Curtain Calls #27
Week ending October 15, 2009
By Charlene Baldridge
The Internet imps were out in full force again this week, but thanks to the humans, the needed interviews and photos mostly materialized. It was a great week for the humans, what with Pres. Barack Obama's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, his speech at the Human Rights Coalition, and the GLBT march in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the local reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later reminded us that many people would like to rewrite history and that our battles are far from won.
Musical Story
THE SHOW: San Diego Repertory Theatre presents Long Story Short, a musical by Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda, based upon David Schulner's play, An Infinite Ache. The piece is directed by Kent Nicholson.
THE STORY: Hope and Charles have just met on a blind date arranged by Hope's girlfriend, who was supposed to be present but wasn't (Hope is pissed off about that). Hope's had "a little too much wine and too much garlic," and because she's feeling a bit woozy and doesn't think she can drive, she asks Charles to let her sleep in his bed for just an hour. Smitten, he tucks her in and kneels by the side of the bed to watch her sleep. Time plays tricks, and the story sweeps onlookers through the courtship and ensuing 50-year marriage of this unlikely couple, she an Asian American and he, a Jew. She's smart, sassy and ambitious. He's roundish, nerdy and content to work in a coffee shop. They have nothing when they meet, but over the course of the years both become successful, she as a psychotherapist, he as an author. What they have in abundance is love.
The work is funny and true, and, like any marriage, Charles and Hope's is beset by misunderstandings, negotiations, adjustments and tragedy. Humor is what gets them through. Expect to laugh a lot, weep a bit, and be totally swept up in an almost through-sung tale that's told through expert language, (Vigoda) gentle lyricism (Milburn) and a grand feel for the inside of a long term relationship. As with the musical Striking 12, also written by Milburn and Vigoda and performed by their GrooveLily three-person band at the Old Globe in 2003, the music is not easily categorized, because it is a seamless marriage of rock 'n' jazz 'n' folk with an abiding musical theatre sensibility.
My only carp: Late in the show the book comes dangerously close to an overload of sentimentality; however, as near to the precipice it gets, the actors manage to pull it back before it tumbles into the abyss.
THE PERFORMERS -Melody Butiu and Robert Brewer-create such appealing and engaging characters that one wants to take them home. Both are fine singers that articulate text, and both are amazingly sensitive actors able to inhabit a range of emotions throughout their lives in the show. Also an asset, they seem to have developed a genuine rapport. Brewer possesses an extremely lovely, seemingly effortless high baritone that is most impressive in range and quality. At one point, Milburn gives him a spine-tingling ascent. Brewer has a fine sense of phrasing and is an excellent musician. Butiu holds an MFA from University of California, San Diego, and was seen at La Jolla Playhouse in Dogeaters and Boy, and. more recently, in Shipwrecked! at South Coast Repertory. She, too, is an excellent singer, peppy and adorable to watch.
THE PRODUCTION: Kudos to all involved, especially to director Nicholson, and most especially to music director/band leader/pianist Mark Danisovszky and his ensemble, which comprises Toby Ahrens, percussion; Victoria Bietz, violin; Diana Elledge, cello (truly marvelous and affecting); and Oliver Shirley, bass. Though these names are familiar, the musicians seldom receive enough praise for excellence, nor does Chris Luessman for his fine sound design. Javier Velasco contributed choreography; Victoria Petrovich, the amazing expandable scenic design; Kate Stallons, the layered costumes; and M. Scott Grabau, the lighting scheme. Particularly haunting are the musical numbers "It Happens in a Moment" and "Love Like This," and much midlife angst and gentle humor are limned by "Empowered," Hope's experience with being a middle-aged divorced woman. Many thanks to San Diego Rep for bringing GrooveLily's Milburn and Vigoda's music back to our ears and hearts. Fans may have to see/hear this more than once.
THE LOCATION: 7 pm Wednesdays and Sundays (except Nov. 1); 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 pm Saturday, Oct. 17; 2 pm Sundays through November 1, San Diego Repertory, 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego, $34-$53, www.sdrep.org or (619) 544-1000.
BOTTOM LINE: Best Bet
Women, their desires and their needs, are not too much different than any woman's anywhere since time immemorial; two shows address women of the Middle East, one in the 8th century and the others in the 20-21st. Think Basra and Baghdad.
THE SHOW: Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire, produced by Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company at 10th Avenue Theatre as staged by Janet Hayatshahi and seen opening night October 10
THE STORY embraces nine interwoven tales, each narrated by a modern-day Iraqi woman. The script is the result of interviews conducted by playwright/actor Raffo, an American of American and Iraqi parentage, who originally adapted and performed the piece as a one-woman show. In Hayatshahi's deft direction of the work, onlookers forget that the work comprises nine disparate monologues. Even though these women are far flung geographically, they seem to know one another-and we, them-through our common experiences as women and, in their case, women affected by war that seems never to cease.
