Last weekend, I drove down to Bakersfield College to give Kim Chin an All-American second chance for her production of Nilo Cruz’ “Two Sisters and a Piano”. While I found a few more redeeming qualities in it than her last outing, Top Dog/Underdog, I sadly cannot give this one positive marks on the whole.
I have to say, first, that while I applaud Ms. Chin’s overall taste in scripts, I wonder at their appropriateness for her immediate acting pool. Judging from the bios, the most experienced members of the cast have done perhaps three productions, making them not quite ready for the task of Cruz’ nuanced storytelling and lyricism.
But that script is the first place I question Ms. Chin’s choices in dealing with the script. Playwright Cruz is a pretty smart Pulitzer Prize winner and he made a conscientious choice not to use a lot of Spanish phrases and lines for his Cuban-set drama. This production, however, rewrote and translated a goodly portion of the dialogue into Spanish to create a sort of Spanglish environment.
Well, not only is this confusing because as Spanish-speakers in Spanish-speaking Cuba, the characters would speak all in the same language (Cruz acknowledges this and, when writing an English-language play, keeps his characters speaking all in the same language for the sake of continuity), but more importantly the changes of lines from English to Spanish is illegal. It violates the contract that the play’s producers (Bakersfield College) entered into with Dramatists Play Service who gives permission to produce the play on behalf of the playwright.
The volume of changes doesn’t amount to a cut line here and there or a change of a phrase, it changes the intentions of the playwright and his choices for phrasing and pacing his material. And so I have to wonder if the script wasn’t good enough for Ms. Chin as it was, why did she choose it? And, furthermore, why would she choose to jeopardize Bakersfield College’s ability to produce scripts from Dramatists (one of the largest publishers of plays in America) in the future?
Following such a large lapse in judgment and lack of support for playwright’s rights, the choices made by the production itself are dismal, but of little consequence. This production was marked by a lack of focus, poor sense of tension, extremely slow pacing, and a confusing sense of storytelling. I could go on about the acting, but as this is collegiate theatre, I tend to think that the lack of technique onstage has more to do with the teaching given by Ms. Chin in rehearsal than the performer’s ultimate ability.
It’s this sense of educational theatre that I perceive is missing in Ms. Chin’s productions. I don’t wish to discourage trying for challenging material for students. In fact, College of the Sequoias in Visalia and Fresno City College in Fresno have both recently produced some fantastic, compelling work for their students (“My Country’s Good” and “The Altruists” respectively). But those schools also seem to concentrated time in rehearsals teaching students techniques to handle the challenging material, crafting their moments, and guiding them toward a cohesive performance. Janine Christl at FCC is painstaking about creating a razor-sharp ensemble which understands the material they’re performing. And Chris Mangels at COS steered his ensemble toward performances of tremendous urgency and a compelling, engaging story. Ms. Chin just seems to have fallen flat on these counts with both of her shows this year.
Educational theatre isn’t always ‘reviewed’ in the classic sense as it is ostensibly geared toward teaching students the building blocks of performance through hands on experience (and you’ll notice I’ve tried not to review the students in this review). But I have no qualms about reviewing the results of a theatrical professional’s educational process with her students and community members.
Does she break scenes down for meaning, choices, and tactics with her casts? Does she illustrate effective staging and teach students how to utilize it? Are the actions and objectives of each scene clear to them? Are they all acting as though they’re in the same play? Are the experienced actors encouraged to make strong and meaningful choices with their language, their bodies and their voices? Are the less experienced actors cultivating a sense of confidence and an understanding of the basics of presentation? Not from what was exhibited last Friday evening.
If the objective of an educational theatre arts department is to help grow theatre scholars and develop theatre audiences, I’m not certain that Ms. Chin’s productions are fulfilling that objective. Would these actors be prepared to audition for other Bakersfield theatre companies? Would they be prepared to perform in productions at CSU Bakersfield or CSU Fresno? The actors on the stage didn’t seem to understand the essentials of the play that they were in and the audience—aside from one or two who had friends in the cast—seemed lost and unengaged. And so seems Ms. Chin in her directorial vision.
Further comments from me can’t be very helpful, either. While I truly attempt to be conscientious and considered in my review of shows and truly want to offer some helpful and concrete feedback, at this point some form of honest peer review seems to be needed for Ms. Chin. If that isn’t possible, I encourage the folks at Bakersfield College to see some theatre at other Valley community colleges—C.O.S. and F.C.C. in particular—to see the caliber of work that can be achieved with students and teachers of similar backgrounds and opportunity.
I see a lot of potential in the Bakersfield Theatre Community. I hope that, soon, the Bakersfield College Theatre Department can become a part of it.
