What comes first, what you wear in your yoga classes, or
signing up for yoga? It has never been a big problem for moi, because I just
don’t do yoga but the ‘clothes’ matter according to what I see coming from yoga
classes.
For Joan (JoAnne Glover) newly hired CEO of Jojomon HQ in Southern
CA’s high-end yoga clothes line and someone that watches the numbers on the
market, revenues and revenue growth, yoga wear is of the utmost importance.
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| Tamara Rodriguez and JoAnne Glover |
In Dipika Guha’s “Yoga Play” now making its west coast
premiere at Moxie Theatre through June 2nd, and with first time out
of the box director Callie Prendivelle directing, expect a solid, fast paced,
up to the minute, eye-opening, funny, somewhat bordering on the spiritual side,
(umm) bright new play in the small venue in Rolando.
Frantically hysterical Joan and her two sidekicks, Fred and
Raj (Albert Park and Sri Chilukuri) are at wits end thinking of new and
innovative ideas to push their yoga line apparel Jojomon to new limits. Customers
are complaining about the quality and size of the apparel.
Horror of horrors, they want to start manufacturing the pants
in a size 10 or maybe even 14. In the past customers balked at the size limitations
since one size does not fit all. Now, bigger sizes with an added bonus,
lavender scented pants.
After convincing the company’s owner Bernard (Matthew
Salazar-Thompson playing several roles and very well, thank you) to give the OK to the larger size, one might think their
bottom line would drop because of their image. But to the contrary, it skyrocketed
to the top, bigger sizes and all. Just when you think everything is going along
in your favor, ‘life gets in the way’.
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| Sri Chilukuri, JoAnne Glover and Albert Park |
Unfortunately, a BBC investigative team got hold of the facts
that the company in Bangladesh portioned out some of the manufacturing to Lotus
Factory and conglomerates outside of Dhaka, and was using children workers instead
of women, in sweathouses; locking them in the sweat shops and forcing them to
work long hours under less than satisfying conditions.
The emails and tweets that followed after the story broke, forced
them to reinvent themselves as customer friendly and authentic in order to
reign in, convince and bring their customers back to the fold. “We are having an
authenticity crisis.”
Closing out its fourteenth season, Guha’s satire “Yoga Play”
fits right into Moxie’s playbook of covering women’s issues with plays by women
playwrights, directed by women and with major decisions made by all female board.
So it would seem natural that Joan, the new CEO of Jojomon is
a woman. But she cannot do it alone. She calls on her two -team members Fred
and Raj to help her come up with a solution and this is where Guha’s story gets a bit wonky. Don’t misunderstand it’s fun and bit kooky but does get to
the nitty -gritty of a theme repeating itself, to ‘thine own self be true’.
 |
| Albert PArk and Sri Chilukuri |
The team comes up with the idea of bringing a spiritual
leader to represent their company while lending an authentic face to the cause.
Raj born, raised and educated in the states but whose parents are from India
has no clue about his culture past, present and or future. He relies heavily on
his parents to supply him with names of Guru’s, if you will, to bring back to
the states to represent the company.
Swami Satyachandra, they are told is of the authentic Vedic
culture of ancient India, and word somehow gets back to him (hiding in a cave)
of his need to help with the messaging of authenticity for this company. After
some heavy negotiation (of donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars to
several Indian orphanages in the region), Raj’s uncle goes to bring him back to
the company headquarters. (“I have known this day would come.”)
Fred, not so much down with all the plans, is forced into
going along with it all if he wants Joan to sign off on his Visa to Singapore
so he can go home and visit his parents and an old flame he left behind.
In the interim Raj and Joan seek out well known to ‘the
stars’ yoga teacher, Romola (a hoot and howl Tamara Rodriguez) to help them
overcome their own lack of spirituality.
(“Twenty-five is the new nineteen that’s what they say.”)
 |
| Albert PArk, JoAnne Glover and Sri Chilukuri |
Jo Anne Glover, a yoga instructor herself, knows from whence
she comes. I’ve never been in any of her classes (why would I?) but I have seen
her coming and going to classes and I surely can attest to the fact that she is
one hell of an actor. Put the two together and we have strength, high anxiety
and the knowledge that she can put this company on top again; and that starts
at the top.
Both Fred and Raj (Park and Chilukori) are as thick as buds
sharing weird dreams during company breaks. Revealing some would take the fun
out for future audiences. Just be prepared for ‘unusual’. Both young men, Sri
Chulukuri making his debut at Moxie and Albert Park (Jade Heart”) are the yin
and yang of the production and play well with and off each other.
But the most fun, actually hysterical, is watching Raj doing
his thing as the real deal Guru dressed in some get up with a natty beard
(Danita Lee) addressing the nation on how Jojoman will, when all else failed,
bring the company back to basics and restore their brand of yoga as most knew
it. If you are old enough to remember some 70 or 80’s TV comedy shows, this
skit of his will look familiar.
Hats off to director Callie Prendiville. While picking a terrific and most apt cast/ensemble
for this particular production she manages to keep the audiences at bay for
some time before revealing the true identity of the famous Guru while pacing the
rest of her crew giving them time to let us in on some of their innermost
secrets, dreams and desires.
The big surprise comes at the end of Act I, after giving
Guruji a very long monologue,
Guha slams a MICKEY into our drink and all gasps come at once.
Time to get yourself to the theatre and join in on the fun
and games.
Divya Murthy designed the well functioning set into several
playing areas. Christopher Renda’s lighting is effective only allowing
silhouette of faces to be seen. Matt Lescault-Wood sound design and Alicia
Ynfante is responsible for the props. I was especially impressed with Tamara
Rodriguez’ athleticism and her turn as an acrobat.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through June 2nd
Organization: Moxie Theatre
Phone: 858-598-7620
Production Type: Comedy
Where: 6663 El Cajon Blvd. San Diego CA 92115
Ticket Prices: $18.00-$44.00
Web: moxietheatre.com
Photo: Daren Scott
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