Theater Review: El Borracho

 

              Zilah Mendoza, Matthew Martinez and Jesse J. Perez

Families can be wonderful. And awful. In turn, and sometimes both at once.

Playwright Eugene O’Neill wrote about families and their problems. So did Arthur Miller. Now a member of the new generation of American playwrights – Tony Meneses – brings us “El Borracho,” a “dramedy” drawn from his own family.

Addiction, age, illness, boredom, annoyance, exhaustion – they’re all here in one 90-minute bite of the old theatrical apple.

“El Borracho” (the drunk) brings us Raul (Jesse J. Perez), an aging, ill, in fact dying old man (okay, alcoholic) who returns to the small one-bedroom house he left 25 years ago when he and ex-wife Alma (Zilah Mendoza) could no longer stand to be married.

Son David (Matthew Martinez) is home and surmises the old guy has returned not because he misses the family, but because he can no longer take care of himself. That seems to be the case; the old guy limps and clutches his groin for reasons we are not privy to.

Raul snorts when he finds out Alma now works at a local school as a “lunch lady,” though his last fancy job was as a pizza delivery man.

Alma is just tired of doing everything for everybody.

David, about 20, has a bone to pick with both parents. He is a budding playwright and wrote a play while in school, and he’s convinced that the fact that neither parent showed up indicates that neither thought it important enough to make the effort to see it.

Everybody’s got bones to pick in this family, and after a while the complaints get to be a bit much.  But at least they have a sense of humor about it, which makes it tolerable, sometimes downright funny to watch.

Theater in the round is ideal for this play; the limited space adds to the “trapped” feeling evoked by the dialogue.

Playwright Meneses, born in Guadalajara and raised in Albuquerque and Dallas, is a graduate of the Juilliard School. After he’d written five plays, his teacher, playwright Marsha Norman, told him, “At some point in your career, you have to write the play that scares you.”

“El Borracho” is that play. Blame the teacher if you have complaints with the play, but you will have no complaints about the cast. 

Jesse J. Perez is well-known in San Diego as the director of the Old Globe/USD graduate theatre program; here he turns in an excellent performance as David’s father Raul.

Zilah Mendoza’s exhausted Alma reminds me of women in similar circumstances I have known. But even she has a sense of humor.

Matthew Martinez gives a fine performance as David, who loves his family but feels they don’t love him back, at least not enough.

Mextly Cousin’s lighting and David R. Molina’s original music and sound add to the atmosphere.

Everybody probably has (or at least has heard) a story similar to“El Borracho,” which plays through March 20 at The Old Globe’s White Theatre.

Showtimes: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.

For tickets: theoldglobe.org or (619) 234-5623

Masks are required, as is proof of vaccination.

Theater Review: Desert Rock Garden

 

                  
                     Lane Nishigawa and Chloris Li

There’s something calming about a garden. Growing plants are so positive, growing and reaching for the sun or twisting gracefully in another direction. Makes you think all is well with the world.

Gardens and the ugliness of man’s inhumanity to man don’t go together well. But the juxtaposition makes for an interesting play.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 required the evacuation of West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry to “relocation camps,” whether they were U.S. citizens or not. One of those people was James Hatsuaki Wakasa, interned after he had immigrated to the U.S. in 1903.

New Village Arts in Carlsbad is undergoing a major remodel. But meanwhile, they are presenting the world premiere of Roy Sekigahama’s play “Desert Rock Garden” through March 13. It is a fictional story based on Wakasa’s experience in the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah.

There are only two characters: Penny (Chloris Li), a mischievous 12-year-old orphan who arrives at the camp because nobody knew what else to do with her, and “Fuzzy,” a much older intern played by Lane Nishikawa, who at 72 had lived in the U.S. for over 50 years. They meet accidentally.

Fuzzy is a man of few words. Penny never stops talking, a trait which frequently gets her in trouble at school. They have nothing in common, but also nothing better to do, so they become friends.

One day Fuzzy decides to teach her a few things about survival in and out of camp, nicknamed “Jewel of the Desert” or “Cesspool of the Desert,” depending on whom you ask.

They spend their stage time together outside, in Fuzzy’s rock garden, and he teaches the girl about rocks, their appearance and proper placement in a garden while he counsels her about behavior and advises her to leave the camp and put herself up for adoption.

