Playground-LA’s The Shakespeare Sequels perfect for our times.
On January 20th the Theater production company PLAYGROUND LA hosted a night of one act plays at the Broadwater Second stage on Sunset in Hollywood, California from a competition to Los Angeles playwrights to create Sequels to SHAKESPEARE plays. What happens to the characters after SHAKESPEARE dropped the curtain and wrote “THE END?” The result was a night of 6 completely different plays captivating the spirit of SHAKESPEARE but also from a MODERN view. The writers wrote conclusions for “Midsummer Night Dreams,” “The Tragedies of Anthony and Cleopatra,” “Taming the Shrew,” “The Tempest,””Twelfth Night,” and the final seemed to be a play on “Titus and Andronicus.”
“Awaken from Midsummer” by Damian Alejandro Arteaga, directed by Andy Lowe and staring Julio Hanson as Puck, Krystal Mosley as Helena, and Danny J Gomez as Demetrius was an examination of what would happen if Puck decided to undo his magic and would Helena and Demetrius stay together or still be in love. The sets for all 6 of these stories were minimalistic. A few tables and chairs in a black box Theater with a projection screen. However the backscreen could be used to project fairy like woods and Shakespearean bed chambers. At a time when the current political administration is trying to end diversity. The actors in these productions represented diverse races and sexual orientations and including disability diversity. Puck was at his fairy magic finest even giving a version of his final monologue to close.
“Good Romans” written by Baylee Shlichtman and directed by Tanvi Agrawal starred Greg Bryan as Octavian and Jahnavi Alyssa as Octavia. Based on the end of “Anthony and Cleopatra,” Octavian is the man who defeated Anthony. He was historically the founder of the Roman Empire. His maternal Great Uncle was Julius Cesar. Octavia is Octavian’s sister who in Shakespeare’s play is offered as a wife to Anthony. But Anthony convinces Octavia to leave him to try to make peace with her brother and uses that opportunity to run off to be with Cleopatra. This one act happens after all of that. It is about Octavia and Octavian making peace with the after math and trying to decide what to do about Anthony’s children and whether she would take them up as her own. Historically she did. Her eldest son was executed by her brother but she was allowed to raise her other children and took on the responsibility of raising Anthony’s children with Cleopatra.
“The Revenge of the Shrew” by Cara Sanchez and Directed by Tiana Randall-Quant starred Grace Su as Katherine, Jo Yuan as Bianca, and Mae Ruling as Rosina. It was an exploration of what if Katherine turned into a stepford wife. Revenge intrigue. Something about this story was reminiscent of the TV show “Why Women Kill.” It was as if this comedy had suddenly become a dark drama of lies and deception. This one fleshed out could turn into a full length film of intrigue.
“The Storm After The Storm” by Rachel Harner and directed by Vivi Lee starred Tahmus Rounds as Prospero, Charles Gonzales as Ferdinand, and Miranda as Jahnavi Alyssa. Imagine if after everything Prospero did to get his daughter back into society and power and married to Ferdinand, she changes her mind and comes into her own power. This had girl power all over it. It would make a great start to a Shakespeare version of “Charmed” the 90s TV show about witches.
“Thirteenth Night” by Summer Broyhill and directed by Collette Rutherford stared Mae Ruling as Olivia and Nemma Andeni as Viola. What would happen if Twelfth night was followed by a night where the characters followed their true feelings knowing the sexuality of the characters? These plays were done the night that America became a dark place for the marginalized. This play however played on the idea that maybe Olivia and Viola confess their love and maybe their partners have a secret as well. America needs more open rebellion in peaceful places like THEATERS. Keep making art that reflects real humanity
Finally “I do not eat PIE” by Amy Ellenberger and directed by Ivan Rivas starring Carene Rose Mekertichyan as Erin, Anthony Rutowicz as Luke, and Mathew Henerson as the waiter. Of the six plays this one is the only one that really took a leap from the Shakespeare story. It required research to even determine which Shakespeare play this was based on. “Titus and Andronicus” is considered Shakespeare’s most violent story. It is not often performed. It is a horror play. If you search “pie and Shakespeare” online it is the only option for this story. The author of this post has only seen one production of Titus. In the play Titus captures four prisoners in battle who vow to get revenge on him. They rape his wife and kill his sons so he takes two of them and bakes them into a pie and feeds them to their mother. It appears the creator of “Demon Barber of Fleet Street” had a mentor in Shakespeare. IN this play Luke and Erin are lovers on a date and they question how much they love each other. It ends very Stephen King. Stephen King wrote a short called “The Gotham Cafe” where a waiter goes insane and starts killing people. This story was not exactly that. The character of Luke must be LUCIUS who is Titus’ only surviving son who goes from bloodthirsty to sober. In this play he refuses to eat the pie his date wants him to consume. Instead they decide a more violent way to show their devotion to each other. In Shakespeare’s play Lucius is a widower with a son of his own. I found this play to be the most imaginative as it took the story of Shakespeare and created an entirely different modern day story with characters that only on the surface had any connection to the original.
This was a great night of Theater and should be seen again. Los Angeles keep making stories that remind this country to have HEART and HUMANITY and CREATIVITY.
