Watch out! There’s some español in here!

Empty seats lined up one next to the other hugged the entire contoured wall of a small conference room at Latino Health Access (LHA) early one April morning. But soon, about 40 senior citizen participants filled every rincón (corner) to share and listen to historias about  Santa Ana, Calif.  It’s part of ongoing Día de Diálogos (Dialogue Days), a collaborative project between South Coast Repertory (SCR) and LHA.

“Here in Santa Ana we don’t have money, but we do have a lot of tenacity,” says Don Chava, talking about his and other Santa Ana residents’ volunteer work. “Here we volunteer!”… This was the third Día de Diálogos that took place in the Ciudad de Santa Ana (City of Santa Ana) to gather residents’ stories to develop a play by, with and for the comunidad (community). Teaching artistas helped guide the morning, asking residents questions and keeping conversations lively.

The historias of Santa Ana are only a few blocks away from SCR. And yet, it’s only a small percentage of Santa Ana residents who have a connection to SCR. With “Dialogue,” the product of the collaboration between SCR, LHA and Santa Ana is meant to include precisely those who surround SCR’s home theatres. As the saying goes: If the mountain will not come to SCR, SCR must go to the mountain! In this case, Santa Ana will play the protagonista (protagonist) that playwright-in-residence, José Cruz González, will climb.

“As we began to engage the community of Santa Ana we are learning so much about place, memories, family and the incredible will to survive despite many challenges,” explains González, who launched SCR’s Hispanics Playwrights Project in 1986 to create new work by Latino playwrights. This time, with support from The James Irvine Foundation, SCR is taking theatre to the Latino comunidad. Now González and a team of artistas are facilitating stories, feelings, emotions and anecdotes shared by members of the community.

But getting back to the April event: what started as a simple question that teaching artist Cynthia DeCure asked the participants: “What song or story best describes your community?” This turned into a fun singing circle. One senior participant enchanted the group with her favorite childhood songs from Cri Cri, the well-known singing cricket from México. Another friend in the círculo (circle) spoke about his conversation with the late Pedro Infante, the most beloved idol of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, when Infante made a tour stop in Santa Ana. And the consensus was immediate when José Cruz González and Moisés Vázquez of LHA broke away from the diálogo with a guitar and vihuela. “Cielito Lindo! Cielito Lindo!” exclaimed many in the group. That’s how a room full of Santa Ana residents belted out: “Because singing brings joy to all hearts, Cielito Lindo!”

An earlier Día de Diálogos at the Santa Ana Library found enthusiasm, heart, talento, youth volunteers and more historias!

And this is where today’s tale ends; but for audiences, come discover the misterios (mysteries) yourself once you see this amazing play by and about Santa Ana when it debuts in 2014.

“Dialogue” is in its infancy and you can participate today!

Are you from Santa Ana? Join us at one of the Días de Diálogos and share your Santa Ana historias!
Not from Santa Ana? You could still visit:  www.scr.org/dialogue to learn more about the gente (people) and organizaciones involved with the proyecto (project).

And whether you are or aren’t from Santa Ana, if you like the project, “Like” us at facebook.com/scrdialogos and follow us on Twitter @scrdialogos to get the translations to all the words.

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¡Porque cantando se alegran Cielito Lindo los corazones!

Las sillas vacías, bien pegaditas y abrazando el contorno de un pequeño cuarto de conferencia en Latino Health Access (LHA)  tempranito en un dia de abril por la mañana. Pero de pronto, unas 40 personas de la tercera edad llenaron cada rincón para compartir y escuchar las historias sobre Santa Ana, Calif. Es parte de una serie de Días de Diálogos, un proyecto de colaboración entre South Coast Repertory (SCR) y LHA.

“Aquí en Santa Ana no tenemos dinero, pero sí tenemos mucha voluntad,” dice Don Chava, hablando de su labor como voluntario así como la de varios residentes de Santa Ana. “¡Aquí somos voluntarios!”… Éste fue el tercer Día de Diálogos que se realizó en la Ciudad de Santa Ana con el fin de acumular historias de los residentes para desarrollar una obra de teatro por, con y para la comunidad. Los artistas instructores facilitaron la sesión, haciéndoles preguntas a los residentes y manteniendo una conversación animada.

Las historias de Santa Ana están sólo a unas cuantas cuadras de SCR. Aún así, es mínimo el porcentaje de los residentes de Santa Ana que tienen una conexión con SCR. Con “Diálogos”, el producto de la colaboración entre SCR, LHA y Santa Ana es precisamente para incluir a los que rodean los teatros de SCR. Como dice el dicho: ¡Si la montaña no viene a SCR, ve tú a la montaña, SCR! En esta situación Santa Ana estará protagonizando el papel que escalará José Cruz González.

