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Jul012010
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Thursday
Jul012010
Celebrating Ten Years of Native Theater: Indian Country
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 12:29PM | in Theatre | Christina | Post a Comment | Share Article | Email Article by Eva Thomas
LOS ANGELES – Native Voices at the Autry kicked off its 10th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of “Carbon Black,” a suspenseful psychological drama by Terry Gomez, Comanche. Native Voices, established in 1999, is a Native Theater Company housed at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles. It is the country’s only Equity theater company dedicated to producing new works by Native American playwrights.
In November, Native Voices launched the 2009 – 2010 Play Series with “Carbon Black,” directed by Native Voices Founder/Producing Artistic Director Randy Reinholz, Choctaw. The play tells the story of a mother-son relationship held hostage by agoraphobia and media-inspired fear. The play ran through Nov. 22.
Gomez is a playwright, writer, director, actor, educator and painter, and member of the Advisory Committee for the Native Theater Festival at The Public Theater in New York City, where her play “Inter-Tribal” was produced. She has been a director for the Two Worlds Native Theater Festival and the Cool Side of Hell Theater Troupe at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M.
“I wanted to write a play about the ongoing problem of women and children being attacked around the world,” Gomez said. “I wanted to address it and I wanted to say that it needs to stop.”
The cast of “Carbon Black” included award-winning actress Tonantzín Carmelo, Tongva, Kumeyaay; Sheila Tousey, Menominee, Stockbridge Munsee; Stephan Wolfert and Michael Drummond.
In March, Native Voices will present “Tales of an Urban Indian,” a one-man show by Canadian playwright-actor Darrell Dennis, Shuswap. The play, directed by Herbie Barnes, Ojibway, tells the tale of the often hilarious situations and challenges faced by the urban Indian. The show, which is being presented in association with The Public Theater in New York, runs March 13 – 28.
Native Voices at the Autry is led by Reinholz and Founder/Producing Executive Director Jean Bruce Scott. Native Voices has maintained successful long-term relationships with New York’s The Public Theater, Native American Public Telecommunications, Washington’s Kennedy Center and La Jolla Playhouse near San Diego.
“This is our 10th anniversary,” Reinholz said. “We have developed about 70 scripts and produced a dozen shows here at the Autry. Native Voices produces plays about the Native experience told by Native writers for both Native and non-Native audiences.”
Throughout the year, Native Voices also hosts several developmental projects in addition to its main-stage productions. The “First Look Series” provides opportunities for Los Angeles audiences to see readings of Native American plays directed by professional directors and featuring Native actors.
Native Voices’ “Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays” provides the opportunity during a week-long retreat for beginning, emerging and established Native playwrights to develop new works with professional directors, dramaturgs, designers and actors at San Diego State University, the La Jolla Playhouse and the Autry National Center. Many plays developed during the Playwright Retreat, including “Carbon Black,” have gone on to enjoy successful runs on the Autry main stage, and elsewhere.
“It was about 10 years ago that I started submitting my work to Native Voices,” Gomez said. “‘Carbon Black’ was accepted into the Playwrights’ Retreat and we started to develop the script. I trusted the people I was working with and the changes really made the play better.”
“Terry Gomez was very tenacious about developing ‘Carbon Black,’” Reinholz said. “It was fascinating to see the play come together and we had two stunning Native actresses (Carmelo and Tousey) to build the show on.”
Carmelo was involved in Native Voices’ first production “Jump Kiss,” and returned to work in “Carbon Black.” “What Native Voices does is very unique,” she said. “They develop Native plays and playwrights as well as create professional opportunities for Native actors.”
Native Voices also sponsors the Young Native Voices Theater Education Project, which is designed specifically to train the next generation of theater artists and provide opportunities for young writers to explore their culture through theater. The project pairs Native youth with professional mentors for intensive playwriting and theater workshops, culminating in a public reading of their plays. The project has produced dozens of new plays written by Native youth.
“Natives are not very visible in theater, film or television,” Gomez said. “The stories that are told are often not told from our point of view. I realized early on that we have to write our own stories. We have a lot to share with the world. Our stories need to be told and it needs to come from us. We need to represent ourselves”
Thursday
Jul012010
Review: "The Good Woman of Setzuan" at Open Fist Theatre
Backstage.com
Reviewed by Hoyt Hilsman
JUNE 09, 2010
Bertolt Brecht's powerful parable of morality and human society, set in a fanciful version of the city of Szechuan, is marvelously realized by director Charles Otte and his talented ensemble of actors, musicians, and designers. Otte evokes the mysterious whimsy of Brecht's world while capturing the darkly political edge of Brecht's message.
