Imminent Domain

My return to Nashville is imminent. Exactly how imminent will be determined later this evening, but the end of my stay in San Diego is near. So, I've packed the weekend with what may be the final theatre hurrah on this coast. For this visit.

On Friday, I ventured to a hole-in-the-wall theatre in North Park where friends from The Odd Couple (female version) would be performing An Evening of Christopher Durang. From the outset, the cast of 6 outnumbered the audience -- never a good sign on a Friday night, but seemingly forgivable for the small, unadvertised space hidden within a candy store. Forgivable until the program began. Dreadful. The bulk of the audience made its escape at the intermission, so that when Act II began, I was the alone in the theatre and an actress was threatening to quit. Honestly, it'd help the show if she did.

Now, to be fair, Durang is hard. He's quirky and satirical and, well... odd. It takes a certain talent, a twisted mind, and a damned fine director to pull his stuff off. I know precious few people I'd put up to the task -- none of them in North Park.

The producer/director was a nice man who admitted to being introduced to theatre by his wife (the suffering actress), for whom the Vaudeville and Candy Shoppe was undoubtedly created. After watching Friday's show, I assume the introduction was recent.

On Saturday, however, I witnessed the result of a much longer association with the craft and was star-struck by a performance in La Mesa, where Lamplighter's Community Theatre is producing Eat Your Heart Out by Nick Hall. This wonderful comedy following an actor's career (in restaurants) is so full of trite-but-true commentary on the business of acting that it would have been impossible for anyone involved in theatre not to have appreciated the script; but the proof is in the performance. Here, audiences were treated to a truly brilliant performance by the young lead. A recent State University grad, Christopher Buess is one to watch.

Tonight, I won't be attending a performance so much as a ceremony, but the evening will be full to brimming with the faces I've met in the last six months, spanning from northern Poway to southern Chula Vista, where we will be gathered. I'll be lunching with Odd Couplers before and drinking with Markham folk after and I couldn't imagine a better send off.

Unless my return to Nashville turns out not to be so imminent after all.