Chalk Rep's Founding Mothers
This Fall I was lucky enough to direct a couple of pieces for Chalk Rep's Flash Festival. For those of you who don't know Chalk Rep, it is an outstanding company founded by five super talented women from UCSD's MFA program. Their sole focus is creating theatre in unconventional, site-specific spaces. Their way of working is incredibly refreshing. Working in the Theatre is always unpredictable, but removing the "stage" (which serves as a barrier between performer and audience) adds the extra level of theatricality that is so vital to the work we create.
The Flash Festival took place at the La Brea Tar Pit's Page Museum. The first play I directed was Joe Luis Cedillo's "The Party". Here I worked with a tremendously talented cast of Chalk Rep regulars and UCSD Alum; Tony Amendola, Minerva Garcia, Cate Scott Campbell, Sara Garcia, Spencer Devlin Howard, Ezequiel Guerra, Channing Sargent. The piece is about a fundraiser gone awry as an Occupy protest quarantines the party into a small section of the Page Museum.
The Flash Festival took place at the La Brea Tar Pit's Page Museum. The first play I directed was Joe Luis Cedillo's "The Party". Here I worked with a tremendously talented cast of Chalk Rep regulars and UCSD Alum; Tony Amendola, Minerva Garcia, Cate Scott Campbell, Sara Garcia, Spencer Devlin Howard, Ezequiel Guerra, Channing Sargent. The piece is about a fundraiser gone awry as an Occupy protest quarantines the party into a small section of the Page Museum.
I had the idea of having the cast and audience members intermingling as though they are all guests at the party and the drama unfolds in and around the audience. The main issue was getting the audience to not act like a typical "audience".
As the they came in, the actors were scattered throughout the space to encourage mingling, but the audience made a direct B-line to sit down on the carpeted steps. After each performance the actors and I brainstormed about what we could do to "direct" the audience into behaving the way we wanted. While they never fully complied, what we got was the added element of an extremely unpredictable audience experience that kept the actors' performances fresh and alive.
As the they came in, the actors were scattered throughout the space to encourage mingling, but the audience made a direct B-line to sit down on the carpeted steps. After each performance the actors and I brainstormed about what we could do to "direct" the audience into behaving the way we wanted. While they never fully complied, what we got was the added element of an extremely unpredictable audience experience that kept the actors' performances fresh and alive.
Another exciting aspect of "The Party" was the pre-show hi-jinks Cedillo and I planned. Sargent was stationed in front of the museum "protesting" the 1% and LAPD Violence. It was very fun watching her interact with pedestrians and listening to Festival patrons mocking her as they came to purchase their tickets; "What does she expect to accomplish on her own?" or "I guess the rest of the protest didn't show up." Cedillo (who also played the museum Guard) got into some altercations, asking her to leave the property. Once he went back inside, and actual museum guard tried to get Channing to leave. She shouted at him about public space, then discreetly whispered, "I'm in the show..." when passers by were out of earshot. This is the type of exhilarating and theatrical experience that is made possible through the Chalk Rep model.
| The Flash Festival also gave me the opportunity to direct "Hatchlings" a strange, disturbing and beautifully poetic new play by Eva Anderson. I can only describe it as "Brave New World" if it were written by Samuel Beckett. Anderson used the Museum's Paleontology "Fish-Bowl" as the setting for a Sci-fi dystopian love story. Spencer Devlin Howard played Vee, the "Hatcher of Hatchlings" and the lovely Zoe Chao was Jay, an old friend who now works in the archives. | 
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The scientific, sterile environment, florescent back-lighting and even ambient sound of the exhibit brought a verisimilitude to "Hatchlings" that would not be present if a designer had to try and recreate what the writer had in mind. This is the essence of Site Specific work and precisely what made my experience working with Chalk Rep all the more thrilling!
Chalk Repertory Theatre is an exciting company that produces original and provocative work . I would advise you keep them on your radar as they offer the Los Angeles Theatre scene a much needed breath of fresh air!
Visit their website: www.chalkrep.com
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Visit their website: www.chalkrep.com
Like them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/chalkrep
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