Jibber-Jabber Mini-Review: Plays by Young Writers

I attended Playwrights Project's Plays by Young Writers this evening at the Lyceum, and may I just say...wow. I was very impressed by the caliber of the writing and the complexity of the subjects covered; if I didn't know better, I'd refuse to believe these pieces were written by kids. Even the two staged readings had me hooked. All five of the pieces were tight, brilliantly structured, imaginative, and clever. Some made me laugh (quite a bit!) and others jerked at my heartstrings. Overall it was a fantastic experience and I can't recommend the show highly enough. There are only two more chances to catch this particular round of pieces, but this is a regularly recurring event thanks to the tireless staff at Playwrights Project. You can find out more about this program and others at the Playwrights Project website.

San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Awards for 2012

Congrats to everyone who won an award this evening, to everyone who was nominated, and to the wonderful San Diego theatre community that makes it all possible.

In case you weren't able to attend (or you've forgotten who won which awards), we've got you covered. Soon it will all be posted on the Critics Circle website, which you can visit here: http://www.sdcriticscircle.org/mainpages/awards.htm

As usual, there were some funny moments and some touching ones, and lots and lots of applause. The comedic through-line, oddly enough, was the winners thanking those in their families who pay the mortgage (I'll give you a hint: it's not the artists). And to [poorly] paraphrase my two favorite lines from the speeches:
- Working in TV and film is nice for the paycheck, but working in theatre is great because you know immediately when you suck.
- Theatre is just about hanging out with people.

Without further ado, here are the San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award winners for 2012:

Outstanding Musical Direction
Elan McMahan
As You Like It - The Old Globe
Fiddler on the Roof - Moonlight Stage Productions
Sweeney Todd - Moonlight Stage Productions

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical, Female
Eileen Bowman
Guys and Dolls - Lamb's Players Theatre

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical, Male
Michael K. Lee
Allegiance - The Old Globe

Outstanding Choreography
Susan Stroman
The Scottsboro Boys - The Old Globe

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Female
Sandy Campbell
Parade - Cygnet Theatre

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Male
Sean Murray
Man of La Mancha - Cygnet Theatre

Outstanding Scenic Design
Jennifer Brawn Gittings
Hickorydickory - Moxie Theatre

Outstanding Young Artist - Sandra Ellis-Troy Scholarship
Dylan Hoffinger

Outstanding Costume Design
Deirdre Clancy
Inherit the Wind - The Old Globe
&
Shirley Pierson
Parade - Cygnet Theatre

Outstanding Sound Design
Mark Bennett
An Iliad - La Jolla Playhouse
&
Shahrokh Yadegari
Blood and Gifts - La Jolla Playhouse

2012 Actor of the Year
Mark Christopher Lawrence

Outstanding Solo Performance
Henry Woronicz
An Iliad - La Jolla Playhouse

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, Female
Samantha Ginn
Hickorydickory - Moxie Theatre

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, Male
Phil Johnson
The Man Who Came to Dinner - Coronado Playhouse
&
Claudio Raygoza
The Little Flower of East Orange - ion theatre

Outstanding Lighting Design
Scott Zielinski
An Iliad - La Jolla Playhouse

Outstanding Featured Musical Performance in a Play
Brian Ellingsen
An Iliad - La Jolla Playhouse

Outstanding Technical Achievement
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - La Jolla Playhouse

Outstanding Orchestrations
Lynne Shankel
The Old Globe

Outstanding Special Event
The Car Plays - La Jolla Playhouse

Outstanding Projection Design
Ian Wallace
Tortilla Curtain - San Diego Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Ensemble
A Raisin in the Sun - Moxie Theatre

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play, Male
Jeffrey Jones
The Little Flower of East Orange - ion theatre

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play, Female
Catalina Maynard
Julia - ion theatre

Outstanding New Score
Nobody Loves You - The Old Globe
music by Gaby Alter; lyrics by Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter

Outstanding New Play
The Recommendation by Jonathan Caren - The Old Globe

The Don Braunagel Award for Outstanding Work at a Small Theatre
Moxie Theatre

Outstanding Direction of a Musical
Susan Stroman
The Scottsboro Boys - The Old Globe

Outstanding Direction of a Play
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Topdog/Underdog - ion theatre

Outstanding Resident Musical
Parade - Cygnet Theatre
&
The Scottsboro Boys - The Old Globe

Outstanding New Musical
Allegiance - The Old Globe

Outstanding Dramatic Production
A Raisin in the Sun - Moxie Theatre
&
An Iliad - La Jolla Playhouse


An enormous thank you goes out to all the artists, technicians, staff, volunteers, donors, and patrons who make all this wonderful theatre possible.

