OVATION RECOMMENDED |
April 16 - May 16, 2010
Welcome Home,
Jenny Sutter
by Julie Marie Myatt
Directed by Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen
- 03/22/10 ARTICLE: Broadway World
- 04/07/10 ARTICLE: Anaheim Hills News
- 04/16/10 ARTICLE: Orange County Local News Network
- 04/26/10 REVIEW: Orange County Register
- 04/26/10 REVIEW: Variety
- 04/26/10 REVIEW: Broadway World
- 04/28/10 REVIEW: Stage Scene LA
WOW! - 04/30/10 REVIEW: Stage Happenings
- 05/03/10 REVIEW: Examiner
- 05/10/10 REVIEW: Buena Park Independent
- 05/10/10 ARTICLE: Anaheim Hills News
- 05/13/10 REVIEW: Back Stage West
THEATER ARTICLE
Chance Theater presents WELCOME HOME
by BWW News Desk, Broadway World
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The Chance Theater is pleased to present the Southern California premiere of acclaimed playwright Julie Marie Myatt's intense look at returning home from war, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, April 16- May 16, 2010.
Directed by Chance Theater Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is a present-day story of personal recovery and acceptance. Upon her return to Southern California from a difficult tour of duty in Iraq, wounded Marine Sergeant Jenny Sutter finds herself lost in the California desert, without the body and mind she once knew. The eccentric inhabitants of a makeshift community give her the homecoming she needs before returning to her previous life. An edgy and poignant drama, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter brings fascinating insight to a timely theme.
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is the second collaboration between playwright Julie Marie Myatt and director Oanh Nguyen. Their working relationship began in 2009 when Nguyen served as the Associate Director for Myatt's The Happy Ones at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa (he also directed the staged reading of The Happy Ones at SCR earlier that same year). That production was recently nominated for a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Award, and Myatt will be receiving The Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an outstanding new play.
"I am thrilled The Chance is producing my play," says Myatt. "As we continue to welcome home veterans from both Iraq and Afghanistan, I think it is important to keep their stories and sacrifices alive in our communities, and national conscience."
"I'm very excited about working on my second Julie Marie Myatt piece," says Nguyen, a co-founder of Chance Theater. "Julie is an amazingly sensitive and funny playwright. Her characters and stories live below the surface. Just as you settle in with this simple, personal story and highly likable characters, you begin to realize that there's far more going on than you expected. Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter focuses on the challenges that are faced by those men and women who enlist to fight our wars in the Middle East. What do they need or want? What were their expectations? What have they lost? What can we do for them?"
While the Chance Theater production of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is a Southern California premiere, the play has made an impression on audiences and critics across the country. The play premiered at the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival in February 2008 to glowing reviews. The San Francisco Chronicle noted, "[Jenny Sutter] is a powerful drama...with graceful sensitivity." The premiere was shortly followed by a production at the renowned Kennedy Center Theater in Washington D.C.
As part of a special outreach program for this production, the Chance Theater is offering two free tickets to active duty military, veterans, and reservists for any performance of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter (based on availability). "We haven't received any grant funding to make this offer," notes Casey Long, the Chance's Managing Director. "We simply thought it was important for our soldiers to see this story. We are also currently contacting local military and veteran groups about participating in post-show discussions after each performance."
Julie Marie Myatt's plays include My Wandering Boy, Someday, Boats on a River, Mr. and Mrs., The Sex Habits of American Women, and The Happy Ones, among others. Her work has been produced at the Guthrie Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, The Kennedy Center, the Magic Theatre, etc, and also developed or seen at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, LAByrinth Theater Company, Denver Center Theatre Company. She received a Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights' Center, and a McKnight Advancement Grant. Myatt is currently working on commissions for Roundabout Theatre, and Yale Repertory.
Oanh Nguyen co-founded Chance Theater in 1999 and currently serves as its Artistic Director. He was awarded the Outstanding Artist Award by Arts Orange County and is a recipient of the TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color fellowship. Oanh is on the board of Network of Ensemble Theaters and a proud member of SDC, SAG and AFTRA. He directed Po Boy Tango last November for East West Players, as well as the theater's staged reading of Year Zero by Michael Golamco. Oanh recently served as the assistant director of An Empty Plate in the Café du Boeuf at Laguna Playhouse, and directed the professional premiere of The Girl, The Grouch, The Goat by Tony Award-winner Mark Hollmann for the Chance in 2009. He was recently nominated for an Ovation Award and LADCC Award for Best Director for his work on HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical.
