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THEATER REVIEW
Tender truths set to do-si-do disco
By Daryl H. Miller
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 11, 2008
For kids, each day tends to be experienced with the dial cranked to top intensity.
That's
certainly how it goes for the 14-year-old protagonists of "Teaching
Disco Square Dancing to Our Elders: A Class Presentation."
Kenny's
shoulders slouch beneath what must seem like the full weight of the
world. His pal, Martin, is trying to talk him out of this funk. Sure,
they've been assigned "lame" oral presentations. But they have
permission to combine projects -- they can work together.
Larissa
FastHorse's one-hour, five-minute play, geared toward young audiences
but filled with enough humor and emotion to keep adults fully engaged,
is being given a professional developmental production by the Native
Voices program at the Autry National Center. The Santa Monica-based
writer addresses a number of Native American social issues, but her
message will resonate with anyone who's ever felt alone in a sometimes
harsh, ostracizing world.
Kenny is supposed to present a
do-it-yourself disco-dancing demonstration; Martin is to teach square
dancing to seniors. They soon realize they're going to need a female
dance partner. Fate provides them Amanda, the class klutz.
The
laughs that greet this production, directed by José Cruz González,
indicate how well the adult actors mirror kids' postures and vocal
mannerisms. As Kenny, Noah Watts is all doom and gloom, grousing from
inside his hoodie. Even-tempered Martin, played by Robert Vestal,
instinctively looks out for others. With Kenny, that usually involves
playful shoving and wrestling, to jolt him out of his moods. Amanda
(Tonantzín Carmelo) is the very picture of distracted awkwardness, at
one point appearing unknowingly with the handle of her big pink
roller-backpack extended, like a picture frame, above her head.
The
daily direness of early teendom is amplified for these three by some
truly worrisome factors, including parental alcoholism, a tendency
toward stoner oblivion and the psychic damage inflicted by relentless
teasing and crude sexual advances. Fortunately, the kids have a
grandmotherly presence (LaVonne Rae Andrews) watching over the
unfolding drama in Kenny's basement (simply but clearly evoked by Susan
Scharpf's set design).
FastHorse's storytelling sometimes feels
compressed, jumping on to a new topic before resolution has been
achieved in its predecessor. Some of this is no doubt due to the need
for brevity if the play is to become the sort of traveling school show
that it very easily could be. (At the Autry, at least 1,400 students
will experience the show at weekday matinees presented in addition to
the weekend public performances.)
A bit more homework awaits the
writer, but she's headed toward an ace project with this demonstration
that life is something we're destined to live together, so we'd better
work as a team to make the best of whatever comes.
daryl.miller@latimes.com |
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