Anna Acuna (Marisol) and Ellen Jones (Angel) perform a scene of "Marisol." The play will be performed for six shows at Spanos Theatre this month. Courtesy photo

Cal Poly’s theatre and dance department will be presenting an original stage production of acclaimed Latino dramatist José Rivera’s dark and surreal play “Marisol.”

The play is generally understood as an outlandish reflection of contemporary society and current events.

“Most people are so consumed by their own lives, it is difficult to acknowledge all the external problems in the world today,” said advertisement manager and theater freshman, Yanelly De La Rosa. “One of the big messages we are discovering in this play is the theme of waking up. People can either sit back and watch things happen, or wake up to the world and do something about it.”

Set in a dark and cold New York City, this near-apocalyptic world is a fantastical place where apples have gone extinct, men give birth, flesh disintegrates and the color blue has ceased to exist. The world is presented through the life of Marisol Perez, a Puerto-Rican publishing assistant in her mid-20s, who finds herself abandoned by her streetwise guardian angel, who has left to wage a war against a senile God.

The war in heaven spills over into the apocalyptic wasteland of New York City, where the moon has not been seen in months. With Marisol’s world flipped upside down, the play follows her nightmare journey into the war zone as she searches for peace, safety, sanity and hope in a world gone awry, De La Rosa said.

Though five of the play’s six roles will be played by theater majors, the lead role of Marisol will be played by kinesiology senior, Anna Acuna.

“I was definitely shocked when I found out I got the role, because I was auditioning against some very experienced theater majors,” Acuna said. “It was one of those ‘Pinch me, am I awake?’ moments.”

Acuna said the last role she played was Tiny Tim in a fifth-grade performance of “A Christmas Carol.” Though she has always loved theater, upon entering Cal Poly she had to choose between drama and sports, and she chose sports.

Four years into the kinesiology program, one of Cal Poly’s biggest theater productions sparked Acuna’s interest, and she decided it was now or never. She planned to audition for either the role of the angel or Marisol, but had to choose one.

“This was my one chance,” Acuna said. “I had to go big or go home.”

Acuna and the rest of the cast have been rehearsing for “Marisol” for more than 25 hours a week since the start of spring quarter. They have been diving deep into research on current topics such as environmental, political and financial issues. They also looked into New York City itself, apocalyptic literature and concepts as well as a variety of other cultures and ideals to adequately prepare for their roles. The production has also employed the various talents of nearly 40 other Cal Poly students from across the university.

The actors and actresses in the play will stick to Jose Rivera’s screenplay, but the originality will be manifested in the cast’s interpretation of the characters as they develop their roles with director Virginia Anderson. Anderson joined the department faculty in fall of 2009, and “Marisol” will be her premiere production at Cal Poly.

“Anderson is very innovative,” De La Rosa said. “She has been really working hard with the cast to get them to know their characters and discover their own interpretation.”

Another key role in the play is Marisol’s friend June, who will be played by theater sophomore, Jaide Whitman. June is very ambiguous, yet representative of Marisol’s last glimpse of hope. Whitman said her character is defined by being undefined.

The role of June’s brother Lenny was landed by theater sophomore, Ryan Austin. Austin said his character is very committed to his ideals, and his visions of fixing the world’s problems.

“Lenny’s character seems to resound the play’s main theme and demands that people wake up to the injustices happening in the world around them,” said Austin.

The character of the angel, played by theater sophomore Ellen Jones, also resounds this theme, yet is more focused on the “waking up of people to the injustices of the divine realm,” Austin said.

The two remaining members of the cast are theater sophomore, Kyle McCurdy and theater freshman, Katie Matten.

Set designer and theater and dance department chair Tim Dugan has created a collage of a disintegrating New York City. Faculty member Thomas John Bernard’s costumes contribute to the complacency, whimsy and urgency that compromise the journey of Marisol. Student designers, Thomas Schneider on lights and Eric Toussaint on sound, will contribute to the world of the play through rich, kaleidoscopic evolution.

“Cal Poly’s six showings of Jose Rivera’s dark and surreal comedy are destined to challenge the mind of the audience in a way most plays do not,” De La Rosa said.

The performances begin at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and repeat on the 20 through the 22 the following weekend.

“Marisol is not just a play to entertain,” Austin said, “but to teach; to give a dose of medicine.”

Tickets are $15 for general admission and $12 for Cal Poly faculty and students.

Members of Students Stage, a Cal Poly theater organization, danced to a rendition of "Halo" sung by Olivia Tenney at Minervana, an event for Women's HERstory Week held in Chumash Auditorium yesterday. Photo by Anieca Ayler.

An audience sits in a semi-circle before a group of barefoot female theater students dressed in black. The students are reciting lines of a provocative excerpt of an empowering, ancient Greek play, in which four women talk about using sex — rather, their power to abstain from it — as a tool to manipulate men. The spectators laugh easily at the sexual jokes and clap generously after the five-minute production.

This piece of “Lysistrata,” written by Aristophanes, produced by student Melanie Marshall, was the first of seven short performances at Minervana, a Students’ Stage event sponsored by Women’s Programs and Services for Women’s HERstory Week that was held in Chumash yesterday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Students’ Stage is a Cal Poly student-run theater program that aims to allow students to be actively engaged with theater.

The event lineup included another two short plays, two monologues and two musical acts by members of Students’ Stage, made up largely of Cal Poly theater majors.

Before and after the acts and during intermission, students browsed tables displaying student visual art, which included presentation boards, photography, paintings and drawings, all with an underlying feminine theme.

Following the “Lysistrata” performance was a slam poem about the continued oppression and objectification of women in America by Tiffany Daniels. A group of three then performed a scene of “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare, directed by Tonya Blanco, which centers on a heroine who disguises herself as a man.

Pianist Lucy McNamara played and sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Larry Henley, which she dedicated to every woman who feels she doesn’t matter. After intermission, two student actresses relayed a scene that showed the struggling relationship between mother and daughter in “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Tia Andrews.

A self-written monologue performed by Anna Clauson was next. The piece focused on a woman mentally and emotionally suffering from a miscarriage. The last number was a musical rendition of “Halo” by Beyoncé, sung by Olivia Tenney, accompanied by McNamara on piano and three dancers.

Theater sophomore Kyle McCurdy attended the event to support several of his friends who performed.

“I really enjoyed myself,” he said. “It was really engaging.”

He noted that even though it was clear the group didn’t have much time for rehearsal, evident by the moderate use of scripts, the emphasis and messages about women were still clear and easy to interpret.

English senior Laura Brian attended the event for her women’s theater class and said the artistic female nude photography was one of her favorite parts along with the first play.

Theater sophomore Ellie Kovara, one of the managers of the event, said the opportunity to do something for this particular week helped to involve Students Stage in women’s theater.

“For this event, we really wanted to empower creativity that’s all around,” Kovara said. “The visual art is created by students and the directing is by students — that’s the focus (of Students’ Stage).”

The show covers topics like the pressure Robinson faced being the first man to break the "color barrier" in the major leagues. Stock photo

A traveling play about Jackie Robinson is coming to Cal Poly’s Performing Art’s Center this Friday. The play about major league baseball’s most ground breaking player is aptly named “Most Valuable Player” and spans from 1935 to 1949.

Between those dates Robinson played for UCLA where he lettered in four different sports, played semi-professional football, joined the Army and got married. He did all this before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 and being name the National Leagues MVP in 1949.

“Student’s here don’t remember a time when there weren’t black players in Major League Baseball so it’s interesting from a sociological perspective,” Cal Poly Arts Director Steven Lerian said. “Since it’s Martin Luther King weekend, I think it has a lot of relevance in that, too.”

