Marisol

EXTENDED!

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:27:18 -0500

I love it when this happens.

As of yesterday, we decided that due to demand, we will holding over Marisol for a final weekend. If you haven't had a chance to see it, or if you want to see it again, please join us for either Friday or Saturday night performances.

As always, we're due to be busy, so reserve your spot by calling (574) 975-0311.

Photos from Marisol

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:37:15 -0500

Something to get you excited for our second weekend of the show: photos from our production of Marisol.

There is a slide show after the jump.

We're expecting another busy weekend, so if you have not made reservations, get yours in as soon as you can.

A 'Marisol' Response

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:34:02 -0500

Guest post by Thomas Bona, Saturday night audience member.

When I first saw "Marisol" 10 years ago, it was the most important piece of theater I had ever seen.

It still is.

Jose Rivera stirs together conflicts of class, religion, race, gender and power/powerlessness into an incendiary melting pot that speaks to more of us than you might think. Yes, even those of us who are white, who are middle-class, who are male (hey, even me!).

Because, as the play clearly shows, when all hell starts to break lose and the structures of the world fail under their own weight, those who thought they were immune to the misery aren't. Marisol thought she could rise above it all because she was an educated professional, but she hedged her bet every night with a crucifix and a knife. At the start of the play, she's escaping the homeless man incoherently raving with a golf club; near the end, she herself is homeless, incoherently raving with a golf club. The "woman in furs" and the homeless "scar
tissue" man were "contributing members of society" when they were caught in the apocalyptic upheaval and literally tortured by those with more power.

The "WAKE UP" scrawled in graffiti isn't just to the poor, it's to anybody watching. Because we can all be victimized by the imbalances in society.

I admit, I'm biased in that this play hits closer to home for me than probably many in the audience in Goshen. I grew up in the Bronx in a working-class area, with the threat of poverty and violence always looming. The characters are real to me - Marisol is the local girl trying to make good, but also being clung to by the neighborhood. June is the would-be yuppie who seems to love the idea of working in the city more than the city itself. Lenny is somebody's crazy conspiracy theory brother, who may not be totally crazy after all. (I can't vouch
for the veracity of the Neonazis or the homeless people, but I did once see a suspicious fire in Van Cortlandt Park. Does that count?)

But this play isn't just about poverty and violence in the city. The apocalypse that's happening is also environmental (fires raging in Ohio), political (wildly expensive ideas to tow the moon back to its orbit, while a police state ensues) and ... well ... galactic.

Here's the trickiest part of the play for me, and I suspect many of the audience members: The idea that God has grown senile and must be killed in order to stave off the end of the universe.

Ten years ago, as a Bible/religion major at Goshen College, I had a hard time with that. I still do, in the sense that I can't blame God for human-made problems. I don't believe it's God's "job" to protect us from ourselves, it's *our* job.

But seeing the play now, I see "God" as more a symbol for "the order of things", meaning that the angels - and later the huddled masses on earth - aren't necessarily killing the God that I believe in, but the symbolic "powers that be" that run things. Of course, Rivera is likely
far more humanist than I am in this, but as a Christian, I can take that symbolism because I agree with its deeper meaning.

Don't rush to assume, by the way, that this play is an ode to violent revolution. It offers a chilling look at what happens when such "revolutions" happen. "Scar tissue" says, profoundly, "Heaven erupts but who pays the price? The fucking innocent do!" And, ultimately, the play isn't about destruction but rebirth. They're creating a new world, a new reality, from the bottom up, where the lowest are made high. Instead of a typical revolution, where the winners lord it over their enemies, Marisol asks the "woman in furs" to join them, reaching her hand out.

She declined, sharply, but we shouldn't. This play should urge us to look at where we are in the "order of things" and see what things we're putting our faith in. Because today is a tenuous time, with the credit crunch sending "contributing members of society" into bankruptcy, with talk of a recession, with wars and rumors of wars.

Some day, we might be asked to make a choice too.

Heavy stuff, I admit, but the beauty of this play is that it does it with a dollop of, er, dulce de leche. There's biting humor, sometimes gallows humor here.

