“I’VE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAIN TOP”

The 1963 shooting of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist Minister and civil rights activist, whose passionate 1963 “I Have a Dream” (before 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.) and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermons put him in the spotlight as #1 shaker of the Civil Rights movement. He was on the rise to becoming one of the greatest outspoken orators of the time. 

His ‘Mountaintop’ sermon was delivered at a rally in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee in 1963. The very next day he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with the striking workers. To say that his life was in danger at all times would be an understatement. “Fear is his companion, his lover”. 

Fast-forward about fifty years. Enter 32-year-old playwright Katori Hall, Oliver Award Winner of the then new play “The Mountaintop”. 

In her ninety plus minute play, now streaming through May 26th in collaboration with by American History Theatre and Roustabouts Theatre Company and Teen Youth Performing Arts Theatre Company Repertory Theatre (thanks to the direction of Kandace Crystal), she re-imagines MLK’s last night on this earth in the seedy Lorraine Hotel room # 306 (to be exact) the night before his assassination (April 3, 1968). 

In what Hall conjures as a conversation between King (Caiel Noble) and the pretty little chambermaid, Camae (Ashley Graham) sent (supposedly) by the hotel upon his request for room service, the play unfolds somewhat like a TV part sit com/ part come to Jesus.

The play opens as King (Noble) is ushered into the room by his most trusted deputy and best friend Ralph Abernathy, whom he immediately sends out again to get a pack of Pall Malls. Left in the room alone, he deadbolts the door pulls the curtains over the windows, turns on the lamp and starts reciting the beginnings of his next sermon. (“Why America is going to hell…”) He then calls for room service.

Theatre Photo

When King gets a good look at the young lady holding a tray of coffee, with a newspaper covering her head against the evening’s rain fall, his eyes just about pop out of his head.  Both have no trouble flirting as in “I like what I see’ at a glance. This is her first day on the job, she tells him that while the coffee is on the house, she advances that he can pay her for ‘gettin’ my press ‘n curl wet out in this rain”. 

And so, it goes. They jibe and play. He wants cigarettes with his coffee, she scolds because he doesn’t take care of himself. We glance at his frailties, his non-violent marches; does she like him better with or without his moustache? 

They debate seriously about the work he has yet to finish.  He is paranoid about his room being bugged and she reminds him that the size of his FBI file is thicker than a bible. His concerns about his role here on earth as a leader and Civil Rights Activist are contrasted against his playful self as a womanizer; a fragile human being who flirts with the chambermaid while speaking to his wife and children on the phone.

Finally, after some bantering about and she refers to him by his childhood name, she admits that she was sent to help him make it through the night. “God said I gotta get you ready to come on home”. And while he begs for more time she has to convince him that someone else will have to pick up the baton. 

In one of the more funny yet serious scenes King finally gets to bargain with God about his job here on earth “I’m falling into the ocean of death. How dare you take me now. NOW! I beg of You. I plead-God, how dare you?” 

For those in the know, history left its mark for all to see as the television cameras rolled outside on the balcony of room 306 at 6:01 PM, April 4th 1968.Yours truly will never forget those moments.

His legacy as a man and Civil Rights leader, as examined by Hall in this particular telling is somewhat choppy and repetitive . It doesn’t always convince. His life is worthy of a more serious and complex examination. 

That said, between 1963 the the election of Obama to the present some progress has been made. With the spotlight now on BLM, hopefully many more changes will follow.

Both Noble and Graham play beautifully off one another. Noble is natural and easy; not trying to impersonate King or look larger than life. He was after all flesh and blood with many shortcomings.   Graham is playful funny and delightful, cautious and with a purpose.  The chemistry flows from one to another and the some banter comes with underlying truths and some just plain frivolous. 

For an interesting read you might want to check out "Hellhound on His Trail " by Hampton Sides

Reiko Huffman designed the motel room set. Mashun Tucker, the lighting, Marc Akiyama, sound (lots of lightning crashing) and Beonica Bullard, costumes. 

