Editor's Picks: Laura Brueckner, January-February 2012 by / Laura Brueckner

Civil Disobedience: The Musical

Walking Elephant Theatre Company

Feb. 3–26

It’s a well-worn theatre joke: adding “The Musical” to an incongruous phrase raises a chuckle by inviting us to envision a serious topic as a light and glitzy musical. This production, however, is no joke. Walking Elephant Theatre features young performers who develop projects based on serious political “elephants in the room”, like marriage equality, bullying and addiction. Their “Prop 8 Love Stories” featured 10- to 17-year-old actors who built the show from interviews with couples, both hetero and same-sex. It vaulted from San Francisco to an off-Broadway run; it was a "Time Out New York Critic’s Pick", and Anna Deavere Smith gave it “High, high praise”. Now Walking Elephant takes on civil disobedience—and the troubling responses of law enforcement to citizens exercising their right to peaceably assemble. Interviewees include Black Panther founding member Nick Howard. Planned venues include Occupy Santa Rosa and Santa Rosa City Hall. These young performers belong to a generation that has always traveled at the speed of the Internet, has always lived in a country at war and, now, will always remember when our government used force against its citizens, including students like themselves. I, for one, am very interested in what they have to say―and sing―about it.
Visit thewalkingelephant.blogspot.com.

Laura’s Other Picks

Body Awareness

Aurora Theatre Company

Jan. 27–Mar. 4

I first read Annie Baker’s “Body Awareness” in 2006, as a submission for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. It was quirky, smart and moving, and (of course) became a festival selection. It premiered off-Broadway in 2008 to enthusiastic reviews; this production is its Bay Area premiere. It portrays a modern American family―Phyllis, a feminist professor at a small Vermont liberal arts college, her partner Joyce and their difficult 21-year-old son Jared, who may or may not have Asperger’s Syndrome. Their already pressurized lives begin imploding when Phyllis agrees to host a visiting artist for the college’s “Body Awareness Week”: Frank, a photographer whose subjects are nude women. Crammed under one roof, Phyllis, Joyce and Frank clash over everything from parenting to the politics of visual representation. Visit auroratheatre.org.

Winter 2012 Season

Company C Contemporary Ballet

Jan. 20–Feb. 19

Artistic cross-pollination often yields exciting results―exciting enough to spur me into actually recommending a dance piece this month. Confession time: I’ve suffered from an aversion to “serious” dance for years, after a traumatizing exposure to a Merce Cunningham program at Zellerbach where, to my eye, beautiful and graceful artists were forced to twitch, stumble, and fall down in the service of their art. Recently, however, while watching dancers in punk attire spin and vault to the industrial-flavored techno of composer Rychard Cooper at Cal State Long Beach, I realized things had changed. Dance companies now frequently jeté across the high art/low art divide, seeking inspiration in popular music. Company C’s winter program revels in this cross-pollination; “Vespers”, for instance, features the music of Tom Waits. To my eye, these artists are doing something pretty exciting. Visit companycballet.org.

Humor Abuse

American Conservatory Theater

Jan. 12–Feb. 5

Lorenzo Pisoni may not be a household name (yet), but anyone interested in the Bay Area’s rich tradition of variety and circus arts will recognize the youngest member of the Pickle Family Circus, who grew up (sometimes literally) in the stage trunk of his father, Pickle cofounder Larry Pisoni. In “Humor Abuse”, Lorenzo’s one-man show coconceived and directed by Erica Schmidt, Lorenzo combines storytelling and clowning to create a stage memoir of being raised in the circus that launched the New Circus revival in the U.S., and the careers of fellow clowns Geoff Hoyle and Bill Irwin. “Humor Abuse” won the 2009 Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Obie Award. It also received this excellent recommendation in Variety: “Other solo performers take note: you can describe your troubled childhood, but can you do it with balloons?” I’m there.
Visit act-sf.org.