The show covers topics like the pressure Robinson faced being the first man to break the “color barrier” in the major leagues. Most of the play spans his time with the Brooklyn Dodgers and outlines his own personal sacrifices, and how he dealt with racism among his teammates and from fans.

“People have asked me if now that Barack Obama is president, do I think this show is still relevant. Of course,” Sally Fiorello, the show’s producer and tour director, said. “People don’t realize what a big part of the civil rights movement [Robinson] was. Without him, we might not have an Obama.”

For those who are not baseball fans, Fiorello said that “Most Valuable Player” is still a show that they can get something out of.

Across the stage, there is chain-linked fencing and a series of platforms. There is a large screen where pictures are projected throughout the show. The pictures start with modern day black athletes to give a perspective as to how far the United States has come as a society and then gradually takes the audience back to the ball parks of the 1940’s. There are also photos of old radios, soldiers and other prominent things of that time period. They’re accompanied by a soundtrack full of hit songs of the time and even a little country music to signify Robinson’s time in the South.

The show stars Rick Spivey as Robinson, Charles Roach as Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, and was directed by Andy Long.

Long, who is a “huge” baseball fan, took time to work with the cast to get the game scenes right.

“People who watch this show who like baseball will know if the actors have any idea what they’re doing,” Fiorello said. “Andy really tried to bring a reality to the play, even in actors who really didn’t know.”

“Most Valuable Player,” presented by Dallas Children’s Theater, has shown at other universities nation-wide including Mississippi State and Saint John’s University. The show begins at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the Cohen Performing Arts Center. Ticket prices are available online and there will also be student rush tickets available at a discounted price at 6 p.m. at the door. Rush tickets are only available to Cal Poly students and children.

Theater junior Max Sopkin plays the role of Zero, a character who runs for president of the fake country of Grode. “Zero to Infinity” opens in Alex and Faye Spanos Theatre tomorrow at 8 p.m. Courtesy photo

A rather fat man in a black suit is sitting in his living room blowing up an oversized, vinyl sex doll. His wife, a woman with basketball-sized breasts and a head full of voluminous, pink hair, looks at him and blabbers, “Zero, it’s time to get off your kadoodles. Life is kicking along and you have nothing to show for it.”

So begins the opening scene of theater professor Al Schnupp’s “Zero to Infinity,” which will debut on Nov. 12 in the Alex and Faye Spanos Theatre. Schnupp’s made-up language and outrageous, clown-like characters show the hoops politicians have to jump through in today’s political circus.

Schnupp began writing this absurdist play about seven years ago when he was “thoroughly appalled and disgusted by politics at that time.” Though the play never mentions names, he said that the circus of events could be considered a spoof on the Bush-Cheney administration.

“[The administration was] just appalling; immoral in my opinion. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Cheney did make a ton of money off of his Halliburton company,” Schnupp said. “I love absurd plays because I think they’re really a reflection of reality. So during the Iraq surge when Condoleezza Rice was asked, ‘Oh, is this troop increase an augmentation?’ and she said, ‘No.’ Then they said, ‘Well what is it?’ Well she said, ‘It’s an allocation.’ To me, that’s absurd.”

Though the play does have an underlying satirical message, the overall atmosphere is more lighthearted, silly and colorful.

The 14 short, fast-paced scenes that make up the production show the political campaign of husband and wife, Zero and Maxie’s outrageous campaign to help Zero become president of a country called Grode.

Psychology and theater senior Ashleigh Droz, who plays Maxie, was drawn to the character because of her over-the-top, emotional personality.

“I really liked her part and her role with the other characters,” Droz said. “She’s smart. She’s ambitious. She really wants power and money and luxury.”

Maxie convinces Zero to illegally obtain funds to finance his campaign, which is followed closely by Inspector Oodles, who tries to figure out how Zero came up with the money.