“The Mountaintop”is streaming through May 16th. 

For more information go to www.themountaintopsd.com

MY BROOKLYN HAMLET: A MODERN DAY TRAGEDY TOLD THROUGH A DAUGHTER’S EYE.

 “My Brooklyn Hamlet: A Meshugenah True Story” of Love, Murder, Betrayal, and Forgiveness written and performed by solo artist Brenda Adelman is currently being streamed as a co-production of Scripps Ranch Theatre and Oceanside Theatre Company through Monday May 3rd at noon. 

                        Courtesy Scripps Ranch/ Oceanside Theatre Co.

Adelman, now a Spiritualist Psychologist weaves her tragic/comic journey (more like a Greek tragedy) through her growing up years in Mill Basin section of Brooklyn the daughter a Jewish ‘Guido’ father and Bohemian artist mother, Barbara, who was intrigued with Shakespeare. Adelman takes on the persona of Mother, Father, Brother and assorted friends with ease and enthusiasm that easily draws us into her family drama without our even realizing it. 

Her story traces her growing up years, her parent’s rocky relationship, and her travels with her mother and undying love for her father. But when  he shot her mother point blank in the head in 1995, copped a plea and spent two years in prison never admitting to or telling Brenda the truth about her mother’s death she was ready to jump the love boat. The piece de resistance came when her father married her mother’s sister. That was it for Brenda. While she knew that her father was a womanizer she never thought he would pull off something like this with her own aunt!

Most of us have our Shakespearean or unspoken secrets hidden beneath the recesses of our memories but in “My Brooklyn Hamlet”, she lets them all out to air bringing the characters close enough for all to see the comparisons of the troubled Hamlet. 

Directed by Charles Peters with Ted Leib as cinematographer ‘MBH’ is worthy of a look see. 

Adelman, who is so natural on stage with only a few articles of clothing to change character’s is a master storyteller and she does it all in sixty minutes. She’s engaging, funny, somewhat a tragic figure yet one always has the feeling that she is a survivor. 

She received a Best Actress nomination at the Orlando and San Diego Fringe Festival. She is the recipient of a Hero of Forgiveness award from The Hawaii International Forgiveness Project.

 “My Brooklyn Hamlet…” ends on a ppositive note for Brenda, her family and the audience and becomes a life’s lesson in forgiveness, love and acceptance.  

For more information visit: www.scrippsranchtheatre.org

 www.oceansidetheatre.org

 

                              NCR “Trying” A Hidden Gem.

The latest of the filmed for streaming play “Trying” by Joanna McClelland Glass, in this semi biographical turn, is a little gem in disguise. It stars James Sutorius as famed Attorney General and Chief Judge at Nuremberg, Francis Biddle and Emily Goss is Sarah Schorr, Joanna McClelland Glass’ alter ego. It’s no secret that Sutorius is one hell of an actor having won the San Diego Theatre Critics Award for his title role in NCR’S “The Father”, another sleeper.  He is wonderful as Judge Bigddle. (more on that later) “Trying” will be remembered as a history lesson for the times and beyond.   

When Sarah first met Judge Francis Biddle in 1967 she was in her early twenties and he was 81. He had pretty much ‘done it all.’ She was from the Canadian prairie, her native Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  His ancestry dated back to 1681, England and was “Main Line Philadelphia”, a Blueblood, if you will. Her father was a salesman, who lost everything when he was fired from his job and eventually drank himself to death. Her mother was illiterate.

He could trace his lineage, on his mother’s side, to influential aristocrat Thomas Randolph, a diplomatic agent reporting to Queen Elizabeth and a younger Thomas Randolph, successful writer of English and Latin.

           James Sutorius and Emily Goss (photo by Aaron Rumley)

As a matter of history, after graduation from Harvard, cum laude with both B.A. and L.L.B. Biddle worked as a private secretary to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He spent the next twenty years in trial work and during the great Depression he became ‘consumed’ with the plight of the Pennsylvania coal miners and became politically active in labor issues.