Seemingly least affected-or so she would have you believe-is a Baghdad artist named Layal (Lisel Gorell-Getz). Gorrell-Getz also portrays an Iraqi physician, educated in London, and Umm Ghada, a refined woman who lives in a yellow trailer outside the Amiriya bomb shelter, where all her family perished). Layal, renowned for her paintings of nude women (all the bodies are hers) is rumored to have been the mistress of one of Saddam Hussein's sons, at least until he died in a bomb blast. Now, as she says, some might call her a prostitute, but she's only doing what women have always done for a modicum of security and artistic freedom. But even the act of loving, she says, can bring with it grave danger.
Amal (Francis Anita Rivera, who also portrays an American and an old woman, Nanna) is a feisty Bedoin woman from a large family. She studied in London and married a Saudi, whom she left. Since then, her marriages and relationships have been sequential. The American is a young woman living in New York City, watching the Iraq war on CNN in the hope of seeing her relatives, whom she fears might be dead. Nanna might be called a thief and a scavenger. She subsists on the sale of items salvaged "from a good family."
Dré Salman portrays Mullaya, a woman who leads others to prayer when the call to worship sounds; Huda, an elegant, alcoholic 70-year-old exile, who lives in London; and the Iraqi Girl, who has not attended school since the U.S invasion.
To reveal details of the women's experiences would spoil the impact of 9 Parts of Desire. They are composites based on the playwright's interviews conducted in her father's homeland, in the US, and abroad over more than a decade. There is a touch of the playwright's own experience as an American with relatives in Iraq. Raffo is a lovely woman who got her MFA from the University of San Diego/Old Globe Masters in Theatre program. She has great insight, humor and a grand story-telling sensibility.
THE PERFORMERS are magnificent and turn in poignant portrayals of Iraqi women young and old. Gorell-Getz's portrayal of the artist Layal anchors the play and provides the thread that unites the disparate tales. Rivera, a classically trained actor who is new to the San Diego theatre scene, is a real find. Let us hope she stays. A San Diego native, Slaman recently returned to the West Coast after earning her MFA at Northern Illinois University. She, too, is most impressive, a gleeful, engaging actor.
THE PRODUCTION: Director Hayatshahi is to be congratulated on gathering and molding this extraordinary ensemble and also on her staging choices and artistic team. The playing area is large, and scenic designer David F. Weiner loosely designates spaces for the women to inhabit, separately and together, or as together as they ever get. The main attraction is a river-like flow of ritual and practical bowls and shoes that play an important part in the action. Other properties are ladders and picture frames and a large tree that plays an important role in Layal's art. Indeed, such a painting, seen by Raffo in a back room of the Saddam Art Center, was the impetus for 9 Parts of Desire. Charlotte Devaux creates an array of costumes and costume elements appropriate to the characters, their locals and situations, tying all together with an immense black abaya, sometimes worn traditionally, and sometimes not. Both lighting designer Jason Bieber and sound designer Paul Peterson enhance the production with their usual, fine work. Jan Gist's dialect coaching helps define character and locale without obfuscating the words. The space is tricky, though, and lines are sometimes lost when spoken to the sides.
THE LOCATION: 7:30 PM Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays, through November 1, 10th Avenue Theatre, 930 10th Avenue, San Diego, $22-$27, www.moolelo.net or (619) 342-7395.
NOTE: The title 9 Parts of Desire comes from a Shi'a Muslim proverb that says Allah gave humans ten parts of desire: men have one; women, the other nine. The play was recipient of a special commendation from the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Raffo also received a 2005 Lucille Lortel Award for best solo show when she performed 9 Parts of Desire off Broadway.
BOTTOM LINE: Best Bet
THE STORY concerns Islamic mystic (Sufi) Rabia al-Adawiyya (circa 717-801), who was a native of Basra, orphaned when still a girl, then sold into slavery. Eventually Rabia devoted herself to God, becoming a poet and renowned holy woman. During a dark night of his soul, she encounters Misbah, a robber, near the pit where she keeps her treasure. Intent upon robbing and possibly raping Rabia, Misbah joins in the treasure dig. They swap stories (enacted by the company on raised areas upstage) and he is changed.
THE PERFORMERS: Diana Sparta, a fine actor who recently portrayed poet Emily Dickinson for Lynx Theatre, takes on Rabia, the ancient Iraqi poet and mystic. Brian Abraham, notably seen at The Theatre Inc. as Prometheus and others, portrays the robber that is redeemed and forgiven by those whom he has wronged. There is a certain amount of sexual tension between the two actors, but the emphasis here is on things of the spirit. Besides, Rabia has apparently renounced sexual pleasure in favor of celibacy. Additional acting company members lend support in a wide range of styles and competencies, with a standout vocal by Vanessa Milton. Others are Bianca Chapman, Rhys Green, Carolyn Henderson, Kevin Morrison and Augustin Castaneda.
