‘Killer Angels’ brings Civil War up close to Southern California

The Civil War barely affected California, which had been a state for just a handful of years and was separated from the conflict’s many battlefields by thousands of miles.

That means any live Civil War re-creation here brings to life a major historical event that’s a routine part of tourism and local lore for dozens of states to our east but is, for us, out of the ordinary.

So Maverick Theater’s upcoming staging of “The Killer Angels: Soldiers of Gettysburg” will literally bring the Civil War right to Orange County, many of whose residents have only read about the war or seen it depicted in TV and cinematic movies or documentaries but not visited its battlefields firsthand.

In fact, creating a new live stage version of one of the war’s crucial battles was first and foremost in the mind of Brian Newell, the Fullerton theater’s founder, when he visited Gettysburg National Military Park last summer during a vacation with his family.

A park ranger giving a tour of the location of the Battle of Little Round Top cited “The Killer Angels,” a 1974 historical novel by Michael Shaara that won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The ranger’s description of the novel intrigued Newell – notably, how it created a hero out of Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a college professor from Maine who for three days in July 1863 commanded 380 Union soldiers at Little Round Top and held off a seemingly overwhelming force of nearly 2,000 Confederate soldiers.

Newell stopped by the gift shop in the park’s museum and visitor center and purchased the novel, which he began reading each night throughout his vacation. Drawn from diaries, journals, letters and memoirs, Shaara’s book, Newell said, “provides great insight” into the Battle of Gettysburg – “not only what was happening on the battlefield, but also what those who fought it were thinking, seeing and feeling and why they joined the conflict.”

Newell said the book’s story and characters “felt just like one of Shakespeare’s historical plays,” and before he finished reading it, he “knew it could be a great play.”

The producer, director and designer’s next step was to obtain the rights to adapt the novel for the stage. Newell learned that the book’s rights passed to Shaara’s son Jeff following the author’s death in 1988, so he wrote a letter asking permission.

Newell says that upon receiving his letter, Jeff Shaara phoned him to say he found the idea of a live play intriguing. Newell said he had only to outline his vision and concepts for creating a dramatic historical play from the novel for the adaptation rights to be granted.

To adapt the novel, Newell said he “went through all 336 pages and pulled all of the dialogue that Shaara had written. I then began to rearrange the dialogue into scenes. What remained is about 85 percent of what’s in the novel.”

“I was afraid if I mentioned all of the officers, the audience would be overwhelmed, so I focused only on the lead characters and their aides,” Newell said, noting that he wound up with 25 roles. Even with his omissions, he said he was able to retain “every part of what I had originally envisioned in the play.”

In describing the novel – the quintessential account of one of the war’s most crucial battles and the source of the epic 1993 theatrical film “Gettysburg” – Newell echoes others who have read it, calling it “powerful” and “a masterpiece” through which “audiences become an eyewitness to history.”

His goal in staging “The Killer Angels” is “to bring the novel to life with performers in an intimate staging that focuses on the character-driven story” – a tale told from the perspective of “various protagonists” such as Chamberlain and generals James Longstreet, John Buford, Lewis Armistead, George Pickett and Robert E. Lee.

Since he founded Maverick Theater 15 years ago, Newell has adapted many movies or novels for the stage, including “The Manchurian Candidate” and cult classics such as “Night of the Living Dead” and “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”

Newell’s new stage version gets its world premiere on Friday, May 5, with a total of 20 performances through June 24. After spending eight months creating the script, Newell is also directing it, having cast 13 actors to fill the play’s 25 roles. He’s also principal designer of the sets, costumes, lighting and sound effects.

Paying particular attention to the show’s costumes, Newell worked closely with a company in Idaho “that produces authentic uniforms especially for use by Civil War re-enactors” so that “my guys will look like they just came off the battlefield.”

“Fully aware” that some of his prospective audience members will be Civil War enthusiasts whose knowledge of the war may eclipse his own, while others may be unfamiliar with this pivotal chapter in American history, Newell said Maverick’s newest original play “will be highly enjoyable for both.”

‘The Killer Angels: Soldiers of Gettysburg’

When: Friday, May 5 through June 24. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays starting May 14
Where: Maverick Theater, 110 E. Walnut Avenue, Fullerton
Tickets: $25 ($10 students with current I.D.)
Suitability: All ages
Information: 714-526-7070, mavericktheater.com