“Mientras comenzamos a involucrar a la comunidad de Santa Ana estamos aprendiendo tanto sobre el lugar, memorias, familia y la voluntad increíble para sobrevivir a pesar de todos los desafíos”, explica González, quien fue responsable por lanzar Hispanics Playwrights Project en 1986 para fomentar nueva literatura teatral de autores latinos. Esta vez, con el apoyo de The James Irvine Foundation, SCR se propone a llevar el teatro a la comunidad latina. Ahora González y un equipo de artistas facilitan historias, sentimientos, emociones y anécdotas que comparten los miembros de la comunidad.

Pero regresando a los acontecimientos de abril: lo que comenzó como una sencilla pregunta que propuso la artista instructora, Cynthia DeCure, a los participantes: “¿Qué canción o historia describe mejor su comunidad?” los convirtió en un divertido reparto de cantantes. Una de nuestras compañeras mayores nos deleito con su interpretación de su favorita canción de su niñez de Cri Cri, el grillito cantor. Otro amigo nos contó cuando él mismo habló con el difunto Pedro Infante, el ídolo más querido de la época de oro del cine mexicano, cuando Infante realizó su gira a Santa Ana. Y el consenso fue inmediato cuando José Cruz González y Moisés Vázquez de LHA le dieron un descanso a la sesión de diálogos para tocar la guitarra y la vihuela. “¡Cielito Lindo! ¡Cielito Lindo!” dijeron varios. Y fue así como el cuarto lleno de residentes de Santa Ana cantaron: “¡Porque cantando se alegran cielito lindo los corazones!”

¡En uno de los anteriores Días de Diálogos en la Biblioteca de Santa Ana encontramos entusiasmo, corazón, talento, jóvenes voluntarios y más historias! 

Y aquí terminó este cuento; pero para la audiencia, invitamos a que ustedes mismos descubran los misterios una vez que vayan a ver el estreno de esta gran obra de teatro sobre Santa Ana en 2014.

¡”Diálogos” está en su infancia y puedes participar hoy!

¿Eres de Santa Ana? ¡Ven a uno de los Días de Diálogos y comparte tus historias de Santa Ana!
¿No eres de Santa Ana? De todos modos puedes visitar www.scr.org/dialogos para aprender más de las organizaciones y personas involucradas y del proyecto.

Y aunque seas o no seas de Santa Ana, si te gusta este proyecto, Pica “Like” en facebook.com/scrdialogos y síguenos en Twitter @scrdialogos.

"The Parisian Woman," Political Intrigue From Beau Willimon

Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman features an outstanding cast, costumed to the nines on a glorious set that looks like it was transported directly from one of the elegant row houses on Capitol Hill—where the play takes place.  All this was made possible in part by members of The Playwrights Circle, some of SCR’s most dedicated theatre-goers, who get together each season to underwrite a world premiere.

The Circle’s membership changes and evolves from season to season, including this time Chase McLaughlin, Nancy and Mike Meyer, Patricia and Carl Neisser, Robert Palmer, Barbara Roberts, Mary Ann Brown and Rick Reiff, Olivia and Alan Slutzky, Laurie Smits Staude, Tom Taylor, Marci Maietta Weinberg and Bill Weinberg, Linda and Tod White and Vina Williams and Tom Slattery.

These Honorary Producers partied twice on First Night of The Parisian Woman, gathering before the show at a salon in the Nicholas Studio (where the playwright and Director Pam MacKennon joined Dramaturg Kelly Miller for a brief seminar with the underwriters) and afterwards at Mikimoto in South Coast Plaza (where they joined party-goers to celebrate another hit by the author of Farragut North, The Ides of March and “House of Cards.”)



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Lost Moon Radio Unites Classic DJs, Good Music and Great Comedy

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How Lost Moon Radio Came to Be

This unintentional company was a byproduct of four Northwestern University students who reunited post-graduation. It was fitting that two composers and two writers—Ryan Harrison, Rich Ramberg, Dylan Ris and Frank Smith—came together on April Fool’s Day to create just fun and funny art. By the end of that month, a little more than four years ago, the foursome had created their first hour-long show Competition, which premiered at St. Nick’s Pub in West Hollywood. The first performance played to roughly 60 people and the audience enjoyed it so much the group decided to add another performance, which sold out.

Ryan Harrison

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Over the years, the company added additional cast and band members who rotate in and out of the 11 episodes they’ve written. Now led by artistic director Lauren Ludwig, the company has received numerous awards from the Hollywood Fringe Festival and has hosted the LA Weekly Theatre Awards two years in a row. Currently they create four new episodes and perform six shows annually.

