The revolutionary Scrooge role that Manfred Hofer landed in Theatre Palisades’ ‘Inspecting Carol,’ now on stage at the Pierson Playhouse, proved to be providential casting. In the comedy by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Company, which captures the unique oddness of a theater ‘family,’ Hofer relishes the part of the alternative curmudgeon in the classic Dickens’ tale. ”Emerging in a top hat, waistcoat, sans breeches, Hofer’s Scrooge whom we are told once spoke the entire role in Spanish as a protest over the U.S. involvement in South America, resembles an existential Cat in the Hat, spewing Marxist ideals. ”Tall and slender, narrow face, goatee and long hair, with his skinny legs popping out of his undershorts, Hofer’s Scrooge is farcical. An impish troublemaker with intelligence, he is always welcome in any scene. ”A native Palisadian, Hofer, attended drama workshops at Santa Monica College in the late 1980s, but says for the most part he learns from every show he does. Two years ago, he studied with actor/director Stephen Schilling in a master class at Theatre Palisades. ”Hofer has appeared in a string of Theatre Palisades productions, including most recently ‘The Best Man,’ and has appeared in the Morgan-Wixson Theatre productions of ‘Macbeth’ and most recently in ‘Sue’o.’ ”At times he has been guilty of overacting, perhaps in his eagerness to imbue every role with his remarkable focus and energy. This time, in ‘Inspecting Carol,’ he has found a role rich and broad enough to match his own willingness to invest it with spontaneity and intelligence. ”The play is about a theater company putting on Dickens’ Christmas classic and follows their riotous attempts to match their production with what they perceive the National Endowment for the Arts would deem worthy of subsidy. Because it’s a comedy, you can only imagine what pratfalls this disharmonious, but lovable troupe are capable of, which leaves the actors, under the steady but wise hand of director Sherman Wayne, plenty of leeway. ”In the second act, Hofer reverts back to reciting a portion of a monologue in Spanish, which sounds quite good to this reviewer’s ear. Each night that Hofer recited the lines, and reviewed that evening’s performance, he thought more and more of turning them into a cry for revolution, a la Che Guevara. ‘After each performance I try to think of how I could do things differently, better,’ Hofer says. ‘So I suggested the change to Sherman, and he agreed and said go for it. It allowed me to express the passion of the character and turn up the comedic response.’ ”Hofer has been involved with Theatre Palisades for many years, and as a graphic designer he has contributed his talents toward designing the posters for over 50 T/P productions. ”He is also a musician, and plays guitar with the punk/blues band The Leaving Trains. His day job finds him in the graphics department at the Palisadian-Post. ”’Inspecting Carol’ continues at the Pierson Playhouse through Sunday, December 5. For tickets, call 454-1970.

Although she owns more than 200 cookbooks, when it comes to cooking pies, two-time Village Fair blue-ribbon pie contest winner Jan Scalia devises her own recipes. ”In October, Scalia won the Village Fair pecan pie contest. Since she placed first in the apple pie category the year before and third in 2001 in the same category, Scalia says she didn’t expect to win again. ”’I cried,’ says Scalia, whose three ribbons appropriately adorn her refrigerator. ‘I was so shocked.’ ”A Palisadian since 1987, Scalia lives in a guest house in the Marquez Knolls area, where she cooks her delectable pies in a table-top convection oven. ‘I’ve learned how to get everything ready in a small area. If I had a big kitchen, it wouldn’t be quite as hard, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be quite as much fun.’ ”When asked what separated Scalia’s pecan pie from the other entries, Arnie Wishnick, executive director of the Palisades Chamber of Commerce and 2004 pie judge, replied, ‘It’s the crust and [the filling’s] not too gooey.’ ”Soon after Scalia was awarded her second blue ribbon, she proclaimed her Village Fair pie contest days were over. ‘Why would you want to quit after winning first place?’ a friend asked. Scalia replied: ‘Here in the Palisades, it’s like a community. It’s not the Pillsbury bake-off. I feel like I have my blue ribbon and now it’s someone else’s chance to win.’ ”Scalia uses a bourbon cream sauce atop her southern pecan pie, so it’s not ‘just your everyday, run-of-the-mill pecan pie.’ She also toasts the pecans ‘to bring out their flavor.’ ”For her apple pie, Scalia uses Granny Smith apples exclusively because they retain their shape and have a varying combination of tartness and sweetness. ‘I will often sample an apple to see how it tastes and if it’s too tart, then I’ll add a little more sugar. I’m constantly monitoring ingredients and making modifications.’ ”Scalia says a pie’s crust is the most important element ‘because it kind of cuts and complements the taste of the pie’s fruit.’ She uses the same crust recipe for each type of pie she makes. Her crust-making secrets include using Dasani water and putting ice cubes in all liquid ingredients. ”Born in Rome, Italy, and raised in Monroe, Louisiana, the adopted Scalia grew fond of the Palisades after visiting her aunt and uncle’s home when she was 16. After earning a B.S. in nursing (with a clinical specialty in maternal child medicine) from Northeast Louisiana University, she returned to Los Angeles in 1980 to work at St. John’s Hospital, until health complications forced her to bow out. ”’Cooking is a lot like nursing,’ Scalia says. ‘You’re really giving a part of yourself to what you’re doing.’ ”Although Scalia believes that much of her cooking aptitude is innate, she also credits her culinary skills to her mother. ‘My mom held me off cooking until I was 12 years old,’ says Scalia, who has two younger brothers. ‘All she let me do was salads until I begged her to let me use fire.’ ”In addition to being a talented cook, Scalia is also a gifted singer. In 2001, she was selected to sing the national anthem at the Fourth of July fireworks show after Palisades Americanism Parade Association (PAPA) judges deemed her a cappella rendition the best out of other recordings submitted. ”Although pies are her specialty, Scalia, who enjoys watching the Food Channel, can cook ‘anything Italian’ and hopes to master Asian cuisine next. She’s also entertaining the possibility of opening a small catering service. ”Contact: 454-7581.

by JACK KUHLENSCHMIDT Special to the Palisadian-Post You never knew what Merlin was like’before Arthur’before the glory. T.A. Barron has solved that dilemma. That is what we learned when T.A. Barron, the renowned children’s fantasy author, came to visit the fourth through eighth grade students at St. Matthew’s Parish School on November 9. He also told us the thrill of being published and the push you get to become better when you get that dreaded rejection letter. ”Mr. Barron says that he has always loved writing, but not always made a career of it. When he was leading a successful managing career, he left that job just so he could write children’s books. He did this was because he felt a pull towards writing, since it was what made him truly happy. ”As well as being a successful author, he also likes to hike and spend time with his wife and five kids. As Barron says: ‘The world around us is full of wonder, mystery, and surprise. It is ours to protect’and also to explore.’ ”When he visited our school, I thought it was interesting that he had a theme for his speech. His theme was that you can go anywhere when you read books’down to the sea (referring to one of the books in his ‘Adventures of Kate Trilogy’), or back to Merlin’s time. T.A. Barron has proved that you can do this with his books. In T.A. Barron’s books, he always has a young hero who has to find something inside his heart. For example, in ‘The Lost Years of Merlin’ series, the famous to-be wizard has to find pieces of what he lost when he washed up on the shores of the magical isle of Fincayra. In one book he finds his name, in another his mother, in another he meets his father, and many other pieces of the life he once had but forgot. ”All of those events take place in the five-part series when Merlin was anything but the famous wizard he is known as. Students in the St. Matthew’s audience wanted to know why they had never heard anything about Merlin’s childhood until these books came out a couple of years ago? Mr. Barron says that when he was writing another book, he had to research Merlin and couldn’t find anything on his youth. So, Mr. Barron simply created Merlin’s childhood, one page at a time, for his book ‘The Merlin Effect.’ ”Mr. Barron also shared about his most recent work, part of a new trilogy, ‘The Great Tree of Avalon.’ If you have any interest at all I encourage you to go out and pick up one of T.A. Barron’s books. You might find something inside of yourself that no one else can see. ”(Editor’s Note: Jack Kuhlenschmidt, 12, is a seventh grade student at St. Matthew’s Parish School who has read T.A. Barron’s five-book Merlin Series.)

