MY TOP FIVE SHOUT OUTS FOR FESTIVAL SHOWS IN 2017
No complaints about
being on the road checking out theatre and artists for my theatre. I’ve
gone to more than a few festivals this year and there were some pretty
evocative pieces being presented out in the world. They deserve a shout out for their craft,
their soul and, their heart.
The theatre
experience is a very personal one, and a work can hit me in a very different
way than the stranger next to me. These
pieces were unexpectedly cathartic and I will be forever grateful for them
affecting me in such a wonderfully profound way. They brought me joy, delight, sadness, fear
and always hope.
I’ll start with
number five.
5. A SOLO DOCUMENTARY
SHOW THAT TOYS WITH FICTION
TIJUANA by Largatijas
Tiradas Al Sol performed at the Noorderzon Festival in Groningen, Holland.
The piece was
positioned as a documentary that followed an actor posing as working class
stiff moving to Tijuana and working for minimum wage. Could he do it? Was he scared of being recognized or
discovered? How much sacrifice did he have to make? The story is harrowing. And, in the end, you never really find out if
this was true or if it was a fiction.
Was this a company member playing an actor doing a documentary, or was
this a true story? It’s ingenious and
Los Angeles audiences will be able to see it in January at the Skirball Center
presented by REDCAT. https://www.redcat.org/festival/lagartijas
4. AN AMERICAN STORY
IN POLISH
THE SECRET LIFE OF
THE FREIDMAN’S produced by Ludowy Theatre/
presented at The Divine Comedy Festival in Krakow, Poland.
The play is based on
the documentary film by the same name that explores the accusation and eventual
conviction of Arnold Freidman and his son, Jesse, who were accused of molesting nearly 17 young
school children, mostly boys during a computer class over the course of time in
their home in an affluent neighborhood in Great Neck, New York. Again, at the end of the piece, you have no
idea if this father and son were actually innocent or guilty. The audience travels to nearly 10 different locations
within a three story building as the story unfolds. Each location is carefully designed to set it
in a bedroom, a living area, a courtroom, a classroom, a jail cell, a police
station, etc. You are never more than
six feet away from the actors. It is
riveting and the art direction is quite effective.
3. A PLAY ABOUT THE DISSILLUSIONMENT OF A REVOLUTION
10 MILLIONES performed
by Cuba’s Argos Teatro, and presented at El Encuentro, a Festival of Latin
American work at The Los Angeles Theatre Center.
This autobiographical
story, is told through the point of view of a boy who is stuck in the middle of
his warring parents who separate right after the Cuban revolution. The mother sides with Fidel, the father does
not. The piece is about
disillusionment, abandonment, the loss of love and country. I sobbed after it was over. It’s about all of us who have believed in a
social movement, dedicated our lives to it only to feel betrayed and abandoned
by its very ideals, and in the end maybe
we betray ourselves. I cried in the arms
of a stranger, a Cuban exile. We found at that moment much common ground.
2. A TOTAL SUBMERSIVE 30 MINUTE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE
THE WAKING OF LA
LLORONA by Optika Moderna/David Israel Reynosa presented by La Jolla Playhouse
for THE WOW FESTIVAL.
Clocking in at only 30 minutes, this “individual multi-sensory
experience” takes you through five plus locations within an old factory. Each location has us meet up with characters
who have lost a child. Art directed
within an inch of its life, there were moments I was not sure what to expect.
It was like walking through a horror move.
But I trusted curator Meiyin Wang to keep me safe. Kudos go to her on her first venture as
curator of this festival. It was a
smashing success.
1.
A
THEATRE PIECE MADE BY FILMAKERS
COLD BLOOD by Jaco
Van Dormael and Michele Anne De Mey at Noorderzon Festival, Groningen, Holland
This was a series of
vignettes on love. It was in Flemish so
I didn’t understand a word and yet it delighted me to no end. I laughed and was surprised at the loveliness
and delicacy of the piece. I sat there
wishing every audience member at my theatre could see this work and be re-inspired
about the wonders of the theatre. The
manipulation of hands to look like human beings as they romped around miniature
sets that were filmed and then projected on a big screen left me
awestruck. The cast was huge which made
it nearly impossible to bring to the US but in my dreams I’ll one day have the
budget to bring something like this to the USA for all to be entertained with
light and joy.
