By Shari Barrett
Rogue Machine is presenting the World Premiere of A Good Guy expertly written by David Rambo and brilliantly directed by John Perrin Flynn at the Matrix Theatre on Melrose. The play centers around Anna, a middle school Math teacher who has never wanted to do anything else. But when she uses her own gun to stop a school shooter from killing more kids, and the police question her as if she is just as guilty for bringing a gun to school, all sides of the issue on how to protect innocent students are brought into crystal clear focus without any judgement. Thus, it’s up to us to decide for ourselves, just as it is in real life – especially during this election year.
Director John Perrin Flynn has always encouraged Rogue Machine to “be looking for writers whose work helps us examine what is affecting our lives right now. We tend to grow inured to that which we feel we cannot change. Plays help us get inside these issues and can give us the ability to rethink.” And he hits the bullseye with this one!
The hot button issue of A Good Guy is gun violence, which is the leading cause of death in children in the United States. But how do you stop it from boiling over onto school campuses? Do schools have to be run like prisons to keep students safe? But what if the shooter is a student, or a former student out for revenge? Or what if a terrible situation at home causes a student to take his frustration and anger out at school? How can we stop it?
Whenever someone declares that the best way to stop a school shooter is to arm teachers, I can tell that they haven’t spoken to any teachers about it,” says playwright David Rambo. “Being part of a family of four generations of public-school teachers, I understand the balancing act that teachers perform daily between work and life at home. What happens in one arena inevitably impacts behavior in the other. Now add a gun to the equation, and my play begins.”
Rambo has written a remarkably relevant play inhabited by beautifully realized characters, featuring the effervescent Evangeline Edwards as middle school teacher Anna, whose military husband stationed overseas encourages her to get a gun to protect herself in their rural countryside home. But when he returns and tells her he is re-enlisting and wants a divorce, will Anna be able to handle her anger and grief appropriately? Wayne T. Carr portrays a Police Detective, a History teacher, Principal Douglas Blatchley, and Anna’s husband Michael. Each character is performed with their own individuality brought into focus with both speech patterns and physicality, as is done by Suzen Baraka as the Second Detective, Language Arts teacher, elementary teacher Ms. Wizner, the School District Superintendent, and a Lawyer who consults with Anna on the situation at school and in her marriage. These three talented actors keep the action moving at a quick pace, while arranging scenery and changing costume pieces, inside the 45-seat Henry Murray Stage upstairs at the Matrix Theatre.
After the action pushes you to consider who is really A Good Guy, Logan Leonardo Arditty enters the play as The Student who we heard about earlier during a lunchtime chat in the teachers’ lounge about his distracted behavior in class. And when the Language Arts teacher mentions how he wrote a well-thought-out essay about the Columbine shooting, was the other teachers’ worrying about his admiration of gun violence enough to alert the school about him when nothing had really happened? And two years later when he follows Anna home after seeing her in the market, what will it take to reassure Anna there is no reason to get her gun and be ready to protect herself?
The play offers a truthful examination of the complexities of choice and motivation that fuel our actions. Is there really a difference between right and wrong when it comes to gun ownership? Can you be A Good Guy with a gun in your hand? And what does it take to be A Good Guy when life throws you one too many emotional curve balls? And just how do we teach kids to deal with all that at a very young age?
Kudos to the entire production team for transforming such an intimate space onto several realistic locations, including Jan Munroe (Scenic Design), Christine Cover Ferro (Costume Design), Christopher Moscatiello (Sound Design), and Dan Weingarten (Lighting Design).
A Good Guy runs at 8 p.m. Mondays & Fridays; 5 p.m. Saturdays; and 7 p.m. Sundays through October 28 by Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, located at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles 90046. Street parking only; read street signs carefully. Tickets are $45 (Students $25 / Seniors $35) by calling 855-585-5185 or online at https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/a-good-guy Run time is approximately 75 minutes (no intermission).
Hot off acclaimed runs in Edinburgh, London, New York, and across North America, comedian Sam Morrison is now entertaining audiences with his tour-de-force performance in Sugar Daddy at The Wallis in Beverly Hills through October 13. It’s his very personal, no-holds-barred comedic look into the remarkable true story about love and loss that he never wanted to experience – and how he learned to deal with the ensuing grief through self-acceptance, personal growth, and creativity.
The play moves back and forth in time as Sam shares how on one summer night in the gay paradise of Provincetown, he met the sexy silver bear of his dreams, igniting a romance for the ages. But after quarantining together on an old family farm in upstate New York during the pandemic, Jonathan, the love of his life, tragically died from Covid, leaving Sam devastated. And just a few months later after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, the self-proclaimed “Stevia Wonder” realized the only way to cope was through comedy – live on stage – in front of thousands of strangers around the globe. Told with brutal honesty and very adult references to gay sex and the daily science experiment his life has become; Sugar Daddy has become so popular with sold-out houses around the country that it moves to Broadway after its run at The Wallis!
Even though such serious topics as dealing with deep-felt grief over the loss of a loved one, be it human or pet, and the challenge of living with Type 1 diabetes, Sam shares his wild ride packed with big belly laughs and small tender moments. A few stories that got the audience laughing included hearing about seagull attacks over Sam’s emergency raisin supply at the beach, which were more vicious than a New York mugger trying to steal his cell phone, to discussions about threesomes and steamy shower sex which sent Jehovah’s Witnesses running to their pamphlets. And all along the way, Sam reminds us that the only thing sweeter than laughter is love, however you are lucky enough to experience it.
Scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado includes a stage filled by a large mound with a front dimple for Sam to lean on as he shares his stories, which transforms into Jonathan’s large “bear belly,” the woods Sam loved to wander in, or the ocean waves the two lovers enjoyed watching together – all thanks to video and projection design by Alex Basco Koch and lighting design by Jennifer Schriever. Sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar adds to the reality of the locations Sam visits during his tales.
Sugar Daddy is presented by The Wallis, in association with Edgewood Entertainment, written by & starring Sam Morrison, and directed with immersive pizazz by Stephen Brackett. Producing partners include Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Billy Porter and his producing partner D.J. Gugenheim, and Tony and Olivier Award winner Alan Cumming. Performances continue at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. in Beverly Hills through October 13. Tickets run $39-$95, on sale at The Wallis box office, online at TheWallis.org, or by calling the box office at 310-746-4000 during weekdays. Please be advised along with lots of laughs, there is a barrage of explicit sexual language and mature subject manner, so leave the kids at home.