They are an unlikely pair, but then so is the beauty of a garden in the middle of what is essentially a prison. 

Reiko Huffman’s set is the garden, a small area with many rocks of varying sizes, types and states of polish (Fuzzy polishes some of them, and teaches Penny how and why). Slowly the beauty of the garden seems to calm the flighty girl down a bit, and they strike a happy friendship between them.

Both actors are excellent and when Fuzzy gives her a stone he’d polished just for her, it ends the friendship on a touching note. 

Kudos to director Yari Cervas, who keeps the pace moving but not rushed.

Jojo Siu’s costumes, Annelise Raquel Salazar’s lighting and especially Marc Akiyama’s music add to the play’s attributes.

This play was developed in a Playwrights’ Project workshop, followed by a reading at NVA’s Final Draft New Play Festival. It’s a short and lovely piece.

“Desert Rock Garden” plays through March 13, 2022 at New Village Arts, 2787 State St. in Carlsbad.

Showtimes: Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. 

Tickets: newvillagearts.org or (760) 433-3245

COVID protocol: Proof of full vaccination is required or negative test result from a COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of showtime. Masks are required at all times.

Theater Review: Trouble in Mind

                   Cast of "Trouble in Mind" at the Old Globe

Geopolitics is a mess, social cohesion seems to have utterly disappeared and we’ve all been off in our Covid-imposed lonely little corners for what seems like eons.

Back in 1955, playwright Alice Childress wrote “Trouble in Mind,” giving us an unsettling story about another kind of isolation, featuring a troupe of hopeful Broadway actors going into rehearsal for a new play about lynching.

Lynching? That’s enough to put you on your guard right off, especially since 

the piece was both written by and will be directed by a white man.

It was in 1955 that Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, which was followed by the beginnings of the civil rights movement, which eventually led to what we know today as the Black Lives Matter movement.

It’s been a long, harrowing, bloody march to equality, and we haven’t even come close to accomplishing it, 60-some years after “Trouble in Mind” was written.

Most of the cast in this play (called “Chaos in Belleville”) is black, but the decision-makers – director and staff – are white, and this is where the problems arise. Interracial communication is difficult enough without tossing in a play that features the old stereotypes.

The star of the show is Wiletta Mayer, a well-known actress excited to finally be getting star billing. 

This is the first role for a handsome young black starry-eyed newcomer named John Nevins, thrilled to be part of “the theater.” 

“Show business, it’s just a business,” Wiletta answers. “Colored folks ain’t in no theater. Why don’t you make something of yourself?”

But when John announces his intention to get to the top in short order, she 

shares the secret of working with this director: agree vociferously with everything he says, and laugh uproariously at his jokes, no matter how offensive or unfunny.

And then we see how that principle works in practice. It’ll make you laugh, and gasp, sigh and maybe get angry, and then you’ll realize how much work we all still have left to do to attain “liberty and justice for all.” Or even to act civilly to one other.

Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, founder of Moxie Theatre, directs this piece with the knowledge of someone who’s been there. She has. She’s black and female, one of the best directors around, and she brilliantly directed “Trouble in Mind” in 2015 at Moxie. Now she’s a resident artist at the Old Globe, bringing her skills to the show again.

The play first opened off-Broadway, then was picked up by Broadway producers, who wanted changes. Childress made many, but when they asked her to change the ending, she refused, and the play never got the Broadway opening it deserved until this year, almost 30 years after her death.

Maggie Walters, a student from the Old Globe/University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program), joins the Equity cast – Tom Bloom, Kevin Isola, Ramona Keller, Bibi Mama, Jake Milgard, Victor Morris, and Mike Sears. All are outstanding.

The production, too, is excellent. Lawrence E. Moten III’s rehearsal hall-look set, Nicole Jescinth’s costumes, Sherrice Mojgani’s lighting and Luqman Brown’s sound design all contribute to making this funny, scathing, still relevant play a must-see theatrical experience. Don’t miss it.

“Trouble in Mind” plays through March 13, 2022 on The Old Globe’s Shiley Stage.

Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday and 2 and 7 p.m. Prices start at $29. An open-caption performance will be held on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.