THE PRODUCTION: Recorded music by Hossein Omoumi and Shahrokh Yadegari lends flavor (sound design by Blair Robert Nelson), as do costumes by Lawrence Taryn. Vince Sneden creates a set with three playing areas from pit level to the heights, lighted by Mitchell Simkovsky.
McDonald's script underscores its own pertinence to societal and sexual mores still prevalent to today's world. I find this emphasis heavy handed and didactic. We sitting in the dark enjoy making our own connections. I found myself wishing to be enraptured and inspired by the tale itself and the robber's redemption, but alas, I was neither. Instead, despite the excellence of Sparta and Abraham, I sat in the dark for 60 minutes. longing for unencumbered wisdom. Susan Trott's novel, The Holy Man, comes to mind.
THE LOCATION: 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 and 7 pm Sundays, through October 24, The Theatre Inc., 899 C St., San Diego, $22-$25, www.thetheatreinc.com or (619) 216-3016.
BOTTOM LINE: Worth a try
Monday, Oct. 12, was the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death. The University of Wyoming student died in 1998, victim of a brutal beating. Two men were convicted of his murder, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson.
In one hundred cities in all 50 states, Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Hong Kong and Australia, there were readings of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, by Moisés Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris and Stephen Belver, who wrote the original play that later became a movie. Like Heather Raffo did for 9 Parts of Desire, the authors based The Laramie Project on interviews with the townspeople of Laramie. The epilogue is the result of further interviews conducted in Laramie and elsewhere ten years later. The original play was performed by Kaufman's Tectonic Theatre Project at the Playhouse in 2001.
For the San Diego Monday night reading of the sequel, at La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum, director Darko Tresnjak gathered 35 readers, among them politicians and playwrights, theatre critics, and national and local actors. After the reading there was a video broadcast of the post-performance discussion led by Kaufman following the New York reading at Lincoln Center. Proceeds from the La Jolla reading benefit the Hillcrest Youth Center.
Through October 25, La Jolla Playhouse's Creditors, 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 7 pm Sundays; 2 pm Saturdays-Sundays; Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Dr., La Jolla, www.lajollaplayhouse.org or (858) 550-1010.
Through November 1, Mo'olelo Performance Theatre's production of 9 Parts of Desire, reviewed above.
Through November 1, Cygnet Theatre's Man from Nebraska, 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Thursdays; 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays; 2 and 7 pm Sundays; $22-$48, Cygnet Theatre Company, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town San Diego Historic Park, www.cygnettheatre.com or (619) 337-1525.
Through November 1, The Old Globe production of Savannah Disputation, 7 pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays; 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 pm Saturdays and Sundays, Old Globe Arena Stage at Copley Auditorium, San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park, $29-$62, www.theoldglobe.org or (619) 23-GLOBE.
Mariachi master Jeff Nevin, who instituted the only mariachi degree program in the country at Southwestern College, let me know on Facebook about KPBS-TV's mariachi documentary, which ran last Thursday. I had Argentine dinner with my friend Raul earlier in the evening, and got home just in time to watch the program. The hour-long television special tells the history of the art form, and in addition to Nevin's two groups, one professional and the other comprising college students, renowned practitioners from all over the world were documented.
Nevin's professional group, Mariachi Champaña Nevin (the most in-tune Mariachis you will ever hear), perform their annual Dia de las Muertos program at Copley Symphony Hall at 7:30 pm Sunday, Nov. 1. Information http://www.sandiegosymphony.com/concert_detail.php?indexid=346
Here's a note from Jeff: "It definitely is a family concert, it's going to be a lot of fun...dancing skeletons, lots of variety, great singing and playing. The Symphony is promoting their 'Coke Family Pack,' which is up to 6 tickets for $30, sponsored by Coke, so a great deal." Note from Brenda: There is NOTHING like a Mariachi singer and Jeff's guys and gals are great!
Young Mexican tenor Cesar Sanchez performs an hour-long concert at 4 pm Sunday, Oct. 25, at St. James-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, 7433 Prospect St., La Jolla. Proceeds from the concert will help the singer continue his musical training in Europe. Info: (619) 925-4543
"I like plays that are not too neat, too finished, too presentable. My plays are broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with things that take sudden turns, careen into each other, smash up, veer off in sickening turns. That feels good to me. It feels like my life. It feels like the world." - Chuck Mee
Charlene Baldridge, member of San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, freelance arts writer, and critic for sdtheatrescene.com