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“unseen” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

unseen

written by Mona Mansour
directed by Evren Odcikin

Ashland, OR
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Masthead for :"unseen" at OSF

unseen has given us hours of discussion on how we could fix it to make it a good play. We try so hard because the storyline resonates so loudly in our times of war, horror, loss, and helplessness. And we can spend hours on fixes because there are so many issues.

The title unseen itself illustrates one of the play’s problems. The e. e. cummings capitalization style is obviously supposed to mean something. So much of unseen is supposed to mean something that I didn’t quite grasp. From the title capitalization to parts of the set to passages of dialog to almost everything presented to the audience, the show is endlessly metaphorically symbolic and reminiscent of… things I should understand. 

But, there’s too much I don’t understand without taking the PhD class in symbolism.

Perhaps I would spend more time trying to grok the finer points presented to us, except that the main character, Mia (played by Helen Sadler), is unlikable. Her coldness is another point of endless debate — is the character written poorly or is the problem with the actor and director in this production. Whatever the reason, we don’t wind up caring about what has happened or is happening to her.  

Because we don’t bond with Mia, the string of events in her life feel random. I know what she’s lived through is PTSD provoking. But, she wasn’t warm and friendly in the earlier, pre-passing-out stressed flashback moment. So did we miss some earlier damaging scene? And, speaking of time disorientation, scenes usually started out with their time being displayed in lights on a beam on the stage, e..g, “3 months ago”. But, I think that the scenes were shown in chronological order. Weren’t they? So why display the dates?

unseen (2022): Helen Sadler and Nora el Samahy. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Helen Sadler and Nora el Samahy. Photo by Jenny Graham, OSF

I am fan of the rule that if you show me a gun in Act I you need to shoot it before the play is over. In unseen I never understood why Mia is a lesbian. Was it because her ex girlfriend (Derya, played by Nora el Samahy) was not out and therefore was “unseen” by much of Derya’s birth family? I don’t know. And, there were just too many loose ends for me to care about any of them.

The highlights of the short 100-minute-ish performance was the acting by el Samahy and Carolyn Shaffer who played Jane, Marian, and Nancy. These two women gave nuanced, emotional, and approachable performances. They quality of their acting was one of the reasons there was so much discussion on fixing the play… we wanted it to be worthy of their skill.

However, there’s even more to fix.

The stage design was weird with 1/3 seemingly reserved for a tree branch. There was too much movement from one side to the other making people feel like there were watching a tennis match in the aisle configuration. 

Then there were the words flashed on the set telling us the time period of some of the scenes. That was okay because if you missed the date in its out-of-the-way location you generally got was going on by context. However, at the end of the play there is a prayer/song/something sung in Turkish (Arabic?) and the English translation was apparently splashed on a wall. About one in six people I talked to saw the translation, the rest of us missed the meaning of the closing words. That was a loss.

unseen has too many themes, too many possibilities, and too many symbols to be either fun or worthwhile. It’s a well-meaning piece with two fine actors, and you will discuss your ideas about how to improve it. But, overall, it’s only:

Ozdachs Rating:  2 Syntaxes out of 5

By |2022-05-07T15:34:26-07:00May 7, 2022|osf, plays|0 Comments
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Signs of The END

The END of Central
The END of Central Street at Oak

Since the beginning of the plague I have been walking the City streets instead of going to the gym.

Sometime in March I decided to gather photos of the signs that marked the END of streets. Today I uploaded my 450th END to the “Signs of the End” gallery.

The scavenger hunt for ENDs has altered the course of many strolls. Instead of going to a favorite view, I sometimes decide into this non-scenic residential neighborhood because the street leading into it looks like it’s about to END. I find some unexpected fun sites hunting ENDs, and I also see areas that help me understand the diversity of the city.

Many streets don’t formally END. They just don’t go any further. 17th Street ENDs, 18th Street simply peters out, and 19th Street officially ENDs.

More fun is discovering streets that you thought just stopped actually have a new life a few blocks away, maybe on the other side of a hill or park. They start back up again, stop again, and finally END formally a mile or so after the first interruption. Castro Street is my current favorite stuttering ENDing.

