They won hearts and minds, and that's what really counts. Giant and Verz kicked it hard and with big love at the Tilted Kilt Open Mic Final last Wednesday night...no, they didn't win the grand prize but definitely came away with new fans and heaping dose of positive energy. It was a joy to coach these guys. Check em out...
Thursday morning 7AM, after a LATE night with Giant and Verz...the day began at Carlos Garcia's black box studio theater/classroom at the Desert Mirage High School in Thermal. Three back-to-back classes learning by doing; voice, body, text and style...in a funky bi-lingual flow with these curious kids.
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| Theater class at Desert Mirage High School |
Thursday afternoon started with a coaching session with an aspiring playwright/actor from Indio, Reggie Davis. We talked at length about his love of art and theater, and about his ambition to find a way to continue studying, hopefully in LA or another larger city, and about overcoming obstacles...something he knows a lot about.
Back to the Galilee Center in Mecca -- this time to get a first-hand taste of the line, the people, the love...
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| Galilee Center, Mecca, distribution day. |
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| 90 minutes of fast and grateful food-banking. |
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| Galilee Center, Mecca, fresh Tilapi in a sack! |
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| Galilee Center, Gloria and Serafim. |
Friday brought me to the award-winning, ground-breaking, and very hip 24th Street Theater in Los Angeles.
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| Jay McAdams, co-founder with Debbie Devine of The 24th Street Theater in LA. |
Jay McAdams, Executive Director, was waiting for me in the lobby and
took me into the inner sanctum -- the wondrous and funky theater, where
Artistic Director, Debbie Devine was working with actors on scenes from
the simply gorgeous "Walking the Tightrope"
which I saw in Pittsburgh last winter, and which will tour to 8 cities
this fall (including four shows for bused-in students at the McCallum!)
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| Watching rehearsal of the award-winning Walking the Tightrope...touring to the McCallum in October. |
Jay and I talked about the goals for the Crisalida Project. The 24th Street Theater received a grant from the Irvine Foundation last year so we had a lot of common ground. We talked about setting up a "meet and greet" type gathering with LA Latino theater artists and teaching artists to begin establishing a "talent pool" to help realize Crisalida's mission. They have been working without pause to make the theater a place where all people are welcome, and to that end have commissioned and produced a number of plays in Spanish and tour them to Mexico and South America.
I love my job.
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