In 1934 President Roosevelt appointed him chairman of the TVA and in 1939 became judge on the United States Court of Appeals, then became United States Solicitor General. In 1941 he was Roosevelt’s Attorney General. After Roosevelt’s death, President Truman appointed him a judge at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

Getting his memoirs, books and personal papers in order became a monumental task after his retirement as chairman of the Americans for Democratic Action and president of the American Civil Liberties Union. His things were in disarray. His office was a mess. His checkbook out of whack and his life was headed toward the ‘blinking EXIT signs’. Papers were stacked on opposite desks in his makeshift office (read barn) across the courtyard from his house and he had gone through enough ‘Gal Friday’s’ to intimidate another from applying for the job…Enter Sarah Schorr.

In Joanna McClelland Glass’ heartwarming play, “Trying”, about the final year in Judge Francis Biddle’s life is now in a solid production under the deft direction of artistic director David Ellenstein at North Coast Rep.  The word ‘trying’ takes on many meanings. It is a trying time for both the Judge and his novice secretary. 

Both ‘try’ to bridge the age gap and understand the other’s needs, although Biddle complains bitterly about not having enough time or energy to get involved in Sarah’s personal life. In fact, he becomes somewhat of a surrogate father by plays end and knows more about her than he lets on.   Biddle tries to hang on until the work is complete while Sarah tries not to let the crotchety and kvetchy judge dislodge her from her position.

As Biddle, the expressions of pain when his arthritis kicked in; the repetitive directions he had forgotten he gave to Sarah about not turning the floor heaters on; about the fiasco of his last secretary; about his impending death; about his insistence on using proper English; about his education, his love of poetry and about losing a son at the age of seven are real. All the little glimpses of a man who knew of his greatness and was ready to face his mortality are seen in another great turn for Sutorius, who might not be an octogenarian yet, but comes a close to the real thing, as I can attest. Repetitive, just ask my kids. 

As Sarah, Ms. Goss who received her B.A in Theater from the University of Southern California and M.A. in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, her talents shined through withflying colors. She is a perfect foil for the crusty, yet soft Biddle. She is feisty, understanding and goes nose to nose in great harmony with Biddle. Theirs is truly a friendship at plays end. 

Marty Burnett’s busy set, set the tone with all the little Knick knack’s and prop design by Phillip Korth, Elisa Benzoni costumes are period right. A huge hat’s off to Aaron Rumley (cinematographer/ Editor/ stage manager) for the near perfect theatrical experience through the media of streaming. 

“TRYING” will stream on Showtix4U.com on demand from MARCH 24 to April 18, 2021. Tickets are $35 - $54 and can be purchased at northcoastrep.org. 

For a history lesson in the making and an up to date look back at history repeating itself, this is a perfect choice for the times. 

Two Thumbs UP!

 

MOXIE’S “I AND YOU” PUSH ME PULL YOU DYNAMICS MAKES FOR EXCELLENT THEATRE!

It’s been some time now since teenagers lived in my house. I might be a little fuzzy on the dynamics between them even now.  So, when Anthony (Miles Henry) comes bursting into Caroline’s (Justine Sombilon) bedroom; backpack, waffle fries, Pop Tarts and a poster of Walt Whitman in hand, and quoting from his “Song of Myself”, the shackles on Caroline’s back stand at attention. Who? What? And Why? Is he there?

According to Anthony, he volunteered them be working on an English project together. (It’s due the next day). Problem is that she has not been in school for over six weeks because of a liver disease, (she’s waiting for a transplant donor) and furthermore she hates school, the disease that’s keeping her home, and equally, poetry. “My body hates me, my house hates me, and here you come with homework?