Performances
Preview
Friday, April 16 at 8 pm
Opening Night/Press Night
Saturday, April 17 at 8 pm
Regular run
Sunday, April 18 - May 16
Friday & Saturday evenings at 8 pm
Saturday matinees at 3 pm
Sundays at 2 pm (Sunday, April 18 at 5 pm)
Thursday evenings April 22 & May 13 at 8 pm
Ticket Prices
$22 to $35
(Discounts for seniors and students)
(2 free tickets for all active military, reservists, and veterans)
Information
(714) 777-3033
www.chancetheater.com
Theatre Address
5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills, CA 92807
ABOUT THE CHANCE THEATER
Recently nominated for six Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and six Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards (including Best Season), and named "Outstanding Arts Organization" for the second time in five years by Arts Orange County, the Chance is proud to be one of the leading ensemble based theatre companies in Southern California. Voted "Best Theater Group" by MyFoxLA for two years in a row and "Best Small Theater" by Orange Coast Magazine, the Chance is a recipient of the 2007 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's (LADCC) Polly Warfield Award for Excellence. Founded in 1999, the Chance Theater's mission has always been to intimately present personally meaningful, uniquely engaging stories that promote dialogue within our community and provide a visceral experience for theatergoers. As a constituent member of Theater Communications Group (TCG), Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), and the Los Angeles Stage Alliance (LASA), the Chance continues to bring national attention to the Southern California and Orange County theater scene through its recent achievements, which includes a 2006 GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Los Angeles Theater.
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THEATER ARTICLE
"Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter' coming to the Chance
by Sarah Moreau, Anaheim Hills News
[ Link to Anaheim Hills News ]
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"Some of the most meaningful relationships I've experienced were with strangers.- Anonymous"
Walking down the streets of downtown Los Angeles a couple of years ago, I was approached by a nicely dressed woman carrying a cat on her shoulder. I thought she was going to ask me for directions, but instead she went into a rant about using cats as service animals.
She told me that the cat remembered places she had been and gave me her business card advertising her small guide cat enterprise. Slightly amused and slightly terrified I took the card, smiled, and wished her a good day. She smiled at me and walked up 5th street with her calico feline still perched on her shoulder, conjuring images of a cat caught up a tree. I immediately called some friends to recount this experience. After a day or two it occurred to me that if it hadn't been for this brief encounter with a woman I didn't know, and would never see again, I wouldn't have had a reason to reconnect with some people I care about.
I hadn't thought about the woman, or the conversations that followed, until recently while watching a rehearsal for the next play at the Chance Theater – "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter," opening April 16. The show is about an eccentric collection of broken souls searching for meaning and healing in a small community of strays (people, not cats) on an abandoned military base. The title character is a 30-year-old Iraq vet, injured during her tour of duty with the Marine Corps. Afraid to return to her family after sustaining physical and psychological injuries, Jenny decides to get lost for a while. Taken in by Louise (a.k.a. "Lou"), an exuberant aspirin/diet coke/sleeping pills/raisins/gambling/lipstick/fruit roll-up addict, Jenny travels to "Slab City" where everyone is battling something in their own way.
Playwright Julie Marie Myatt, whose play, "The Happy Ones," had a great run at SCR last year, has created a story that captures the feeling we have all had somewhere along the way when we have felt lost, changed by our circumstances, and wanted nothing more than to find a way to earn that welcome home. We bounce through life bumping into new people and new experiences that point us in different directions or change the way we see the world and one another. Who knows what kind of stranger you may bump into today: maybe a cat-lady who will inspire you to call a friend, maybe someone who might change your life.
"Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter" opens April 16 and runs through May 16. We are showing our gratitude to our men and women in service by offering two free tickets to active military, veterans and reservists. Call the Chance box office at 714-777-3033 for details.
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THEATER ARTICLE
Chance brings "Jenny Sutter" closer to home
by Cristofer Gross, Orange County Local News Network
[ Link to OCLNN ]
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| Playwright Julie Marie Myatt |
In 2006, with 17,000 wounded American soldiers home from Iraq, Julie Marie Myatt raised her voice. The same voice that at four had welcomed her Marine father back from Vietnam, and at 36 joined street protests against the Iraq war, was also that of an accomplished playwright. And now there was something it needed to say.