Today I decided to explore the area behind and above Kaiser on Geary. That route and the twisty way back home let me snag 6 ends, the ENDs of Anzavista, Barcelona, Central, Nido, Terra Vista, and Vega.

And, Nido and Vega END together.

A double END! Vega and Nido meet their mutual END.

And speaking of alphabetizing the collection, the streets in SmugMug are in alphabetical order. So, you can check to see if I have discovered your favorite END. I also posted ENDs in Facebook for a long while, but their new format made alphabetizing practically impossible.

So, in these END times, I invite you to view your END. Visit the gallery!

By |2020-12-31T11:51:17-08:00December 26, 2020|San Francisco|0 Comments
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A Meaningful “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” hits Netflix tomorrow, December 18. I was lucky enough to see it last Friday, and I would like to recommend it! Highly!

Forgive me if I assume that you know that the original play was written by August Wilson and that you know his importance in American Theater.

Montage of Netflix screen shots with my name
My name was watermarked on all scenes so that I couldn’t record it and anonymously share it before its release.

And, you probably know that “Ma Rainey” is set in Chicago in the 1920’s and is the play deals with a recording audition for Ma and her band.

Of course, the real focus is “issues of race, art, religion and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers”, as Wikipedia summaries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Rainey%27s_Black_Bottom .

There is a fair amount of music in the film, but it is not a happy musical!

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom poster

Viola Davis plays Ma, and Chadwick Boseman (the Black Panther) co-stars in his final film role.  They are amazing, and the rest of the cast is beyond solid. The adaption to film added to the feel of the time without being showy or in-your-face needlessly cinematic.

We are lucky to know the Executive Producer of the film, Constanza Romero.  She is August’s widow and the person in charge of his estate and its granting of rights to perform Wilson’s work.

She is also involved in “Giving Voice”, and just-released Netflix documentary following high school students competing in the annual August Wilson Monologue Contest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giving_Voice

That 70-minute documentary is extremely strong and moving. It shows talented young people seeking escape from their often not good lives by immersing themselves into theater. Imagine the choice of either joining a gang or going into theater and being pushed out of your home by your family because of your choice.

“Giving Voice” is real, uplifting, depressing.

I strongly recommend that Netflix movie, too.

Please consider seeing “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Giving Voice”.

By |2020-12-31T11:50:57-08:00December 17, 2020|films|0 Comments
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A Happy Oddity of Pacheco Street

As I walk around San Francisco during the Time of the Plague I am often delighted/confronted by special sights that would never be allowed in any “well organized” city plan.

Previously I have discovered a street with two END signs blocks apart (St. Marys) and a street with no beginning but two ENDS (Hilton). Today I confirmed another city planning/street labeling impossibility: there is apparently a negative block of Pacheco.

  • Pachecho Street Looking toward the Pacheco Steps
    Looking up the Pacheco stairs from where there is a sign announcing the start of the street at the 000 block headed toward the Grand Pacheco Stairway..
  • Looking away from The Grand Pacheco Stairway from the same spot. There is a less grand (but pretty massive) stairway.
The two sides of the 000 Block of Pacheco

On the maps, the less grand stairs to the southeast are clearly labeled Pacheco Street, even though the street to the northwest is clearly labeled the 000 block of Pacheco.

Google map of the 000 blocks of Pacheco

So, apparently there is a negative and positive 000 block of Pacheco.

Actually, I first became aware of the problem of identifying the start of Pacheco when I was following a trek in The Stairway Walks of San Francisco. The instructions had me going along Vasquez and then turning left on to Pacheco Street. But, there is no real Pacheco Street that runs into Vasquez. There’s an opening that reveals the stairs above in the picture on the right, but there’s no street sign. So, I kept walking and wound up having to check a map, walk around the neighborhood, and eventually rediscover Pacheco at Merced where today’s photos were taken.

But, I do wonder how you get help if you slip and fall on the stairs in the -000 block. Tell the paramedics you’re about -47 Pacheco Street between Merced and Vasquez?

By |2020-12-26T18:04:21-08:00September 5, 2020|San Francisco|0 Comments
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