A JOURNAL ABOUT THE ARTS WRITTEN BY PEOPLE OF COLOR

Archive for February, 2012|Monthly archive page

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CAPTURED AURAL PHANTASY THEATER: A COMIC BOOK LOVERS DREAM!

In Theater Arts on February 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm

by Angela Imperial

Staff Writer

pLAywriting in the city

As the band plays some rocking tunes, I sit tapping my foot to the music and take in the red velvet curtains as I eagerly await the performers of Captured Aural Phantasy Theater (CAPT) to take the stage. Captured Aural Phantasy Theater is an entertaining group of actors, dancers, and musicians who bring comic books, some as far back as the 1940’s, to life. CAPT shows often have a holiday theme to them, the last show was the Valentine’s Day “Panorama of Love”, which featured original comics from the 1950’s, with titles like “I Joined a Teenage Sex Club” and “The Irresistible Lois Lane”. CAPT was originally started in the 1990’s by Ben Ziola and Ben Dickow in Chicago and made their way to Los Angeles in 2000. Ben Dickow continued CAPT’s mission to entertain audiences with a vaudeville style that can make anyone watching yearn for past times.

Captured Aural Phantasy Theater: “The pop culture variety show that would happen if Garrison Keilor, John Waters and Stan Lee all hooked up after a night of hard partying.”

After many years of commuting back to Chicago to perform and being unsure if he would be able to find a “group of actors who weren’t just interested in shameless self-promotion” here in Los Angeles, Ben Dickow was finally able to put together a multi-talented collective. The collective has performed throughout Los Angeles, including the Improv Olympic West in Hollywood and they also just completed a two year residency at Company of Angels. As Nicole Ortega, a member of CAPT for almost four years puts it “we are a family, we know each other’s strengths, we have fun and we really mesh well.” All of that is evident when the troupe is on stage and off. Many of them work on other projects together, and are close friends. That closeness creates a very welcoming environment for the audience. When it comes to the musical elements of the show they are led by the musical goddess Laurel Robinson Dickow, whose voice is sultry and sexy. Having a holiday theme to their show adds a certain element of thrill, knowing you usually only have one night to catch the show, you make it a point to get there. CAPT has a devoted fan base here in LA, me included. As a member of the audience, the excitement and intensity that the performers exude make for a delicious evening of light-hearted fun!

“The Valentine’s Day Panorama of Love” is one of CAPT’s holiday themed shows.

CAPT has found a rare formula that combines well known comic book heroes and obscure stories with the raw talent of several individuals who have fun while telling these stories. The theater company consists of thirteen devoted artists; the cast is incredibly talented and always impeccably dressed! The men are always in suits and the ladies add a touch of class with gowns that replicate the era they are portraying. They took a very original concept and have managed to turn it into a comedy filled orgy of singing, acting, simple props, and live music. All of these elements, combined with a lack of this kind of theater here in Los Angeles, create a perfect combination for the kind of troupe that will continue to bring amusement and laughter to audiences everywhere.

Although they have not set the date for their next show, you can find out when and where at capturedauralphantasy.com or on Facebook. This is a troupe that will grow and bring new ideas to their shows, and I look forward to watching these actors as well the show itself evolve! So in true vaudevillian style, next time they pass through your town be sure to get a ticket and hold on for an exciting night of humor that will make you say “Holy Birdhouse Batman!”

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Urban Theater Movement’s Disturbing “Short Eyes”

In Theater Arts on February 6, 2012 at 9:25 pm

by Angela Imperial

Staff Writer

pLAywriting in the city

“Off the gates!”

So begins the whirlwind journey that is “Short Eyes”, a play written by Miguel Piñero, and now beginning its six week extension at Los Angeles Theater Center (LATC). The play is being presented by Urban Theater Movement (UTM), a hip and motivated, “multicultural collective of artists dedicated to producing original, contemporary and classical works.“ They do just that in “Short Eyes”, with director (and artistic director of UTM) Julian Acosta leading the way, the cast and crew deliver an honest adaptation of a play produced for decades. It’s a story not for the lighthearted; it deals with a subject that can turn anyone’s stomach. “Short Eyes” is a term given to pedophiles, whose crimes are not tolerated by other inmates.

