Spirited Staging

IN 2003, SAN DIEGO REPERTORY THEATRE debuted Nuevo California, a well-received futuristic drama about a devastating earthquake and how, in its aftermath, San Diego and Tijuana formed a new community. It featured snippets of experiences drawn from interviews with more than 200 area residents from a variety of backgrounds.

Now, co-author Allan Havis, a play-writing teacher at the University of California, San Diego, has used similar material for his new work, Restless Spirits, again at the Rep (January 28–February 19) and again staged by Rep artistic director Sam Woodhouse. This one, Havis says, is “more personal than political, with a stronger central character.” It’s a mystery play about an expert in the paranormal in search of ghosts from her own past and who, through a series of revelations, realizes the extent and history of her diverse and multi-ethnic family.

“It’s a gothic/ghost/love story,” says Havis. “In terms of Hollywood movies, there is a ‘third act’ surprise discovery, but it’s more about the woman’s journey—the mystical telling of the story.” Most of the developments are derived from interviews, which Havis says provided such an abundance of information, the hardest part of writing the play was deciding what to omit. All interviewees were asked, “Do you have a supernatural story to tell?” Everyone did, he says, even when they didn’t consider themselves believers in the spirit world. In the play, “their stories are autonomous,” he points out, although they thread into the overall tapestry.

The play is set in San Diego and Tijuana, so naturally (or supernaturally) some scenes take place in our city’s famous ghostly haunts, such as the Whaley House, Hotel del Coronado and the Coronado Bridge, which—as a notorious site for suicides—has its own shadowed history. But don’t assume everything is spooky. Music and dance are featured prominently, helping to depict the various cultures.

Restless Spirits is the latest work in the Rep’s Calafia Initiative, which commissions and produces plays focusing on our binational region. The cast includes some of the area’s more familiar and respected actors: Karole Foreman, M’Lafi Thompson, Kinan Valdez, Jim Chovick and Raul Cardona. Newcomers include Wendell Wright, April Doctolero, Bibi Valderrama and Zoe Eprile.

BEATRICE AND BENEDICK, meet Bond—James Bond. The bickerers- turned-lovers in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing get blended with 1960s-style spy spoofery in Aquila Theatre Company’s version of the Bard’s classic romance. The Aquila Ado is, despite the calendar, the final production of the 2005 season at La Jolla Playhouse (January 17–February 19 at the Potiker).

Playhouse regulars who recall Aquila’s 2003 physical, funny rendition of Comedy of Errors are undoubtedly anticipating the British-American troupe’s take on the play about romantic conflict amid war, deceit and treachery. Aquila has won international hurrahs for its mix of styles, from witty wordplay to slapstick horseplay, and its Much Ado has been much praised.

Still, the return of Aquila inspires a quibble. Much as I enjoy the chance to see such excellent outside troupes, I prefer homegrown works. The Playhouse’s seven-play 2005 schedule included two visiting companies—the other was Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s The Miser—and two Page to Stage, still-developing workshop productions, Current Nobody and Zhivago. Another offering was the return of I Am My Own Wife, which was homegrown in a way, since it began as a Page to Stage workshop in 2001. Thus, for the season, the Playhouse basically offered only two new, fully realized productions of its own. The glimmer of good news is that both were originals, the promising Palm Beach—the Musical and the disappointing comedy The Scottish Play.

In two respects, the smash Broadway success of Jersey Boys and the long-awaited opening of the Potiker, the Playhouse had a banner year. For 2006, I hope such success translates into a stronger set of productions from one of our more esteemed theaters.

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »