SIMI ACTOR POWERS UP THE FOOTLIGHTS WITH REP COMPANY.

Byline: Victoria Giraud People and Places

Acting holds a prominent place in Lane Davies' heart.

``It helps center me. If I go a long time without a show, I'm not much fun to be around,'' Lane reflected. ``I need catharsis.''

He's performed in a variety of mediums from stage and screen to television, but is perhaps best known for his many television roles, most recently a recurring part on ``Lois & Clark,'' as Superman's nemesis, Tempus, the psychopathic time-traveler. Lane's been a guest star on everything from ``Seinfeld'' and ``Married With Children'' to ``Coach'' and ``The Nanny,'' to name a few. His Fox series ``The Crew'' was recently canceled after 20 episodes.

Last weekend Lane took another challenge in a one-man show, ``Crockett,'' based on the writings of David Crockett (yes, the ``king of the wild frontier'' with the coonskin hat.) It was part of the yearly series of plays at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza presented by the Santa Susana Repertory Company (SSRC), which Lane helped to found in 1988 and in which he serves as artistic director.

Born in Georgia to a family of theater enthusiasts (not long ago his 79-year-old mom starred in the local production of ``Driving Miss Daisy'') with a father who was the announcer and manager of a radio station, Lane found his calling in high school.

``My first play was a one act. I had a three-page monologue playing a Confederate ghost,'' Lane remembered. ``I was hugely well received. I had an identity in a school that worshiped football players.''

In the 1980s, Lane had a long run with daytime television. ``I have the most fun doing television,'' he says. He played a ``maladjusted brain surgeon'' on NBC's ``Days of Our Lives'' for a year, and for five years played Mason Capwell in NBC's ``Santa Barbara.''

Lane describes district attorney Capwell as a ``vulnerable villain, like a J.R. But by the time I left, they took away his most villainous characteristics.'' But not before he'd tried to trick his gold-digging stepmother, had his love interest squashed by the giant letter ``C'' from a hotel sign and turned into a schizophrenic country/western singer.

With a touch of the workaholic in him, Lane enjoyed daytime soaps, but observed, ``They're probably the most dangerous psychologically. You live through the character in real time, day after day, month after month. You get crazy. You're on your 19th cup of coffee, it's 11 p.m. and you're walking (on the set) from the police station to your living room. It's a surreal experience.''

Lane's ``Santa Barbara'' fame continues to follow him since the soap was sold worldwide to about 35 countries. It's a hit in Russia and France and getting quite a bit of play in the Eastern European countries. For the past two years, he's given concerts, singing Broadway, Hoagy Carmichael and Jacques Brel songs, all over the former Soviet Union. In the country of Georgia he made a hit singing ``Georgia On My Mind.''

In the late '80s, Lane married Holley and moved to Simi Valley. Since they were planning a family - Thatcher's now 6; Nathan's 4 - Lane said he ``wanted a place to work closer to home. I was tired of all the driving.'' Out of this desire grew SSRC. ``I never set out to be artistic director. At heart, I'm an actor/manager. I'd rather pick plays with a nice part for me, but the mission had to be expanded.''

One of their first productions was the ambitious ``Man of La Mancha;'' Lane played Don Quixote. The intended venue was an abandoned grocery store in Simi. When they couldn't get the permits needed, the musical was presented in a tent in a parking lot. The press coverage was very favorable and SSRC, which Lane jokes is ``sharp stick repertory company (for sharp stick in the eye),'' was on its way.

Their search for a home led to the abandoned church that soon became the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. They renovated the old courthouse, now the Courthouse Theater, but outgrew it. ``I started meeting the right people, got on certain committees,'' Lane explained. ``The next thing I knew we were doing a series of plays at the Civic Arts Plaza.''

This weekend will kick off the first play of the season, ``On Golden Pond,'' and Lane comments of his efforts for SSRC, ``It's difficult, but deeply rewarding.''

Lane portrayed many of the juiciest roles on stage - Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry V and Cyrano de Bergerac just last year for SSRC - but sets his sights on getting a television series ``that stays on the air.'' He'd like to ``get SSRC really healthy financially and ``I'd like to do films, a small independent that has something to say.''

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Photo

Photo: (Ran in Conejo and Simi--color) Lane Davies poses with Cyrano de Bergerac, left, and Shakespeare.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News