Bringing Back the 1970s DJ

Wolfman Jack, Dr. Demento and Jim Ladd are all callbacks to the freeform radio disc jockeys of the ‘70s who inspired the central character, Jupiter Jack, in Lost Moon Radio’s shows. This freeform programming format gives DJs total control over their show, uninfluenced by commercial needs and unconstrained by a station’s music genre.

“We wanted the hero/host DJ to reflect the glory days of FM radio,” says Ryan Harrison, one of Lost Moon Radio’s founders and the writer and director of Lost Moon Radio: America. “It was a time when they played cool music, said insightful things, and people were affected by and interested in them.”

Harrison describes Jupiter Jack’s character as a taste-making DJ who turns people on to things.

“He thinks music can teach you about life, and radio is a vehicle for social change and enrichment, as opposed to making money. By talking to audiences, engaging with them by looking at and talking about art, he believes he can change people’s minds and make them better human beings.”



Incorporating Live Music

Throughout an episode of Lost Moon Radio, the DJ “plays records” of great quality music that he’s found over his lifetime. The music is composed by Lost Moon Radio’s team, but stylistically it’s in-tune with FM radio’s style from the past 40 years. When the record is “played,” a five-piece band with singers comes to life on stage and performs the song. Harrison imagines that people who leave the show hum certain melodies conjured by when they encounter life situations similar to the show’s theme. And do people enjoy the music? Lost Moon Radio member Dan Oster says, “Well, you can’t really be mad about a piece you end up humming to yourself outside of the theatre.”

Radio Sketch Shows

So you’ve got a disc jockey and a live band. But the most memorable parts of the show tend to be its comedy. Jupiter Jack isn’t just finding music records, but also vinyl that features sketch comedy performances. The sketches also are performed by live actors on stage, and feature outrageous storylines from singer Jim Morrison giving a tour of the White House to a piece about America’s founding fathers.

“In the process of writing, we’re just trying to serve the comedy god and do right by him while making each other giggle, “says Harrison. “It doesn’t matter how relevant something is culturally if it is not funny.”

Coming Together for Lost Moon Radio: America

Each installment of Lost Moon Radio’s shows features a central theme and the episode they are reviving for Studio SCR is America.

Jupiter Jack has been running a July 4th special on his radio show for 28 years, but the station has moved Jack’s show up a couple of days so that two shock-jock DJs, Larry and Munchest Fart, can host a more commercial friendly “July Spectacular.” So, while on air for his  “4th of July” special—on a day leading up to Independence Day—Jack's discussions, music and sketches reflect on the state of America and the corporatization of his radio station, which is giving way to three days of debauched radio celebrating women in wet tee-shirts.

Lost Moon Radio: America will be performed as part of South Coast Repertory’s Studio SCR May 2-5. Get your tickets to this limited engagement.

Following "Smokefall" With Something Sweet

Thanks to our restaurant partner, Antonello Ristorante, audience members attending Smokefall have been treated to something delicious after the show: apple pie bites in the lobby! These tasty treats tie into the play’s storyline, in which apple seeds and an apple tree are featured; they’re also mentioned by the character, Footnote.

Seven New Plays in Three Days

In just a matter of days, South Coast Repertory will once again become the new-play capital of the country, with the arrival of the most exciting three days in our season—the annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, April 26-28.

Developing and producing new plays has always been central to SCR’s mission, and the reason is simple: Nothing is more exhilarating—for theatre artists and audiences alike—than being in on the birth of a possible future classic. SCR has provided its audiences with plenty of such memorable experiences over the years—from the world premiere of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winner, Wit, to the very first performances of such extraordinary plays as Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel and Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories.

The Pacific Playwrights Festival is our most prominent way to shine a spotlight on the best new plays we come across each year. In addition to the two world premiere productions that serve as cornerstones for the festival, we also feature five staged readings that give audiences an early look at plays that are still evolving. Actors rehearse for four days, with the guidance of their director and playwright, and then they read the play to the audience, with script in hand. Sometimes the reading includes basic staging to support the story-telling, but often actors simply sit in chairs or stand in front of music stands; and there’s no set, no costumes, no special lighting—which means you in the audience play a vital role in the event, by imagining how the finished production might look as you listen to the actors read the playwright’s words. It’s interactive entertainment at its best.

This year’s festival features a diverse line-up of plays, from a caper comedy about a family of Chinese-American con artists, to a meticulously observed chronicle of a love affair, to a wild, surprising night with three old friends who attend a college reunion carrying a lot of baggage with them. You’ll see some very familiar faces among the actors for the productions and readings.  And the energy and excitement—both on stage and in the lobby between plays—is infectious. There’s something amazing about experiencing all seven plays in the span of three days—but if you’re not sure you have the stamina for that, then sample more selectively. Either way, you’ll be part of the most exciting weekend in SCR’s year.

See the line up for the 2013 festival.