• 
• Justine Sombilon: 

She can think of a dozen ways to divert attention, start an argument or just plain ignore rather him than fall for his plan. She’s confrontational, combative and surly. He hovers over her in height: tall, handsome basketball player who is driven to do the right thing, like doing homework. He’s awkward around girls because ‘they get weird’ and she thinks boys ‘only pretend to be tough when they are scared’. After a day of dancing a slight war dance, he turns her on to his favorite poet Walt Whitman.

“I and You”, streaming now through March, 28th brings together two top notch actors very familiar with each other (they have been friends and/or co-acting together for about eleven years), and takes off like a lightning rod as the two spar over the meanings of life, death, poetry, Walt Whitman and the use of pronouns in Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”, where you will become very much WE.

Perfect timing in a world turned topsy-turvy by a year of separation and loneliness, lack of human contact and connection and teen angst, “I and You” brings out the wonder and discovery of experiences through art.  Under associate director Callie Prendiville’s deft direction both actors slowly switch from cautious sharing of music (she loves Elvis- Great Balls of Fire, he John Coltrane) to sharing Anthony’s waffle fries to well if you can believe it, a hug and cooperation on the project to the finished product. The 90 minute play has more to offer than meets the eye, but no spoilers here. 

Miles Henry and Justine Sombilon

Reiko Huffman designed the bedroom scenery, Carmen Amon designed costumes, Ashley Bietz designed lighting and Mason Pilevsky designed sound. It was filmed and edited by John Brooks. Photo: Moxie Theatre.

MOXIE Theatre www.moxietheatre.com
Electric Company Theatre www.electriccompanytheatre.org  
A virtual production of I And You by Lauren Gunderson
filmed on MOXIE Theatre’s stage and streamed digitally to audiences. 

March 4-28, 2021 Fri-Sat @7:30PM and Sun @2pm
With additional school day performances on Thursdays to be decided.

Tickets: $35- Buy One Give One (sponsor a student with your purchase) $25- Single Ticket. $15- Rush Tickets - 1 Hour Before Performance - Limited Availability. 

Perfect theatre piece for the now times. 

Miles Henry. 

I give it two thumbs up!

RICHARD BAIRD’S TOUR DE FORCE OF HOMER’S “AN ILIAD” A DANCE TO REMEMBER

To quote Bertrand Russell “War does not determine who is right- only who is left”.  

Imagine wandering around the world telling the same story, singing the same song for three thousand years? Now imagine how tiring it must be after pouring your heart out telling this story, this tale of woe, only to see history repeating itself as though no one is paying attention? Finally, imagine that story/song is Homer’s “The Iliad” and The Trojan Wars that go on and on between two great warriors-Achilles and Hector? Or closer to home, imagine it the Revolutionary War, The Civil War or WWI, WWII, Viet Nam, or Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan?

Richard Baird

Like the ongoing wars, this one person tour-de-force performance isn’t the first out of the chute, not this particular rendition, anyway. This adaptation by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare has been produced here three times. Yours truly has seen one other several years ago.  Peterson and O’Hare won the 2012 Obie and Lucille Lortel awards for this epic piece.  It is their adaptation as translated by Robert Fagles, of the ancient war of the Trojans told in a contemporary tongue and tone and performed by Baird the lone storyteller. 

A recent interview in the U.T. noted that director David Ellenstein had also seen the same production. It was about eight years ago that the idea of casting Richard Baird, actor extraordinaire, in the role of The Poet, wanderer, and every other character mentioned in Homer’s “The Iliad”.

It paid of in spades. 

Amanda Schaar with Richard Baird

Sometimes when the timing is just right, and all the stars are aligned, patience becomes a virtue. And so was the case with North Coast Artistic director David Ellenstein and Richard Baird in this beautifully and hauntingly choreographed dance between the Poet, his Muse (Amanda on cello playing original music for the piece) all the warriors; Hector, Priam, Achilles, the husbands, the gods, children of the warriors, wives and every other character. 