“I wanted to write about the Iraq War,” she said. “But more importantly, I wanted to write a play about this new generation of women veterans coming back maimed by war, and whether this country is prepared for women paraplegics.”
The play, “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter,” premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in 2008, then moved to The Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Friday night it opens its four-week Southern California premiere at The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills.
After losing a leg in Iraq, combat Marine Jenny Sutter returns to California with an artificial limb and a vague feeling that she no longer belongs. In the limbo of a Los Angeles bus station, she decides to follow a sympathetic stranger to a desert community of transients living on a deserted military base. In “Slab City,” on long-abandoned concrete foundations, a collection of disconnected souls will help Jenny reorient to her new life.
“’Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter’ reminds us that no matter our politics, these young men and women returning home damaged – physically, mentally or both – from fighting our wars in the Middle East deserve our attention,” said Oanh Nguyen, Chance Theater’s artistic director and “Jenny Sutter’s” director. “Myatt doesn’t pretend to know how best to do that, but reminds us that these brave souls are part of our community, and shows us the power of humor and hope.”
Myatt, who lives in Los Angeles, has been writing plays for more than 20 years, and had her work produced at theaters from New York to San Francisco, including Minnesota’s Guthrie and the Actors Theatre of Louisville. She is an Artistic Associate of L.A.’s Cornerstone Theater Company, co-founded in 1986 by playwright Allison Carey and Bill Rauch, who became OSF Artistic Director in 2007. Without a performance space of its own, Cornerstone visits inner city and rural communities to work with residents to develop locally staged plays of immediate relevance to them.
Now, Myatt has been finding a home in Orange County, beginning with South Coast Repertory’s 2007 premiere of “My Wandering Boy,” a play that explores the void left by a young man who vanishes into the world of the homeless.
“I liked ‘Wandering Boy’ a lot,” said Martin Benson, SCR’s co-Founding Artistic Director. “I thought it was a fascinating idea that the central character never shows up, and what we hear are the reactions to him from the people he knew. I really like Julie’s writing: She’s a very dedicated writer.”
Dismissed by many critics, “Wandering” nevertheless impressed SCR’s artistic directors enough to commission Myatt to write another play for them. That led to last year’s “The Happy Ones,” which explores the fallout from war from the standpoint of the refugee. A Vietnamese doctor leaves his homeland for America around the fall of Saigon in 1975. But before his family can join him, they are murdered by soldiers and in his despondency he becomes responsible for a similar loss by a Garden Grove man.
“When SCR commissioned me, I had already been sitting with the idea behind ‘Happy Ones’ for two years while I worked on other plays,” Myatt said. “So, submitting a script about Orange County to an Orange County theater was just ideal. I like that the community around has an investment in the story. I think that’s a very powerful way to experience a play.”
It was also where she connected with Nguyen.
“Oanh directed an SCR reading of ‘Happy Ones’ and did such a good job that when I directed the full production I brought him on as an associate director,” said Benson. “The three of us became quite a little group working on the play. It was a really a great experience all around.”
“Theater artists are used to substituting our own lives for the sometimes very different experiences of our characters and stories,” Nguyen said. “As a Vietnamese theater artist, it’s very rare to have actually shared those experiences with the characters in the play. I hope ‘The Happy Ones’ finds a life in the American Theater, though I am proud and gratified that it premiered in Orange County.”
SCR’s faith in Myatt paid off, and earlier this year “The Happy Ones” won the region’s most prestigious new play prize, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Ted Schmitt Award.
Now, with the number of returning wounded soldiers at 31,000, Nguyen and the Chance bring “Jenny Sutter” to Orange County, where she continues to build a following. Her writing, while filled with humor, understanding, and strength, is spare. With the restraint of a poet, she spaces her dialogue, letting it breathe and let the big questions she has herself become questions for an audience.
“It seems to be happening with each play,” she said. “I would rather that the audience be participating in their own emotional experience and let them decide, rather than me saying here’s what I think. At the first performances of ‘Jenny’ in Oregon, it was important to me that the audience be full of people who had participated either in this war or in a war along with people who hadn’t. I wanted us sitting together with this question. And, there was a resonance in the audience. I felt like I had accomplished something because of that.”
“Myatt is not afraid of silence,” Nguyen said. “She allows her characters to speak volumes without words. Though she tends to deal with serious subject matters, humor is at the spine of her plays and her characters.”