Donte Wince, Mark Rolston and Cris D’Annunzio in Short Eyes. Photo by Federico Mata

Piñero’s haunting tale of eight men serving time for various crimes, was originally written while Piñero himself was incarcerated at Sing Sing prison for armed robbery. Presented for the first time in a church in 1974, it soon made its way to Broadway and has been telling these men’s stories since.UTM is the first West Coast theater company in ten years that was given permission to produce it. The audience finds themselves in the jail recreation room where men stick together by ethnicity and their need to survive. When the character “Short Eyes” aka Clark Davis enters the story, the men bond over a mutual hatred and need to “make him pay” for his alleged crime, thus beginning the demise of the jail floor as well as an increase in some of the men’s desire for blood. Piñero delivers a gritty tale of raw emotion that leaves the audience questioning just who exactly has a right to decide a person’s fate.

Urban Theater Movement’s version at LATC is one that starts even before the actors come out on stage. Upon entering the theater you are immediately hit with bright lights and a stage that makes you feel as if you are the one being locked up. With graffiti on the walls and a tile “bathroom” in the corner you feel as if you really are in jail. Set designer Geronimo Guzman does an impeccable job of creating an environment that takes the audience to a place where one never wants to be: a cold and dirty prison. Once the play begins, it is a rollercoaster ride that takes you from laughing to squirming in your seats.

The cast does a tremendous job of making you forget they are acting. I found myself intrigued yet disgusted when the “short eyes” character Clark Davis, played by the disturbingly convincing Sean Escalante, was describing his conquests of little girls and his need for their attention. It made my skin crawl and one audience member walked out mid-monologue, slamming the theater door as she made her exit. The actors have an intense script to work with and all make artistic choices that leave you wondering if they themselves have spent time in prison. David Santana (Juan) gives a compassionate performance as he battles to keep his ground with the other inmates as “short eyes” attempts to befriend him. The comedic relief in the play is provided by Carl Crudup who plays Ice a lifelong inmate; he turns masturbation into monologue gold. All in all, the cast is an ensemble whose timing, talent, and bravery shines through and makes you embrace the characters completely no matter what crimes they may have committed.

“Short Eyes” is a play that has been around for years, providing people with insight to life behind bars. Miguel Piñero’s play is a story that resonates with prisoners and their family members everywhere. Urban Theater Movement has given new life to a group of men whose stories we’ve heard before because perhaps we know some of them, men who we may know as our uncles, fathers, and cousins. These are men struggling to live with dignity and who find respect only inside prison walls. “Short Eyes” should not be missed and with the show’s most recent extension you have five more weeks to catch this show…. GO!

Short Eyes written by Miguel Piñero and directed by Julian Acosta is now extended through March 11, 2012 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center. 514 South Sprint Street. Los Angeles, CA 90013. For more information about Urban Theater Movement, please visit their website at www.urbantheatremovement.com
 
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Angela Imperial began her love affair with the stage almost 20 years ago. She has worked with theater companies throughout L.A. & Orange County. Most recently: East LA Rep, Casa 0101, Watts Village Theater Company & Breath of Fire Latina Ensemble. Angela’s credits include: Frita Khalo in El Verde, Alma in Josefina Lopez’s When Nature Calls, Yolanda in Cherrie Moraga’s Heroes & Saints, Cecilia in Soldado Razo, Pvt. Lydia Jimenez and Angelica Rivera in Mel Nieves’ W.A.C. Iraq. Angela has written, directed and most recently produced “THE BOUT” for the 48 Hour Film Project-LA. She can also be seen in the webisode series No Kids No Cry and Police Chicks. Angela is very excited to begin a new chapter in her career with pLAywriting in the city!

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Meet Me @Metro Travels to Pasadena and East Los Angeles

In Theater Arts on February 1, 2012 at 6:13 am

by Fanny Garcia

Editor

pLAywriting in the city

Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez is the Artistic Director of Watts Village Theater Company and he is quite busy these days. He and his staff are planning their third Meet Me @Metro. I caught up with him recently and asked him some questions about this “interactive and trans-disciplinary theatrical journey” on Los Angeles’ public transportation system.

