COUPLE SPREADS THE MAGIC OF CLASSIC THEATER.

Byline: VICTORIA GIRAUD

Bill and Debbye Hillstrom of Thousand Oaks are passionate about theater and being involved with children. They realize this passion by making classical plays available to children and adults through their Tour de Force production company which mounts a yearly play at the Forum Theatre at the Civic Arts Plaza.

``Other people have boats. This is what we do,'' Bill declared enthusiastically.

Last year, the Hillstroms staged a Shakespeare play, ``Romeo and Juliet,'' with a 45-member cast. This year, they've chosen ``The Importance of Being Earnest,'' by Oscar Wilde, which opened this weekend and continues next weekend.

Next weekend's schedule is Friday at 8; and Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.

``Our purpose is to make available to students - high school and junior high - classic shows they normally don't get to see done well,'' Bill explained.

It's one thing to read Shakespeare, for instance, but to see it makes it come to life, Debbye added.

Both being history buffs, they enjoy costume dramas. The 19th century Wilde play is ``an educated person's comedy,'' Bill commented. What's even more special, Debbye points out, is that most of the rented costumes were used in Martin Scorsese's film, ``The Age of Innocence,'' worn by such luminaries as Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder.

To make the play even more accessible to students, there's a master class between the matinee and evening show so that students can stay and talk to the actors. ``It brings the play closer to home for them,'' Debbye explained.

They have also brought scenes of classical plays right to the schools. They put on ``Romeo and Juliet'' as a fund-raiser for Aspen Elementary School. Another time, they took scenes from ``Taming of the Shrew,'' to Westlake High School and talked about Shakespeare's era.

Acting as co-producers for their plays, the couple splits the work. Debbye is usually in charge of props, furniture and set designs and Bill handles the money and ticket sales. Bill, an attorney and CPA, thinks they break even on their shows, but avoiding any discouraging news, he really doesn't want to know for sure.

Debbye, who was a CPA herself for 10 years, but has now retired to raise 8-year-old Emilee, 22-month-old Victoria and 4-month-old Annabel, says their home becomes a headquarters for the production. Costumes hang on racks in their living room and the driveway has become a place to build and paint sets.

``Producing comes naturally to accountants,'' Debbye observed. ``They think you're organizers and can produce.''

Debbye, a fourth generation Texan, whom Bill met while taking a computer class with her, plays the violin and has been a part of the pit orchestra for many local productions at Conejo Players, Cabrillo Music Theatre and Young Artists Ensemble. It wasn't until she married Bill a few years ago and moved to California that she ``got sucked into'' doing theater.

Bill, who had acted in both high school and college, let his theater interest drop in favor of his profession until he got his tonsils out in 1989. His doctor's receptionist told him about auditions for ``Hello Dolly'' being held at Moorpark College, and encouraged him to try.

``If I hadn't gotten the lead (Horace Vandergelder), I would probably not done all this sort of stuff,'' Bill reflected.

Since then he's acted in lots of local productions and produced more. Bill's not going to act in the current production. He'll be out in the audience with his wife. ``She's always wanted me next to her once.''

The theater bug has bitten the children, especially Emilee. When her mother was playing violin for Stephen Sondheim's ``Into the Woods'' and Emilee was there for rehearsals, she learned all the dialogue and all the songs. When Tour de Force produced ``Godspell'' in Camarillo, Emilee made up her mind - ``When I get grown up, I'm going to direct `Godspell,' '' she declared.

Bill and Debbye hope their theater company has a long life span. ``I would like very much for this theater company to keep going. It would be nice to have it last as long as Conejo Players and have somebody else as excited about passing the love on to the next generation,'' Bill reflected. After all, he added, the Tour de Force motto is ``Passing the magic on.''

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Photo

Photo: Bill and Debbye Hillstrom share duties producing Tour de Force theater productions, while keeping up at home with Torrey, left, and Annabel.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News