South Coast Repertory
Tabletop, Laguna Playhouse

BEST DIRECTION
Dave Barton, Handbag, Rude Guerrilla
Andrew Barnicle, Tabletop, Laguna Playhouse
Martin Benson, The Retreat from Moscow, South Coast Repertory
Sharyn Case, Dinner with Ribbentrop, Rude Guerrilla
Kevin Cochran, The Becket Project II, Grove Theater Center
Oanh Nguyen, Goodnight Children Everywhere, The Chance
Ethan McSween, Mr. Marmalade, South Coast Repertory

SPECIAL AWARD
BEST ENSEMBLE-ORIENTED TROUPE
We often think of plays as a small handful of star roles supported by a cast. For its dedication to ensemble-oriented shows--productions that offer a variety of interesting roles--The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills deserves recognition. This year alone, The Chance offered outstanding ensemble acting in productions as diverse as Goodnight Children Everywhere, The Cherry Orchard, Company, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues and Tape, as well as its original part-scripted, part-improv production, Lord of the Screen: The Fellowship of the Pen and its annual festival of short plays, The First Chance Fest 2004. For this, we give The Chance Theater the OC Weekly Theater Award for Best Ensemble-Oriented Theater Company.

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Fall Theater Preview, Part 2
The Small Theaters
by Christopher Trela, OC Metro

September 15, 2005

An exciting, independent theater community is alive and well in the north OC cities of Fullerton, Anaheim and Santa Ana.

No less than four noteworthy theater troupes call Fullerton their home: Stages, Hunger Artists, Maverick Theater and Vanguard Theater. Nearby Anaheim boasts the small, yet mighty, Chance Theater, while Rude Guerrilla Theater, which once considered moving to Fullerton, is firmly entrenched in its downtown Santa Ana location. These theaters all have their own, unique identities, yet they share a common trait: intimate performance spaces that bring the actors within a few feet of the audience. It’s a theatrical ­ and voyeuristic ­ experience unlike any other in Orange County. Here’s what’s on tap for these independent theaters this fall:

CHANCE THEATER

This little theater troupe with big ambitions is in the middle of its 7th season, and the fare thus far has been fascinatingly eclectic and consistently good. The troupe currently has two plays running in repertory: the Orange County premiere of “The World Goes ‘Round” by Kander and Ebb, and “The Laramie Project” by Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project. The Chance just closed an amazing production of Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret.” Now through Oct. 23, the troupe presents the duo’s musical revue, “The World Goes ‘Round,” a collection of 28 songs from Kander and Ebb shows, including “Cabaret,” “Chicago,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “New York, New York” and “Funny Lady.” The vast range of human experience is explored, song after song, by one of Broadway’s most daring and successful teams. The show is directed and choreographed by Kelly Todd, whose brilliant choreography was very visible in “Cabaret.” Also playing at The Chance through Oct. 23 is “The Laramie Project,” which examines life in the town of Laramie, Wyoming, one year after the horrific murder of a gay college student. The play is based on more than 200 interviews conducted with the residents of Laramie, and uses eight actors to portray more than 60 different characters, from rural ranchers to college professors. The result is a complex portrayal that dispels simplistic media stereotypes and explores the depths to which humanity can sink, and the heights of compassion of which people are capable.

For tickets to The Chance Theater, call (714) 777-3033 or visit www.chancetheater.com.

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Non-Equity Theater
by Eric Marchese, Orange County Register

September 18, 2005

As disposable income becomes less abundant, so narrow entertainment spending choices. Local theater patrons can find bargains among the area's high quota of storefront, independent and community theater troupes. Their selections are often daring and their execution bold, with the quality level of several prominent companies at its peak.

"The Sacred Geometry of S&M Pornography" - Local playwright Johnna Adams' world premiere views a panoply of characters, from a troubled young man with a stack of dirty magazines to a televangelist facing down a drinking problem. Oct. 21-Nov. 12, Rude Guerrilla Theater Company.

"A Christmas Story" - Bob Clark's hilarious 1983 film, based on humorist Jean Shepherd's memoir of life in Indiana in the 1940s, makes it to the stage, following a boy's intense desire for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. Nov. 11-Dec. 18, The Chance Theater.

"Little Women" - Louisa May Alcott's often-told fictionalized autobiography receives a new adaptation by Rebekah McLean and Kimberly M. Fisher. Nov. 18-Dec. 18, Hunger Artists Theatre Company.

"A Child's Christmas in Wales" - An affectionate, nostalgic look back at Dylan Thomas' childhood during the holidays, drawn from his writings by Jeremy Brooks and Adrian Mitchell. Dec. 2-Jan. 1, Vanguard Theatre Ensemble.

"Wrong Turn at Lungfish" - Lowell Ganz and Garry Marshall's dark comedy looks at the relationship between an elderly, nearly blind, terminal patient and the ditzy volunteer who insists on visiting him at his hospital room. Jan. 13-Feb. 4, Westminster Community Theater.

