THEATER : Big Plans : The Vanguard Ensemble Will Have Its Premiere Friday, but There’s Still a Lot to Do

FULLERTON —  They say they decided to start their own theater company three years ago, and you have to take them at their word.

Because, with only days to go before the opening of their first season, the space they’ve leased in a nondescript industrial park here provides scant evidence of long-range preparation.

Except for 50 or so freshly upholstered seats lining the warehouse walls and a couple of actors rehearsing under fluorescent lights, the most apparent signs of their ambition are a well-designed flyer announcing five plays and producer Kevin Aratari’s confident declaration that he intends to become “the Cameron Mackintosh of Orange County.”

Then you think of the historic “little theater” movement that transformed American drama 75 years ago: The Neighborhood Playhouse started in a union hall on Manhattan’s Lower East Side; the Provincetown Players took their first bows in a living room on Cape Cod; the Washington Square Players began in the back room of a Greenwich Village bookshop.

Closer to home, you think of South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, a descendant of that theatrical revolution and a pioneer in the regional-theater movement of the 1960s: SCR was launched in a green Studebaker.

So why not give Aratari, 25, and his partner in the Vanguard Theatre Ensemble, artistic director Terry Gunkel, 40, the benefit of the doubt?

They have announced a 1992 season consisting of “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,” “Arms and the Man,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” “On Golden Pond” and “Born Yesterday.”

Although their offerings look backward rather than forward, belying the theater’s name, the fact that they are occupying a 2,500-square-foot warehouse at all testifies to a certain doggedness--especially after two previous attempts to lease space in retail malls fell through (in Anaheim Hills last September and in Brea last December).

“We’ve been here for five weeks,” Aratari said, showing a visitor around the bare premises at 699-A S. State College Blvd., not far from Orangethorpe Avenue and the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe tracks. “It’s not glamorous, but it serves our needs, and it’s really big.”

When renovations are completed--in time for Friday’s premiere of “Gillian,” he vowed--the lobby will be painted in shades of gray; new interior walls will be constructed, insulated and soundproofed; theatrical lighting equipment will be installed, and the building directory will announce the theater’s name instead of that of the import company that formerly occupied the warehouse.

Greater miracles have happened.

Within the last five years, for example, three independent amateur companies have taken root in the county: the Way Off Broadway Playhouse is housed in a basement in Santa Ana; the Alternative Repertory Theatre operates storefront-style, also in Santa Ana; the Backstage Theatre is lodged in an office mall in Costa Mesa.

“We’re in this for the next two years, no matter what,” said Aratari, noting that he anticipates annual operating costs of $48,000 in addition to start-up costs that he estimates at “$20,000 right now.”

Aratari, who was born near Chicago, grew up in Placentia and attended Valencia High School. He graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1990 with a major in television production. He said he sold his share of an Irvine-based video-production company, which he helped found during his college days, to finance the Vanguard.

“Theater is my first love,” he said. “I was making a good living from video production, doing commercial TV spots, but I wasn’t getting rich. I didn’t have a lot to lose. About three years ago, Terry and I were talking about our careers and where we were heading. We both decided what we really wanted to do was start a theater.”

Gunkel, who used to teach drama at Valencia High and counted Aratari among his students, traces his theatrical roots to a childhood appearance in a grade-school play. A Southern California native, he grew up in Riverside and lives in Diamond Bar. He teaches English and literature at an Ontario junior high school.

“Our primary purpose is to be an actors’ theater,” said Gunkel, who earned a master’s degree in directing from Cal State Fullerton in 1980. “That’s the kind of theater we agreed to establish--one that affords opportunities for actors,” rather than for writers or designers. “We have a number of people we think are exceptionally talented, and we want to do things that let them strut their stuff.”

Gunkel, who tapped a circle of local actors, admits the Vanguard’s maiden season sounds indistinguishable from the kind of middle-brow fare being offered at dozens of community theaters.

“Gillian” is about to get another production at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach. “Virginia Woolf” runs through this weekend at the Irvine Community Theater. “On Golden Pond” and “Born Yesterday” are staples of the amateur ranks.

In a peculiar irony, however, securing the rights to “Born Yesterday” has proved unexpectedly difficult, and that could force the Vanguard to be more adventurous before the season is out.

“If it ends up that we can’t get the rights,” Gunkel said, “it will give us the opportunity to open up our season a little more. We’re looking at things by Feydeau, and we’re also talking about substituting Ionesco’s ‘Rhinoceros.’ ”

Meanwhile, Aratari notes, the Vanguard has the advantage of being near two college campuses--Cal State Fullerton and Fullerton College--which should help draw a more youthful audience than those usually seen at the county’s community theaters.

“I think marketing savvy will make the difference for us,” he added. “We’re not just going to put on productions and hope for the best. We’re taking a very businesslike approach, because if we don’t treat this as a business we’ll never get the chance to treat it as an art.”

Aratari said the Brea Improv will include an advertisement for the theater in its monthly newsletter in exchange for Improv ads that will be carried in Vanguard playbills. He also said he has worked out mutual promotions with the Fullerton Museum Center, Racquetball World, Farmer’s Insurance and Ticket Mania, a local ticket agency.

“We’re looking at this very long-term, and that’s part of what will make us successful,” Aratari contended. “Five years down the line, we want to have a 200-seat theater. Ten years down the line, we want to be another South Coast Repertory.”

He didn’t say how long it would take to become another Cameron Mackintosh.

* The Vanguard Theatre Ensemble production of “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday” opens Friday at 8 p.m., at 699-A S. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Tickets: $14 (general), $12 (students). Opening night for all productions will be Fridays, with performances for the rest of each run from Thursdays to Sundays. Information: (714) 526-8007.

The Vanguard Theatre Ensemble 1992 Season

Feb. 28 to Mar. 21: “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday” by Michael Gillian

April 24 to May 17: “Arms and the Man” by George Bernard Shaw

June 26 to July 25: “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Edward Albee

Aug. 28 to Sept. 20: “On Golden Pond” by Ernest Thompson

Oct. 30 to Nov. 22: “Born Yesterday” by Garson Kanin

The productions of The Vanguard Theatre Ensemble will performed at 699-A S. State College Blvd. in Fullerton.