Lenny, as played by Derek Bontreger, is straightfaced in his crackpot enthusiasm, but so over the top that he steals his scenes. His accent is mighty good for a Midwesterner. Amy Stutsman plays the guardian angel with the swagger and sensuality that, I think, we all really really want in our guardian angels. Jessica Hage plays June's unhinged moments with the right kind of emotion. The rest of the cast also does well with difficult parts.

But it's Cassie Greer's Marisol who brings it home. Armed with a slight Nuyorican accent and a sort of world-weary innocence, she descends into the apocalypse, and ultimately out of it, with the realness of any average person ... if one of us could actually pull that off. She's not a conquering action-movie hero, and the play is much the better for it.

I could say tons more, but here's my final point: go see this play. If you've seen it already, see it again. You may or may not agree with all of it, you may or may not understand all of it, but it will get inside your head and keep you thinking for a long time after.

Ten years later, I'm still thinking.

Thomas V. Bona is a newspaper reporter in Rockford, Ill., and a former resident of Goshen. He's written for New World Arts' 24/7 Theater Festivals, acted occasionally and is known for laughing at appropriate - and inappropriate - times during shows.

A Mix Tape for Marisol

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:04:17 -0500

I have had several requests for the track list that I used for Marisol, so here it is, in a slightly abbreviated form. I also included iTunes links. A couple of the songs are not available on iTunes, so I linked to other songs by the same artist. Most of these bands are indy, so do them a favor and buy their music if you like it. Also, I would love to hear more of what you think regarding the music I chose for this play. It was not an easy task. I liken it most to creating a mix tape for a new girlfriend, which is a very delicate process. So I guess this is my mix tape for Marisol.

Damien Jurado - Ghost of David
Low - Amazing Grace
Saxon Shore - Secret Fire, Binding Light
Moby - Anima
Moby - A Season in Hell
Moby - Everything is Wrong
Appleseed Cast - Strings
Agnus Dei (From Platoon)
Sunny Day Real Estate - 8
The Mars Volta - Cassandra Gemini -E. Sarcophagi
Thom Yorke - The Clock
Cool Hand Luke - Sowing and Reaping (10 or 40 on iTunes)
Saxon Shore - Be a Bright Blue
The Gloria Record - Ascension Dream
16 Horsepower - Beyond the Pale (not on iTunes)
Elliott - Blessed by Your Own Ghost

The Reason the Universe was Made...

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:26:00 -0500

Like an the dramatic thread of any story, every production has its natural arc. You start with the exposition with casting, early design meetings and incessant readings of the script. You spark the process with the inciting incident, the First Readthrough. You work at the rising action with your table talk, blocking, working sessions and tech week.

Then before you know it, you are at the climax...production. The tech is (hopefully) set, the audience shows up, roses are distributed and lights come up on stage as the first line of the first night of production is delivered. The first line is always an earth-shattering event for me. Every night of every performance holds such power for me.

Then the falling action and denouement...

And here's the point. It is within the falling action that you discover the reasons you did a production. You ask yourself, 'what is it that I have taken away from this experience?'

The reasons people do theater are numerous. Whether it is activism, or 'showing off' or even therapy...I won't go into that here. I find that for me, personally, it varies from show to show. Last night, I had some time for reflection, and thought about what Marisol has meant for me.

The themes of Marisol are relevant, the message essential and the text beautiful...but what I have taken away from this production is something that a script alone cannot provide.

The relationships. This cast and crew have brought insight and meaning to this production at a level that I had not anticipated.

I treasure the conversations we had as we delved into the script. I relish the energy everyone brings to their roles.

Early on in the process, we talked about artifacts of power...the containers in which we place our identities, thus transferring power to inanimate objects.

I believe this cast and crew has made this play a vessel of great power. They have placed their thoughts, minds and souls into this production, and through their sacrifice beautiful acts of creation have come into being.

Towards the end of Act II, Marisol says "What a time to be alive, huh? On one hand we're nothing. We're dirt. On the other hand, we're the reason the universe was made."