Throughout the play, Inspector Oodles uses several different disguises to investigate Zero’s campaign, including a Swiss yodeler, a French sculptor and an Italian chauffeur. Theater sophomore Ryan Austin, who plays Inspector Oodles, uses eight different accents throughout the play to match each one of Inspector Oodles’s disguises.

“He is a very motivated investigator. He will pretty much try anything to get what he needs, although he may not be the best at it,” Austin said.

The political game that Zero plays to win over the people of Grode resonates closely to the way presidential candidates in the United States campaign.

“There are so many landmines that politicians have to walk through to even be considered seriously, and I find that absurd and sad,” Schnupp said.

One of the events Zero must walk through is an interview with the media. Two life-sized puppets with skeleton faces, named Paul and Appalling, interview Zero about his quest to become president. The irony in the interview is that Paul and Appalling never seem to ask Zero any questions, but rather ask and answer the questions themselves, spotlighting their image instead of Zero’s.

Other examples of the tightrope Zero must walk to be considered for president include his makeover at Shimmer Clinic and his choice of a weak-minded running mate who can only speak in questions.

Another absurd characteristic of the play is the unique language in which it’s written. With words like “struncation,” “kadoodles” and “boinker,” the play’s silly dialogue harmonizes with the colorful, circus theme of the play. Though the language is made up, Austin said that it is easy to understand in context.

Schnupp is looking forward to putting on the production, hoping that the students will have a good time but also realize the political satire sprinkled throughout the play.

“I hope they laugh a lot and see it as a comedy,” he said. “I hope they see things I’m poking fun at and say, ‘Touché,’ or ‘You’re right’ or ‘Yeah, that’s a Saturday Night Live take on this aspect of politics.’”

“Zero to Infinity” will begin at 8 p.m. on Thursday and will run until Saturday. Tickets are $15.

In 2008, the Tectonic Theater Project went back to Laramie to re-interview the town concerning Shepard’s murder. Courtesy Photo

Cal Poly, and more than 100 other schools nationwide, will participate in a historic event tonight to commemorate the life of a young college student, Matthew Shepard, the victim of a hate crime.

“The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later” is a staged reading examining the attitudes of the residents of Laramie, Wyoming, Shepard’s hometown. It also examines the progress made since the original “Laramie Project.”

“Being as this event will be a part of history, it’s a chance to see something that more than 130 schools will be watching at the same time,” Steve Lerian, director of Cal Poly Arts said.

In 1998, Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming at Laramie. On Oct. 12, 1998, two students kidnapped him, tied him to a fence, beat him and left him to die because he was gay. He died as a result of the hate and discrimination against him. He has since become and icon for equality and minority acceptance.

In the original production, Laramie residents were interviewed and their reactions to the horrific event were recorded by the Tectonic Theater Project — an award-winning company that performs all over the world — which produced the play on Shepard’s behalf. It was later adapted as an HBO movie and nominated for four Emmys in 2002.

In 2008, the Tectonic Theater Project went back to Laramie to re-interview the town concerning Shepard’s murder. The purpose was to see what progress has been made, if any, within those 10 years.

Each performance will take place tonight on the 12th anniversary of Shepard’s death.

At Cal Poly, there will be a staged reading with ten actors sharing information from the town after those 10 years. Furthermore, the recording from the New York production will be played, showing Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard”s mother, and followed by a question-and-answer session.

Jeffrey Azevedo, a Cal Poly electrical engineering and theater graduate, is directing the event. He first heard of Shepard’s death in the sixth grade and still remembers talking about it in class. It’s important to have this performance and to see how far we’ve come in the last 10 years, he said.

“This is so unique and (it’s) great to be a part of something of this magnitude,” Azevedo said. “Hopefully this will generate discussion and give people a better understanding of what’s going on.”

“The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later” is a free event, and donations will be accepted for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Cal Poly Arts and SLO AIDS Support Network. The performance will be held at Chumash Auditorium at 8 p.m. tonight.