For tickets: www.TheOldGlobe,org, (619) 234-5623

Theater Review: Catch Me If You Can

                         Cast of "Catch Me If You Can"

Great news! San Diego Musical Theatre is back on the boards with a terrific production of the 2011 musical “Catch Me If You Can,” the unbelievable but true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a con man who could – and did – begin his lifetime of crime by conning his own father. 

The musical is based on the 2002 film of the same name, which in turn is based on the 1980 autobiography by Abagnale and Stan Redding. This version has a book by Terrence McNally, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Allison Spratt Pearce directs.

This is the story of an ordinary guy from New Rochelle, New York, whose dad has an ordinary business and a wife who is fooling around with another man. 

Frank, Jr. (Beau Brians) doesn’t want to go that route. In fact, he insists on a life “in living color,” as the first song says, and has decided to do whatever he must to get a life that matches his ambition. That “whatever” includes stealing and pretending to be something (in fact, several somethings) he’s not, including a co-pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a college professor.

But hey, everybody loves a scoundrel, and after all his dad had told him “People only know what you tell ‘em, Frankie.” So Frankie tells ‘em what they want to hear, and is surprised at his initial success.

Even so, illegal exploits tend to attract the attention of law enforcement, here represented by FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Berto Fernández), who along with three other agents spends the rest of the show trying to catch Frank, Jr. 

But though the agents skulk around in dark clothes and darker frames of mind, this show is really a song-and-dance extravaganza, with a cast of excellent dancers and singers who break into song and kick up a storm at the drop of a hat (especially those flight attendants!).

Just when Hanratty is about to close in, Frank Jr. takes off for Atlanta (and the second act). Here, he meets the love of his life while playing doctor in a local ER.

This is nurse Brenda (Adelaida Martínez), daughter of lawyer Roger Strong (Ted Leib) and his wife Carol (Debra Wanger). So, of course our boy pretends to want to “go back to” the law. Dad is having none of it.

Eventually (remember, this is a true story), Hanratty catches up with Frank Jr. and he will end up in the slammer. But they decide they get along so well that Frank Jr. should work for the Bureau when he gets released. (I know, but it’s true!), and they end up in the last song “Stuck Together.”

This show marks the first production in SDMT’s new digs on Mercury Street. The show space is a bit small (it holds about 115 people) and the movable chairs aren’t the most comfortable, but the joy in finally getting back on the boards is palpable and a delight to behold.

If you’re looking for entertainment with a capital E, this is the show for you.

Theater Review: Admissions

                     Tom Steward, Wendy Waddell, Devin Wade

In the wake of the recent flap over rich parents buying their children’s way into top-tier colleges comes Josh Harmon’s “Admissions,” a biting, sometimes excruciating satire of white privilege in education that will send you out of the theater wanting to sit down with some of your fellow audience mates for a talk about what you’ve just seen. It plays through Feb. 27 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, under the assured direction of artistic director James P. Darvas.

Bill (Tom Steward) and Sherri (Wendy Waddell) are the headmaster and dean of admissions of a progressive New Hampshire boarding school called Hillcrest. Sherri is proud that she’s increased the diversity of the student body from 6 to 18 percent in the past 15 years. But she is still concerned about appearances.

When we meet Sherri, she is explaining to development director Roberta (Anna Sandor) the importance of diversity in photos the school puts out in its catalog and other school materials. She asks Roberta to take photos that will better illustrate the school’s diversity.

Bill and Sherri have a friend, Ginnie (Holly Stephenson), whose (unseen) son Perry is a student at Hillcrest and buddies with their very bright son Charlie (whose middle name is Luther, for Martin Luther King).

Charlie (Devin Wade) is a senior awaiting his expected acceptance to Yale. But when Charlie doesn’t get that acceptance letter, all hell breaks loose – especially when he finds out that Perry (whose unseen dad is biracial) does get admitted. Charlie storms off to try to make sense of this, leaving Bill and Sherri to try to figure out what they can do to get him into Yale somehow.

The cast of five is, of course, intentionally all white, left to discuss the rightness or wrongness of an educational system that is run the way it is. There is dismissive talk about community college education. The longer it goes on, the edgier the talk becomes, though Harmon has been careful to create human beings, not victims of an idea. But they must discuss questions like who gets to make these decisions, and just what is fairness?