What do I take away from this production? I take away all the beautiful experiences and insights the cast and crew have given me. The reason behind the universe is all of us...and I am thankful for each and everyone of you.

Thank you, cast and crew, for everything you have brought to this striking production. Have an incredible second weekend of performances.

What a night

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:16:27 -0500

"...It's difficult not to be seduced by Cassie Greer's performance in the title role.

Her embodiment of Marisol is intimate and bold as she navigates an array of emotions to near perfection."
-- Jeremy Bonfiglio, South Bend Tribune

What a night; thanks to everyone who made it possible. We had a full and expressive audience, delicious reception food provided by Board President Elaine Ehrlich and Board Member Jennifer Deneen and the show was as provocative and beautiful as I have ever seen it. Well done everyone.

The South Bend Tribune's Jeremy Bonfiglio (who I finally got to meet in person last night) was in the house last night. His review of the play is coming out in Sunday's tribune, but you can get a sneak peak of it here.

We're expecting another full house tonight, so if you are going to come, make sure to make your reservation now.

joy joy joy joy

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:51:33 -0500

so we made it through opening night of marisol and season ten. ahhh. good show everyone. that was my first night ever on stage in a theatrical production. very exciting. very relieving. and i think it went well, despite a few mishaps here and there! what a huge rush to perform for a full audience, especially a receptive and expressive one. it makes the grueling, sleep deprived past month somehow completely worthwhile. there is so much yet that i personally want to polish with my character, but overall i feel good about the show. the entire cast and crew is incredible. our director is amazing. i truly appreciate bryan's spirit, his patience, laughter, strong yet gentle guidance, extensive notes, flat vowels! all the peoples involved in this production have been working quite hard and keeping such positive attitudes in the midst of physical illness, technical set-backs, and major harassments from me! thank you all for this most meaningful experience. connecting closely with your beautiful human spirits day and night in the green room, the flex, backstage, on stage, and then aside from the theater, i find more joy, more love, more light awakened within my own self. namaste.

'Marisol' press, galleries and video

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Local and regional press have been great to us the last few days. The press blitz begins!

Here's what's out now (but I happen to know there's some more to come):

Goshen News article on tonight's opening. (There's for some reason no online link, but I'll post it when it comes up. Check yesterday's paper.)
Tyler Yoard (Golf Club) (who needs to blog) wrote a great write-up yesterday for us in the Goshen College Record.
South Bend Tribune's Andy Hughes came out with a great article today about tonight's opening.
The Tribune also together a gallery of Tuesday night's tech rehearsal.
The Tribune put up a video on their multimedia site of that same rehearsal, featuring Cassie (Marisol) and Derek (Lenny) rehearsing Act 1. (Scroll down and look for "Multimedia" on the right hand side on the screen).

Wow. Thanks SBT.

See you tonight.

23 hours, 30 minutes.

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:29:42 -0500

Have you noticed that the blog has been quiet the last few days? That'd be accurate. The actors have been rehearsing, beautifully, until midnight each night. The tech crew, however, has been dealing with this guy.

That's a fully broken lighting board, which bid us farewell only 3 days ago.

Jessica Brubaker and Dan Horst, to their immense credit, have pulled some late nights getting lights on stage, and being where we are supposed to be the night before opening.

Something going extremely well has been, well, the rest of the show.

Welcome to Season Ten. See you tomorrow night.

Don't forget to swing by the New World Arts space tomorrow night for an open, free reception for the actors and crew at 7 p.m.

Happy Thoughts

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:33:13 -0500

Can I just take a moment to say that the morale of this cast and crew is amazing? Because it really is, and it's incredibly inspiring to work with people who are so devoted and focused on putting together this show. Over the past week, we have dealt with numerous illnesses and "invisible" actors, a malfunctioning lighting system (and then functioning, and then malfunctioning again, etc.), noisy costumes, new costumes, and costumes at a different stage of completion every night, constantly evolving props, and a learning whole bunch of set changes on top of everything else. And everybody has handled things with so much grace and cheerfulness (and soup!). Thank you cast and crew.

