2004 man and woman of the year in theater

DAVID SCAGLIONE

This is the last in a series of four columns reviewing the year 2004

in local theater.

Thirty years ago, the Daily Pilot began its annual recognition of

two people in local theater who elevated their art and excelled in

its production by selecting a “man and woman of the year” in theater.

The first honorees, in 1974, were David Emmes, co-founder of South

Coast Repertory, who continues to lead the prestigious professional

company (co-artistic director Martin Benson was similarly honored in

1976), and Doris Allen, an exceptional actress and director who

shifted career gears to politics and went on to become speaker of the

California Assembly before her untimely death.

Today, on this final day of the year, this column marks the 30th

anniversary of these honors by recognizing two multi-talented local

college educators who have enriched their respective theater programs

and set shining examples for their students to follow. They are

instructors who excel in more than one aspect of theater and who have

gained the respect and admiration of the students whose talents they

broaden.

They are David Scaglione of Orange Coast College and Susan

Berkompas of Vanguard University, the Daily Pilot’s man and woman of

the year in theater for 2004.

‘Mr. Everything’

Scaglione is “Mr. Everything” at OCC -- set designer, costume and

makeup coordinator, playwright, director and occasional actor. His

technical acumen has provided the college with imaginative and

realistic backdrops for the past 17 seasons, and this year he took on

the enormous challenge of adapting Herman Melville’s epic novel “Moby

Dick” for the stage.

He is most visible during the Christmas season. He’s written the

annual yuletide melodrama for the past four years (and doubled as

emcee).

He also adapted Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” for a theater group

in Santa Ana and has adapted the children’s stories “Pinocchio” and

“Stone Soup” for the college. Scaglione also penned “Nevermore” about

the last days of Edgar Allan Poe, which OCC staged for two years.

Before joining the OCC staff, Scaglione worked as a scenic designer

for the Los Angeles Classical Ballet and moonlighted as a freelance

makeup artist for music videos, movies and commercials.

At Orange Coast, he instructs students in the arts of makeup,

scenic design, playwriting, drama and acting.

Last year, Scaglione was honored at OCC as “adjunct faculty member

of the year,” and the city of Orange cited him and the department for

their work on “Every 15 Minutes,” a program dealing with teenage

drunken driving.

Loads of artistic direction

Berkompas is in the midst of her seventh season as artistic

director at Vanguard, and she frequently takes to the stage to hone

her talents as a professional actress -- sometimes because she has no

other choice.

She portrayed Queen Eleanor in Vanguard’s “The Lion in Winter”

earlier this year, directed “Macbeth” last year and recently staged

Agatha Christie’s “A Murder is Announced.”

She’ll be seen in a few months in the central role of the witch in

the musical “Into the Woods.”

The popular educator not only mounts imaginative and stimulating

productions, she has been required on several occasions to fill a

role in her own show when a vacancy has occurred.

The result often approaches brilliance, as it did in “Something’s

Afoot” and “Steel Magnolias” of past seasons.

And when one of the school’s productions requires one or more

children, Berkompas has three willing candidates of her own.

Born and educated in Montana, Berkompas migrated to California,

where she earned her master’s degree at Cal State Long Beach.

She has extensive theatrical experience in professional

performance/directing and teaching, the latter segment including

acting, directing, voice and speech.

Apart from guiding Vanguard’s theater program and stretching her

own acting muscles, Berkompas is formulating plans for the expansion

of the college’s small stage in the Lyceum Theater.

She’s also planning to form a summer stock-type group on campus

for acting students with professional ambitions.

David Scaglione and Susan Berkompas exemplify the highest

qualities of collegiate theater instructors and are well deserving of

their selection as the Daily Pilot’s man and woman of the year in

theater for 2004.