“No Child…” is worth the drive

Theatre Review By Kevin Six

(from left) Marc Amial Caro, John Rogers, Robert Malave, Lynae DePriest, Dempsey Davis, Bianca Ostojich, and Rebekah Ensley in InnerMission and Mesa College Theatre's production of "No Child...". Photo: Paul Savage

When you produce a play about teaching artists trying to make sense of arts and education, set in a school, and performed at a community college – with student actors yet – you’re asking a lot of an audience.  This much was asked of me tonight and, after my disclaimer that I am married to a member of the cast, I must say Mesa College and InnerMission Productions’ “No Child…” It’s worth the drive to Kearney Mesa.

The play itself is short – less than an hour – but every second of it brings something new, touching and uplifting.  The story is real and often acted solo by the author, by Nilaja Sun.  Some day, I’d like to see her do this because the rapid-fire exchange of dialogue is an amazing feat and this cast of 16 was working overtime as it was.

The play is narrated by Janitor Barron, in an extremely human and wizened portrayal by Rhys Green.  Barron paints the picture of a school and a class full of kids who have already been left behind when the national No Child Left Behind brings its show to Brooklyn.  Ms. Sun has been hired, through a department of education grant, to teach the worst of the worst kids a play.  Lynae DePriest pretty much lives the pain, and pathos of this poor artist with an impossible task, and manages to instill hope.  Another stand out in the cast is Justine Hince as the overwhelmed and finally consumed Ms. Tam.  Watching her go from hopeful to disenchanted, to giving up is worth the price of admission.

It is at this point that a reviewer would explain that this production was an educational collaboration with actual students playing the actual students and professionals playing the adults in a way to soften the blow that the kids were blown away by the pros.  But not so.  These kids are possessed of so much energy, talent and emotion (and so much control over them all) that it is hard to understand that they are just beginning their careers as actors.  The ensemble as a whole is even, competent and surefooted.

Standouts among the kids are Brandon Kelly as the angry young Jerome, Bianca Ostojich whose Shondrika can kill with a look, and Rebekah Ensley whose Cocoa puts hope into a much-too-common end to her high school studies.

The production team is also a combination of students and professionals and by-and-large they pull it off with nary a hitch.  Directors Carla Nell and Kym Pappas have managed to create a strong, powerful cast that is surprisingly even, even as the emotions trickle, flow and sometimes gush. The only thing wanting is more sound design.  There was too little musical accompaniment to follow up an excellent opening.

So what, you will think, wiping away tears, as the lights fade on an excellently-wrought “No Child…”  After all, as Janitor Barron says, “sometimes the most talented ones just slip through the cracks.”  All in all Mesa and InnerMission created an excellent production with an excellent use of student and professional actors, staff and technicians – and an excellent way to spend an evening.  Just give yourself time to find the college, the parking lot and the theatre – watch this video for information on where to park.

InnerMission Productions and Mesa College present “No Child” by Nilaja Sun at Mesa College’s A Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. through May 20.  Tickets range from $10-15 and are available at InnerMissionProductions.org or Mesa College’s Apolliad Theater, 7250 Mesa College Dr., San Diego, CA, 92111.  Building C-100 on this map.

"Arts Left Behind?" by Out & About | San Diego Reader

This appeared in Jeff Smith;s San Diego Reader blog Thursday. I am quasi-involved in InnerMission's production of "No Child...", which wakes place during No Child Left Behind. Unlike me, the play doesn't preach. It makes a statement, powerfully, by showing the children. Some of them were left behind.

"Arts Left Behind?" by Out & About | San Diego Reader

An OpEd Piece about No Child Left Behind...

and other things on the mind of former arts administrator Kevin Six...

When I think about my involvement in arts education over the years, I remember the productions I’ve done with students in two categories: before No Child Left Behind and after No Child Left Behind. 

