People’s playhouse

While briefly acting alongside Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood” 12 years ago, Ryan Holihan may have inadvertently taken a lesson of sorts from the eccentric, low-budget film director Depp portrayed. Now serving as board president for the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, Holihan knows how to stretch a budget.

The difference is that Holihan’s dedicated to making quality theater available to the public — affordably. The nonprofit community theater relies on the commitment of board members and volunteers to make the four shows they produce each season possible, with their funding coming solely from ticket sales, fundraisers and donations from patrons.

In addition to making decisions about the theater’s operation, board members are also responsible for the less glamorous duties involved with running a playhouse, such as cleaning and maintaining the facility, designing and building sets, sewing costumes and staffing the box office.

“My attitude is, ‘If it’s not fun, we shouldn’t be doing it,’ ” said Holihan, who appeared in several films and television shows throughout the ‘90s. “Yes, it’s a lot of work, but the payoff is that we all get to do what we are passionate about, and I think that is awesome.”

Though Michael Dale Brown’s paychecks come from a local economic firm, the Costa Mesa resident said he is far more committed to his work as a board member, director and actor for the playhouse.

“Acting and directing is the most personally satisfying way I have found for expressing my need to create,” he said, “so I keep my professional hands in the arts as much as I can.”

While a student at Orange Coast College many years ago, Brown acted in and directed several theatrical productions, and is presently hard at work directing the playhouse’s third show of the season, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel’s “The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild,” a farcical comedy focused on a frustrated housewife who finds escape in the movies she loves.

Besides adding his artistic perspective to the piece, Brown — a self-proclaimed film buff — supplied many of the show’s props from among his own collection of movie magazines and posters, and expects audiences will enjoy the humorous and, at times, tender piece because “people today are as fanatic about media and movies as this woman was in 1972.”

Tara Henry, who stars in the lead role and recently graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, is enjoying her first stint at the playhouse. Participating in community theater has been rewarding, she said.

“When you do community theater, you can’t have an ego, and you have to go in willing to devote yourself completely to the show, which creates a real unity among cast members,” she said. “You might have to find your own costume or do your own makeup, but you are all doing it together, and that makes it great.”

With planning for the next season underway, the playhouse is always looking for more community members to get involved in upcoming shows, which will include the Tony Award-winning musical “A Little Night Music,” “The Full Monty” and a new sci-fi play Brown wrote called “Earthlings Beware.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild”

WHERE: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays now through March 18

WHEN: The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, 611 St., Costa Mesa

COST: General admission is $18, students and swniors $15; discounted tickets are available for groups of 10 or more

INFO: Call (949) 650-5269 or go to www.costamesaplayhouse.org