Auntie Mame comes to San Miguel
By Shari Kosson

Theater
Mame
Mon, Feb 9, 8pm
200 pesos, opening night 
Tue–Sat, Feb 10–14, 8pm
Sun, Feb 15, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Relox 50A
150 pesos

The classic Broadway musical Mame, opening February 9 for a seven-night run, boasts a large cast of talented singers and actors, some veterans of the San Miguel stage, others new. Among the newcomers is 11-year-old Max Lazen.

 His interpretation of the character Patrick is sure to steal the hearts of the audience. Late last summer, the Lazen family left their New York City life in search of new friends, a new culture, a new language and whatever unpredictable experiences a routine-turned-upside-down might produce.

They certainly did not expect to find themselves in a revival of Broadway’s Mame, a comedy of manners set in the Art Deco-stylings of depression-era New York and populated by the familiar bohemians and stuffed shirts they had so recently left behind.

Apparently, leaving home is not as simple as it sounds.

It began with 11-year old Max auditioning for the role of young Patrick, Mame’s orphaned nephew. Max’s parents, Mark and Catherine, knew Max had the talent to succeed. It was on display every time he belted out sequences from High School Musical around the dinner table. He hewed to every melodic twist and milked every line for its emotion and humor.

Max brought a secret weapon to the audition as well: The movie Auntie Mame (Rosalind Russell, not Lucille Ball) is the Lazens’ all-time favorite movie. Max needed no special preparation for his try-out. He already knew that Mr. Babcock’s martini must be stirred, not shaken, and how to use the expression “hung over” properly in a sentence.

His 12-year-old brother Jacob was brought on board to play the role of Patrick for alternate performances. In 2007, Jacob played Tiny Tim in a version of Scrooge staged by New York’s Village Light Opera Group. He is an inveterate showman whose talents include spinning plates and master-level yo-yo tricks. He refuses to learn to juggle—he feels it’s undignified.

Having found such talent in the Lazen brothers, the producers turned to their parents to fill out other roles, believing that such apples could never fall far from the tree. Mark and Catherine jumped at the chance to be in the cast.

Catherine, who plays the role of Pegeen Ryan, founded two New Jersey-based nonprofit organizations that empower people through education and arts-based vocational training. Presently, as Director of Development she is helping Colegio Los Charcos School realize its vision for social and environmental leadership within the community. She works to bring resources to the school and she raises funds for a scholarship program for girls who live at Casa Hogar Santa Julia.

Mark plays Patrick as an adult. An amateur musician and singer, Mark is excited, and a tad nervous, about performing without a guitar to hide behind. Mark is also an essayist, screenwriter, humorist and the creator of the blog Only Sayin’ (http://onlysayin.com). In his “free time,” he is the chief technical officer for the online media company Social Media Today.

The youngest Lazen, eight-year old Evelyn, will be a backstage assistant. All agree she is the true talent in the family.

Joining the Lazens in Mame will be Judy Marzulli in the title role; Cindy Wilkinson McMullen as Agnes, the dowdy but loveable nanny; Susan Neubeck as Vera, the heavy-drinking first lady of the stage; Don Connolly as the charming plantation owner Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside; along with talented actors and singers Dick Avery, Kokila Byrne, Vera Campbell, Clara Dunham, Barbara Mullady-Rinder, Gordon Schwabacker and Edward Simpson. Narissa Ferrer directs, Liz Stone is music director and Liliana Gutierrez will be the pianist. 

Brings out the worst in people
By Geoff Hargreaves

Theater
Glenda Garry Glenda Ross
Tues, Feb 17, dress rehearsal, 8pm
50 pesos
Wed–Sat, Feb 18–21, 8pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

Glenda Garry Glenda Ross opens for a dress rehearsal February 17, and runs through Saturday. Bill Gallacher’s adaptation of David Mamet’s famous (or infamous) satire on the real estate industry, Glengarry Glen Ross, appeared on Broadway in the eighties and was later made into a film starring Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey and Alex Baldwin. The title refers to a real-estate development in Florida, and has been modified slightly to recognize the all-female slant.

The original play was grittily grounded in realism, but it did push the envelope of credible human behaviour. With women, the envelope will be stretched even further. Although you would be unlikely ever to find women talking and acting the way Mamet’s men do, it is conceivable that given sufficient pressure they might, and because of the playwright’s mastery of dialogue, the situations and conflicts remain believable. The actors have tremendous opportunities to assume roles they will unlikely ever be asked to perform again. We have a great pool of talented women actors here.


Glengarry Glen Ross won awards as a dramatic tour-de-force and Al Pacino was nominated for an Oscar in the film adaptation. The play was revived on Broadway in 2005, and enjoys enduring popularity.

Why stage it here, now? According to director Gallacher, the current economic crisis, particularly as it affects real estate brokers, adds a special poignancy and relevancy to the subject matter. The time setting has been moved to the near future, where the financial strains of a very bad economy have brought out the absolute worst in people. Regardless of time or place, the play remains a riveting drama, tightly constructed and masterfully resolved.

The talented cast includes Cleo Kamelhar, Crystal Calderoni, Kokila Byrne, Teresa Pipes, Kim Powell and Naomi Lawler. The opportunity to stage the production came up suddenly, so the cast had little time to get totally memory-conversant with the lines. The drama is so intense, however, that the audience is unlikely to be bothered by this format.

