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| L - R Remy Ortiz and Adam Silver - Photos by Se Hyun Oh |
By Joe Straw
“Races which are petrified in dogma or
demoralized by lucre are unfit to guide civilization.” – Jean Valjean – Les Miserables
– Victor Hugo
Sometime ago in my
past, near the start of Mrs. Darden’s second grade class, a group of prospective
assistant teachers formed a line. And having taught us a tad about democracy, the
students were asked to pick the one we wanted as an assistant.
They all said a little
something about their work and then walked outside while we voted. Everyone chose the pretty one with the pretty
dress (2nd graders), because the others were, in our mind, a little
less attractive.
So they came back in. The pretty one immediately took herself out
of the running and said that she was already assigned across the hall, and left,
abruptly.
We were devastated.
Still, we voted again
and this time chose the least attractive one. It’s funny but in her time with
us, she became beautiful, funny, and warm in the manner for which she cared for
us and responded when we needed her help.
And when she said
goodbye at the end of her term, everyone took a deep breath and there was a shared
sigh.
She walked to the
door, stopped and looked at us one last time. And we started to cry,
collectively. – Narrator
School’s out
…School's out
for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces – Alice Cooper
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces – Alice Cooper
Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural
Arts Center and Sixth Avenue proudly presents the West Coast Premiere of Exit
Strategy written by Ike Holter and directed by Deena Selenow in the
Davidson/Valentini Theatre through November 5th, 2017.
Jon Imparato with the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Adam
Silver with Sixth Avenue magnificently produced the show.
Exit Strategy is presented in the square; the audience is
seated on all four sides of the playing area, the actors are a nose away from the audience,
and this is a perfect venue for this play. The
place is a teacher’s lounge for the most part, the set is about as minimal as
you can get but, the show is not about the place, it is about the people, the
teacher, administrator, and the student, most fighting for a cause, and one who
is not.
There’s always somebody higher up that makes the decisions,
in collogue to rid the city of a nuisance. They are always looking at the big picture,
the test scores, and crimes in the area.
In this case, it is Chicago where there’s more than one death by gunshot
every day, 700 in 2016. They are infused with the troublous times where two
human beings die each day from gunshot wounds in Chicago, near the campus, or
the surrounding neighborhood.
Best solution? Tear
down that low achieving, rat infested, racially mixed school and save the money
to hire a Spago chef for the high-achieving white school.
But let’s look deeper, educators are working there, some are
almost at the end of their career, others are not near retirement age and need
to look elsewhere – a new community, a new location.
So, what’s that solution? Fight for the school until you’ve
changed minds and the school remains. But
there’s a huge problem – they don’t get along, not even on their best days.
Forget about working on the same page, there’s no paper, including toilet
paper. It’s enough to make everyone
irritable.
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| June Macfie and Adam Silver |
Ricky (Adam Silver) has broken the news to everyone except
Pam (Jane Macfie). Ricky is polite about it all, dress conservatively, tie and
all. He is soft spoken and has the
political wherewithal to release the news in his own time.
Pam is having none of it. She stalks him in a gruff and bearlike
manner. She wants him to get right to
the point. She has an unconquerable obstinacy,
has seen too many years, has run into too many of his kind, and demands that Ricky
get right to the point.
Pam pulls out a box of Marlboro and dares Ricky to stop her
from lighting.
“A lady doesn’t light her own cigarette.” – Ricky
Nice one.
It doesn’t take much to know that Ricky is a player and
smart too as Pam appreciates his gesture.
And then she opens his Starbucks cup and drops a few ashes into his drink,
just as a matter of unholy politeness.
Things go downhill from there but they come to an
understanding, sort of. Ricky wants to know if she’ll be all right. He asks her
to knock on the wall to let him know that she’s all right. Pam says she will. She does, and then she shoots herself, dead.
Arnold (Darrett Sanders) is always the first to arrive at
school, has been for many years. Luce (Remy Ortiz) thought he would be the
first but no such luck. Luce, with undemonstrative pity, appears to be sensitive
to the pain Arnold must be feeling, with the death of Pam, and he shows it.
Sadie (LaNisa Renee Frederick) saunters into the lunchroom,
unctuous pose and all, with a few shopping bags of food and rat poison with the
idea that one thing needs to be taken care of at that school. What that could
be, remains to be seen. Just Luce’s luck,
that in one of those bags is a juice box for his supreme enjoyment.
“How was your summer?”- Sadie
Luce jumps around happy that someone has asked him about his
summer when Jania (Maria Romero) comes in and brings the whole room down with
her negativity, on crime, thugs, and bullet holes in car bumpers.
Arnold, presenting a tragic figure, walks into the room. He has an agenda about memorializing Pam. All
in the room are sympathetic to his plight but none have a way to comfort him.
Can’t say too much about the play that would be giving it
all away. It is done without an intermission and it moves along quickly with
witty repartee.
Exit Strategy by Ike Holter has an exceptional cast, each
providing a special brand of character, an ethic mix of educators with an
altruistic sense of self and propriety. Deena Selenow wonderfully directs it in
an amusing likeness of real and not-so-real school antics. There is so much detail
in Selenow’s direction; it is the little things that put this production way
over the top in form and execution. Every moment is a joy to watch and the
acting is astonishing.