Baird enters a pretty bare theatre space (Marty Burnett, with props by Phillip Korth) fittingly, not far from the ocean. He takes off his hat, sets down his suitcase and begins his narrative. 

“What drove them to fight with such a fury?” the narrator asks as he begins the tale. “Oh ... the gods, of course .... Um ... pride, honor, jealousy ... Aphrodite ... some game or other, an apple, Helen being more beautiful than somebody — it doesn’t matter. The point is, Helen’s been stolen, and the Greeks have to get her back.” “

According to our narrator they had to fight…the gods, of course were angered. The leader, Agamemnon took the spoils of war-this gorgeous15-year-old Helen, Apollo’s daughter and the Greeks had to get her back. But getting her back wasn’t as easy as it looked and so battles rage and men die and leaders hold on to their pride their honor and war prevails. After all, one doesn’t quit in the middle.

The dance begins with a nod from the muses. For ninety minutes he tells us of how it was from a first handed look.  He has to because someone must bear witness, not to just to these wars but to all wars that carried men from all points of the world, Nebraska, South Dakota, twangy boys of Memphis, San Diego, Palo Alto; “nine years like a game of tug of war, fighting and nothing to show for it… they’ve forgotten why they’re fighting”. 

Richard Baird

With Baird’s inimitable acting prowess, we travel the highs and lows of war ravaged worlds. His is a delicate balance of rage, sorrow, disgust, passion, a sense of urgency, irony, questioning Homer’s world with the modern world of endless wars. The narrative seems to come easy even as he shouts out a few lines of Greek trying to remember when he first told the story and asking the muses to help him with his memory.  

If war is the major topic of the night, Baird, who at the center, makes a compelling case against it. By taking one of the oldest wars in history and connecting the dots (kind of) to every other war in history has to give one pause, one would hope, that countries be a little more cautious, less blasé about solving every conflict with swords and guns, cannons and bombs, IUD’S and missiles.

If compelling theatre is in the stars for you, I give it two thumbs up. 

And yes, “Imagine all the people living in peace”.  

See you, virtually, at the theater, 

Cinematographer/ Editor and Photographer: Aaron Rumley

“An Iliad” will be Streaming December 9, 2020– January 24, 2021.

 

      Jessica John makes her coming out solo debut in Roustabouts “No Way Back”.

Therapist turned writer, Mahshid Fashandi Hager wrote the play “No Way Back”, Roustabouts Theatre Company is giving it a riveting world premiere filmed production and Fran Gercke is directing. But it is Jessica John who breathes life into Mahshid’s plight as the ten year old, who with her family is forced to flee their home in Tehran, Iran during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

This true story is seen and told through the eyes of a child (John, Mahshid’s alter ego). She doesn’t miss a beat taking on each member of her family and their relationships with one another, their responsibilities, respect for and about one another and their devotion to family, the beauty of her country, the struggles, trauma’s and obstacles they encountered, the dangers they faced and finally, survival and ‘triumph’. 

And that’s the point of John’s coming out solo debut. John ‘swore she would never be able to star in a one-woman show’, but somehow the ‘script resonated with her deeply because it depicts a very similar escape her family took to flee the Middle East many years ago when her Assyrian grandmother was a young girl”. “She escaped, but her mother, brother and 21 of her relatives died in their efforts to reach the United States”. 

To put it mildly, John nailed it with razor sharp intensity and focus.  Her accent, her mannerisms and her facilal expressions never faltered. There wasn’t a time in the 100 minute or so show that I doubted she was young Mahshid. 

Jessica John (photo Daren Scott)

From the time she heard the gunshots outside her bedroom windows, to the heavy footsteps in her house, to the anxious waiting for her “dad” to come home, to her “mom” calling her for dinner (and not to get her clothes dirty), to their leaving their beloved home with only one bag of belongings, to their being confronted by Iranian guards, Kurdish soldiers, bandits and Turkish henchmen,( as well as a small amount of sympathizers,) to their trek over mountains in the snow to reach Germany by way of Turkey and finally to The United States, her performance felt as natural as if she was Mahshid. 