Glengarry Glen Ross has been criticized for its excessive profanity. But the crudeness of the language reflects the crudeness of the behaviour and in a strange way lends a rhythmic cadence to the vitriolic exchanges. The famous Alex Baldwin movie scene, which was not part of the original stage production, has been included in this adaptation.

An evening of three plays 
By Dianne Leger

Theater
War of the Roses
Fri–Sat. Feb 6–7, 8pm
Sun, Feb 8, 5pm 
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
150 pesos

Players Workshop concludes its successful 10-day run with the final three performances this weekend. The evening begins with two short plays by Christopher Durang, well known for his outrageous and often absurd comedy. First is Mrs. Sorken, directed by Tim Johnson. Mrs. Sorken is a delightfully dotty and overly articulate character who welcomes the audience and shares with them her likes and dislikes of the theater, her views on the meaning of life, and tells them what they can expect “this evening.”

Next, Naomi in the Living Room, directed by Rudy Hornish, explores the absurd relationship not only between mother and son but mother and daughter-in-law, too. This laugh-out-loud comedy surprises with a combination of the unexpected and a biting touch of realism.

War of the Roses, by celebrated playwright Lee Blessing, is the main attraction of the program. Not to be confused by the movie of the same name, though they both share an intense investigation into married life, the play by Blessing is a straightforward portrayal of a couple at the crossroads. Though a drama, War of the Roses, directed by Players Workshop veteran Lola Smith, is cut through with the humor born of two people who know each other better than they know themselves. It is a brew of words and behavior that drives the war between this couple to its final battle. The wreckage of marriage visible after the smoke has cleared is horrifying and yet somehow hopeful.

Lee Blessing, best known for his Pulitzer- and Tony-nominated A Walk in the Woods, fills Roses with crisp dialog and keen repartee. It’s a compelling story of two people in love, but estranged, and builds to a fierce, riveting and surprising climax.

Tickets can be purchased Friday and Saturday in the Biblioteca patio, 10:30am–1:30pm, at the theater box office, 4–7pm, and at the door after 7pm on performance evenings.

The existential question 

Theater
Antiespectaculo #3
Iguana Festival de Artes
Tue, Feb 17 & 24, 8pm
Avenida Independencia 82
100 pesos, includes beverage
80 pesos, Mexican students

Deisy Preciche, 26, performs in Spanish and English at Iguana Festival de Artes. She was born in Mexicali and started in scenic arts five years ago with the intention to serve her people doing what she loves: communicating.

She started her career with the scenic arts group La Bicicleta from Baja California. When the director died in 2007, she re-premiered, as his tribute, La mujer loba esta sola by Alejandro Licona in La Casa de Cultura Ignacio Mena of Querétaro. This monologue enjoyed 106 shows in May of 2006 in Centro Estatal de las Artes of Baja California.

“I arrived in San Miguel three months ago with the existential question in my mind: to be or not to be an actress? (laughs). Before my first month in La Ermita ranch near this wonderful city, I was already in my second show in El Chai coffee shop, thanks to Arleta, who invited me to perform on her alternative forum. I’m thankful because life and the people of San Miguel gave me clues to recognize myself in the right path: the theater and its charms.”

Preciche is the only Mexican actress in the Iguana Festival de Artes now playing in two of its productions: Central Park West and Antiespectaculo #3.

“It’s a challenge working in another language. Alan Jordan in Central Park West

by Woody Allen gives me the opportunity in English; my partners are talented and

have a lot of experience. I’m learning from them to share with the audience. I have many expectations in the Spanish play Antiespectáculo #3, because it’s a fun play that contains two monologues: La mujer loba esta sola and a brand new act written years ago by my teacher and friend Ramon Tamayo.

“I’m content because the dreams I shared with Ramon are coming true. Thus, my new friend Pablo Jaime, an artist of 30 years, is helping me re-stage this play. San Miguel is a place of encounters, so I hope its people enjoy this experience as much as I will. Support us by showing up and not let language be an obstacle to share our feelings.”

An English synopsis will be in the program. See website www.theatersanmiguel for times and dates. Reserved tickets are available at their box office, Casa Canal 3 (entrance to Starbucks).

Cast snared in Deathtrap 

Theater
Deathtrap
Tue, Feb 24, 8pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A

Willowbend Productions announces the stellar cast for the production of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway. Tom King, Irene Diamant, Juan Carlos Vincourt, Azzah Mannikoy and Dennis Pipes will thrill, delight and give you unlimited laughs in this Tony Award winner praised by Jack Kroll in Newsweek, “Deathtrap is like a ride on a good roller-coaster when screams and laughs mingle to form an enjoyable hysteria!” Walter Kerr of The New York Times said Deathtrap is, “An absolute knock-out of melodrama and fun straight through.”

Levin split his considerable energies between the theater and novels. He penned the fifties military comedy No Time for Sergeants, the novel Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil and Sliver. The books were adapted to films that were, more often than not, camp masterpieces. Rosemary’s Baby was an exception. Under the direction of Roman Polanski, the story of an unsuspecting young woman (Mia Farrow) who gives birth to the spawn of Satan was rendered into a 1968 film of hypnotic, creeping dread, well in keeping with the political and cultural paranoia of the time.

Stephen King once described Levin as “the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels. He makes what the rest of us do look like cheap watchmakers in drugstores.”

Broadway performer, writer and producer Michael Whaley, the author of the new mystery novel Murder at 8 and director of San Miguel hits The Diary of Anne Frank and Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, says, “Do not miss this incredibly talented, star-studded cast in the play that is the most anticipated theatrical production this year.”