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the year in
review Let's face it: most of the theater produced in 1999 wasn't very good. And ain't that just the way of the world? It's true in music (think Kid Rock); it's true with movies (remember "The Mod Squad"?). So why should theater be so spesh? Most of what I saw onstage in 1999 was mediocre, some was, well, just downright awful. But the cream always rises to the top, and being the positive, life-affirming individual that I am, that's what I'm guzzling on here. Grade AAA all the way. And, except when I am forced to by the ruthless, cynical editors of other publications, I like to avoid ranking an apple above an orange, and vice versa. Appropriately then, I have thoughtfully arranged my faves this year in the order of the Gregorian calendar; i.e., the month in which I saw them. My congrats and admiration to all involved with the following; keep it real in 2k! February: "How I Learned To Drive" (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles) -- Playwright Paula Vogel crafted a daring and delicate tango in this PC age with her Pulitzer prize-winning look at the incestuous relationship between teenage Li'l Bit and her Uncle Peck. Staged like jagged shards of memory pulled from a dark corner of the brain by director Mark Brokaw, this graceful, fluid production was highlighted by the riveting Brian Kerwin as Uncle Peck. February: "Barrio Everyman" (Alternative Repertory Theater, Santa Ana) -- ART marked its much-anticipated, much-delayed re-opening in Santa Ana's fledgling Artists' Village with this commissioned teatro treat from playwright Roy Conboy. Conboy's Latinized updating of the medieval passion play was brought to spunky life by director Laurie T. Freed and her spirited cast, including Tracy Merrifield, Frank Romeo and Lorena Ramirez. March: "Blue Window" (Vanguard Theatre Ensemble, Fullerton) -- Though I never understood why they stuck in that intermission that cleaved Craig Lucas' one-act into two, this very solid and intelligent staging of lost Manhattan souls passing in the age of miscommunication reduced a potential big gaffe to a minor transgression. Director Erin Saporito's sure, strong hand never wavered in maintaining cohesion and focus with this difficult play. March: "Defying Gravity" (Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa) -- Any play that features French Impressionist Claude Monet in orbit brings with it a certain level of challenge. Director John Ferzacca and his mostly very nubile cast discovered the complexities within the simplicity of Jane Anderson's soaring elegy to breaking our earthly bonds in this Southern California premiere. April: "'Tis Pity She's A Whore" -- (Rude Guerrilla Theater Company, Santa Ana) -- When that bloody beef heart hurled by a cast member skidded to a stop near my feet in this gnarly production of John Ford's 17th Century gore fest, I knew all at once that Orange County theater would never be the same. And was I glad! Rude G helped solidify its growing reputation as Orange Countys most visionary small theater with this unflinching, in-ya-face presentation of incest, treachery, and about six gallons of stage blood. April: "The Fever" (Fritz Theater, San Diego) -- Karin Williams' staging of Wallace Shawn's one-person meditation on the trials and travesties of class guilt in the Fritz's little brick-lined cavern in the Gaslight District was grassroots theater at its finest. Her choice of adding three mute dancers to punctuate and counterpoint Bryan Bevell's sweaty angst was truly inspired. May: "Six at Eight" (West Coast Ten-Minute Play Festival at the Vanguard Theatre) -- Like the dorky-looking girl next door who blossoms into a beautiful woman, Jill Forbath Roden's annual short play fest came of age in 1999 with the freshest and most challenging collection of short plays I saw anywhere in Orange County. As colleague Mark Jonas noted in his review, seeing winner Caridad Svich produced on an O.C. stage was a "little like bumping into Emiliano Zapata down at the Claim Jumper." June: "Chesapeake" (New York Stage and Film, Vassar College) -- Described by director Max Mayer as being "like the most entertaining, talented member of the...tribe...telling a story to the group" Lee Blessing's brilliant symphony for one was nothing short of transcendent in its breathtaking exploration of art, politics, religion, and a dog named Lucky. November: "Deviant Craft" (Cal State Fullerton) -- As far as a complete immersion into pure theatricality, there was simply nothing quite like this interactive anarchy from playwright W. David Hancock. Flawed, brilliant, chaotic, vulnerable, director Terry Walcutt's realization of Hancock's passionate exploration of the fragile yet resilient nature of the human spirit was unrivaled in 1999 in maximizing the unique power of live theater. December: "Six Degrees of Separation" -- (Cal State Fullerton) -- A finely-polished comic sheen is only one layer of several working simultaneously in John Guare's resonant examination of the social, racial and monetary degrees that both bind and separate us. Director Dean Hess had everyone tuned to the same frequency in this extraordinary mounting of what will certainly go down as one of the great plays of the 1990s. |