John can never go back to not performing in a solo show. Her fate is sealed. If it took her personal interest in the story, deft direction by Gercke, and a theatre (Roustabouts) with Phil Johnson willing to stream new plays like “No Way Back” and “Roosevelt: Charge the Bear” (Just recently seen) then so be it. She deserves a standing ovation and this is my way of doing it. 

Brava! 

John hopes this play offers viewers a way to understand the sacrifices immigrants make to come here especially in these tremulous days of using immigrants and refugee’s as pawns of a phobic and detestable administration blocking immigrants from entering our shores to separating children from their mothers. We are and always will be a nation of immigrants like John’s family, my family and Ms. Hager’s family and thousands of others that make up the fabric of our nation. 

Here are the family Roustabout-er”s that give it the finished and final look. 

Design/Props: Tony Cucuzzella

Costume Design: Jessica John 

Assistant Costume Design: Ross Stewart 

Lighting Design: Joel Britt 

Sound Design: Matt Lescault-Wood 

Director of Photography/Editor: Michael Brueggemeyer 

Film Consultant: Jonah Gercke 

Video Operator: Mark Maisonneuve

Photo: Daren Scott

Where: On line at www.theroustabouts.org

Runs through December 13

Prices: $25.00 to $100.00

Please contact Box Office @infotheroustabouts.org 619.568.5800 for discount offers. 

See you on line at the theatre.

JQA”: POSNER’S LOOK AT AMERICAN HISTORY THAT CUDDA, SHUDDA MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 

I wish I paid more attention to my American history. Living in Boston in my growing up years where so much history was made, I knew that John Adams second president of the United States was from Boston; Braintree, Mass. to be exact. But when you’re that famous, Boston will do. His son, John Quincy Adams, was the sixth president. There was also a John Adams II. No accident, he was born in Quincy, Mass. Technically parts of Braintree broke away to form Quincy, Mass. Been there, done that. But that’s another history lesson. So, the Adams’ family (not to be confused with the Addams Family) is certainly well known in them thare parts. We even have an Adams Ave right here in San Diego.

Now to the subject at hand, “JQA”. Or to put it in other words, John Quincy Adams. Who knew? Another president, another time. 

                                                 JQA

“JQA” is a relatively new play by playwright Adam Posner (“Stupid Fu**ing Bird”). It streaming on line through the 29 th. of Nov., from the folks at The San Diego Rep. under the deft direction of Artistic Director Sam Woodhouse. 

Between the musicals “Blood, Bloody Andrew Jackson” (2006) “Hamilton the Musical, “1776”, and more and with plays like “Necessary Sacrifices” and “Roosevelt: Charge the Bear”, and provided we all come out of this pandemic and the last four years of one of the most gawdauful and depressing times (read DJT) in our history, we should all have fun with these historical American figures.

Playwright Aaron Posner’s latest, I hope hit “JQA” has so much to talk and think about that one hardly knows where to begin. But if we must start at the beginning let’s first begin by announcing that JQA is “NOT historically accurate, but it is largely historically feasible.” It’s a what if, who, how and when. You can almost forget how Posner sucks you in to believe or want to believe that all he says is accurate. Imagine if you had a chance to talk with any one person from history, dead or alive, who would it be?  My twelve year old grandson chose John F. Kennedy. Smart boy.

 In Posner’s JQA”, John Quincy Adams, oldest son of John Adams; statesman, congressman, president, husband and father, (and not a very good one by his own admission: “they bore me to hell”) has an opportunity to interact with George Washington, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, and Fredrick Douglass. (Remember him in “Necessary Sacrifices” in conversations with Abraham Lincoln?)  

All of those characters and more are played by four actors; two male, two females who all turn in brilliant work in the flash of the moment or next scene. There are ten starting in 1776. We begin with some historical background and then:  John Adams is teaching his son John Quincy at age 10: asking, “Do you know what government is?”

