Ovation Fellows are current students or recent alumni from Los Angeles area universities. Fellows are paired with a Mentor, currently serving as an Ovation Award voter, and see productions and meet artists around Greater Los Angeles throughout the year. Their articles, posted on LAStageBlog, are intended to be their personal responses to their experiences, and not as critical reviews or representing the views of LA Stage Alliance.
Martin Head is an Ovation Fellow from Los Angeles City College.
It was an exceptional Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, especially so after the rains. The sky was clear, the sun was shining and I had tickets to see the matinee performance of Parade at the Mark Taper Forum and Children of a Lesser God that evening at Deaf West Theater. Yes, I was rested and very much looking forward to seeing these two plays. I arrived at the Mark Taper plenty early and I’m glad I did. I’d never been in the courtyard of the Center Theater Group for a weekend matinee. I found the atmosphere lively and stimulating.
I’m a people watcher and I enjoyed observing the interactivity as well as the diversity. Some folks were catching up with each other over lunch, or sharing wine and crackers. Others were waiting on friends to arrive. Many were enjoying the wonderful Doo-Wop trio that was singing old Motown songs over by the Ahmanson Theatre. Overall, the mood was festive and carefree. I arrived early thinking I might get a little homework done but by the time I’d absorbed the ambiance and turned on my laptop, it was about show time.
I hadn’t seen a production of Parade and I wondered how this musical would handle such sensitive, if not disturbing, subject matter. Based on a true story that takes place in the old Confederate South, Parade was absolutely beautiful and elegant. The set and lighting design were simple yet artistic. Many times throughout the performance the lighting hit the actors in such a way that suggested, to me, ghosts from the past. The upstage wall contained a two story set piece that below appeared like the outside area of those old time store fronts. The mid to downstage area was bare and with the raising of a chandelier, the striking of a couple of chairs and the lifting of a couple of tiles from the floor, revealing earth and a pine box coffin, we could instantly be transported from the governor’s ball to the funeral of a little girl.
T.R. Knight was great. I especially loved his performance of “Come Up to My Office.” In this number, through the suspension of reality, Knight embodies the flip side of his character’s true conservative nature and becomes the lecherous, sleazy boss in song and dance. I think my favorite number was “This is Not Over Yet,” sung by Deidrie Henry and David St. Louis. In this priceless number, the black servants discuss candidly, amongst themselves, about the different scales of justice for blacks and whites. When the governor’s wife walks past they smile brightly and hum, “I Wish I Were in Dixie.”
After I saw Parade but before I saw Children of a Lesser God, I was fortunate to meet with Jonathan Barlow Lee, who has been the production manager at the Mark Taper Forum for about 20 years, the director of Children, a play he is very familiar with. In 1979, he was stage manager for the world premiere of Children under the direction of Gordon Davidson (whom I also met later that evening). Jonathan then directed the “…bus and truck, or the international company [of Children].” Jonathan joked, “It was international because they had a couple of stops in Canada.”
Deaf West Theater is recognized as the premier sign language theater in the United States. Ed Waterstreet, the artistic director of Deaf West, mentioned to Jonathan he was thinking about doing Children there and asked if Jonathan would be interested in directing it. Deaf West had enjoyed success and national attention with such productions as Pippin and Sleeping Beauty Awakes. Their productions of Big River (on Broadway, the touring company and the Mark Taper production) were also largely successful. It had been a couple of years since Deaf West’s last production, however, and they wanted to produce in their own space again. According to Jonathon, “The initial hope was that Children was going to be the first foray into production that Deaf West has really done for a while,” and before the renovation of the theatre.
Jonathan, who participated in the recent renovation of the Taper, said, “There is a plan to transform the space; to get grants and make it wonderful and new and better than ever.” I thought the theater, from the lobby to the house to the set design, was charming. A bi-level metal set with steps and a fire pole was constructed for Children. The space within the space is funky and functional yet versatile enough to be used for most any production. I found the play touching; Shoshannah Stern and Matthew Jaeger gave heartfelt performances. The story allowed me a moment to ponder on some of the challenges of being a non-hearing person in the hearing world.
Parade and Children of a Lesser God are very different but important plays. A common theme they share is tolerance or acceptance of people for who they are. I love when I can see a production and not only feel entertained but somehow am a better, more informed individual as a result. That is what I call theatre at its finest and that is what I got last Saturday. I thank Jonathan for taking the time to meet with me and I look forward to my next fine theatre experience.
For more information on Parade at the Mark Taper Forum, click here!
For more information on Deaf West, click here!