Melissa Steinman, a former Marine who served as consultant for the world premiere of “Jenny Sutter,” told “The Christian Science Monitor,” “Every veteran I’ve gone to see it with has cried from a very deep place. Not from sadness or loss, but just from this connection that you can’t quite explain.”
“I was four in 1972 when my dad came back from his second tour of Vietnam,” Myatt said. “He said that when they landed in San Francisco, they had to leave by a back route. It was not a welcoming environment. I grew up with all these military guys, and no one ever talked about Vietnam. Ever.”
“The silence of a veteran is something that is very familiar to me.”
“And, it’s funny, because when I was writing ‘Jenny Sutter’ I was really not consciously thinking about that period at all. I was writing as someone who had been on the streets protesting to stop the current war. Then, after the invasion people began to be apathetic and disengaged, because for so many the people fighting it are people they don’t know. And I thought, Is that it? We’re done? Is that the end of our voice? That can’t be the end of our contribution.”
For more articles from TheaterTimes and Cristofer Gross, visit www.theatertimes.org.
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THEATER REVIEW
Play in Anaheim Hills views war's personal price tag
by Eric Marchese, Orange County Register
[ Link to OC Register l Post Your Own Review ]
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| Jennifer Ruckman and Brenda Banda |
"When the script and director Oanh Nguyen really get down to business, we begin to see for ourselves what Jenny's courage and dedication have wrought within her."
"Squat and powerful, Banda brings a toughness, skeptical squint and an almost butch quality to the title role. She and Nguyen accent Jenny's stubborn insistence on being self-reliant as well as her pent-up anger over sacrificing part of her body for her country. In Banda's hands, Jenny's agony is searing."
"Lou is a chipper chatterbox with low self-esteem, and with her beaming face and frizzy perm, Ruckman radiates goofy good cheer and crushing self-doubt. And though the character functions as comic relief, Lou is well attuned to Jenny's anguish."
"Long is probably too youthful to be cast as Buddy, but he uses his voice and posture to make the role work. With his squinting gaze, bearded face, slicked back hair and growly voice, his Buddy is a bear, albeit a gentle one. The lanky Pearson's Donald is scruffy, grungy, and even more emotionally closed off than Jenny. He's also the story's wild card, its unpredictable X-factor."
"As played by Webster, Cheryl is calm, centered and positive, her life's purpose, like Buddy's, to offer support and reassurance. Maxwell Myers, in the supporting role of Hugo, proves an irritant to the terse Jenny and even to the more cheerful Lou."
"As befits the story's setting, Shaun Motley's set design resembles huge slabs of stone as well as old tires, metal barrels and other detritus. Much of KC Wilkerson's lighting is purplish and hazy, evoking nighttime. This Slab City has the look of someplace barren and forgotten, a place where returning servicemen might begin to find a new purpose in life."
To read the full review, use the link above.
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THEATER REVIEW
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter
by Bob Verini, Variety
[ Link to Variety l Post Your Own Review ]
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| Jennifer Ruckman and Brenda Banda |
"Films and plays about returning Iraq War vets tend to dwell, understandably, on the soldiers' enormous emotional and physical burdens. Yet playwright Julie Marie Myatt sagely realizes civilians can often lug around their own hurt lockers as well. In her "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter," a maimed ex-Marine and other damaged souls gather at a California desert outpost."
"Myatt and Nguyen cast an undeniable spell through a series of odd confrontations among a cross-section of the walking wounded: a sex and substance addict who remains stubbornly romantic (Jennifer Ruckman), a wide-eyed amateur shrink (Karen Webster), a fiercely brooding outcast (Brandon Sean Pearson) and a crippled preacher Buddy (Casey Long) whose Internet ordination cost $9.95. (It came with a free credit check.)"
"The play is most interesting when the interactions are most indirect. From time to time Myatt abandons her Pinteresque opacity to spill the expositional beans - revealing, for instance, the specific source of Jenny's anguish - and the mystery instantly slips away. When we're invited to fill in the gaps ourselves, Nguyen's cast never loses its grip on our attention, with Pearson especially effective at conveying the unspoken."
To read the full review, use the link above.
