Don Juan Dispenso, produced by Tony Tanner; co-produced by Penny L. Moore; continues Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 3 pm (show for Sunday, March 7th canceled); through April 4. Tickets: $20. Missing Piece Theatre, 2811 Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Reservations via Brown Paper Tickets: 800.838.3006.

Tony Tanner

Tony Tanner is indeed a triple threat: an actor/writer/director. He oftentimes produces his own plays. He has received good reviews and accolades for his work in both Europe and in the United States.

Tanner is most proud of having been nominated for Tony Awards for the direction of two quite different shows in the same season: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and A Taste of Honey, best musical and best revival respectively. He was also nominated for his choreography for Joseph.

As an actor, Tanner played a psychopath in The Last Ally onstage in London. Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan said, [his was] “one of the finest, most unsentimental portraits of a nut case I have ever seen in the theatre.” Tanner also starred in Warner Bros. Stop the World I Want to Get Off. In addition, he directed and played the lead in King Lear at Cal State Northridge.

Last May, his production of The Aftermath at Plummer Park’s Fiesta Hall in West Hollywood garnered an excellent review by F. Kathleen Foley in the Los Angeles Times, saying “Tanner has spent a lifetime in the theatrical trenches and the wealth of that experience is evident throughout this crisply executed, well-articulated production. Tanner has tapped several sources, from Euripides to Shakespeare, for his inspiration. The outcome is a cogent, contemporary, thoroughly timely recapitulation that focuses specifically on the ravaging consequences of the Trojan War and its continuing human toll.”

His new work is Don Juan Dispenso, which he also directed and produced. The title role is played by Ahmad Emani with Anita Adcock, Kevin Scott Allen, Sarah Casolaro, Julie Evans, Susan Hanfield, Debra “D.J.” Harner, Suzanne Hunt, Jan Johnson, Gina Manziello and Scott Ryden also in the cast. Steve Peterson, an actor/director currently helming a production of The Taming of the Shrew for March performances in Las Vegas, asks Tanner some questions.

SP: You’ve spent most of your life working in theater, first as an actor, then as a playwright and director. What originally drew you to the stage, and how old were you when you began acting?

TT: I meant to be a dancer. My sister and I were going to be a latter day Fred and Adele Astaire but in grammar school my English Lit teacher smelled out my acting gifts and guided me towards drama school. My first acting role at age 13 was Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by her.

SP: What was the impetus to start writing plays?

TT: I’m inclined to think it was the proliferation of self. I started writing revue material, lyrics, skits then graduated to musicals and plays later.

SP: When did you start directing and producing your own material?

TT: When an out of town repertory company was to produce my first complete revue, I made so many faces at the directors recommended by the guy who ran the place that he finally said between somewhat clenched teeth…”Then you’d better direct it yourself.”

Kevin Scott Allen and Ahmad Emani

SP: What is the greatest challenge when producing?

TT: Staying calm.

SP: What is the greatest challenge when directing?

TT: My greatest challenge when directing is getting out of the way of the material since I’m a natural intruder. Lindsay Crouse once said I was the first director she’d ever worked with who was willing to take responsibility for her performance.

SP: In the past couple of years, which of the projects that you created gave you the most satisfaction and why?

TT: I was quite happy about my own play last year. The Aftermath was a re-working of the material in The Oresteia and The Trojan Women. I’d given up producing since a five-year stint had brought me down and emptied my pockets. I struggled back to do The Aftermath because it was the second evening of a project I had not completed. I had a strong sense of unfinished business. It was, I suppose, what you’d call a triumph. I felt vindicated though it had brought on a particularly virulent case of shingles that I had to work through.

I’d add to that, getting shows up in the face of intolerably, difficult physical conditions for about five years in a public park venue. My two adaptations of Moliere plays called A Pair by Moliere was a huge hit there and gave me the juice and the money to keep going till I dropped.

And I’m more than a little pleased with my performances in regional opera companies of the funnymen in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at Glimmerglass, Florentine Opera and Opera Pacific to name but a few.

Gina Manziello and Ahmad Emani

SP: What drew you to the rogue character and tale of Don Juan?

TT: I don’t remember. When I came slowly out of a terrible illness, I started to write with a prolixity and intensity that startled even me. I couldn’t wait to get ideas for plots so I did what Shakespeare did; I grabbed stories already told by others. As I’ve already said, I don’t remember what made me grab hold of Don J.

SP: How do you prepare to direct?

TT: I see pictures. If I don’t see pictures when reading a script, I don’t direct it.

SP: Being an actor who also directs, which do you prefer?

TT: The thing I’m doing at the moment I’m doing it.

SP: What other creative ventures are you working on at the moment?

TT: I’m taking my one man show, Charlatan, A Memoir of Serge Diaghilev, the legendary Russian Impresario, to the Edinburgh Festival. Also, I have music versions of Pride and Prejudice and Chekhov’s Lady with the Little Dog I want to hoist in front of the public.

Production photos by James Smith III