Guillermo, how does the City of Los Angeles inspire you? Los Angeles for me has always been a type of port. People dock here to recreate themselves or to become famous or to escape. I am sure there are many other cities that have these qualities but Los Angeles is the only city where I have lived where this is so. Ports are never static they move and change perpetually. Los Angeles never just is but rather is always becoming. I look around my City of Angels, and I see so many people who live in the world this city has created but not many of them have been able to become of the world. Our cars and gadgets keep us insulated perhaps protected, from others in the city. We have so much technology here, so much progress and achievement, but we also have a deep fear and shame in Los Angeles. It is this maelstrom of isolation that inspires me to fight with the only weapon I have any skill at wielding- the theater.

What is Meet Me @Metro? When did it begin? Meet Me @Metro is an interactive, trans-disciplinary theatrical journey for both incidental and traditional audiences. It takes place aboard and around the Los Angeles

Metro Rail Transit System. Meet Me @Metro is our unique attempt to bring live performance to people who would otherwise not be able to see it, and to coax traditional theater-goers out of the theater to places they my not go otherwise.

The seed for Meet Me @Metro came to me around 2005 after some interactions with both Watts youth who despite being in their late teens had never traveled outside a ten mile radius of their community and life long Angelinos who had never seen the Watts Towers. By 2006 Teeko Parran our Managing Director and Meropi Peponides our Associate Producer were writing the grants to make it happen.

What has been your most memorable experience in organizing Meet Me @Metro? I will tell you that what people say about never forgetting your first time is true. By the time Meet Me @Metro happened my head had been flattened by the amount of pats I had gotten from people who I had told about the project. So many people assumed that Metro’s gigantic bureaucracy would swallow us whole when we went to them with this crazy idea. But when I was standing in the Union Station tunnel hearing the music and seeing the crowd, I held my hands over my heart.

What do you want your audience to get out participating in Meet Me @Metro? At the most basic level I want people to get affordable, quality entertainment that also serves as a mechanism for expanding the ridership of Los Angeles’ Metropolitan Transit System. We need to get people out of their wheeled coffins!

It would be grand to have a transient community that will form around a theatrical exploration of our cities transportation system.  For the routine commuter, I hope that when they comes across Meet Me @Metro they gain a new perspective on and a deeper connection to the Metro through a positive and unique experience. We want to reinforce the message that art lives everywhere, and with us all. The people who witness art forming are as much a part of the process as the ones who craft it.

What type of artists are you looking for to perform at Meet Me @Metro? The type of artist that we are looking for to be a part of Meet Me @Metro is one who can handle the heat of the sun as well if not better than the heat from stage lights- and if the artist has a rail pass and a sense of humor that helps.

Why did you choose to do the event on the Gold Line this year? The real point with Meet Me @Metro is to highlight secreted and segregated communities.

The theme this year is “Uncovering Los Angeles’ Hidden Treasures” and so as a Salesian [High School] boy who romped around in Boyle Heights and made East LA a second home, it was important for me to be able to bring people from outside the community to see the rich culture that exists around the Gold Line.

Another factor that excited me was the high concentration of museums and performance venues around the Gold Line, it is by far the most performance friendly rail line we have been on.

Where do you want to go next year?Watts Village Theater Company (and I personally) only move our art in one direction and that is up. If we cannot make each Meet Me @Metro better than the last we are in trouble.

When Meet Me @Metro was first conceived it was called Meet Me @the Metro and it was to be a festival model where multiple companies performed simultaneously along all of the Metro rail lines during the course of a weekend and where people walked around with iPods that audience would load with a designed soundscape that included music, narration and sound cues. The audience would plan their own adventure and would embark on a type of self-guided tour. This is the direction where we are headed next year.

Meet Me @Metro (M3-III) performances will take place sometime between June and September, 2012 for four performances on Saturdays and Sundays all day. Watts Village Theater Company is currently seeking solo performers, theater companies and musicians for the event. You can submit an application here.

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