“˜Soap operetta’ mixes dramatic, musical styles
By Katie Mitchell
June 3, 2003 9:00 p.m.
In their production for Theatrefest 2003, “Felicity is a
Cynical Art,” eight UCLA students have confirmed
Polonius’ sage advice to Laertes in Shakespeare’s
“Hamlet:” “To thine own self be true.”
The “soap operetta,” which opens Thursday night in
Kerckhoff Grand Salon, is the first production of Giovanni Ortega
and Ben Lamoso’s recently formed company, Mezclao, which
translates as “mix” from Spanish.
The operetta chronicles the lives of a wealthy white husband and
wife duo and their Hispanic gardener and maid as they search for
happiness.
The inspiration for the operetta stemmed from a combination of
the telenovela and the people in the Los Angeles community. Lamoso
and Ortega, both graduate students in the theater and film
departments and the operetta’s writer and director,
respectively, live in the Beverly Hills area and noticed the
Hispanic gardeners and maids who work for wealthy households.
“This is not about race. It’s a story of the
colonial mentality,” said Ortega. “Both the husband,
wife, gardener and maid are in love with a culture that’s not
theirs. They’re so assimilated they don’t know who they
are anymore, and they’re trying to fit in and find where they
should be.”
The operetta’s tenor is serious, but the vehicle is less
so. Like a telenovela (melodramatic fiction produced and aired in
many Latin American countries) or Commedia dell’Arte (an
outdoor theatrical genre developed during the Italian Renaissance),
stock characters populate the production.
“The characters are sort of over-the-top and
unbelievable,” said Lamoso.
Unlike the production’s foundational influences, however,
the actors, director and writer have endowed the characters with a
touch of realism; they burst through the stereotypical shield with
song.
“The characters are most honest when they sing, but (after
they sing) they hide their true selves again,” Ortega
said.
Most of the actors are not musically trained. So at the
characters’ most true moments, they are at their most
vulnerable. These personal risks, though, have proved beneficial
for the cast.
“I’ve learned about limitations that might have
hindered me before and how to grow past them,” said Jennifer
Corpora, a third-year American literature and culture student who
plays the wife, Felicity Clark. “What makes you vulnerable is
also what makes you a better person, and you can grow as an artist
through that. I’ve been made uncomfortable in a good
way.”
Third-year marine biology student Nathan Waxer, who plays
husband Skyler Clark; second-year theater student Josef Martin
Malonzo; first-year design student MGL Palazzolo, who plays Avador,
the gardener; and first-year Gloria De Leon, who plays Veronique,
the maid, have found excitement in their roles because the operetta
is an original, allowing them the freedom to set foundations and
experiment.
“I’ve wanted to give them the freedom to create
their own characters rather than impose an idea on them, because
once they let loose, the characters really come alive,”
Ortega said.
The production’s music is also original. After reading the
script, Janet Cruz composed the combined modern and classical score
herself in a style reminiscent of Bjork and Aimee Mann. She will
perform the music live during the show.
Corpora, De Leon, Palazzolo and Waxer, who play the four main
characters, are not theater students, but took Ortega’s
Theater 20 class because they enjoy acting. The company formed from
there.
“After Ben (Lamoso) saw them perform improvisational skits
in my class, he said, “˜I want to use them,'”
Ortega explained.
“Felicity is a Cynical Art” is the result of eight
people who passionately follow their hearts and who happened to
cross paths.
“We have fun,” Ortega said. “We’re
putting on a play, and we’re playing the whole
time.”
“Felicity is a Cynical Art” plays June 5-6 at 8:30
p.m. and June 8 at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. at Kerckhoff Grand Salon.
RSVP to [email protected], or call (213) 948-5465.
