Changes for a new world

Elia Powers

Dim lights cast a long shadow on Evan D’Angeles’ face as he sits five

feet from the stage, where his artistic vision is on display.

The theater is cold and nearly empty on this Wednesday afternoon.

It looks and feels nothing like this on show nights, when audiences

pack the cozy, 100-person Three Trees Theatre to see “Songs for a New

World.”

D’Angeles, a veteran Broadway actor who is making his full-fledged

directorial debut, admittedly takes a chance with this show by

reformatting a time-tested musical.

His adaptation sticks to the foundation: Sixteen songs written by

Tony award-winning musician Jason Robert Brown.

But the songs weren’t originally intended to be heard together,

let alone performed on stage by actors. The original performances

were almost all cabaret-style, with each song telling a

self-contained story.

D’Angeles isn’t the first person to tinker with Brown’s work.

D’Angeles and his friend, Chad Halliburton, saw a version of the

musical performed in Ventura this spring.

“I was captured by the songs,” said Halliburton, Rock Harbor

Church’s director of celebration and the arts. “The way it was

originally intended would have attracted an audience. But we wanted

to do something different.”

So D’Angeles went to work, developing an original story line to

help tie together the music. He created four fictional characters

named after people mentioned in Brown’s songs.

Halliburton, the show’s producer and artistic director, called

upon fellow church members Chad Coltman, Kathy Curran and Jennifer

Halliburton to join D’Angeles on stage at the four-year-old Three

Trees Theater, a ministry within Rock Harbor. The Christian-based

theater company often comprises actors from other local churches.

D’Angeles decided to set the songs to a single, recognizable place

and time: New York City on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

“The challenge here was getting the emotional impact and seeing if

I could weave a story together,” D’Angeles said. “People who see the

show can’t understand how it could be done any other way.”

D’Angeles didn’t add any dialogue. Instead, he decided to go the

multimedia route.

Three screens suspended behind the stage serve as backdrops,

showing still shots of New York City street corners and other

landmarks. Many are photographs taken by Rock Harbor member Jonathon

West on a recent trip to New York.

D’Angeles decided also to include photos from Sept. 11 and

original television footage.

“People are weeping in the crowd during the show,” D’Angeles said.

“It’s an emotional performance.”

The first half of the show runs almost in real-time, documenting

the hours and minutes before the first hijacked plane struck the

World Trade Center.

The second half is set during and after the attacks.

Actors use all corners of the multi-level, asymmetrical stage.

It’s not quite theater in the round, but D’Angeles said he intended

the show to be interactive.

“New York is a series of points of interest connected by streets

and bridges,” he said. “If there’s a door, we use it.”

The set -- like the show -- took only a few weeks to put together.

With a budget barely over $4,000, D’Angeles, a volunteer, relied

primarily on other volunteers to execute the project.

D’Angeles said he is proud of the outcome, but can only guess how

Brown would react.

“This is exactly what he didn’t want, originally,” D’Angeles said.

“But if he saw it, I think he’d say it works.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Three Trees Theatre presents “Songs for a New World”

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, July 21, 22 and 23; 2 p.m. Saturday

and July 23. Evening performances sold out.

WHERE: 345 Fischer Ave., Costa Mesa

COST: $10 pre-sale and $12 at the door

CONTACT: (714) 384-0914 ext. 306 or www.threetreestheater.com