LOWER LAKE ? Why is community theater in Lake County playing to standing-room-only crowds, lately? Perhaps the reason for the attendance surge is the quality of performance that local actors and actresses provide. Theatergoers can be heard saying, “I saw this on Broadway and your performance was better,” or “I can”t believe that there is this level of talent in Lake County!”
For this reason, we are featuring two of the stars of the Lake County theater scene who will be performing in the new comedy, “Incorruptible,” coming this February. These are people you have appreciated on the stage many times. They are your own talented neighbors and they are getting ready to wow you again.
The first individual is the versatile Kathleen Escud?.
Escud? was known first for her extraordinary singing talents. Then she discovered that she was an actress, too. Who knew? Escud?, the mother of two and the wife of Julio Escud?, first performed in Lake County in “The Fantastics” in 2000.
Her starring roles began, however, with LCRT”s version of “Zombies from the Beyond,” an outrageous musical that convinced everyone that Escud? could do anything. Next she appeared as an Irish maid in “Money Matters” and a slightly evil nursing home director in “Spirit” followed by award winning Karaoki performances at Robinson Rancheria.
The best was yet to come, however, when Escud? landed the part of the riotous mother superior in “Nunsense” and then moved directly to the memorable Golde in “Fiddler on the Roof.”
After this list of performances, there is no doubt that Escud? “can do anything” and she will be out to prove that again in “Incorruptible” as the conniving and unscrupulous Abbas of Bernay. If you love strong women (and Kathleen!), you won”t want to miss it.
Our second featured performer is the lovable Dick Griffin, seen most recently as the rabbi in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Griffin and his wife of more than 50 years, Winkie, are 48-year residents of Lake County and parents of five grown children. They have been an integral part of local theater for most of that time.
Griffin had been on stage since the ”50s when he arrived here and was not about to let the rural nature of Lake County keep him from continuing. Together, he and Winkie started the first theater company in the county in the early ”60s, the Highland Players in Clearlake Highlands (now known as the City of Clearlake). There, in the Burns Valley School Auditorium, Griffink performed in such classics as “Harvey” and “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
When Lake County Repertory Theater opened, Dick and Winkie transferred loyalties to that company and again, Griffin was performing. Theater goers in the area will remember him in dozens of plays including “Blithe Spirit,” “You Can”t Take It With You,” “Spirit” and “On Golden Pond.”
In the current production of “Incorruptible,” Griffin is morphing from the adorable rabbi in “Fiddler” to the “morally challenged” but equally adorable Abbot of a 13th-century monastery. Be sure to see the transformation Feb. 8,9,10,15,16 and 17 at Weaver Auditorium in the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum. Tickets will go on sale Jan. 18.
Suna Flores is director of “Incorrigible,” which is being performed in February by LCRT.