The story is chock full of myth and metaphor, as three gods arrive in Szechuan in search of honesty and goodness, but find only evil, dishonesty, and greed. The one exception is Shen Te (Lauren Lovett), a prostitute who gives the gods shelter for the night. Recognizing her goodness, they give her money to buy a tobacco shop. But, in the world of Brecht, Shen Te's good fortune only makes her a target for the greed and selfishness of others—including the police, her customers, her landlady, and a host of others. Shen Te's solution is to reinvent herself as a forceful male cousin, Shui Ta, who can play the tough guy in the face on an onslaught of evil. However, Shen Te's problems are compounded when she falls in love with an unemployed mail pilot, Yang Sun (Benny Wills), who exploits her for his selfish ends.
Brecht was a firmly convinced Marxist, but the play relies more on metaphor than dogma, and provides many more questions than answers about the nature of evil in human society. At the play's end, Brecht asks the tough question: Can humans be both good and rich? Or, as he puts it on a grander scale: Can we change human nature, or must we change human society?
Otte blends the performances, sets, costumes, and music into a richly textured pattern that brings this difficult piece into full bloom. Stellar performances by Lovett and Wills, along with Phillip William Brock, Katherine Griffith, Jan Monroe, Michael Franco, Becca Cousineau, Beth Robbins, Sarah Buster, Robert George, and the rest of the cast capture the essence of Brecht's character portraits. Sets by Richard Hoover, costumes by Christina Wright, and music direction by Dean Mora are wonderful additions to this intelligent, inspiring production.
Presented by and at the Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A. June 4-July 17. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m. (323) 882-6912. www.openfist.org.
Thursday
Jul012010
LA Weekly Award, Best Costume Design, "The Illusion"
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 11:19AM | in Awards, Theatre | Christina | Post a Comment | Share Article | Email Article 
Thursday
Jul012010
Getting Frankie Married -- and afterwards
A Curtain Up Los Angeles Review
It's unmistakably Horton Foote country where the people are conventional, the dialogue is everyday and yet you're spellbound by the intensity with which they live, the importance that permeates their trivial conversation. Debuting at The Open Fist Theater, "Getting Frankie Married-and Afterwards" is a masterpiece.
The Willis home in 1990 is comfortable but tasteless, home to Fred (John Lacy), the middle-aged son of Mrs. Willis (Judith Scarpone) whose father died when he was seven. It also houses Mae (Algerita Lewis), who tends Mrs. Willis with one eye on the bible and most of the time Frankie (Martha Demson) is there, the sweet 39-year-old girl who has been Fred's sweetheart since they were teen-agers.
The plot unwinds through the gossip of the three fates, Constance (Stephanie Erb), Laverne (Laura Richardson) and Isabel (Teresa Willis) — conventional married ladies who contrast vividly with Georgia Dale (Maia Madison) and husband S.P. (Jim Haynie). Georgia Dale is the marrying kind. S.P. is her third husband and she keeps an eye on him in a sharp acerbic way, timing his medications, taking him home when he starts to complain.
Fred is a stay-at-home son and protects Frankie, though she doesn't realize it, from the imperious Mrs. Willis. Everybody in the small town whispers that Frankie is Fred's common-law wife. Eveybody, too, gossips when Carlton Gleason (Bjorn Johnson) comes back to town, because Carlton is reputed to be Fred's daddy's son. Fred's daddy married Fred's mama hastily to avoid marryin' Carleton's mama. Now history repeats itself, as Fred is slapped by a breach of promise suit by young and lovely Helen Vaught (Laetitia Leon) and begs Frankie to marry him the next day.
She agrees in a dripping lace dress that's to die for, but the first act ends with Frankie screaming for Fred in the living room while his mother screams for him in the bedroom. It's a great first act curtain!
Act II, also a three-scener, whisks along to its climax. Fred has a middle-aged man's passion for Helen, two babies are born and the end is drenched in tears.
The beauty of Foote's plays is that he never condescends to his people. Fred, hogtied to his imperious mother, maintains through his stupidity a dignity and sweetness. He's forthright in his talks with Frankie. Frankie, a small-town conventional woman, also never loses her dignity. Mrs. Willis, an irascible old curmudgeon, is vulnerable in her fear of illness: "I don't want to lie in that bed helpless."
Martha Demson is lovable as Frankie and her outraged impassioned screams when Fred deserts her on her wedding day have all the power of received truth. John Lacy is an exasperating Fred, but understandable. Judith Scarpone is superb as Mrs. Willis, imperious one minute, childlike the next. It's a part that plays all the ends, one of the few Foote has written, and Scarpone makes the most of it. Jim Haynie as old S. P. is every inch the old man, bent, crippled and complaining. Let's hope someday Mr. Haynie gets a part with more range. He's partnered by an acerbic Maia Madison, dripping in jewels and well on her way to trap Carlton til Frankie stops her in her tracks.
Scott Paulin directs with a keen and sensitive eye to the nuances in Foote's plays. He never lets his fine cast go over the top and they're cast with care. James Spencer's scenic design catches Mrs. Willis's small town Texas living room with all its pomposity, complemented by Dan Reed's lighting design. Getting Frankie Married is another sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic instance of Mr. Foote finding the humanity in ordinary lives.