For a man who describes himself as very shy, Don Bachardy nonetheless engages almost daily in an act of extreme intimacy, often with strangers. These silent encounters, always held in daylight, last many hours and involve no physical contact. Bachardy is a portrait artist, and his work depends entirely on the presence of live models. Each work is completed in a single sitting, with the departure of the model registering with Bachardy as “the breaking of a spell.” Bachardy’s all-consuming focus produces paintings charged with great immediacy and intensity. These works go far beyond reproducing mere likenesses, probing deeply and unflinchingly into the interior world of each sitter. Sessions, lasting from two to as long as nine hours, require the sitter to remain absolutely still while maintaining eye contact with Bachardy throughout. “It gives me direct access to their energy,” the artist told the Palisadian-Post during a recent interview in his Santa Monica Canyon home and studio. “In fact, their energy helps me do the picture.” Virtually every day for the past 45 years, Bachardy, exceptionally fit and energetic at 70, has immersed himself in portraiture, a niche he’s occupied throughout his artistic career. “I’ve never found anything as varied or challenging as working with another person,” says Bachardy, who adds that he’s done enough landscapes and still lifes to know they don’t excite him nearly as much. An exhibition of Bachardy’s portraits entitled “Celebrities, Friends and Strangers,” largely composed of recent work, is currently on view at the Huntington Library in San Marino. As the show’s name suggests, Bachardy’s sitters fit every classification, but the celebrity list runs the gamut of “Who’s Who” in Los Angeles, past and present. A past-her-prime Bette Davis famously quipped “Yep, that’s the old bag” upon viewing Bachardy’s 1973 portrait of her. Governor Jerry Brown shunned convention by commissioning Bachardy to do his official portrait, which now hangs in the California State Capitol Building. Sir Laurence Olivier turned down a request by David Hockney for a sitting, making the session he agreed to with Bachardy a charmed and nervous-making occasion. Hitchcock agreed to a sitting, then died before it could happen. Bachardy faithfully keeps a journal, including detailed accounts of sittings with celebrities. These entries are reproduced in “Stars in My Eyes” (2000), a book that shows off Bachardy’s talent as a no-holds-barred raconteur in addition to being a superb draftsman. Entree into the world of the famous–especially prominent artists and literary figures–came about when the 18-year-old Bachardy met Christopher Isherwood, the celebrated expatriate British author who was 30 years his senior. The two became lifelong partners, living together on Adelaide in Santa Monica Canyon until Isherwood’s death in 1986. The young Bachardy was introduced to Isherwood’s friends, people like Aldous Huxley, Dorothy Parker, W. H. Auden, Ana’s Nin and Francis Bacon, many of whom later sat for portraits. Isherwood was Bachardy’s first live model, a happening that inspired the young artist to formally pursue studying art at Chouinard in his 20s. In fact, Isherwood became Bachardy’s most frequent subject over the next 33 years, with hundreds of drawings and paintings produced. On the day Isherwood died, Bachardy spontaneously decided to spend the day drawing his corpse. “He was both my first life subject and first death subject,” Bachardy recalls in “Stars in My Eyes.” “He always took such an interest in the work I was doing,” Bachardy says. “That kind of encouragement is golden.” Bachardy credits his artistic awakening, largely driven by Isherwood, already a well-established writer, as the saving grace of their relationship. “We both knew staying together depended upon my making something of myself.” The seeds of Bachardy’s talent were planted during childhood in Los Angeles when, mesmerized by the giant images of actors he saw on movie screens, he began to draw these same faces by copying photographs he saw in magazines. Later, he dreamed of becoming an actor, but recognized how the profession “would have cost him dearly” due to his inherent shyness and the chancy nature of the business. “I realize my fundamental craving to be an actor is in what I do,” says Bachardy in his characteristically gentle, well-spoken manner. “My work is really a form of impersonation. I have an instinctive ability to identify with my sitter, which comes from those early years of moviegoing when I identified with the actors on screen. My portraits are really self-portraits in costume.” Bachardy’s earliest works were pencil and ink washes. He switched to strictly ink drawings in the late ’70s, eventually moving on to color using acrylic paint on paper by the mid-1980s. “He has pulled out all the stops on what this medium can do,” says David Koslow, the artist’s agent, referring to the remarkable, almost watercolor-like effect Bachardy achieves with acrylic paint. Lately, the artist has experimented with using a colored ground as the backdrop for his portraits. Koslow casts Bachardy’s art as psychological portraiture. “Like John Singer Sargent’s great work, Don catches the sense of the private person behind the public mask.” Subjects often remark to Bachardy “I look so sad” when seeing their portrait. “People are accustomed to smiling for photographs,” Bachardy explains. “Something fascinating happens visually when a sitter becomes tired and loses that public face.” Koslow sees that quality of Bachardy’s work–an overriding mood of reflection and melancholy–as symbolic of “a generation of Americans consumed by worry and grief.” When forced to choose one feature, it is the mouth Bachardy finds most revealing and open to artistic interpretation. “The soul resides in the eye, but the mouth gives access to personality and character,” says the artist, who resists overanalyzing a process he considers overwhelmingly intuitive. “One of the strongest aspects of Don’s painting is that he is completely ‘in the moment,’ says longtime friend and fellow artist Karla Klarin. “Don’s work is clear and beautiful and one can see his journey in each painting.” “Celebrities, Friends and Strangers: Portraits by Don Bachardy” continues at the Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino through February 6, 2005. The artist will conduct tours of the exhibition on January 13 and 20. Contact: (626) 405-2146.