Jane Macfie plays
a mean Pam. Well, she’s not so mean
under that rough exterior. She has been
in the system so long that she demands undemonstrative respect. Sadly her
tenure as a schoolteacher is just about over and she has nothing to show for it.
She succumbs to the advice of a man who was in diapers when she started. She sees
this, doesn’t like it, and moves on. Macfie
is terrific in the role. This is one actor that I would have like to have seen
from all four perspectives.
Adam Silver does
a wonderful job as Ricky, a nebbish, slightly nerdy, sagacious man whose job is
to fire teachers, give them a pamphlet, and send them on their merry way. Ricky
gives them the school year to get their act together without actually booting
them out into the streets. But then, he
has a change of heart, a way that he can work things out, save the school, and
come out ahead. He is also a brainiac who has a vision and acts on unutterable
impulses when the time is right. Silver
gives a brilliant performance and is an actor that is completely comfortable in
this role. And it is in the little
moments that he truly shines.
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| L - R Adam Silver and Darrett Sanders |
Darrett Sanders
is Arnold, a man who has seen it, done it, read it, heard it, and smelled it
all before. He’s not too keen about jumping ship to join the others plan that
he thinks is a useless endeavor. He sees
their proposal as a pie in the sky, the vitreous glitter on a worthless piece
of chocolate, chocolate cake, and not worth a dime of his time. Sanders is slow
and methodical in his choices. The hand gestures are sublime, ambling a western
motif, and a Ben Johnson style of acting. This character though needs a little refinement,
something the represents the good of old, the wisdom of age, an unreadable
stare that speaks volumes, and then climbing out of a ubiquitous fog to make
his mark. There is more to the sunglass and
chair scene in which he must make his mark. And, that is only to add to an
already remarkable performance.
There’s a lot going on with Maria Romero as Jania. There is certainly more going on underneath
than we are privy to. Romero is a
stunning actor filling those moments. But, some of her dialogue is lost to the
other three walls and those are moments that we need to hear clearly. There is more to the character, her youth as a
teacher is a plus and probably can get a job somewhere else. But there must be a driving conflict in
character that keeps her in this game that one doesn’t really see.
LaNisa Renee
Frederick is Sadie, a giving teacher, who also understands the necessity of
discipline. She plays by the rules and maybe they are her own rules but what
the heck, somebody’s got to make the rules to make this school work. Unfortunately, her help is not working,
compromising productive growth, and Sadie needs to figure out why. Frederick
does a lot of wonderful work in this production. She is as natural as one can be but what is
the conflict that drives this character?
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| L - R June Macfie, Luke Teennie, Maria Romero, Adam Silver, Darrett Sanders (seated), Remy Ortiz and LaNisa Renee Frederick |
Luke Tennie presents
a very tall and opposing figure as Donnie.
Tennie is very impressive in this role.
He is smart, articulate, and has an extremely viable craft. Donnie get himself into a lot of trouble, the
good kind of trouble, and in his own vainglorious mode is able to talk his way
out of it. But as powerful as he is in
the first scene, he seems to lose that power being an underling in the later
scenes. Donnie becomes less powerful but
must not lose the reason he is there. There must be a better balance to
complete a change in character.
Deena Selenow,
the director, starts the show off with a bang, two beings appearing out of
nowhere, engaged in verbal conflict and she never lets up on the action, which
includes fascinating bodywork on the scene changes. At one time characters are
stretched against the wall in an effort to hide, or as a way to present the
significant moment of a character. Is this a moment that shows unity? One is not sure. The character Pam joins the
audience and we really have to see her in character throughout those moments. (Macfie
seemed to be enjoying the show as much as we were.)
Selenow’s work is combined with the brilliant Sound Design by
Jesse Mandapat that keeps you there
in the moment, during the scene changes.
And then there’s the blaring roar of heavy machinery that grinds the
audience into a state of shock. (The
sirens in the background never stopped and I found that slightly disconcerting.)
Ike Holter’s work
is brilliant. As the writer, he manages to capture the flavor of each character
and their reason for being. The fascinating thing about the characters is they
are metaphorically all out of focus. It’s
like looking into a camera lens and seeing blurry figures. When things got
tough those figures lacked the focus to turn things around. They’ve all been
living their lives without a unified direction except Arnold who knows what he
doesn’t want, but doesn’t know how to save the school. The ending lacks the emotional
catharsis, the human element of longing that we must get from at least one of
the characters.
All right, but here’s the thing – my one negative note, the
overlapping dialogue makes it hard to hear everything, and the sound of voices,
only feet away, bounce off the bare walls and at time that dialogue is lost.
The minimal but very effective Scenic Design was created by Se Hyun Oh.
Lena Sands’
Costume Design placed the actors in Chicago.
Matt Richter’s
Lighting Design moved the play along in time and space and was extremely
enjoyable.
Other members of the crew are as follows:
Maggie Marx –
Production Stage Manager
Adam Earle –
Assistant Director
Ken Werther
Publicity - Press Representative
Edwin Peraza - Master Electrician
Red Colegrove - Master Carpenter
Eric Babb - Prop Master/Assistant Manager
Veronica Mullins - Sound Assistant
Tor Brown, Maggie Marx, Edwin Peraza - Scenic House Crew
Run! Run! Run! And take an educator. They will love it as much as me. Or, is it "I"?
Tickets:
(323) 860-7300
The
Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Davidson/Valentini
Theatre
1125
N. McCadden Place
Hollywood,
CA 90038
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