{"id":20250,"date":"2015-08-01T18:36:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-02T01:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=20250"},"modified":"2015-08-04T11:48:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T18:48:24","slug":"yesterday-again-at-6th-street-playhouse-in-santa-rosa-lucky-penny-community-arts-center-in-napa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/yesterday-again-at-6th-street-playhouse-in-santa-rosa-lucky-penny-community-arts-center-in-napa\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYesterday Again\u201d at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa & Lucky Penny Community Arts Center in Napa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Members, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC)<\/p>\n

Photos by Eric Chazankin<\/em><\/p>\n

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The past is never dead. It’s not even past.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

— From \u201cRequiem for a Nun\u201d, Act I, Scene III, by William Faulkner<\/p>\n

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Lucy London, Jack Wolff<\/p><\/div>\n

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Local playwright\/wunderkind Dezi Gallegos<\/strong> was certainly off to a good start in his career. He knew even before he could write that he wanted to tell stories. And by his early teens he had accomplished what many writers can only dream of: he co-wrote an award-winning play that was published and performed off-Broadway, \u201cProp 8 Love Stories\u201d. He\u2019s perhaps best known to Sonoma County theatregoers for yet another award-winning original work, \u201cHamlet\u2019s Orphans\u201d, which he wrote while still in high school. For this, he received the inaugural Annette Lust Award for Potential and Promise in Theatre at this year\u2019s SFBATCC Awards Gala.<\/p>\n

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Barry Martin, Lucy London<\/p><\/div>\n

Now 19 and a student at the University of Southern California studying film and TV production, he\u2019s back at it with his latest, \u201cYesterday Again\u201d. It\u2019s a haunting, bittersweet love story with a brilliantly unique concept. This new effort has a \u201cmini-rolling\u201d world premiere at 6<\/strong>th<\/strong><\/sup> Street Playhouse\u2019s Studio Theater<\/strong> in Santa Rosa, rolling on to finish its run at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center<\/strong> in Napa.Director Sheri Lee Miller<\/strong> (with a commendable assist from Gallegos and stage manager\/co-producer Natalie Herman) <\/strong>makes good use of the vignettes that are so integral to the story. It centers on Eric and Bella, close childhood friends who lose touch with each other as very young teens after things get too hot and heavy between them and their parents find out. Circumstances lead them down separate but strangely parallel paths. The set by Vincent Mothersbaugh<\/strong> is divided into four distinct time capsules, with different actors representing each character as their past, present and future selves. Some of these temporal zones have the actors performing simultaneously in all three of the characters\u2019 life stages, an interesting effect. And there\u2019s a phantom in their midst, but we don\u2019t know it until the very end \u2013 a very tasty red herring.<\/p>\n

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Craig Miller, Alyssa Jirrels<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a>Lucy London<\/strong> and Jack Wolff<\/strong> play the tween-aged Bella and Eric with great charm and poignancy. Their college-age selves are capably portrayed by Olivia Marie Rooney<\/strong> and Isaac Jay<\/strong>. As the mature Eric, 6th<\/sup> Street\u2019s Artistic Director Craig Miller<\/strong> offers a touching, earnest performance. He\u2019s joined by Alyssa Jirrels, <\/strong>noteworthy as Jamie, a young student he\u2019s tutoring. Sharia Pierce<\/strong> is superb, displaying the bitter disappointment of Bella\u2019s later years. John Browning<\/strong> gives a strong performance as Bella\u2019s slightly creepy husband Mark. Barry Martin<\/strong>, co-founder of Lucky Penny Productions, delivers a vivid, heartbreaking Rick, her ultra-conservative and overbearing father, in sharp contrast to her weak and timid mother Lisa, played by Pam Koppel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Sharia Pierce<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cYesterday Again\u201d is ambitious, with a complex story and characters dealing with very mature subject matter. It also has a lot to say. Like, the best of intentions can have bad consequences. Or, you don\u2019t always know how important you are to someone until it\u2019s too late. It also asks important questions: Are we predestined to keep making the same mistakes throughout our lives? Are we at the mercy of unconscious choices we make based on past experiences, or can we take control and change our direction?The show has good bones, with just a few ragged holes in the storytelling itself (unclear choices and motives, under-developed characters, uneven transitions). It occasionally wanders into soap opera territory but finds its way out again, sometimes with extraordinary results. It also was under-rehearsed in its opening weekend and remains a work in progress, but a little polish will make this diamond-in-the-rough a real gem.<\/p>\n

When: Now through August 2 (6<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/span> Street) & August 16 (Lucky Penny)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

8:00 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:00 p.m. Sundays<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Tickets: $15 to $25<\/strong><\/p>\n

Locations: Studio Theater at 6<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/span> Street Playhouse (through August 2)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

52 West 6<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong><\/sup><\/span> Street, Santa Rosa<\/strong><\/span> CA<\/strong><\/span>
\nPhone: <\/strong><\/span>707-523-4185<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Website: <\/strong><\/span>www.6thstreetplayhouse.com<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lucky Penny Community Arts Center (August 7 \u2013 16)<\/strong><\/p>\n

1758 Industrial Way, Suites 204-209<\/strong><\/p>\n

Napa, CA<\/strong><\/p>\n

707-266-6305 <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>www.luckypennynapa.com<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo Members, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) Photos by Eric Chazankin   The past is never dead. It’s not even past. —…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-greg-suzanne-angeo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"