HARVEST TIME FOR ALFRED MOLINA.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

A FEW EVENTFUL years have passed since Alfred Molina first had a go at Ermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin, the upstart peasant-turned-landowner of Anton Chekhov's ``The Cherry Orchard.'' But neither the passage of time nor several high points have dimmed Molina's fire to play the classics and to get an annual theater fix.

The 52-year-old London-born actor - a longtime Los Angeles resident and an associate artist with Circus Theatricals - tries to fit in a live stage gig at least once a year. So when director Sean Mathias tapped Molina to play opposite Annette Bening in the Mark Taper Forum's revival of Chekhov's classic, Molina was more than willing to plunge back into the Orchard. The production - with tickets difficult to come by - is on stage through March 19.

Great role, great play, great company. What's to ponder? says Molina, who played the same role in a CT production in 2002.

``I've always thought the chance to revisit a great role shouldn't be sniffed at or overlooked,'' said Molina, dressed casually and sporting a gray-streaked beard a few days before ``Orchard's'' opening. ``When they asked me if I was interested, I said yes immediately. Amy Lieberman, the casting director, said I actually said yes before she got back to her office. I was pleased to hear that.''

The part has resonance. Looked down upon by the Ranevskaya family - upon whose estate Lopakhin's father worked - the younger Lopakhin desperately seeks to prove his new self-made worth as the Ranevskaya fortunes are flagging.

In 2002, Molina had proposed the play to Circus Theatricals artistic director Jack Stehlin as a vehicle for himself and his wife, actress Jill Gascoine, who played Madame Ranevskaya (Bening's role at the Taper) in the CT production at the Odyssey Theatre.

Molina could relate to Lopakhin then, and he still can now.

``My father was a waiter, my mother cleaned hotel rooms, and I became an actor,'' says Molina. ``I transcended a certain expectation of my parents and my family. I was very conscious as I was going through my teens of this sort of tension - that they were proud of me, but at the same time they were kind of a little wary. I was proud of myself but, at the same time, feeling rather ambivalent.

``For people who have the experience of being sons of immigrants, it all talks to the same issues, the same kinds of contradictions and paradoxes they experience, and this character absolutely embodies that in the most eloquent way I think I've ever experienced,'' he continues. ``There are moments in the character's life that I've seen my parents go through.''

According to director Mathias, once Bening was secured to play Ranevskaya, Center Theatre Group's casting department drew up a list of 20 names of potential Lopakhins, all of whom were available. Mathias went for Molina, unaware that the actor had played the role before.

``For those two central roles, she has to be an aristocrat, and he has to be a peasant,'' Mathias explains. ``Fred's a slow burn. He doesn't rush headlong into anything. He takes his time, he works slowly and finds his footing.''

The cerebral, contemplative Molina is very much on display, whether the topic turns to Chekhov, an actor's training, or the state of live theater in a movie town (``What we have here in L.A. is a problem with theater going,'' he says). Molina himself regularly attends live theater and also quietly teaches a workshop in Shakespeare through CT on Saturday mornings and Monday evenings.

Working with younger actors gives Molina a charge as well as the chance to carry on what he considers to be an important tradition. He trained at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he once - pinch hitting for the regular instructor - helped fellow Guildhall alum Joseph Fiennes polish an audition piece.

``I have a slightly romantic attachment to teaching,'' he says. ``I do believe in the tradition of actors getting older and more experienced and passing it on and maintaining those traditions of stagecraft, solid professionalism and the notion of work. But it's not out of a sense of duty. I really enjoy it, particularly in a town where theater craft isn't always held in such high esteem.''

Shoehorning in his own theater projects takes some creative calendar work these days. Molina returned to L.A. in early 2005, after a year of playing beleaguered dairyman Tevye in a Broadway revival of ``Fiddler on the Roof,'' only to line up four movies back to back. This for an actor who - even after playing Diego Rivera in ``Frida'' and the villainous Doc Ock in ``Spider-Man 2'' - was convinced a year spent on Broadway might mean there would be no film career to come back to.

The phones did indeed ring. In 2006, Molina will be seen as the wise jester, Touchstone, in a film version of Shakespeare's ``As You Like It,'' directed by Kenneth Branagh (opposite Bryce Dallas Howard and Kevin Kline). He also appears in ``The Moon and the Stars,'' director John Irvin's film about an international company shooting a movie in prewar Italy, and in Lasse Halstrom's ``The Hoax,'' about Clifford Irving's attempt to publish a bogus biography of Howard Hughes.

Two days after ``Cherry Orchard'' closes, Molina flies to Rome to film the dark love story ``Silk'' for Francois Girard. Oh, and he has a rather prominent role as Bishop Aringarosa in a little movie that figures to be universally ignored: the adaptation of Dan Brown's ``The Da Vinci Code,'' due out in May.

``I'm sure there are people trying to steal clips and bits, and it all seems to feed into the machine that will mean everyone will see this movie,'' Molina says of ``Da Vinci.'' ``That's already there. There was a certain secrecy surrounding (production), and I'm sure most of it was absolutely necessary, but I'm sure there's also a level at which it's kind of good for business.''

There is another play in Molina's future, but not until 2007, when he will star in the American premiere of Patrick Marber's play ``Howard Katz'' at the Roundabout Theatre in New York. Molina had been scheduled to perform an earlier production at the Roundabout, but was forced to drop out when a film schedule changed its shooting dates.

Approached for ``Katz'' at the end of 2004, Molina said he couldn't do the role until more than two years later but was delighted that artistic director Todd Haimes was willing to wait.

``I felt very guilty because I did let them down,'' Molina says. ``I think after a few months of being angry, I think Todd forgave me. So it all worked.

``There is honor among thieves,'' he adds with a rich laugh.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: Opens today. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through March 19.

Tickets: $42 to $55. Call [phone].

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Photo:

(color) Alfred Molina's commitment to the stage in Los Angeles goes beyond appearing in ``The Cherry Orchard.'' He also teaches aspiring actors and often attends live theater.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer