by Joe Straw
Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009) is credited
with saving a billion lives across the world.
He received his Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics from the
University of Minnesota in 1942. He also
received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his contribution to the world food
supply. - Narrator
Pete Wilson was my band teacher at New Providence Jr. High
School. His groomed pencil thin
mustache was as wide as the baton he angrily banged against a metal
music stand saying: “This band is only
as good as your worst player”. I
disagree, I believe you are at your best, when working as part of a team, and
you are inspired to rise to the level of your best player.
Seed: A Weird Act of
Faith by Sigrid Gilmer and directed by Shishir Kurup is being presented by the
Cornerstone Theater Company at the Chuco’s Justice Center, 1137 E. Redondo
Blvd. Inglewood, CA 90302.
When one ventures to see the Cornerstone Theatre Company,
one has to take into consideration that all the actors are not all professionals. Some actors are hired from the community and
those actors are intersperced among more experienced actors. This is a very good way to introduce the world
of acting to a diverse community.
So, someone venturing into this world of theatre must consider
the range of experience when seeing a Cornerstone theatrical production. (Cafe Vida was exceptional!) Avid theatergoers
may have trepidations, but those see value to helping themselves to a bit of social
consciousness may appreciate all Cornerstone has to offer. Sometimes it works
other times not so effective. And I’ll
get to that not so effective, later.
The play starts with the cock crowing, somewhere in South Los
Angeles, the sun coming out and store owners, Mom (Maria Cano) and Pop (LA
Hopi) opening up their store and getting ready for the day. Pop kisses Mom and
leaves for places unknown and then re-appears at the end of the day.
There are video footages throughout this play starting when the
“History of Agriculture” is projected on a screen and we learn about this
history through the story of the hunters and the gatherers. They are cute little people carrying spears
and wearing animal loins. When the
hunters run out of food, the gatherers find something they all can eat. They
call the food “whatever”. (Weird.) They also find
the food grows again in the places where they have gone to the bathroom. They gain knowledge of what is growing all
around them.
Present day South Los Angeles is now a food desert and two “Gods”
E. (Gilbert Molina) and Xochi (Thabisile Griggin) bet against one other that
this land cannot be cultivated into food. Xochi will destroy the world on December
21, 2012 (rings a bell for Mayan calendar end-of-the-world enthusiasts) if this
barren land cannot be converted. E. is a little more optimistic about the
inhabitants of South Los Angeles.
Well, as faith would have it, various people come to work
the land and make food and without knowing it, try to destroy the plans of the evil
God, Xochi. Farmer (Lorinda Hawkins) lies in her soil after having a “Dear
Jane” post-it note stuck to her large growing broccoli, Broc (Joel Jimenez). A little more weirdness!
Meanwhile Xochi is busy helping herself to the “Spicy Bobs” (a
spicy Cheetos like substance) and getting larger each time she reappears.
Keisha (Adanna Kenlow) and Desmond Styles (Flores) meet,
under the moon, on virgin soil knowing their act will create good soil for
their crops.
Across the globe, somewhere in Iraq, an Iraqi man hiding is
carrying seeds in his hands. He tells
the American soldier (Martin Lemus, Jr.) to keep the seeds.
Naturally, CEO (Marcenus “MC” Earl), head of Monsanto-like Dillagraf,
is busy producing talking points on chemically biogenetic engineered foods. He speaks
about industrial agriculture that won’t taste any better but will feed the
hungry masses. (Just what we need!)
Keisha says she wants to grow her own and she wants it to be
organic. She wants to feed great tasting food to those who need it.
Meanwhile the Gods reappear and want to keep an eye on these
growers. And they do this by posing as
students filming a documentary.
Lorinda Hawkins
plays farmer. She is an extraordinary actress with a remarkable voice. She can only wallow in her garden hoping she
is doing the right thing. She is degraded and demoralized by finding the post-it
note on her broccoli, still she knows what she is doing is for the greater
good.
Joel Jimenez
plays Broc. And I know it’s tough
establishing a relationship with anyone when you’re a plant growing in the
field, but it is a job that must be realized. I enjoyed Jimenez’s performance
and I always thought a broccoli character as being sarcastic in thought as was
delightfully portrayed.
Obi Ndefo was
outstanding as Don Henry, a spiritual leader of the group. He is one who sees the future but cannot
articulate it. His relationship with the
Gods should have more depth, since he is the one with the vision. He is the sententious puppet trying to find a
way to make his mark in the group. His characters were all wonderfully thought
out and a joy to watch.
Desmond Styles as
Flores also did a very nice job and has a very good look for other forms of
media as well.
Adanna Kenlow as Keisha
was very funny and was someone who knows her craft.
Marcenus “MC” Earl
as the CEO also did a very nice job in his role in his honest portrayal of a
man who works for a devious food corporation.
Other members of the cast are Mario Cano, Jennifer Garcia,
Thabisile Griffin, René Günter, LA Hopi, Martin Lemus Jr., Bianca Molina,
Gilbert Molina, Dyane Pascall, Lupita Salazar, Neelam Sharma, and David
Weinstein was an understudy.
Farms are like relationships; it takes a lot of work to keep
them moving in the right direction. And
the craft of acting is the same, a lot of hard work, to keep the career moving
in the right course. But actors work at their craft for satisfaction and the
chance for paying jobs. They should also
have their photographs in the program (if economically feasible) and especially
have their character’s name beside their name. The actors play for the
opportunity to be seen and they should be afforded the recognition.
There are some really wonderful moments in Sigrid Gilmer’s play but overall the
play seemed like a work-in-progress, an inchoate idea still in development. Some characters are multi-dimensional, other
not. The lives of the characters did not
connect, was not cohesive, and did not move the action to the denouement. Their lives were separate entities, living
an existence, within their inner circle, rarely having a change in
relationships, and rarely bonding with others with the same goal in mind. Some are
articulate with mics, others not so articulate even with the mics. The Farmer
has little or no relationship with Broc even though he is the biggest weirdest singing
thing in her garden. Seed is probably the best title of this play. Take the “Weird” out of the title because
even though it is odd, it’s best not to let the audience in on this little
secret. Let the message come out in the
play, this is a show where things needs to be discovered.
Shirshir Kurup,
the director, has a lot going on in this production and it is possibly too much
to keep focus of the play. There are obese
puppets, video, singing broccoli, and dancing and nothing leads us to that
moment that captures what this production is trying to say. There is a time
element involved as well but we never see the characters fighting against the
clock, or aware of the clock for that matter. We saw plenty of fake dirt, but hardly
anything grows on stage. There are rows
and rows of food growing on a still photo, but they never get past the baby
stage and we never get a sense that they grew any food at all. Also, there were
a lot of risers on stage accomplishing little. Every scene change had little or
no focus and we could have done without 90% of those risers. Lots of artificial dirt on stage, smoke for
no reason (odd but the smoke smelled like my cafe mocha in the morning). Most
actors were wearing mics; instead the money could have been better spent giving
voice lessons to those actors that needed it.
Also the mics were not seen in the videos and while it was an
interesting idea, really didn’t work.
 |
| www.cornerstonetheater.org |
The other member of the crew were:
Frederica Nascimento – Scenic Desing
Raquel M. Barrento - Costume Design
Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz – Lighting Design
Colbert Davis – Sound Design
Tom Ontiveros – Projection Design
Lynn Jeffries – Puppet Design (Nice work!)
Sean T. Cawelti – Props Design
Nikki Hyde – Stage Manager
Melody Kanschat – Executive Producer
Jon Neustadter, Margaret Leong Checca – Producers
Go. Take someone who
likes to plant food and watch things grow.
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