South Coast Repertory will read new works by Nilo Cruz (Two Sisters and a Piano), Magdalena Gomez, Luis Alfaro and Rogelio Martinez, along with a revival of their successful outdoor staging of California Scenarios, July 25-Aug. 4.
Cruz's The Beauty of the Father, reading Aug. 3, is set on the Costa del Sol, where a youn woman is reunited with her father, an artist, who reveals the beauty of his world and the darkness too. Poet-playwright Gomez will present her Lobster Face (or The Shame of Amanda Cockshutt), a journey through the life of a woman from childhood to hippie-dom to old age, reading Aug. 2. Taking on Sophocles' Electra, Alfaro places the tragedy in Vegas, where a returning Orestes finds his sister cradling their father's body out on the lawn, while his former rodeo queen mother complains about the plummeting property vaules. Electricidaad reads Aug. 2. The final play, Lost in Translation by Martinez, places a hot air ballooning couple in a run-down Havana hotel with a group of very different people who bond when a strom threatens their lives.
California Scenarios is a site-specific piece commissioned by the Rep for five Latino playwrights, Luis Alfaro (Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Pinata Woman and Other Super Hero Girls Like Me), Joann Farias (Claudia Meets Fulano Colorado), Anne Garcia-Romero (Santa Conceptcion), Jose Cruz Gonzalez and Richard Coca. Held in the public gardens designed by Isamu Noguchi to reflect the landscapes of California, California Scenarios examines Latino life on West Coast. The five short plays, directed by Juliette Carrillo (the world premiere of References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot), feature actors Elisa Bocanegra ("Girlfight," "White Oleander"), Joanthan del Arco (Broadway's Torch Song Trilogy), Javi Mulero, Karmin Murcelo, Maricela Ochoa, Geoffrey Rivas, Winston J. Rocha and Monica Sanchez.
Tickets to the readings are $8 and will be held at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. California Scenarios tickets are $10-$25. For reservations and information, call (714) 708-5555. South Coast Repertory is on the web at http://www.scr.org/.
— By Christine Ehren