"Mysterious Skin" - Two teen boys share a horrifying secret, causing one to drift through the sexual underground and the other to become convinced he's been abducted by aliens. April, Rude Guerrilla Theater Company.

"With Their Eyes" - Subtitled "September 11: The View from a High School at Ground Zero," Annie Thoms' play reveals the thoughts of students at Stuyvesant High in Manhattan on that fateful day in 2001. Apr. 27-June 11, The Chance Theater.

"Raised in Captivity" - Nicky Silver's play explores the feelings of two estranged siblings who reunite at their mother's funeral. June 16-July 16, Vanguard Theatre Ensemble.

"Surf City USA" - This world premiere musical/love story unfolds against the dawning surf scene of Huntington Beach in the 1960s. Aug. 4-20, Huntington Beach Playhouse.

"Coyote on a Fence" - This Orange County premiere offers a glimpse of two very different young men, Death Row inmates who connect due to the proximity of their cells. Aug. 6-Sept. 10, The Chance Theater.

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Fall Preview (State of the Arts)
by Anne-Margret Bellavoine, Northern Lights

September 25, 2005

The fall season is well underway for local non-equity houses.

The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills kicked off its second year at its expanded location with 'The World Goes 'Round,' an intimate Kander and Ebb revue featuring favorites from major shows such as 'All That Jazz.' along with lesser known gems loosely themed on human relationships' ups and downs. The second stage is the sober and sobering 'Laramie Project,' a gritty look at the dynamics of a hate crime in a small town reflecting the realities of American society on the polarizing polemics of gay issues, particularly relevant with today's same sex marriage headlines. Finishing off the year will be "A Christmas Story,' and the reprise of the irreverently raunchy 'Reindeer Monologues,' a sleeper success last year. ...

North East Orange County erroneously is perceived as a cultural wasteland, when in fact, black box boutique theaters have sprung up and thrive, offering a staggering array of conventional and avant-guard offerings with something for every taste and budget. Many offer two billings, with weekend matinees for the second show, and midnight improv.

Most offer mouth-watering gala openings, often partnering with local eateries. These affairs allow for the audience to mingle with the cast after the show. The Chance also offers a dinner and show package with outstanding local continental restaurants Café Europe and Yves' Bistro.

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Naughty and Nice
Family and adult fare play out over holidays
by Pat O'Brien, The Press Enterprise

November 15, 2005

The Chance Theater is mixing naughty and nice in its two-play holiday calendar.

The mainstream offering, A Christmas Story follows 9-year-old Ralphie's quest for a BB gun. In a show filled with hilarity and nostalgia, everyone from parents to a teacher warn, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

"It's going to be sure-fire fun for the entire family," said theater spokeswoman Annie Mezzacappa.

Leave the kids home, though, if you venture out to The Eight: Reindeer Monologues. With explicit language and sexual themes, it is for sophisticated audiences with a taste for the irreverent and raunchy.

The monologues take an outrageous turn as Santa Claus gets accused of molesting one of his antlered crew. And Mrs. Claus just may have a drinking problem.

Director Josh Costello says those who saw it last year will be in for some surprises. "We wanted to shake it up a bit," Costello said.

Both plays run through Dec. 18. A Christmas Story 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. $25, $22 seniors and students. The Eight: Reindeer Monologues 4 p.m. Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays. $20, $17 seniors and students. The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills, (800) 838-3006.

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Stagings Shined in 2005
Top-notch drama filled smaller theaters in Orange County and Long Beach
by Eric Marchese, Orange County Register

December 25, 2005

While it's axiomatic that comedy is generally more difficult to create than drama, the 10 best productions of 2005 were, with two exceptions, dramas of the finest kind. Area theater has also yielded some of the most singular examples of impressive ensemble acting combined with sure-handed direction in recent memory - at least two-dozen such productions from the past 12 months.Here are the best productions, and the noteworthy directing and acting achievements, of the 2005 calendar year:

The top ten

3. "One Flea Spare" (Chance Theater) -Director Patricia L. Terry wedded Naomi Wallace's themes to a credible exterior world of 1665 London - then, her superb cast crafted an inner world like that of ours today for a staging with heart to spare.4. "Porcelain" (Chance Theater) - With sensitive direction by Oanh Nguyen, Chay Yew's drama revealed the numbing isolation of a young man who scorns his identity as a Chinese gay (a sympathetic Nghia Luu).Noteworthy ensemble casts

... "The Diary of Anne Frank" (Chance Theater; Josh Costello, director)... "The Laramie Project" (Chance Theater; Oanh Nguyen, director)

Noteworthy performances

... Joshua Jones, "One Flea Spare" (Chance Theater)... Nghia Luu and Beach Vickers, "Porcelain" (Chance Theater)

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