03/12/04

LAKE OSWEGO H e would yell a lot, director Alan Shearman had told cast members of "Accomplice," who were still trying on blouses and jackets and draping scarves for the right effect as the technical rehearsal was about to begin.

"I just don't want you to be surprised when she pulls off all that hair," Shearman warned actor Scott Peter about an upcoming scene on the big, new stage at the Lakewood Center for the Arts.

"My next concern is the foot bath," Shearman told Jim Crino, the special props manager, who had been wondering where to get reel-to-reel tape when the director started talking about a bath liner. "I just don't want glass if she's going to be tossing the hair dryer in it."

Shearman, a co-creator of "Bullshot Crummond," the stage spoof of 1930s detective stories that later became a film, "Bullshot," seemed remarkably organized for a man who specializes in over-the-top humor.

"It's going to be controlled chaos," he had promised the four actors and the stage crew. But the first run-through of Rupert Holmes' play, billed as "a hysterical murder mystery . . . an adult comedy thriller," went remarkably smoothly.

Accent relaxes

Shearman, whose English accent has relaxed along the edges after 30 years in the United States, writes screenplays, acts in television and films, does TV commercials and has made five previous trips from his Los Angeles home to Lake Oswego to direct plays.

Why would a man with a house in celebrity-studded Laurel Canyon and professional contacts in Hollywood, New York and London bother with small-town theater?

"One of the things I'm always thrilled about in Portland is the enormous pool of talent," he said, indicating that Lake Oswego is part of a regional theater scene. "They may not get paid a whole lot . . . but it's that passion."

"In L.A., people are in theater for all the wrong reasons," he said. "They do theater so a casting director for a film or a TV show will see them and they can stop doing theater and go to TV and make some money."

"I've done all sorts of things as an actor and writer," he said. "I just happen to quite like the theater."

After Lakewood's executive producer, Kay Vega, sent him the script of "Accomplice," Shearman said, "I was roaring with laughter. I rarely laugh out loud, especially when it's somebody else's joke."

He was eager to direct the comedy thriller, he said, feeling confident he would find local actors who were not only skilled on stage but also funny, too.

"And, I needed actors who could do a convincing British accent," he said, dropping his voice into a lower register. "I have some background in that myself."

Complimented on how well he does the accent, Shearman stepped into a make-believe moment to brush off the remark.

"It's just pretentiousness," he said in a serious tone. "Don't be fooled."

Friend referral

Vega first heard of Shearman when she produced "Bullshot Crummond" at Lakewood several years ago. A few years later, she was talking to a friend in Renton, Wash., who had just staged "The Scandalous Adventures of Sir Toby Trollope," another script by Shearman and his co-creators from Low Moan Spectacular, a writing-acting-directing troupe.

Shearman had directed the play in Renton.

"How did you get him?" Vega said she asked her friend.

"I called him," the friend said.

"Well, give me his number," Vega said.

"I called him and invited him up from California," Vega said. "He liked us and we liked him."

Shearman directed "Sir Toby" at Lakewood in 1993 and returned four other times to direct Low Moan comedies. His last visit was in 2001 to direct "Footlight Frenzy."

"He is a master at comedy," Vega said. "Audiences like his work. Designers like working with him. The casts like him. He offers a lot. And the good thing is, he likes us."

Prop manager Sandy Shaner said, "With Alan, it's always, 'Now, just one more thing.' I kid him about that, but I love him. He's endearing. He has vision as a director. Except for that 'one more thing,' he's very easy to work with, and he's fun to have a drink with after the show."

Shearman likes the Lakewood theater so much that he organized cast rehearsals for just 31/2 weeks, in part to keep down expenses.

"It costs the theater a good bit to bring me up from Los Angeles," said Shearman, whose wife, Anna, and son, Alastair, will visit over the weekend to tour Reed College, which is on Alastair's college application list.

The compressed schedule also benefits cast members with day jobs and, Shearman said, he believes everyone remains sharply focused during a shorter schedule.

When directing at Lakewood, Shearman stays at the nearby Lakeshore Inn, where he works on a film script by day with Oswego Lake just outside his window. In the early evenings, he goes a few blocks up State Street for rehearsals at the theater.

If all goes well, shooting will start on the script, featuring a dog lost in London, by the end of the year, Shearman said.

He shifted his focus back to the stage set, shouting out to stage manager Felix Kelsey: "Oh, and did they actually put salt in the salt shakers?"

Finally, he looked up at technical director Kurt Herman in the control booth and raised his hand.

"Kurt, are you ready?" Shearman boomed. "Let's pretend we're doing a show!"

Janet Goetze: 503-294-5917; janetgoetze@news.oregonian.com