Lost in Garden Grove

by John Glore

The year is 1975.  The place is Garden Grove, in the heart of Orange County, California.  That edenically named community, a stone's throw from the “Happiest Place on Earth,” is home to Walter Wells, small business-owner, family man, and perhaps the happiest man in this happy corner of the world. 

Walter is living the suburban dream:  A nice house, with a pool in the backyard.  A beautiful wife and two great kids—one boy, one girl.  His appliance store does decent business, so he doesn't have to worry too much about finances.  And he dwells in the land of sunshine and optimism.  As far as Walter is concerned, life could not possibly get any better than this.

But it could suddenly get worse.  And when it does, Walter is left to question everything he once believed in.

That's the set-up for Julie Marie Myatt's The Happy Ones, a play commissioned by SCR after Myatt's My Wandering Boy premiered on the Segerstrom Stage in 2007.  Myatt has been quietly carving out a stellar career with a series of plays produced by some of the most prominent theatres in the country.  Her body of work reflects the woman herself—contemplative, engaged with society, committed to community but fascinated with expressions of individuality.

When Myatt accepted SCR's commission, she began looking at our own community for inspiration.  Two things about Orange County especially captured her interest:  the way so many of our neighborhoods embody the pursuit of the American Dream and the phenomenon of planned suburban perfection; and the fact that one particular corner of the county now houses the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam itself, thanks to an influx after the Fall of Saigon in 1975.

In fact, the mass immigration of Vietnamese refugees becomes an important factor in the story of Walter Wells.  One of the new arrivals, Bao Ngo, unintentionally brings about Walter's unhappy turn of fortune, and then becomes an odd sort of immigrant into Walter's own life.  Initially Bao simply wants to atone for what he has done; but because Bao suffered his own grievous losses in his homeland, he is better

equipped to understand Walter's state of mind than Walter's American friends, who simply want to find a way to cheer him up.

Chief among those friends are the play's other two characters:  Walter's longtime pal, Gary, who is the pastor of Walter's church (a man amusingly ill-suited to his profession); and Gary's new romantic interest, Mary-Ellen, who has had her own share of hard knocks, but is now looking to erase the slate and start a new life.  Gary and Mary-Ellen make it their business to return Walter to a state of happiness (in part to compensate for the uncertainties of their own lives), but their well-intentioned efforts inevitably miss the mark.

Earlier this year The Happy Ones was presented in a staged reading as part of SCR's NewSCRipts series.  The audience responded enthusiastically, with both tears and laughter; for although The Happy Ones looks at the subject of happiness by examining what happens when it goes away, the play achieves a surprising lightness of tone and manages to deliver both honestly earned emotion and ample amounts of character-driven humor.

The Artists of The Happy Ones

SCR's world premiere of The Happy Ones will be staged by two Orange County artistic directors. 

SCR's own Martin Benson, who has directed nearly a third of the 437 productions offered here over the last 45 years, will take the pilot's seat; and Oanh Nguyen, artistic director of the highly regarded Chance Theatre in Anaheim, will serve as associate director.  Nguyen's own family came to Orange County in 1975 (when Oanh was a young boy) and experienced the culture shock and family upheaval that was common among the Vietnamese immigrants of the time.  His insights proved invaluable when he helmed the NewSCRipts reading of The Happy Ones, as did his experience working on new plays at the Chance. 

Benson brings his own long new-play experience to the table, and will be able to introduce Nguyen to the many artistic and technical resources SCR has to offer.  Their collaboration gives playwright Myatt access to two exceptional directorial minds as she makes the final refinements to her script.

Three of the four actors from the NewSCRipts reading will reprise their roles in the production.  Raphael Sbarge (Walter Wells) began his acting career at the age of four on a new PBS television show called “Sesame Street,” and by age 16 was playing on Broadway opposite Faye Dunaway.  Two years later he co-starred in the film Risky Business, the first of more than 30 films in

which he has appeared.  An equally impressive stage career includes five Broadway appearances and opportunities to work with such actors as Al Pacino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Frank Langella, Mercedes Ruehl, Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards.  Although Sbarge has appeared in several readings at SCR, this marks his first full production with the company.

Reprising the role of Mary-Ellen will be frequent SCR guest artist Nike Doukas, who was last seen here in the 2008 Argyros Season opener, Dead Man's Cell Phone.  Doukas' work at SCR dates back to 1993, when she performed in Loot and The Company of Heaven in the old Second Stage.

Greg Watanabe returns to SCR to play the role of Bao Ngo, having previously been seen here in Our Town (Segerstrom Stage, 1998) and The Summer Moon (Second Stage, 1999).  Watanabe also recently appeared in both the NewSCRipts and Pacific Playwrights Festival readings of David Wiener's Extraordinary Chambers. Among his television credits are "Watch Over Me," "Criminal Minds" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Making his SCR debut in the role of Gary, Geoffrey Lower has enjoyed a distinguished stage career on both coasts, highlighted by numerous Shakespearean roles for some of the finest directors in the American theatre, including Joseph Papp, Mark Lamos, Jack O'Brien and Michael Kahn.