Also, so many extra people have pitched in to help make sure we're all ready for opening night. Thank you everybody else. It's great to feel so supported as an actor, both by the crew and all the extra costume helpers running around, as well as by my fellow cast members, who are always open to discussing and dissecting and refining our scenes together over and over again. It continues to be an honor to work with you all.

And a final P.S. to anyone who knows the end of the show: ask me about the Transfiguration...

And a postscript...

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:57:52 -0500

Regarding the previous two posts: they will make more sense if you know the play. And there's a lot more detail you can go into as far as Biblical parallels/parallels of religious story and mythology that I didn't want to write about for the sake of not giving away the end of the show. So. Come see the show. And then we can talk more about it... :)

Napkin Drawings #2: Eschatology

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:05:30 -0500

Another thing I spent a lot of time thinking about Saturday morning was the structure of the script itself. Jose Rivera uses a lot of repetition in words and images throughout both acts of the play, and I kept trying to figure out how those moments of repetition match up and what they mean. After sitting there deep in thought for a while, I drew myself a little timeline/picture that looked like this:

                         ACT 1                                   ACT 2
         Golf Club (almost attack)    -    Furs (almost attack) ...repeated lines and images
               Angel visitation            - Marisol/Furs discussion of angels* ...image repetition
       Ice Cream (set a man on fire)    -             Scar Tissue (was set on fire)
June as the burner of Lenny's dreams    -       June as the physical burner of dreams
          Lenny/Marisol rape                   -                      Lenny/Marisol birth
Marisol's moment of complete un-compassion -   June (Compassion) reawakened

                                 *note: this is also the first time that Marisol admits, out loud, to
                           another human being that the Angel's visitation was not just a dream

Paralleling things between Act 1 and Act 2 like this, or laying Act 2 over the structure of Act 1 and seeing where things line up, we come to the end of Act 1 (with Marisol's un-compassion/moment of violence), but we still have a little bit left in Act 2. For the sake of blog-readers who are coming to see the show and don't want the ending completely spoiled, I won't go into detail about this last part of Act 2, except to say that it is in this final section that Marisol finds "restoration"/the "hope" that she has been searching for amid the decay of the world throughout the rest of the play.

Now get this: I again drew a picture (on the left) of this, trying to explain to Danny what I had been thinking about. Before I finished, Danny (who took a class on Eschatology in college 5-ish years ago, and consequently knows all these interesting and really cool things) got this really intrigued and excited look on his face. He patiently waited for me to explain how interesting it was that Act 2 has this extra section of restoration before throwing in his two cents:

First, he drew me a picture - that's the lines and dots at the bottom-right of the image above - of the structure of the book of Revelation (which, may I point out, is the Biblical story of the end of the world; Marisol is a non-Biblical story of the end of the world...). Revelation is broken into seven sections, each of which contain a progression of elements that are repeated in each section. As the book progresses, each of the seven sections becomes more compact, but still repeats the pattern. This is interesting in comparison to Marisol, which, in Act 2, repeats the pattern of Act 1, but in a more succinct (i.e. without scene divisions; more free-flowing) way. So this play parallels Revelation. Very cool.

Then he told me that, in the New Testament (and more specifically, in the book of Revelation), the number seven symbolizes God, divinity, perfection, etc. The number six signifies humanity (short of divinity, perfection, etc.). Danny had noticed in my little timeline that Act 1 has six elements; Act 2 has seven. So it makes sense that Act 1 builds upon the imperfection of the world, the depravity, if you will, of humanity, while Act 2, by the end achieves a type of divinity.

That blows my mind.

Napkin Drawings #1: Why Marisol?

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:55:58 -0500

So last weekend, Derek forgot we had rehearsal - although he did spend the morning intensely practicing his lines, his dialect and trying to get into character - and while this could have been a further drawback to my already sleep-deprived Saturday morning, it actually turned out to be a very good thing, giving me three solid hours to work on lines, discuss some of my questions with Bryan, and reflect on the script.

