Congrats to the whole cast - my friends David Pierini, Greg Alexander, and Sylvia Kwan; Carolyn Howarth who I've seen in tons of stuff but have never met, and Mayette Villanueva who's new to me. And of course, Joe Styron, who got great reviews ("excellently understated" and "endearing") and is my good friend, housemate and collaborator on Sacramentjoe. Joe's been at B Street for two and a half years, first as an intern then as an Artistic Associate. He's done roles in 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' & 'Rumpelstiltskin' and performed as an understudy for half a dozen roles, more than anyone else at B Street in the last few years. It's great to see him get a role like this and really shine in it. Congrats, Joe... maybe I'll read that sketch you sent me a year ago...
[More ramblings about theatre after the cut]
Jenny Chow the show has a girl genius, virtual reality and a robot. Oh, and Star Wars references. During the show I actually thought of this picture that I took at the PAX convention in Seattle (love that power glove):
There's lots to love in this show if you're a tech/gadget geek. But perhaps more than that, this show appealed to me as a theatre guy - I was reminded that there is nothing quite the same as experiencing live theatre with a full house of other theatregoers, enjoying the magic on stage. I know "magic" is often overused in this context, but it's really the best word. And theatre magic really has it over high tech movies, TV, videogames. And I've seen 'Avatar' three times now - but nothing in 'Avatar' got me as viscerally excited as seeing robot-girl Jenny Chow get life breathed into her as Act 1 comes to a close. The power of the audience to suspend disbelief is pretty awesome when it comes down to it. We know it's an actress playing a robot, but we're willing to be complicit in the conceit of the moment, and when the lifeless arm first responds to a command, we believe. I was reminded of another theatre experience, over ten years ago in San Francisco when I saw David Henry Hwang's 'Golden Child':
[photo lifted from jameslapine.com]
In it, Julyana Soelistyo plays an 80 year-old woman to bookend the story, and also plays the same character as a young girl of 8 or so. There's a moment on stage, of pure acting and magic, where she transforms from the girl to the old woman simply by turning from stage left to stage right, and moving a costume piece from her neck to her head. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen on stage. No makeup, no noticeable lighting change, no special effects. Just one actor, two gestures and an audience of believers. I recently saw 'Wicked' in London, and while it was awesome and memorable, I'll remember Julyana's magical transformation before our eyes for the rest of my life. Golden Child went on to Broadway and Julyana was nominated for a Tony Award for the role.
I was also reminded that in addition to having my roots in theatre, I have roots in Asian American Theatre as well, and it was great to see these two great roles for young Asian actresses, in a play that's. This might be on my mind because just a few days ago I saw Judi Nihei who many years ago was artistic director of Northwest Asian American Theatre and brought me out to Seattle. And when I say "brought," I mean she said, in her very Judi way, "we can get you work for the summer, then there will probably be more work after that. It'd be a good time to come out to Seattle." Of course I can't mention Asian American Theatre without mentioning it's godfather Roger Tang, who bugged me enough on the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.asian.american (remember those days?) that I found a way to do a summer internship at NWAAT while in college. Check out Roger's continually updated Asian American Theatre Revue on the web, you might find that there's an Asian American Theatre near you, even in Sacramento.
It's been about a year since I left B Street, it occurred to me while watching the show. But I also thought about Kim Evey, who, like Jennifer Marcus in the play is an Asian girl adopted by white parents, and is someone who I worked with long ago and am now working with again. I did one or two sketch shows in Seattle way back when, and then we never really worked together again, though we saw each other's shows. And I remember always thinking "hopefully we'll get to work together again" and now, all these years later she brought me on board to help with marketing for The Guild. Another kind of magic... reconnecting with great people. I don't get to see my B Street friends nearly as much these days, but I'll continue to see them in great performances, and for some, I'll get to work with again someday.
Here's the funny thing to me about stage magic (I'm talking, David Copperfield/David Blaine/Doug Henning stuff) is that I've always felt magic/illusion in that context is built on a foundation of deceit. The person gets cut in half because of a hidden trick... it's why Penn & Teller are so appealing, because they act as if they're letting you in on the trick, which audiences eat up because for decades we were outside of the inside joke. But with theatre magic, like Jenny the robot coming to life, the foundation is one of trust, of willing disbelief. The show had tons of those moments... some very moving ones, even, as the lead character searches for meaning and identity.
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