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THEATER REVIEW
BWW Reviews: Chance Theater's WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER
by Michael Quintos, Broadway World
[ Link to Broadway World l Post Your Own Review ]
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| Casey Long and Jennifer Ruckman |
"Americans are fleetingly reminded that as long as the war rages on, many of these heroic military men and women are either about to deploy to, are in the middle of, or are coming home from the harshest of situations. One such woman mired in the latter is the basis for Chance Theater's Southern California premiere of Julie Marie Myatt's WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER, a play that tackles the enormous task of dramatizing a soldier's troubled homecoming."
"There are indeed plenty of standout moments, including the opening scene that introduces our title character, meticulously changing out of her marine trousers to put on a pair of jeans—in real time. Though initially appearing like a scene that's too long, the sequence, as it progresses, is actually quite an effective introduction to Jenny. That slice-of-life moment (coupled with her spoken-word monologue in the dark) speaks volumes of her newfound struggle as a person that cannot simply compartmentalize her Iraq experiences away—her injury is a constant reminder of her life from this point onward."
"In addition to the opening sequence, some of Jenny's interactions with fellow Slab City residents are also interesting and full of funny, quirky moments that are sprinkled all throughout the play. Also noteworthy are the effective performances of Ruckman, Long and Pearson; each actor inhabits their characters with plenty of personality quirks and their presence on stage kept the play alive."
"Banda really gets to shine by the play's end, when the story calls for the actor to abandon emotionally-witheld subtly in favor of a passionate, deeply-felt epiphany. She, at last, breaks away the layers she has put on to quiet her tragic memories, and can finally come to terms with her new life, post-war. And much like the soldier portrayed in this play deserves our respect and admiration, this production can be commended for its brave and valiant efforts to dramatize an all-too-real situation many of our homebound service men and women are faced with in these uneasy times."
To read the full review, use the link above.
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THEATER REVIEW
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter
by Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
[ Link to Stage Scene LA l Post Your Own Review ]
WOW!
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| Brenda Banda and Karen Webster |
Jenny Sutter is the newest kind of wounded war vet—a female United States Marine who, just like her male counterparts did four decades ago upon returning home from an unpopular war in Southeast Asia, has no idea how she can possibly fit back into a “normal” life after the hell she experienced in Iraq.
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is award-winning playwright Julie Marie Myatt’s tribute to this latest kind of war victim and a salute to the All-American small town folk who make it their business to give Jenny a hero’s welcome—whether she thinks she deserves one or not.
Myatt’s extraordinary The Happy Ones recently won the L.A.-based writer the LADCC Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an outstanding new play. That South Coast Repertory production was associate directed by Chance Theater Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, and it was Myatt’s association with the brilliant Nguyen that led her to select The Chance for the Southern California Premiere of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter.
Myatt’s confidence was well placed. Under Nguyen’s authoritative, nuanced direction, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is yet another Chance Theater triumph, a powerful, moving, beautifully performed and staged drama which has much to say to and about our world today.
It matters not that Jenny Sutter (Brenda Banda) is a female Marine, exempt from combat duty. There is no “safe zone” in Iraq, and so Jenny has come home an amputee, the victim of a bomb that somehow managed to escape her vigilant eye at the check point where she was in charge. Hard for a man’s masculinity to come back minus part of a leg. Harder still for a woman’s femininity, and so Jenny has chosen not to see her mother and children, at least not until she’s had the chance to find some kind of peace.
A bus ticket to anywhere being all Jenny wants at this time, she boards a Greyhound for Slab City, smack dab in the middle of the California desert, a concrete slab of a town “full of people figuring their shit out” just as Jenny herself is.
There’s Lou (Jennifer Ruckman), a 38-year-old 12-stepper with the worst perm for miles around; self-proclaimed preacher Buddy (Casey Long), a survivor of horrendous child abuse; lanky, tattooed Donald (Brandon Sean Pearson), a jewelry maker shouldering his own burden of guilt; and hairdresser turned therapist Cheryl (Karen Webster), always ready with New Age pearls of wisdom like “The high road is the rode paved to peace.”
Myatt provides no easy answers to Jenny’s troubles, just a road stop on the way back to a family that knows nothing of the horrors of war which have wounded Jenny to the core, just some ears to listen to her and some arms to hold her even as she does her best to resist them.
Banda is so absolutely real in her performance as Jenny that audience members from the Loma Linda V.A. expressed the belief that she must be a returning vet herself, high praise indeed. As tough as is the façade Banda puts up as Jenny’s armor, the actress lets us see the wounded, loving soul beneath, especially as the returning Marine begins to let down her guard and reveal her real self and the reason for her nightmares.
