[PICS] Theater Review: ‘Black Box Black Blocks’

John Berger photos / jberger@starbulletin.com
From left, Terri Large Madden, Maseeh Ganjali, Royce R. Okazaki, Cecilia Fordham, Sarah Jane Carlton, Becky McGarvey, Siobhan Ni Dhonacha, Elisa Diehl and Justine Elora deserve credit for a fascinating program of drama, comedy and dance Diehl was in charge of putting the whole thing together and also deserves credit for deciding the order in which pieces were presented.

Review by John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Three black blocks and a bare black box set provide the performance space for the work of five playwrights and three choreographers in Black Box Black Blocks last weekend at Ernst Lab Theatre on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Some pieces are more engaging than others, and one needs to be rethought, but the program overall is successful showcase of mostly young talent.

Credit playwright Terri Large Madden with submitting the most memorable play.

The Party, directed by Hawaii stage veteran Cecilia Fordham, presents Cyrus Legg (Chuck) and Jackie Okimoto (Amy) in a dark and chilling drama. Chuck is the older brother of Amys best friend. Hes been waiting for her to be old enough and now she is. Their first date ends with a twist worthy of O. Henry, Hitchcock or The Twilight Zone.

Maseeh Ganjali directs Madden and Josh Young in Penny and the Missus, Justine Elonas story about a woman who resents having to care for her husbands mangy dog while he is out working late. Theres a different kind of suspense here, but it is still compelling.

Dont take it out on the dog, lady! Dont take it out on the dog!

Ganjali gets his turn as an actor in Aiko Gagarins Chaotic Therapy. Royce R. Okazaki (Mark), Stephanie Pak (Leslie) and Brad Larson (Stew) play unwilling participants in a group therapy session whose hostile reactions to each other lead to self-healing while the group leader (Ganjali) looks on. Larson quickly became an audience favorite with his portrayal of an edgy Xerox repair man with major anger management problems.

Dirty Money dancers Chev-Vaughan Lum, left, Chanel Meyers, Jerrik Julio, Shaye Okamura and Dwayne Sakaguchi were finished at intermission but stayed on to see the second half of the show. If Sakaguchi looks familiar its because of the show-stopping performance he gave as Angel in the Saint Louis Center for the Arts production of Rent: School Edition last summer.

OKAZAKI STEPS forward as choreographer and singer/dancer as well in the biggest and most impressive dance number. Dirty Money displays the talent of 19 dancers in a 20-minute celebration of Broadway musicals that includes numbers from Rent, Mamma Mia!, Sweet Charity, The Full Monty and In The Heights.

Although most of Okazakis dancers are either high school students or 09 grads they looked perfectly at home working with the older performers. Okazakis choreography represented several eras and genres there were even two tap dancing soloists.

Alaura Ward, left, Travis Namba, Raven Matsushita, Chris Salvador and Jenalyn Ng contributed to the success of the big Dirty Money number that closed the first half of the show nothing could have followed Dirty Money except a 15-minute intermission! Ward stood out when Dirty Money saluted Sweet Charity with a hot staging of the iconic Big Spender number.

STATUESQUE, choreographed by Becky McGarvey, also combines the physical beauty of dance with a clear and entertaining story. Elisa Diehl dances the role of a woman taken by surprise when three statues (McGarvey, Phoebe Hwang ad Jackie Okimoto) come to life. Dance can be exclusively about movement, of course, but in the context of this particular BB BB revue McGarveys decision to utilize the talent of her cast as actors as well as dancers added to the entertainment value.

Diehls contribution as a playwright, The Bare Truth, is a well-written story but suffers from an inescapable contradiction between the dialogue and what we see happening on stage. The story is about a woman who decides to answer the door stark naked, discovers that the person at the door is her brother, and remains naked anyway but the nude character is fully dressed!

There have been several Lab Theatre shows in which actors performed fully nude, so Diehls play could have been performed as written. Or, if necessary, with the performer in a bodystocking. Or, Diehl could have revised the script to accommodate the actor and made the nudity past tense rather than present tense. Any of these three choices would have been preferable.

No such problems mar O Mania, Siobhan Ni Dhonachas slice-of-local-life look at five Hawaii residents waiting for a glimpse of Barack Obama at Keehi Lagoon last summer. With luck, Black Box Black Boxes will be become an annual summer showcase for student playwrights, directors, choreographers, actors and dancers at UH-Manoa.