One of the things Bryan and I talked about was the character structure of Marisol: namely, there are only three characters with actual names in the script (Marisol, Lenny and June, as opposed to Golf Club, Ice Cream, Furs, Scar Tissue and Angel), and those three seem to represent the three most essential elements/capacities of the human spirit - Compassion (June), Faith (Lenny) and Power (Marisol). Each character, throughout the course of the play, explores the extremes of each of these elements (a rather trite example: Lenny's incredible faith in his belief system and personal story; everyone else's complete lack of faith in Lenny; then Lenny's faith completely destroyed).

My underlying question in this conversation had to do with why this play is about Marisol; why not June? Why not the next guy off the street? As we talked about the way playwright Jose Rivera structured these characters, I began to realize that part of the answer to this question has to do with Marisol representing Power: Faith and Compassion are great and essential things, but if there is no Power underlying them, they have no weight - it is not possible to put your Faith in something without using your Power to make a choice, to throw your Faith in one direction or another. Our power, and how we choose to use and direct it, is central to being human; that is why Marisol, representing the human element of Power, is the central character in this play.

Another, perhaps more obvious reason that the play is written about Marisol is the etymology of her name: "Marisol" means "sea and sun" (or "sea and sky"), quite literally encompassing all of creation. "Marisol" is also a form of the name "Mary", referencing Mary as the mother of Jesus, and thereby the mother of a new creation; in this play, Marisol serves the same role of ushering in a new creation. Marisol is also a person that almost all human beings can identify with - she is just another person on the street in some ways, middle class, easily placed in the generic categories of "female" and "minority", no family connections and no friends (besides June) to complicate our picture of her or make her a distinct character that we might have more trouble connecting with, typical in the way she looks to her job, her religion and her environment to identify herself; in some sense, she is a modern "everywoman".

The image above is a picture I drew on a napkin at Hacienda as I tried to explain my recent revelations about Marisol to my husband. Sometimes I think better in pictures than in words, so for those of you who are the same way, try to focus on the napkin drawing and don't try too hard to understand my rambling :)

lovin' it

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:22:40 -0500

and no, i don't mean mcdonalds.

i'm really starting to feel like the two characters that i am playing in marisol are really coming to life in a way that i never really anticipated when i first read the script.

i've been so used to playing comedic roles in the past, and so i initially read these parts fairly lightly - but they both have an immense amount of power and vulnerability at the same time. And they both significantly put weight on marisol's character, in different ways.

one is threatening. the other is endearing..for the most part... :) yet they're both creepy, awkward and quirky. fun stuff to play with.

my truly becoming self

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:42:20 -0500

my character, marisol's angel, experiences a rather extreme shift of identity in this drama. she has known only her roll as guardian for all of her existence. then suddenly she takes it upon herself to assume a different roll. a warrior. for a cause with a most uncertain outcome. a cause greater than herself. greater even than her love for the one she is in direct care of. this is heartbreaking. but necessary.
in my personal life such a scenario is not unfamiliar. i know about care-taking. i know about seeing to the needs of others before my own self. this is how i was raised. but in recent years i have also learned to depart from certain attachments to loved ones. i have become aware that unless i fight for my truth i am actually doing a disservice to those i love. it has taken much time to convince me this is no selfish endeavor. for the angel it took thousands of years.
realizing that true growth and reconfiguration cannot come about without considerable loss is difficult at best. yet can we not all learn life's most valuable strengths while fending for ourselves? loss of loved ones, teachers, leaders, and so on can leave us bewildered and devastated. severing on some level is often needed in order for us to ask who we honestly are, what we honestly believe. the question may be terrifying. it has been for me. and perhaps still is from time to time. i am, however, continually learning to plunge into the fright of such fluid reality knowing that through it i will grow stronger in myself and thus be of much more significant impact on those around me. then fear is transformed to joy.
no one can give to me the force i have already within myself. even as i can give this to no one. we do have the power to either remind each other of or distract each other from our genuine lives. yet i think that when we begin to learn our own depths, regardless of outward influence, we are becoming our rightful selves.