Bearded and gravel-voiced, the superb Long so disappears into Buddy’s twisted body that one wonders if friends would recognize him on the street in Buddy guise. Webster, the Chance’s Meryl, is never anything less than excellent, and her Marianne Williamson wannabe is no exception. As Donald, sexy Chance newcomer Pearson makes a strong impression as the kind of man Lou’s and Jenny’s mothers warned them about. In a pair of scenes that bookend Jenny’s stay in Slab City, Maxwell Myers scores drolly as bus station attendant Hugo, whose philosophy is, “What’s the point of cleaning this place? The minute I clean something, some bum just walks in and takes a shit on it.”
Finally, in the most offbeat casting of the year, ethereal beauty Ruckman reinvents herself to play recovering alcohol-cigarette-sleeping pill-aspirin-Diet Coke-sex addict Lou. Though the part would appear to call for a 40something Karen Black type, the award-winning Chance Theater member manages to convince us she is this quirky older gal with truly horrible hair. Then again, this is hardly a surprise from the amazing star of Rabbit Hole and Frozen, leading one to wonder, is there any part Ruckman can’t play?
As he did in Assassins, director Nguyen has reconfigured the Chance so that two rows of seats run lengthwise on either side of the theater. Though the same kind of design works against the power of Theater Out’s current production of Bent, it is here the perfect choice. Myatt’s script has Buddy, Lou, and Cheryl occasionally greeting unseen townsfolk, and the seating arrangement turns audience members into those Slab City residents, making us not merely observers but part of the Welcome Home Jenny Committee. The resulting stage area is wide and deep enough to give an expansive desert feel, with scenic designer Shaun Motley’s set conveying the barren starkness of a city called Slab. KC Wilkerson’s lighting, Anthony Tran’s costumes, and Dave Mickey’s sound complete the excellent design package. Courtny Greenough and Rosalynn Nguyen share duties as production stage managers.
Sunday’s performance was followed by a cast talkback with audience members from the aforementioned Loma Linda V.A., most of whom appeared scarred for life from their war experiences in Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq. Myatt has expressed the hope that the powers-that-be “will be less cavalier about starting the next conflict, or maybe they will end this war before the next Jenny Sutter is called back to the desert and this cycle of broken spirits continues.” Perhaps what those in power need is simply to spend a few hours with Jenny Sutter.
The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Through May 16. Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 3:00 and 8:00, Sundays at 2:00. Thursday May 13 at 8:00. Reservations: 714 777-3033 www.chancetheater.com
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THEATER REVIEW
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter
by Shirle Gottlieb, Stage Happenings
[ Link to Stage Happenings l Post Your Own Review ]
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| Maxwell Myers |
Last year Oanh Nguyen served as associate-director on South Coast Repertory's world premiere of "The Happy Ones," written by local playwright, Julie Marie Myatt. That makes "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter" their second collaboration.
If you saw SCR's terrific production of Myatt's heart-warming comedy, you know why Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle gave her the Ted Schmitt Award for outstanding new play of the year.
Myatt and Nguyen worked so well together they agreed to tackle this current project, which made its Southern California debut last weekend. In other words, "Jenny Sutter" has been "welcomed home" officially by the Chance Theater-- an intimate space in the Anaheim Hills that Orange Coast Magazine calls "The Best Small Theater" in the county.
According to the program, Myatt's play is a present-day story of personal recovery and acceptance. But it's much much more than that. Jenny's travail is a timeless, universal story--a triumph of human spirit and courage over fear, frailty, ignorance, and loss of dignity-- a story that has resonated throughout recorded history.
In essence: Upon her return from Iraq, a young wounded Marine Sergeant finds herself lost in the California desert without the physical body or emotional confidence that she once possessed.
Unable to go home to her family with an artificial leg, Jenny wanders aimlessly around without direction or purpose. Then quite by accident, she winds up in "Slab City"-- an uncharted, no-where-place where a make-shift group of lost souls and outcasts have banded together and formed a laissez-faire community.
In such an environment (with no expectations from anyone, few rules or regulations, and total acceptance from a motley bunch of strangers), Jenny is able to find herself and get on with her life.
That's the basic plot-line, but be prepared. Under Nguyen's insightful, humane direction, Myatt's work becomes a gut-wrenching experience--both emotionally and theatrically. To be totally convincing with such "out-sider" fringe characters is extremely difficult; but true to its reputation, the Chance cast is superb.
