United Players of Vancouver
Another Part of the House
by Migdalia Cruz
Jericho Arts Centre
February 20-March 1
INTERESTING MISE -EN- SCENE BY DIRECTOR BOBBY GARCIA
Ed Farolan
Young director Bobby Garcia, who is doing his MFA at UBC, put on an interesting
staging of Migdalia Cruzs adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorcas
House of Bernarda Alba. I spoke to United Players Artistic Director,
Andree Karas, before last February 20ths show, and she said that
Lorcas play was originally slated for production. However, when
Bobby Garcia presented her this adaptation, she liked it better. Garcia
who has directed Film, Television and Theatre in both Asia and the USA
was impressed by this adaptation which he saw in LA, and brought it to
the attention of Karas to premiere here in Canada.
Migdalia Cruz, who was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, has written
over 28 plays which were produced in the USA and abroad. What she has
done with Lorcas La Casa de Bernarda Alba is enhanced the play by
adding other aspects of Lorcas output, particularly his poetry,
music and puppetry. In one scene, Adela is in green and she sings Lorcas
popular poem Verde que te quiero verde. In another scene,
she incorporates puppetry, and Director Garcia goes one step further and
uses the Bali shadow-play technique in doing it in this adaptation. Cruz
also sets her adaptation in 1895 Cuba bringing in the revolutionary leadership
and death of Cubas national poet and hero, Jose Marti, who wrote
the popular lyrics of the song Guantanamera.
I was impressed particularly by the creative mise-en-scene which Bobby
Garcia put on: a donut-like stage platform where the actors walked, sat
and slept on; the Venetian blinds that protected them from
the hot Cuban or Andalusian lead sun; the Brechtian approach
where actors sat on the sidelines while waiting for their cue to go on
stage; the scene outside the house, in the garden of dust (and you could
see real dust) and wilted flowers, where Adela did many of her scenes;
and finally, the deaths of Maria Josefa and Adela which happened on scene
as opposed to the more traditional Aristotelian off-scene deaths in the
original Lorca play. Cruz again in her adaptation goes further and gets
Maria Josefa and Adela resurrected at the he plays conclusion putting
in the message of womens liberation from repression which reflects
the main theme of the Lorca play. Garcias use of of bright spotlighting
on both these women in the last scene to convey this message was commendable,
and an almost full house appreciated this production with their warm applause.
United Players has published their line up of ther 1998/99 season in the
February issue of Playboard: The Rover, by Aphra Behn (Sept. 11-Oct. 4),
The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein (Nov. 13-Dec. 6), The Herbal
Bed by Peter Whelan (Feb. 5-28), Shadowlands by William Nicholson (Apr.
2-26), and The Frogs by Aristophanes (June 4-27).
The 1997/98 season ends with 2 more plays: An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
(April 3-26), and Electra by Sophocles (June 5-28). For more information
, phone 224-8007.
Copyright Ed Farolan. 1998
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