The show is wonderfully presented on an amazing set (by Felipe Ramirez) that manages on that small stage to give us three different looks. The lighting (by Kevin “Blax” Burroughs), costumes (by Pam Stomply-Erikson) and sound (by Estefania Ricalde) are also excellent.

The cast is outstanding, especially Devin Wade’s Charlie, who gets a very long, very fast monologue in which every word is crystal clear. 

“Admissions” manages to be both very funny (especially to me, as I spent 30-some years working in education) and utterly thought-provoking in its exposure of what happens when well-meaning parents who “should” get what they want don’t. If you’re looking for unusual theater, give “Admissions” a try.

Theater Review: Life Sucks

                            The cast of "Life Sucks"

If you asked me to describe life in the Covid era, I might well say “life sucks.” But playwright Aaron Posner beat me to it – and he’s not even talking about Covid in his new play “Life Sucks,” in its West Coast premiere through Feb. 27 at Cygnet Theatre.

Posner found similarities between life today and a cholera epidemic in Chekhov’s time (the playwright was also a doctor), and has reworked Chekhov’s 1897 “Uncle Vanya” (about aimlessness and wasted lives) to something that plays like a parody, though Posner calls it an homage.

Rob Lutfy has been tapped as director – an excellent choice, as Lutfy seems to get the point, which is that life sometimes really does suck, but we can get through it with a little bit of luck and the help of friends.

He’s moved the locale to contemporary San Diego, and added an audience-participation component, so theatergoers not only get to watch, but are asked to respond at appointed times.

Chekhov’s main characters are here: The old gray-haired Professor (Frank DiPalermo), married to lovely young thing Ella (Emily Shackelford), who is sought after by handsome (not to mention alcoholic) Dr. Astor (Jorge Rodriguez), among others. 

Then there’s Vanya (MJ Sieber), getting up there in age and beginning to realize his whole life has been a waste, and Vanya’s niece Sonya (Savanna Padilla), who actually owns the house where we meet these folks. Sonya would love to be sought after by the handsome doctor, but it is not to be.

Along for the ride are two characters not in the original, both female roles: young Babs (Patty Gallagher), a potter, and the amusing Pickles (Beatrice Basso).

The opening scene is more Chekhov than it meant to be: the light switcher went out, and it took two tries to get it back in working order. But that’s the kind of life we’re talking about, where nothing works quite right.

Much of the charm of this piece is in the artistic design, beginning with  Yi-Chien Lee’s set design – a huge quilt as backdrop, with chairs and lamps placed around the stage. There’s a country look about it too. 

Minjoo Kim’s lighting adds atmosphere and sometimes humor, as do Shirley Pierson’s woodsy-look costumes. Peter Herman’s wigs and makeup designs fit right in as well, as do Steven Leffue’s sound designs .

The atmosphere goes from funny to sad to downright depressing and back, as the characters make lists of what they love and what they hate, and attempt to  figure out how to minimize the sadness.

Is life worth living, with all these problems? Sure it is, at least sometimes, and it’s those times we’re all looking for.

Don’t miss this strange and (sometimes) wonderful play.

“Life Sucks” plays onstage through Feb. 27, 2022 at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town and on demand through Feb. 28, 2022. An ASL interpreted performance on Feb. 23 is also available. Call the box office at 619-337-1525.

Proof of vaccination and the wearing of masks required for live performances.

 

Theater Review: Sapience

 

Mariel León and Alexander Guzman

Human communication is difficult enough under ideal conditions. So is scientific experimentation. But imagine what either would be like if you had neurodiversity issues.

Playwright Diana Burbano can tell you, and shows you in the world premiere of her fascinating play “Sapience,” on the boards through Feb. 20 at Moxie Theatre. This is a co-production of Moxie and TuYo theaters.

Burbano is neurodiverse herself (on the autism spectrum, she has ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and knows what it’s like to be treated as an “other” by people who don’t understand.

Her main character Elsa (played by Mariel León) is a primatologist who is working with an orangutan named Wookie (played by Nancy Ross), a curious female orang who seems to crave connection more than Elsa. Elsa is an excellent scientist, perhaps partly because she is on the autism spectrum and devotes pretty much all her time to setting up situations with Wookie for her to observe.