Aside from Nguyen's astute direction, the success of this taunt drama depends largely on the actor who plays the lead; and Brenda Banda's portrayal of Jenny hits the bull's eye. Repressed and unresponsive, closely guarded and tightly triggered, ready to explode at any minute, Jenny is a simmering powder-keg.
By contrast, Lou (beautifully captured by Jennifer Ruckman) is a neurotic, non-stop chatter-box who is addicted to everything (sex, drugs, booze, you name it), and she's over-the-top about everyone.
Throw in Cheryl (the wonderful Karen Webster), Slab City's resident therapist, a former beautician with a good heart; Buddy (the versatile Casey Long), Slab City's sweet, wanna-be preacher who was almost beaten to death by his parents; and Donald (Brandon Sean Pearson), the mysterious, deeply troubled artist who keeps to himself but lashes out when people get too close; then watch life happen.
In essence, all of Myatt's characters were lost souls in the city; but they've learned to survive in the desert when left to their own devices. In like manner, their non-judgemental view of life serves as a safety-net for Jenny's dilemma. Given the "acceptance" of total strangers, and enough time to sort things out, Jenny is able to "accept herself" and go home to her family.
"Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter" is a must-see. It continues at The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills, through May 16. Performances take place Friday-Saturday at 8:00 pm, Sunday at 2:00 pm, and Thursday, May 13 at 8:00. For ticket information call (714) 777-3033 or go on line at www.chancetheater.com
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THEATER REVIEW
Chance Theatre welcomes Julie Myatt
by Jordan Young, Examiner
[ Link to Examiner l Post Your Own Review ]
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| Casey Long and Jennifer Ruckman |
Too many revivals and knock-offs on the boards for you these days? Dying to see something fresh and original? I finally made it out to the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills the other night for the So Cal premiere of Julie Marie Myatt’s “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter”—playing through May 16--and I must say, it fills the bill.
There have been lots of plays and movies about returning from war over the years—few more potent than Hal Ashby’s 1978 film “Coming Home”—yet this quirky drama about a Marine journeying back from a tour of duty in Iraq doesn’t easily call comparisons to mind. Sgt. Sutter isn’t the only one “avoiding reality at all costs” as she wanders through the California desert community of Slab City; everyone else in this makeshift village of lost souls is doing the same thing. Or are they creating their own reality?
Oanh Nguyen, who served as associate director for Myatt’s “The Happy Ones” at South Coast Rep last year, directs with sensitivity and compassion. Most impressive among the solid ensemble cast are Jennifer Ruckman as Lou, a bright-eyed motormouth and recovering addict; and Casey Long as her ex-boyfriend Buddy, an unkempt preacher. A salute to the Chance for offering a pair free tickets to active duty military, veterans, and reservists (based on availability). 714-777-3033.
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THEATER REVIEW
OC's Chance Theater Delivers Deeply Moving, Truly Memorable & Timely Play
by Joseph Sirota, Buena Park Independent
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| Jennifer Ruckman and Brenda Banda |
2010 has been a quality season for local theater. Particularly plentiful have been entertaining comedies and musicals -- consistent crowd pleasers. But here, on an impressively serious note, is a powerfully creative, very timely drama the worthy Chance Theater is offering. In fact it’s one of the most truly memorable dramas of the year so far. Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is the saga of a female US marine returning from Iraq, missing not only a leg, but her very sense of “what her life is now all about”. Her two young daughters anxiously await mom’s return, but single parent, Jenny isn’t ready to face them, or her mother or her old apartment, which doesn’t feel like home anymore. Playwright Julie Marie Myatt paints a movingly unexpected journey for Jenny… a path through a “Slab City” in a poor L.A. exurb. Why pick a place of broken-down, unfortunate folks with their own sorrows? Aha! It is just the route Jenny “needs” at this “lost” juncture in her life. Jenny Sutter is exactly the kind of play that the small in size, but big in heart-&-art, Chance Theater makes most accessible. Chance’s point-blank staging & seating layout creates an unflinching intimacy, notably intensifying play’s rich in feelings, emotions and insights into the human condition.
