SEPARATED by an intermission, Teatro Visión 's two one-act plays by Milcha Sanchez-Scott—Dog Lady and Evening Star—are loosely tied together through parallels, where magic and the spirit of nature weave through life in an L.A. barrio. Written years apart in Sanchez-Scott's career, the plays occur in the same neighborhood, and Teatro Visión further connects them by casting the actors in dual roles.
At one point in Evening Star, Junior (Haldun Morgan) stands on his roof with 14-year-old Olivia (Marilet Martinez) watching the approach of her abuelo Juan (Rodrigo Garcia) through his telescope. "He's taking the short cut between Dog Lady's and Jessie Luna's house. Oh, oh. He just stepped in some dog doo ..." In one line, the comical tone and the almost generational continuity between the plays captures the unified essence of this production.
In Dog Lady, Rosalinda (Sarita Ocón)—who lives next to the Dog Lady (Luz de la Riva)—is practicing to win a race that promises her a life beyond the barrio. And Evening Star deals with two young girls choosing different paths from among their limited options. In some ways, the actors play very different characters from one play to the next. Rafael (also Morgan), the silent macho wannabe hanging around Rosalinda's house, seems like the polar opposite of the sensitive, stargazing Junior.
Rodrigo Garcia, delightful as the queenish neighbor Mr. Amador in Dog Lady, makes a dramatic shift to become the cynical abuelo in Evening Star. De la Riva's Dog Lady is a buffa/trickster character with a Punch-and-Judy voice and wearing clownish make-up. But de la Riva comes back in Evening Star to give a painfully commanding performance as the hard-working Mrs. Rodriguez when she finds out her daughter ("My tender delicate off-shoot") is pregnant. Director Wilma Bonet has sharpened this powerful scene, raising the stakes on the violence in her well-choreographed family scuffle. As the pregnant daughter, Lilly, Ocón plays the flip side of her earlier character, Rosalinda.
Only David Cavallero's roles, as the just-passing-through vendor with his push cart and mailman with his news from abroad, remains consistent. He weaves in and out of these lives, free, a reminder of things beyond. In fact, in another nice touch, Bonet has the vendor travel through audience space (as does Rosalinda on the run). This fascinating casting seems to make characters aspects of a whole (a living neighborhood, a race) while it suggests that any individual is an interplay of opposing aspects: add in a dash of nature, neighbors and magic, and any "butterfly" might emerge. Like the folks on the street, the actors hit their stride when there are several people to play off and ensemble moments are the most energetic.
The two plays easily share the same set. The same painted moon and stylistically smiling sun rise and fall from drop wires over the same two houses—charming set design, by Christopher Kristant. A drop screen painted with stars that glow under the lighting creates a mystifying, starry night. Sound designer Andy Hohenner brings out the correlations between nature and action with an expansive but haunting sound for the Santa Ana winds and just the right (subtle) volume for the evening crickets. Moving from Dog Lady, which ends in riotous good fun, to Evening Star, takes the tone progressively darker and more tragic. And by the end of this production, the soft whispers of many strains—tragedy, community, magic, absurdity—make it feel you've experienced the full rhythm of a generation.
Dog Lady and Evening Star, presented by Teatro Visión, play Thursday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm through Dec. 17 at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose. Tickets are $7-$40. (408.272.9926)
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