Before this legislation, the non-profit I worked with, then called City Moves!, was welcome with open arms when we would bring theatre projects into public schools.  After this legislation, our invitation for a “free, standards-based program” was often declined because, as one teacher said, “No Child Left Behind means no child left untested.”  

In light of InnerMission Productions upcoming play, No Child…, an inside look at the effect of introducing theatre to a group of unruly Bronx high school students written by teaching artist Nilaja Sun, it might be worth another glance at the state of arts education here in San Diego and how important the message of the play is right now.

The truth is that art for art’s sake does not exist in California schools.  The arts now conform to some fairly rigid state-wide standards.  Since 2001, when the education bill was passed in this country, everyone who wanted a piece of the educational system’s pie talked about “standards-based arts education.”  As a result, every other arts program that did not include these standards was dropped. 

Standard Number Eight, the one that dictates arts education now, states that the arts must connect to the other curricula.  Every time this connection component came up in committee meetings as a potential reason to refuse our program, I would always ask one question:  Are the other standards required to connect to the arts?

No, as it turned out.  Curriculum areas like math, science, history and English were never required to reciprocate the relationship.  But this wasn’t surprising because as artists, arts educators, and arts administrators, it had always been our job to do that.  So, we did.

Or, we tried.  Projects were still refused.  And other projects were accepted but rescheduled at the last minute.  Rehearsals were often canceled.  And teachers would freak out because a test was coming and they were afraid that the kids wouldn’t do well, and if that happened, funding would go away and…

So, some of my colleagues and I tried to prove that arts in schools helped improve test scores.  But, that was a difficult proposition.  Most of the programs were free and most free programs happened in schools with a lot of poverty and schools with a lot of poverty were already among the lowest performing schools in the area, test-wise.

But there was one thing we could prove: attendance.  Kids in after-school arts programs came to school on the days that they had their program and did so more often than on any other day.  I remember a principal coming to a dance class to look for a specific trouble-making student.  The principal could not believe that the kid, who was in detention every day, always behaved on Tuesdays.  Coincidentally, that was the day he had dance class.  And another thing about this kid:  He was a born leader, something the principal didn’t recognize at the time.

I’d like to think we changed the culture of the few schools where we did run programs.  But, we had help.  Schools are run by three equally powerful people: the school secretary, the principal’s secretary and the janitor.  If a school was fortunate enough to have a principal who understood the value of the arts, those three people were supportive and there was a chance of success. 

But if they weren’t on board…

How many children were left behind during No Child?  How many kids weren’t seen in a new, positive light by teachers who had pegged them as troublemakers? How many kids didn’t find a reason to go to school and stay involved (at least on Tuesdays) because of their arts program?  Too many to think about, is my guess. 

And I thought I was done thinking about it.  My career as an arts administrator folded with the economy.  The program went on, in good hands, without me.  People I trained are still doing the work and I try to forget about the lost children.

Then, my wife got cast in the play No Child…, which opens Saturday, May 12, at 8 pm at Mesa College’s Apolliad Theatre.  Turns out playwright and teaching artist Nilaja Sun spent six weeks teaching/directing a play during No Child Left Behind.  Sun takes this experience and tells a very compelling story about what it’s like being an outsider in a system that is troubled, working with kids who are troubled on a project that never had a chance.  She gets it all pretty much right.  It is a bold and insightful piece of theatre that doesn’t preach, doesn’t name names.  It just shows one powerful experience.

And it leaves no one behind.

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No Child… by Nilaja Sun.  Presented by InnerMission Productions, in collaboration with the Mesa College Drama Department.  May 12-20, 2012, at Mesa College’s Apolliad Theatre.  Tickets to may be purchased online at www.innermissionproductions.org,

at the box office an hour before curtain or by calling 619-324-8970.

