DRAMA ABSORBS GROUP'S DIRECTOR : LIFE IS STAGE FOR BOYDSTON.

Byline: Victoria Giraud Special to the Daily News

Canyon Theatre Guild director and actor Tim Ben Boydston believes in the magic of theater.

``The object is to create magic, to allow the person to be entertained and learn something about life. I want to bring them into that world,'' Tim said of the audience.

Tim has worked with the Canyon Theatre Guild for 10 years, directing a variety of plays for the past eight years. Among the plays he has directed are ``Fiddler on the Roof,'' ``Little Shop of Horrors,'' ``Social Security'' and ``All My Sons.'' Each play carries its own challenges.

``It was an incredible challenge to rehearse `Fiddler' off-site and then take it to Valencia the week before it opened,'' Tim remembered.

There were 47 people in the cast and he had to avoid a crowded look on stage. He also had to figure out where to put the musicians since there is no orchestra pit at Valencia High School. The musicians were strung out behind a scrim in the back of the stage, and the conductor watched them on a video monitor.

``Working in theater is most interesting,'' Tim observed.

In the Canyon Theatre Guild, the cast is likely to range from performers in their first production to actors with 25 years of experience.

``It's challenging to bring the two levels together to have an even product,'' he said.

He is likely to feature the experienced actors in focused, sharp scenes, and novices are usually cast in smaller parts, but there may be variations.

Directing Arthur Miller's ``All My Sons,'' Tim wanted the actors playing a married couple to build an imaginary past they had shared. Miller's plays are about ``real people and always have a message that's clear as day,'' he said.

Tim created an improvisational situation in which his actors gained feeling for their characters' relationship.

``I want them to believe in an actual relationship. I want them to know specific things,'' he said about actors in a realistic play.

``You build a play, look for things that are really important: signposts. That's what keeps an audience interested, the reality-interplay between people,'' Tim explained. He feels this is his strong suit in directing.

In contrast, a slice-of-life comedy like ``Social Security'' demands a cast of people who are characters. ``You have to understand what makes a play funny,'' and for this play Tim worked on his actors' comic timing - building up to the joke and then delivering it.

Theater is not only Tim's avocation. He also plans to make it his vocation. He is working toward a master's degree at Cal State Northridge and wants to teach theater at the community-college level. Meanwhile, he also works as a substitute teacher at detention camps for boys 13 to 18.

``Understanding consists of discipline done in a caring manner. I feel I'm making a contribution,'' Tim observed.

He said the boys show respect for a fair set of rules, although their previous lives usually held no discipline, as distinguished from random harshness.

Tim sees the camps as an opportunity, however limited, to change lives of some of the boys. Many have had ``horrible lives'' in broken, abusive families and are getting ``a last chance outside of their environment,'' he said.

``But there's not a high success rate,'' he said, adding that he thinks youngsters should be able to stay in the camps longer for a ``full chance for a teacher to influence them.''

Nothing is more exciting, Tim said, than seeing a child learn something, such as his multiplication tables, obviously feel wonderful about it and then get ``off and running - zooming - in a learning curve.''

Tim's theater life has been a full one so far, including set design and acting. He has won numerous Goldie Awards from the Guild for this contributions. Theater even provided him a wife, Ingrid, last year's Goldie award-winning director. While acting in ``The Nerd,'' he met and fell in love with her, and they've been married four years.

Admissions to guild plays in past years have totaled 20,000, and Tim would like to see the group relocate to a larger, permanent theater in Newhall. He'd also like to direct ambitious musicals such as ``Man of La Mancha,'' ``Les Miserables'' and ``South Pacific.''

``The bigger the better,'' Tim said. ``It would be great fun.''

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PHOTO (color) Canyon Theatre Guild stalwart Tim Ben Boydston gained experience acting and designing sets before focusing on directing. He also plans to teach theater in college.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News