NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007
HERO
A new comedy by LUIS ALFARO
directed by JON LAWRENCE RIVERA
(A Counter {COFFEE} Culture Play)

Oh, oh! Guess who’s home from Iraq? It’s hard enough for the family to talk about war without Hero’s early return after he falls off a truck. Will the City still give him a key? In a Country desperate for heroes, what happens when no one wins? A new comedy about how little we know. (From the author of Straight as a Line, Bitter Homes & Gardens and No Holds Barrio).

starring
(an alternating cast performing in rep)
LATINO CAST: MARLENE FORTE, JUSTIN HUEN, CARLA JIMENZ, KENNEDY KABASARES, ERESTON MIYARES
ASIAN CAST: CARLA JIMENEZ, NATSUKO OHAMA, DANA LEE, RODNEY TO, JIM SUH

set design JOHN H. BINKLEY
lighting design JEREMY PIVNICK
costume design CHELSEE VENIS
sound design BOB BLACKBURN
stage manager ANDREA LOVINO
casting director RAUL CLAYTON STAGGS producers JON LAWRENCE RIVERA,
RAUL CLAYTON STAGGS & DIANE LEVINE

RECOMMENDED - Los Angeles Times

There's a comfort level in viewing the work of playwright Luis Alfaro and director Jon Lawrence Rivera. Longtime collaborators, both are accomplished theatrical technicians who know how to get their point across.

Both Alfaro and Rivera are keen observers of working-class family dysfunction, with an emphasis on the minutiae of the everyday. At times, "Hero," a world premiere by Playwrights' Arena at Studio/Stage in Hollywood, is so deliberately minimalist that it borders on the negligible. However, the apparent insignificance masks epic concerns.

This production features two rotating casts, one Asian, one Latino. (The Asian cast was featured the evening of the reviewed performance.) The setting is South El Monte, where the ironically named Hero (Jin Suh), who injured himself falling off a truck in Iraq, is about to receive the keys to the city. Hero's unearned apotheosis is a sore point with his Uncle (Dana Lee), an unheralded Nam vet who saw real action. Locked in his room, Hero entertains visits from his twin brother Junior (Rodney To), a quasi-peace activist. But Hero refuses to see his mother (Natsuko Ohama), a worn-down Department of Water and Power clerk wounded by her son's rejection.

Set designer John H. Binkley and projection designer Ron Saito have rigged the ceiling over Hero's bed as a screen for random film images -- a window into Hero's tumultuous thoughts. Featured in both casts, amply proportioned Carla Jimenez is a riot as the rotund and slack-jawed siren who caroms between brothers with the supreme self-confidence of a deathless beauty.

Under Rivera's apt direction, Alfaro fills his tiny canvas with thick, bitter humor -- but we sense that his comical, modest tale is prelude to impending tragedy. -- F. Kathleen Foley

CRITIC'S PICK - Back Stage West

When is a hero not a hero? That's one of the questions Luis Alfaro starts to answer in Hero. Alfaro's earnest, fluidly poetic, and comedic writing is a tonic devoutly to be wished and hugely welcome on our local boards. Hero (Jin Suh, alternating with Justin Huen), recently arrived home from the Iraq conflict, is being fêted by his mother but is disabused of any false pride by his sharp-tongued brother, Junior (Rodney To, alternating with Kennedy Kabasares), who is vocally anti-war, especially this one, even though he's been happily making hay with Hero's girlfriend, Destiny (the chunkily fabulous Carla Jimenez), during his brother's absence. Hero, isolating himself from the family, feels like a fake because his heroic act was to fall off a truck before he had a chance to fight. Uncle (Dana Lee, alternating with Ernesto Miyares) is dubious about the Iraq conflict; his war, Vietnam, was a real war, and nobody gave him any medals. Mom (Natsuko Ohama, alternating with Marlene Forté), weary of the boredom of her job at the Water Company, is just glad her son is back home where he belongs. This could easily be any American family. The playwright has chosen two specific hyphenates for his double cast: Asian Americans and Latin Americans. The culture of war and the families affected by it would seem universal; seeing both casts might be an interesting study (this reviewer saw only one), but the story would resonate regardless of race, color, or creed. The performances are brilliant; Alfaro's writing is crisp, literate, and funny; Jon Lawrence Rivera's direction is stunningly on key; John H. Binkley's set design, Jeremy Pivnick's lighting design, Bob Blackburn's sound design, Ron Saito's projections, and Chelsee Venis' costumes contribute to a highly entertaining and thought-provoking production. -- Madeleine Shaner 

Sunday, November 11th–December 16th
Fri/Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 & 7 PM

STUDIO/STAGE
520 N. Western Avenue
Hollywood, CA 90004
(between Melrose and Beverly at Maplewood)

 

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