Elsa’s cousin Miri, tasked with cleaning the lab, occasionally visits Elsa. An outgoing Latinx immigrant with rainbow-dipped hair and lots of bubbly charm, Miri brings her autistic 12-year-old son AJ (excellently portrayed by Enrique Xavier Martinez) with her. Communication is difficult for AJ, but he does strike up a friendship – and verbal communication – with Wookie (who in this case conveniently speaks English).

Elsa’s lab is run by Jason (Alexander Guzman), a charming, boyish zoo administrator who does his best to keep the zoo’s board of directors happy, because that’s his job. He is impressed with Elsa – perhaps even interested in her – and invites her to meetings with the board, but her mind is trained strictly on her work. Her heart may have different needs, but with her limitations those will never include schmoozing with board members.

But Miri and Jason seem to have much in common – dancing, for example, and oh by the way, he can sing. Wookie and AJ, meanwhile, strike up a connection the boy will have with no other human.

“Sapience” manages to be both amusing and thought-provoking while offering 

four humans and one animal with various needs for and abilities to communicate. 

The drama turns on changes (doesn’t everything?). Jason will move on to another zoo in San Francisco. What will happen with Miri, and for that matter with Elsa, Wookie and AJ?

Kudos to Director Vanessa Duron for keeping this unusual piece moving (and for excellently portraying Miri, as well), and to the playwright for illustrating the problems of the neurodiverse in such a captivating way. 

Nancy Ross gets special mention for portraying the only English-speaking orangutan craving connection with humans I’ve ever seen. It’s magical realism onstage, and both Ross and Wookie are delightful.

Mariel León is excellent as the researcher so focused on her research that she may miss out on much of the joy of life. 

Alexander Guzman does the best he can with Jason, whose character seems underwritten and almost coincidental. He’s a board-pleaser, that’s clear, but why late in the show do we find out he has cancer?

Adam Parrocha’s scenic design actually manages to move our attention from Elsa’s office to Wookie’s area (“cage” doesn’t really quite describe it, but then Wookie is a talking orangutan and those don’t exist either), and then to a more neutral zone where interactions between Miri, AJ and Jason can take place.

Major kudos to the tech crew, who change the scene with lighting and sound cues (provided by Colby Free and Mason Pilevsky). The most interesting one (because Moxie expects neurodiversity among the audience) is a red light that flashes when a potentially triggering event is about to occur.

“Sapience” (which means wisdom) could use a rewrite, but gives us an intriguing view into lives lived differently.

Film Review: A Peloton of One

                                         A Peloton of One

Sexual abuse of children is almost too awful to contemplate. Unfortunately, it is neither a new phenomenon nor a rarity.

In 2015, for example, several female Olympic gymnasts came forward to accuse longtime coach Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. That event led to a trial which resulted in a 40-175 year jail sentence, with an added 60 years for child pornography, the sentences to be served consecutively.

One major problem of this kind of abuse is that it creates loners afraid to talk about their experience, who may eventually begin abusing their own bodies by overeating or escaping into alcohol or drugs.

“Peloton of One” tells the story of bicyclist Dave Ohlmuller (abused for the first time at 12 by a priest in his parish, and repeatedly thereafter). Dave fell into the traps – gaining weight, drinking and taking drugs. When he reached 230 pounds, he decided to “fix the problem,” and started by working out an hour a day. 

After he’d dropped 50 pounds and recovered some sense of self, he decided to try to help other abuse victims. To raise awareness of the problem, Dave bought a bike (and got a lesson in how to change a bike tire) in preparation for a solo bike ride from Chicago to New York in 2019, talking to others (including victims) along the way and starting a group called SNAP (Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests).

It’s difficult to imagine even attempting a trip like that, though Dave contends that “once I got through Chicago, I was just in a zone.”

“Peloton” is the word for a group of bike riders, and “A Peloton of One” is the video story of Dave’s solo ride and his experiences along the way. Fun things like finding out he needed foot guards to keep his feet from slipping off the pedals, and what to do when the bike chain falls off. 

He made a lot of friends on this trip, many of them also victims of what they call “soul murder.”  He also found out that abuse isn’t local, it’s a universal problem and deserving of federal laws against it. Though several states have at least introduced legislation, few have passed anything of consequence. 

This is a problem no one wants to talk about. Let’s hope “A Peloton of One” helps to change that. This film is a must-see.

“A Peloton of One” opens Feb. 18, 2022 in virtual theaters. It will be released digitally on March 11, 2022.