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.
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