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Kevin Six is an actor and playwright.  For a time, During No Child Left Behind, he was the executive director of City Moves!, the chair of the San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Coalition and on several arts and arts education boards, committees and round tables.  He really thinks you owe it to yourself to see No Child…

The MENding Monologues by Kevin Six

I have seen courage.  It comes in odd shapes.  Rarely, if ever, does it look like Clint Eastwood makes it look.  For he's a wiley pro who knows what we think we're looking for.
No, courage comes when ordinary people are exposed to awfulness and act like humans in the face of it.
It was the case last night (3-23-12) at InnerMission's production of the MENding Monologues.
The story of the movement is as courageous as the men who performed last night, to say the least.  As is usual in society a woman spoke up first.  Eve Ensler had basically seen enough violence done to women and decided to do something about it.

As luck would have it, Eve Ensler is a brilliant writer and her courageous step (what, if anything can one person do in the face of overwhelming awfulness?) lead to more steps and, well, a movement.
Then Derek Dujardin did something equally courageous (and maybe more so because men are raised to be stoic in the face of just about everything).  He called bullshit on men sitting idly by as the Vagina Monologues were performed, on men getting away with telling rape jokes and, really, men getting away with rape.  Really, the statistics are staggering.

Ask the men of InnerMission's The MENding Monologues.  They put those statistics up there for everyone to see.  Along with a bunch of excellently-wrought soul searching, a bunch of great words and, both my favorite and least favorite moment, the legal names of all 19 people who knew what Jerry Sandusky was up to at Penn State and did nothing.

Nineteen men associated with the scandal. Big men. Well respected men. Athletes.  Strong.
But not courageous.

No, my friends were courageous.  They stood up there.  Sp

Publish Post

oke from the heart and the gut and called bullshit and basically made everyone cry.  And it was very cool.

Hopefully the people in the audience will go home from last night's experience and think twice before letting someone get away with... a joke at the expense of women, the maltreatment of women, children and other men and maybe rape and violence will cease to exist.

Oh, and the Vagina Monologues is probably just as good.  I'm seeing that tonight.
Tet your tickets at: http://innermissionproductions.org/

Kevin Six on writing and directing "The Blood Countess"

I belonged briefly to the Lotus Theatre Collective, which produced "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" and co-produced my last world premiere "Love Negotiated".  One of the projects we talked about but never did was a play about Elizabeth Bathory, about whom I knew nothing until I saw a Discovery Channel documentary on her.  It turns out that the exploits of Elizabeth Bathory made her more of a vampire than Dracula.

After watching the documentary, I pitched my collective-mates on a story that juxtaposed the historic countess with modern "psychic vampires".  Psychic vampires are a group of people who seek to take the energy of willing participants through odd made-up ritual.  But there are people who can take your energy in the form of time (by being late), money (by screwing up in business) and life (by driving like a zombie on California freeways).  I call them psychic vampires but they’re also known as “Crazymakers.” 

Crazymakers were first introduced in The Artist's Way.  "Crazymakers thrive on drama, and melodrama requires a sense of impending doom. ... Theirs is a world of trumped up conflict, confusion, and chaos."  --The Artist’s Way at Work – Riding the Dragon. Twelve Weeks to Creative Freedom by Mark Bryan, with Julia Cameron and Catherine Allen

This type of person has haunted me for years.  A committee member who brings business to a screeching halt because she "doesn't understand" any on a number of small things; that member of a sports team who is always getting himself hurt; and probably every cast member on every reality series ever made.

I was ranting about this while volunteering for DangerHouse on their production of "An Evening of The Grand Guignol".  DangerHouse and Grand Guignol were made for each other: theatrical realism, melodrama and blood all mixed together to make for theatre that makes people wonder either why they're so afraid or why they enjoy being scared so much.  Marie Miller, a DangerHouse founder, is an excellent lighting designer who has worked on two of my previous productions.  She mentioned that there was a very Grand Guignol-esque theatre that DangerHouse rented and asked if I had anything to put in it.  I gave her my Elizabeth Bathory vs. the Psychic Vampire pitch and told her I had "almost a whole play written".  She agreed to a commission (because she knew full well that I didn't have more than a few pages down but a very good idea).  And she wanted a bloodbath.

So I began writing about three Goth Girls from UCSD on a trip to Transylvania to give Elizabeth Bathory her due.  Then Marie took me to the Victory Theater.  It was perfect!  The building is old -- circa 1920 -- and has housed, among other things, a movie theatre and an evangelical church.  It is the current home of Technomania Circus.  The Techno-Maniacs welcomed me with open arms and Castle Bathory began to take shape in my mind.  I had thought of doing the play originally at Sweedenborg Hall (where I was the playwright in residence until recently) but the sheer amount of blood, blasphemy and breasts meant that I probably couldn't do the show anywhere near a church.  But a former church?  In a bad part of town? OK!

One problem with bringing this story to the stage is that Elizabeth Bathory spent a lot of time in the tub.  I wouldn't be surprised if the term "bloodbath" were traced to her.  You see, she bathed in the blood of virgins because she liked the way the blood made her skin look.  In the TV special, there was a scene of the Countess striking a servant girl with a brush.  So the bathtub and the brush would be recurring props.  The twin constructs would be power and bloodlines, along with a strict upbringing and liberal use of the brush on little countesses who don't respect those constructs.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, we couldn't find a tub! Until we found a 350-pound faux-brown-marble tub I had nightmares!  The tub was one of those things that fell into our laps after five minutes on Craig's List and one phone call -- and it was literally sitting ten blocks from DangerHouse (yes, it's a place; Marie lives there).  Providence! A theatre and a tub!

Then I worked to make the play a commentary on the youth-obsessed American psyche.  Well, actually that was easy.  I watch TV commercials like only an under-employed actor can and you’ll see it in a day.  Now my three Goth Girls were smart and socially astute -- something DangerHouse's Marie Miller had insisted on.  Three smart girls, a Renfield-like castle handyman with a secret and a mysterious minister of culture who doubles as Thorko, Bathory's manservant/lover/occultist .  Now to draw the Blood Countess.

She was easy as well.  It turns out all those Crazymakers from my past came in handy.  She is more powerful than smart and more smart than nice.  And she wants to tell her story.  To do that, certain rites must be seen to.  Then, when she breaks out of a statue (yes, that cost a lot of money, thanks for asking), it's a simple thing to reunite with her servant/lovers and compel the American girls to set the story straight.  But what would make a woman kill and bathe in the blood of over 500 local virgins?  Her violent past?  Her mysterious lover/manservant Thorko?  An evil father?  How about yes to all three!  So the tale she tells is a brutal one.

The Goth Girl in charge is the self-proclaimed Psychic Vamp Ilona Black, who began life and her stay in Transylvania as Eileen Brown.  The Scene Vamp Darcy Sainz is her friend and consort in any number of occultist dabblings and Darcy's kid sister Dot, the smart one, does all the research.  But three smart, privileged American Goths are no match for The Blood Countess. When The Blood Countess gets into their heads, they play all manner of characters from the Blood Countess' life and some get stuck in character...

There needed to be bondage.  Bathory's victims needed to be kept somewhere between bleedings and bound and gagged seemed like the best bet.  To represent this, we're asking the audience's indulgence.  Four lucky audience members will be tied up on stage each night. The cast are all well-versed in knot-tying... I looked into various knots used in the bondage community and the interesting thing was that they were all pretty much the name knots I use in theatre and circus rigging.  Yes, I have done time as a circus roustabout and a trapeze catcher, hasn't everyone?

I might as well give the rest of the plot away.  I recently read that Romeo and Juliet is, and always has been, the most popular story in history simply because everyone knows what's going to happen.  And, if audiences don't know this, they are told in the prologue AND the epilogue of the play.  So my Elizabeth Bathory comes to life on Valentine's Day (Marie Miller's idea not mine, I wanted Halloween).  She does this only when there's a full moon on St. Valentine's night.  Romantic?  Yes, she and Thorko are lovers in this play -- one of the benefits of preparing a play for a Feb. 14 opening.  So the statue comes to life, finds the Goth Girls charming, and compels them to tell her story properly.

A first-person narrative from the Blood Countess' own lips as acted by the Goth Girls with the help of János and The Minister, who are always in for theatrical fun on Valentine's Night.  Then she turns the Americans into her servants from the old times.  The sisters Darcy and Dorothy Sainz are a perfect match for the witches Dorottya and Darvula Szentes and Eileen Brown (or the newly minted Ilona Black) is a perfect match for the nurse Ilona Joo.  The story is told, the audience is bled and the American girls pay the ultimate price for their fawning affection for vampires.

And that, my children, is the story of “The Blood Countess”.