By Shari Barrett
Based on Frank Wedekind’s controversial 1891 expressionist play and featuring an electrifying score by Duncan Sheik and Steven Slater, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Spring Awakening follows the lives of a group of teenagers as they navigate their journey from adolescence to adulthood in a fusion of morality, sexuality, and rock & roll. Directed by former East West Players Artistic Director Tim Dang, the musical addresses fraught relationships between parents and their children who must navigate the outside world without guidance about the challenges they will face. Music Director Marc Macalintal conducts the onstage 8-piece band who rock the score.
All the adult roles are played by stage and screen actors Daniel Blinkoff and the luminous Tamlyn Tomita making her East West Players stage debut. The tale begins with Wendla questioning her mother about where babies come from, pleading with “Mama Who Bore Me” to tell her the truth. But her mother struggles with the facts and ultimately tells the innocent girl that a married couple love each other in a special way to create babies. This scene foreshadows how her mother’s hiding the truth is going to lead to trouble for Wendla and Melchior (perfectly cast triple-threat performers Mia Sempertegui and Thomas K. Winter) when the two turn to each other to find love and physical connection, just to feel “The Word of Your Body.” These two actors are to be commended for their honest and intense portrayals of these troubled teens seeking solace with each other.
Of course, they are not the only troubled teens. Melchior’s school chum Moritz (intensely wondrous Marcus Phillips) has been hit the hardest by puberty, unable to take his mind of girls and sex or his hands off himself. But with no sex education to assist him with understanding what is going on (this was written in 1891 after all), his buddy Melchoir offers to write out a description from literature to assist Moritz with grasping the normality of his situation. But when school officials get their hands on it, Melchior faces his own undoing just for telling the truth.
Moritz knows his father expects him to excel at school, but when school officials decide not to promote him, Moritz falls apart and takes drastic measures to relieve the disappointment he feels in life. His friends Martha (exquisite singer Sarah Marie Hernandez), who suffers brutal physical punishment from her father, and Ilse (lithe Madison Grepo), a dropout who now models at an “artists’ community,” sing the haunting duet “The Dark I Know So Well” about dealing with adults abusing them and feeling there is nothing they can do to stop it. Unfortunately, Ilse turns to Moritz for help a bit too late, and it isn’t pretty what step he takes to end his pain.
Along with those already mentioned, kudos go to the entire cast, including ensemble members Jaylen Baham as Georg, James Everts as Otto, CJ Cruz as Ernst, Justine Rafael as Thea, Evan Pascual as Hänschen, and Leianna Weaver as Anna, who navigate the heart-wrenching tale of lost innocence with thoroughly honest emotions to keep you engaged in what happens from start to finish. Blessed with sharp, energetic choreography by Preston Mui and brilliant, quick-paced direction by Tim Dang, the ensemble stays onstage throughout the entire production arranging set pieces and offering emotional support to others. And technical wizardry abounds!
East West Players’ not-to-be-missed Spring Awakening is presented at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center of the Arts at 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles 90012 in Little Tokyo through November 19 on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and 5 p.m. performances on Sunday. Ticket prices start at $39, available at eastwestplayers.org or by calling (213) 625-7000. At time of purchase please mention any wheelchair/accessible seating needs. A Pay-What-You-Can performance is scheduled for Monday, November 6 at 8 p.m., with an ASL interpreted performance on Saturday, November 18 at 8 p.m. featuring interpretation provided by Pro Bono ASL. Please note, the show contains dark themes, brief nudity, adult sexual content and language.
The World Premiere of Grant Gottschall’s Dog Door, is directed to perfection by Genny Wilson and produced for NEO by David St. James and Grant Gottschall, I was able to attend on closing weekend in the 42-seat McCadden Place Theatre in Hollywood, and it was a funny, smart, and ultimately moving play about the importance of working together as a team, acceptance of yourself and others, and the power of telling your own story truthfully. Centering on five seemingly random dogs who find themselves in a room with only one way out, they must learn to work as a team and bond together as a pack for the dog door keeping them locked inside to open.
Fortunately for the others, a sixth dog, Stella, a former military K-9, is there to help them work on telling their own stories to accept each other’s past and find out how they can possibly bond and work together. But just as they begin to organize, an uncontrollable, foul-smelling non-verbal stray named Happy joins them, throwing the group into chaos. So how will these canines discover the one thing that unites them so they get out of there? Although at first it seems this must be a very strange doggie daycare center and the dog door opening will release them back to their owners, as the story evolves it becomes clear exactly what the big deal is about getting the dog door to open and just what’s on the other side.
“This play is a love letter to every dog I’ve ever known, met, or petted,” says Playwright Grant Gottschall. “As our closest non-human friends, they enrich our lives immeasurably. With Dog Door, I want to honor their spirit and reflect on how their behavior, needs, and emotions intersect with our own.”
Blessed with a talented cast who perfectly became each of their canine characters were Jerry Weil as the high-class, intelligent, and uber masculine King Rex the Standard Poodle; Sheila Sawhny as Stella the German Shepherd who knows her purpose is to keep the dogs in line as they learn to work together; effervescent Moira Rogers as the hyper stray Happy; Alexis C Martino as the curious Golden Retriever Lily; Ernie Silva as Bogie the stray who knows how important it is to work as a pack but lacks the motivation to really be its leader; and Jason Paul Evans as tough guy Bubba Joe the mostly Rottweiler who sees himself as the group’s protector and picks a fight with King Rex to see who is more macho. Kudos to fight choreographer LeQuan Bennett for staging the fight so realistically, and to Evans athletic ability to get thrown into flips over dog beds.
I enjoyed this 70-minute play so much, I hope it finds a new home in the future to reach a bigger, dog-loving audience who no doubt will see their own beloved companions’ true nature on display. For more information about NEO Ensemble Theatre visit https://www.neoensembletheatre.org/
Culver City High School’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) Program is presenting The Laramie Project, a play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the town’s reaction to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The murder was denounced as a hate crime and brought attention to the lack of hate crime laws in various states, including Wyoming. Due to its sensitive subject matter, it’s the most banned play in high school productions. But CCUSD never has and continues to not back away from difficult subjects that may stir controversy, as evidenced by being the first high school in the country to present David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face in 2021.
The Laramie Project. is being presented on November 2-4 at 7 p.m., and November 5 at 2 p.m., at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd, Culver City 90232. Each performance will be followed by a community conversation with community members from the arts, LGBTQ+, and CCUSD. $25 general admission tickets can be purchased at https://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/kirk-douglas-theatre/guest-productions/the-laramie-project/
