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Arts
in Review
If I could put time in a bottle...
By Carol Davis
If I
could put time in a bottle, I would make sure that all of the plays
I
recently saw, could be around long enough to be seen by many more. I’d push
the closing dates up so those in a time crunch could get a taste of what it
is about the theatre that excites me. And I’d want to spend more time
talking about what we saw and what we would like to see more of. Four of the
plays closed on April 1st (That’s what I call a bad joke).
The Farnsworth Project is a page to stage presentation by the La
Jolla Playhouse that does not allow reviews, (certainly those who did see
it should have spread the news by now.)
Taking Flight, The Piano Teacher, and The Adoption Project,
are gone and on to their next venues. And all are worthy of another look
back at why they should have been here longer and seen by more.
Taking Flight
Taking Flight by Adriana Sevan and directed by Giovana
Sardelli is a ninety minute or so personal experience that
this talented playwright/performer brings the audience in on in an effort to
tell her compelling tale of friendship, devotion, devastation and healing.
In
one fell swoop, we are drawn into her narrative like bees to honey by Sevan.
It is not only whirlwind in nature, it is also breathtaking in scope and
mystical in it’s storytelling components. It takes place in New York right
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and her best
friend is hit by debris from the falling steel of the towers. It all but
crushed her body. They were best friends, she and ‘Rhonda’. They were
planning Rhonda’s wedding. She was planning Rhonda’s wedding. They had
grandiose plans, these best friends.
That all vanished on that fateful morning, and instead of planning a
wedding, she was planning for her friends survival. And if wishing, wanting,
being there and devoting ones entire self to that project was what it would
take, she was in it for the long haul; her personal life be dammed.
So her journey began.
Dressed in a pair of jeans and a colorful blouse and set on Victoria
Petrovich’s simple design, a single chair in the center of the stage with
flowing white curtains in the background surrounded by a margin of sand
around the edges with glass bowls filled with water, a lone flower floating
and a poem by Rumi. (‘The way of love is a subtle argument, the door there
is devastation. Birds make great sky circles of their freedom. How do they
learn it? They fall, and falling they’re given wings’), her story is
compelling. Jose Lopez’s subtle lighting effects go back and forth from
reality to dreamlike and reinforce the reality of her story.
The Piano Teacher
Heading north to Costa Mesa and The South Coast Repertory Theatre, Julia
Cho’s The Piano Teacher was the theatre’s 100th world premiere.
Another one of those under the radar gems, Linda Gehringer is Mrs. K. a
retired piano teacher who, sitting in her living room munching on cookies
and tea (she offers them to the audience as well), looking like the kindly
grandmother we would all love to have, goes back into her memory bank and
reflects on her
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Linda Gehringer in The Piano Teacher
Photo: Henry DiRocco
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students; wonders about their whereabouts; puzzles over why
she never hears from any of them, and why so many of them left
so suddenly.
Cho’s play and Gehringer’s demeanor set the tone as the suspense of there
being something more than a retired piano teacher wondering about her
students. As she ruminates, glimpses of some long and hidden hurt? guilt?
secret? doubt? buried in some dark recesses begin to surface and after two
former students finally do pay her a visit, we learn even more, but nothing
really definitive as to who Mrs. K really was and why the lessons ended so
abruptly.
Somewhat confusing thoughts emerged as the play wound down, unanswered
questions surfaced and if any positive suggestions would be accepted, it
would be for the first act to be a little shorter and perhaps a little more
information as to what Mr. K really was about. But, maybe that’s the way the
playwright wanted it. Overall however, The Piano Teacher seems headed
for other venues. It’s new and will be around for some time.
Under Kate Whoriskey’s deft direction, Myung Hee Cho’s scenic and costumes
and Jason Lyons fine lighting design The Piano Teacher is a treat and
one to catch next time around.
The Adoption Project: Triad
Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company recently presented The Adoption Project:
Triad written by Kimber Lee, directed by Seema Sueko and starring Jo
Anne Glover, Sandy Campbell and Linda Libby, three of San Diego’s finest,
portraying Aggie, an adoptee, Bernice, the adoptive mother and Madeline,
Agee’s birth mother.
Adopted children usually have one thing in common, they need to find their
roots. Years ago, for some draconian reason, adoptions were sealed and what
was done, was done. It was too bad if the child wanted to find his or her
biological parents. For the reasons those in ‘the know’ enforced this rule
there were that many more reasons for it to be abolished. For The
Adoption Project, set in the wide space of the Centro Cultural de la
Raza in Balboa Park this very same issue is examined and from every possible
angle, aspect and psychology.
With the use of television clips, beautiful, raw symbolic dancing (Erika
Malone) effective lighting (Kim Palma) and some of the most striking and
compelling acting seen in some time the project angles along with one
convincing scene after another overlapping, swerving and in some cases
careening into itself. It is an emotional roller coaster ride, sometimes
funny sometimes frightening but always on target.
Mo’olelo Company, headed by Seema is to be congratulated for it’s fine
efforts in the community for bringing pertinent issues to the fore.
See you at the theatre.