Third Studio presents plays that are very different from any others done on the Monterey Peninsula, so it seems worthwhile to find out more about the background of the artistic director, Andra Weddington.

Andra has lived in a lot of states and worked with a lot of theatres, and it's interesting how this has culminated in a mult-cultural, multi-ethnic form of theatre based on myth, folklore and legend. As Andra states it, "I've been drawn to theatre from a very young age -- in part because it's the one field that unifies my curiosity about everything from history to anthropology to design to psychology -- and my love for building things."

Andra was born in New York City. Her father was a radiation biophysicist -- part of the Manhattan Project. But for most of her childhood she lived in Lawrence, KS, where her father taught at the University of Kansas following the end of World War II.

Her parents began taking her to theatre at a very young age. As a child, she played King Midas in a summer children's theatre program, staged several "productions" scripted from POGO comic strips for her local Girl Scout troup, and played Jo in LITTLE WOMEN in junior high school. In high school she continued acting and discovered costuming.

Andra attended the University of Kansas, did a bit more acting and her first directing (for a local church), and graduated with a B.A. in English and German.

She then moved to Independence, MO, Hilo, HI, and Jacksonville, AL -- continuing acting and costuming -- and then got a job teaching English, German, Speech and Drama at an "all-black" high school in Anniston, AL.

During the early '70's, she says, "I was pretty much a gypsy -- spent one summer on the West Side of Chicago -- graduated from the Academy of the Ecumenical Institute -- then Atlanta, Charlotte, Hampton (VA), Charlotte again -- five years, three cities, four theatres -- nine or ten addresses. Then I decided I'd better learn something about what I was doing."

She next attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writing her M.A. thesis on Primitive Drama. This was followed by two jobs for the NC Arts Council, directing and designing for three community theatres, with a year out to travel and camp throughout the U.S. and some of Canada.

In 1981 she completed an M.F.A. in Directing from UC Irvine, where she met and worked with Steve Dirk (who grew up in Pacific Grove). After graduation, she moved to New York for a year, where she designed and directed a couple of way-off-Broadway shows -- before being lured from the "wilds of the upper East Side" to teach theatre as part of Eckerd College's two-and-a-half-person theatre depart-ment in St. Petersburg, FL.

From that base, she traveled to the British Isles several times, Hun-gary once, and almost made it to Shanghai to study Chinese drama -- the summer of Tiananmen Square -- "we wound up in Hong Kong when they couldn't raise the Shanghai tower... it was early on June 5, 1989."

In the meantime, she had married Steve. "When I got off the plane, flying back from Hungary, Steve was waiting for me at the gate -- he had decided to drive to Florida to say 'hi' to his buddy from Irvine... and one thing sort of led to another..."

Despite her having been tenured and promoted at Eckerd, in 1992 Andra and Steve moved to the Monterey Peninsula -- to start Third Studio. They chose the area for several reasons -- the multi-ethnicity of the area, plus the presence of DLI and MIIS, and the active theatre community. Steve came out first, and when Andra arrived she found that both she and Steve were cast in UNDER MILK WOOD for Unicorn Theatre.

The theatre that she and Steve founded and call Third Studio is based in material from myth, legend and folklore from sources all over the world, in varied styles -- sometimes pure storytelling, sometimes story-theatre, sometimes fully-scripted, full-length plays. The stories come from very different cultures, but all emphasize our underlying commonality as human beings. It's a touring theatre company, performing in various venues including churches, schools, senior residences, and public libraries.

One place they've taken most of their productions is Soledad Prison. As Andra describes it, "Going into Soledad -- for me -- is probably the biggest high. The inmates are some of our very best audiences in terms of paying attention, getting all the funny bits, and enthusiastic response. We've gotten a standing ovation every time."

In the past couple of years they've added Juvenile Hall and the Youth Probation Center to their tour. In fact, this year, as Andra puts it "it just happened that we did four performances in a row 'inside' -- and one of the actors commented 'Third Studio -- now playing at a prison near you!'"

"But what really tickles me," Andra adds "is that our performances touch people from all kinds of places. We have a 'groupie' who drives down from Santa Cruz to every production -- and we have a standing invitation from Forest Hill Manor in PG -- and from the library in Greenfield."

Andra explains that one of the purposes for touring is to perform for people who rarely -- or never -- have experienced live theatre. She gives an example: "We did PEACE TALES at Harden Middle School this past spring, and the teacher sent us the essays the students wrote after the performance. My favorite quote from all of these is 'I was really shocked that I liked it, cuz I don't like plays'."