Posner’s conversations (again imagined) between Adams and other historical figures cover topics from an exchange with George Washington (played with panache by Rosina Reynolds (she also plays an older Abigail Adams and James Monroe.) The young Adams is played by Crystal Lucas Perry They are in Boston (shown drinking from paper coffee cups). Adams was 27, Washington is 62. Washington appoints Adams to be his Minister to the Netherlands. When Adams hesitates: G.W. “I’m The President, the father of your damn country, and you probably don’t want to piss me off.” And so, it goes.

L. to R. Crystal Lucas Perry, Larry Bates, Rosina Reynolds , Jesse Perez.

The multi-talented cast includes Larry Bates, (Andrew Jackson and Frederick Douglass), Rosina Reynolds, Chrystal Lucas-Perry and Jesse Perez. Perez takes a turn (they all play multiple characters) as Secretary of State Henry Clay who warns that if “You can’t learn to compromise you’re going to be playing more golf than governing.” Sound familiar? Perez plays the senior Adams and Henry Clay as well. He's also not without his bias toward immigrants, Jews, Blacks and the list goes on. ("You can take away their liberties...and as often as not they'll thank you for it.") How true.  

Crystal Lucas Perry as  Adams' wife Louisa has one of the more constant roles of adversary, mother and wife.  When Adams is indifferent to her feelings, or when he’s off on the trip or disregards her ill feelings about his parents, Abigail and John Adams, she lets it all hang out. She is especially vocal towards his mother who treated her ‘brutally in her words, and that she must’ve been broken inside because she had so many miscarriages’ she has no trouble letting him know. 

    Larry Bates as Frederick Douglass and Rosina Reynolds as JQA                                      

If truth be told and that may be the truth, she is pretty faithful to him and may be the only person who really tells him how things are. Later on, in the play she shows up as young Abraham Lincoln facing the elder statesman JQA now played by Perez and that turns into a very revealing conversation especially when Adams cautions Lincoln ‘to do right.’ 

It seems the slavery issue isn’t going to be solved overnight. If you remember “Necessary Sacrifices” and the then conversations between Lincoln and Douglass in 1863? In “JQA” that conversation happens again 1843. No need to repeat that history. It's already being repeated.

With the tumult in the country now, history is repeating itself as we speak. And talk about history, the conversations between Adams the President and his Secretary of State Henry Clay played zealously by Jesse Perez and sounding the alarm as if the words came straight from the lips of DJT. (Scare the fuck out of them. Give ‘em something to fear. Something dark... and dangerous... and disturbingly different from them. “) It's astounding!

     Crystal Lucas Perry as young JQA and Rosina Reynolds as GW.

And so it goes with each and every historical personality with whom Adams comes into contact, and Posner's JQA matching these men and women of history and bringing their voices to the fore of the 21st century is brilliant, entertaining, humorous, and eye opening. 

Lest we think DJT is the worst of bunch, there were others, not in our lifetimes though, who could have done as much damage as this one, but men and women of honor who stood for creating a strong, free independent nation and fulfilling the dreams of the signers of the Declaration of Independence let their voices be heard. They were not afraid. 

Hats off to The San Diego Repertory Theatre.

The production team is rounded out by: Justin Humphres (Set Design); Anastasia Pautova (Costume Design); Chris Rynne (Lighting Design); Matt Lescault-Wood (Sound Design); Joel Castellaw (Dramaturgy); Film Directing by Tim Powell, Rebecca Myers (Assistant Director); and Kim Heil (Casting Director & Associate Producer), Photos by Daren Scott.

Tickets are $35. 00 + fees for on line tickets.

It will be streaming through November, 29, 2020

For more information visit:

sdrep.org.

 Just as an afterthought, you might be interested in  reading :Obama needs to follow John Quincy Adams' lead back to Congress

Hayes Brown