Friends on Stage

I didn’t have a chance to write these up before our recent spring break camping trip, so I figured I had better just combine them and write something fairly quick. I went to see both of these plays because friends were performing, and I generally try to come out and support my friends if I can. These plays were vastly different, and thus a great contrast. 

 

The Addams Family (Bakersfield High School)

 

This one featured our longtime family friend, Selah Gradowitz. Our families have known each other since our oldest kids were both infants, so we remember when Selah was born. (Sorry, Selah, that’s how us old folks are, and probably how you will be someday…) 

 

Selah played the role of Wednesday Addams, the moody, macabre, and strong willed daughter. I’m not sure if she had to actually act, or if she was, as Buck Owens sang, “Acting naturally.” Just kidding. Selah was electric, and owned her scenes. She has a great singing voice - and as a fellow musician, I mean that - and, despite being of small stature, projected her voice and emotions easily to the entire theater. I’m possibly biased, but I felt so proud of her. She has serious talent. I should also note that her pitch was as good as I have heard in professional productions, and she didn’t go flat on the long notes. (15 seconds - she told me…) 

 

In general, by the standards of high school productions, this was well done, with a lot of talented and well prepared high schoolers. I will give particular props to Ruben Garcia who brought gravitas and sensitivity to the role of Gomez, Naomi Orozco-Luna for her impressive dance moves and simmering rage as Morticia, Everett Anderson for his goofy humor as Fester. Also, a mention of Vlle Gutierrez, child of other friends of ours, in her first stage role (flapper ancestor) for great physical acting in a mostly silent role. 

Selah is in the yellow dress, center right.

 

It has been a few weeks since we saw it, so I know I am not doing justice to the various great moments. Everyone involved should be proud of themselves. Both young people and teachers are a real credit to our community. 

 

20th Century Blues (Bakersfield Community Theater)

 

I am friends with Sofia Reyes (Mac) and Jan Hefner (Sil), and my wife is friends with Cathy Henry (Bess) - all of whom are local theater regulars. The cast was rounded out by the delightful Julie Gaines, who is reliably awesome in any role; Jacquie Thompson-Mercer, one of the finest comedic actors in our town; and Jordan Fulmer, who has mostly played delicious villains, but in this play surprises as a mensch. 

 

This play was written by Susan Miller - not to be confused with the astrology columnist, but the award-winning playwright, actor, and screenwriter. This is a very recent play, set in 2018, so the cultural references are, well, pretty on point. 

 

This is one of those plays where not much actually happens in the action, but a lot happens in the psyches of the characters. It takes place (except for the prologue and epilogue, given as statements to a Ted Talk audience by Danny (Julie Gaines), and thus fits the Classical Unities. Whether it is a tragedy or not is an open question. One might even say that that question is inseparable from the question of whether life itself is a tragedy, a comedy, or something else altogether. 

 

The central action of the plot revolves around a group of four women who met after being arrested at a protest in the 1960s. Danny, an artist, took a photograph of the four of them at the time, and they have remained friends - and taken a follow up photo every year in the forty years since. This year was to be the final year, and all of them were to be part of an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. Except that two of the women are having second thoughts. 

 

This exhibit idea seems pretty obviously based on The Brown Sisters, by Nicholas Nixon, which he took of his wife and her sisters over a similar 40 year period. I discovered the series when it came out in 2014, and I must say, it is a truly amazing work of art, and a profound visual depiction of aging and how we respond to it. 

 

From this impetus, the play explores the lives and insecurities of the characters. Sil (Hefner) is a realtor who believes she relies on her looks - and her appearance of youthful vigor - to make a living, so she is worried that pictures of her looking “old” will inhibit her ability to earn her living. Mac, the investigative journalist who is being phased out as old media dies, isn’t entirely comfortable with being made an exposé like she has done to others. Only Gabby, played as a daft new-ager by Thompson Mercer, is totally down with the plan. 

 

Much interpersonal drama ensues, and nothing is truly resolved. Written differently, this could have been a pretty vicious play. As it is, there are some harsh things said, and some feelings bruised. But Miller stops before things get mean-spirited. Whether this makes the play better or worse has been the subject of debate among critics. 

 

While this is going on, there is a subplot involving Danny’s mother, who is suffering from dementia, and the life changes that have ensued. Also in the mix is Danny’s son Simon, a thoroughly decent young man who seems to have a special bond with his grandmother. If you want to look for a truly heartwarming part of the play, here it is. Cathy Henry is thoroughly convincing as the benignly benighted old lady, and all of the characters respond to her with admirable human decency. The only disconcerting part of this was seeing Jordan Fulmer playing against type. After so many turns as a villain, there was a brief cognitive dissonance. (Jordan, you were great - I’m just giving you a hard time.) 

 

The best thing about this play, for me, was the nuanced and believable acting. I’m not a Boomer woman, and a lot of the events of the characters’ youths are things that are history to me, not something lived. The dialogue seemed a bit forced as written, at least in places, but the actors really sold it well. They inhabited their characters, and that made it real. 

Jan Hefner, Cathy Henry, Jacquie Thompson-Mercer

Julie Gaines, Jordan Fulmer

 Julie Gaines, Jan Hefner, Sofie Reyes, Jacquie Thompson-Mercer

***

 

I was glad I was able to go see these productions, and I must say that I love what my friends did with their characters. Bakersfield has a vibrant arts and theater scene, and this starts with the many teachers who inspire and assist the future generations in finding their voice, and learning the craft of communicating the truth that can only be told through fiction.