Author and director Ken Luber says he discovered theater during his freshman year at Ripon college in Wisconsin. In his first sketch for a theater class he found “I like being on stage.” As a sophomore he began to be cast in plays, and from then on it was one after another. Writing also captured his imagination, “I was editor of the school literary magazine. My college career was theater, writing, and ROTC, they thought I was a total nerd.”
During summers he took part in the tradition of Summer Stock Theater at a resort in Bemidgi, Minnesota. He became part of a regular company, directed by the head of the Theater Department at the University of Michigan. “That was exciting. During the day I had to work as a busboy and waiter.” This also was great preparation for an actor’s life.
Ken worked his way through grad school, doing the kind of jobs that gave him experience with people, things like selling “Great Books of the Western World,” or Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door. The salesman and the actor have a lot in common, and he met his share of con men along the way. “A lot of these guys are flim-flam men, they had to be fun, or people wouldn’t let them in the door. I had the experience of it. You don’t get to be a con man unless you have a personality.”
Luber became a spiritual seeker, spending time at New York’s Theosophical Society, reading books by Krishnamurti. This led to a journey around the world in an attempt to meet the author. He hitchhiked from Turkey to India, but Krishnamurthi, it turned out, was not in India, having moved to Ojai. California. But along the way Luber met interesting and wonderful people… and con men. He found again that even con men can be friends and brothers in adversity.
Back in America, chance encounters lead to ghost writing, stand up comedy, and more live theater. A friend of a girlfriend showed a play he was working on to a “bigwig” at the then-new American Film Institute, and he was invited to join the first 15 students at the AFI. This class included directors Paul Schrader, Terry Mallick and David Lynch. “They had all come from film school or programs. I had never done any of this.”
His first major production was writing and directing Howzer, which follows two midwestern runaways who come to Los Angeles. “Warner Brothers picked it up, distributed it mostly in Europe. It almost paid for itself.” The film was eventually honored at the Whitney Museum as part of their New American Directors series
He directed television, wrote for shows like Knott’s Landing and Family. He still has screenplays falling in and out of options, is still writing, still has an agent. Luber and wife Kathy fell in love with Idyllwild, and moved here. He missed the constant contact with people who can make projects happen, and finally took the steps to make them happen here.
Luber directed two Neil Simon plays at the Hemet Courtyard Theater, at the Ramona Bowl. He mounted his first Idyllwild production, Heaven on the Loose, in 2019, just before the pandemic. It sold out all its performances. He won him the Inland Empire Outstanding Director Award for his work here.
He thought of finding a producer for his next play in New York or LA, but in the end thought to bring it to life here. “I decided to do it. Make it happen. It worked for Heaven on the Loose, I thought, ‘the magic is still here.’” Now he is premiering Sisters In Love this weekend, August 22, 23 and 24 at Town Hall.
The play follows two sisters and their significant others through a dizzying sequence of revelations that unwind the appearances that contain their lives. The con men Luber has met along the way, and the understanding they gave him of the ease with which appearances can be manipulated, come to life in a character who not only is not what he seems, but shows that other characters have secrets as well.
Luber finds that those who deceive others “are often very nice. But they are hollow, they have lost something deep, a connection with themselves.” Those who come in contact with them are in danger. “You don’t realize the game they are playing.”
The two sisters in the tale are as different as siblings often are: one is all ambition, the other more supportive. “The older sister wanted to be an artist, she teaches now, her relationships to people are more grounded. More fundamental. Having a child nine years old grounds you. The younger sister, you see, is a climber. Law school, law firm, working for a senator. Her relationships are more transactional, not as deep. They follow things that are important, but not as deep as seeing your kid sick and trying to help them, or coming home from school saying ‘I was bullied,’ or asking ‘how do you do multiplication?’”
The cast includes two Idyllwild part-timers: Actors Workshop alumni Sammy Busby, and actor and comedian Goldie Hoffman, both with long resumes. The other actors are Diana Suko, a bicoastal actor, producer and director, and Willie Farrad Mullins, an actor, singer and dancer based in Palm Springs.
Sisters In Love, written and directed by Ken Luber, co-directed by Kim Negrete, Friday, August 22 at 7 p.m., Saturday August 23 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday August 24, at 1 p.m. Town Hall, 25925 Cedar St. Tickets at www.sistersinlove.ludus.com
More at kenluber.com
We have an interview with Ken Luber also: Click here