But, the actors could sit on your very lap, while you reach out and touch the set, and it would be for naught, unless the play is wise and pithy, the director sharp, knowing and creative, -- and the cast able to both capture & convey their complex characters – plus mesh convincingly as an interacting ensemble. Fortunately, this play and Chance production adeptly fill all of these “musts”. Director Oanh Nguyen (also Chance Theater’s Artistic Director) has teamed successfully with author Myatt before in a prior well-received SCR production, The Happy Ones. Judging by the power and sensitivity of this latest production, I hope we’ll see more future collaborations of these talented, intelligent, kindred spirits.
To say this cast of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is excellent is an understatement. Each brings to life their character’s strengths, weakness and needs. They convey their damaged lives, their suffering and fears, but also beautifully radiate their caring desire to help, and the inner goal of improving themselves as well as those around them. Each actor reaches deeply within, insuring we see, understand and care about their character. Each has moments when they ARE THE STAR, yet works organically in ensemble. Brenda Banda does such an outstanding turn as the title character Jenny Sutter, we totally believe she IS this searching, survivor of a hard life, leading to war injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Jennifer Ruckman is outstanding as Lou, the vividly energetic bus-stop neurotic angel of pleasure who befriends Jenny and brings her to the Slab-City oasis. Casey Long shines brightly as Buddy, the $10 internet-ordained resident Slab preacher, who is as wise and caring a minister as one could pray for. Similarly, Karen Webster, as Cheryl, beautician turned self-proclaimed psychotherapist reaches out with a sincerity we’d love in a licensed PhD. Brandon Sean Pearson surprises us in a skillful, morphing portrayal of Don, who beneath a harsh demeanor is a lonely man mourning his loss of relating to others. Maxwell Myers, is rivetingly poignant as a dingy bus station attendant bullying the world with sad bravado while yearning to belong.
Don’t conclude playwright Myatt chose & created odd, intense characters in a strange Slab-City, just for clever theatrical impact. The play actually brings stirring, enlightening insight. Jenny is a strong soul—but currently damaged and needy. She has armored herself against the outside world to cope by distancing herself from the strong and able, but when she meets others who are damaged and suffering too, yet reach out to her, these are people who can understand her, relate to her, and accept her. So it’s these “fellow damaged souls” she dares to let-in, to know her, befriend her and help her stand again. Isn’t this the principal of AA or Overeaters Anonymous? -- namely, we can more openly first relate to those who share our experience and vulnerability, before we can open up to others who stand damage free, seemingly above us, less likely to accept us? This story may sound fanciful, but its truths are right on target.
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter
Chance Theater,
5552 E. La Palma Ave, Anaheim Hills, CA 92807
Fri & Sat eves @ 8 pm.
Matinees Sats @ 3pm
& Sundays @ 2 pm.
Thu May 13 @ 8 pm
Closes May 16
Tkts: $22 to $35 (Sen/Stu Discounts + 2 free tkts for active/reserve/veteran military)
Info: Call: (714) 777-3033
Internet:
www.chancetheater.com
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THEATER ARTICLE
Last chance to catch 'Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter'
by Sarah Moreau, Anaheim Hills News
[ Link to Anaheim Hills News l Post Your Own Review ]
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| Brenda Banda |
My dog broke his toe. It happened while he was playing with another dog, our good canine friend, Cooper. I didn't see it happen, because I was inside feeding my caffeine addiction. Having no understanding of Lyle's limp, I put his gimpy foot into a hiking boot and off we went for a five-mile hike. Lyle happily trotted alongside me showing no signs of discomfort; however, it became clear shortly thereafter that Lyle's condition was more than just a sore pad. I took him to the vet where he was x-rayed ($$) and fitted with a cast ($). I am happy to announce that he has fully recovered from his injury, and my veterinarian's office is short quite a few free samples of dog food (have to compensate for those high bills somehow).
This experience, and Lyle's grin-and-bear-it attitude, got me thinking about healing in general. The financial, physical and emotional costs of any kind of break can bankrupt a life beyond recognition. In her play at the Chance Theater, "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter," Julie Marie Myatt offers us a look at the lives of an eccentric collection of broken souls who have purposely escaped from society to seek out a way to cope and start a new life. This funny and poignant story captures what it means to be lost and broken, and whether or not someone has the strength to forge a future of their choosing.
During the production's run, the Chance has hosted two post-show discussions. These "talk backs" allowed the audience, cast, crew and special guests to talk about their life experiences and thoughts about the show. Members of the Loma Linda VA took part in one post-show discussion at which several veterans shared their stories with the cast and fellow audience members. The veterans felt that the show was about finding the courage to move forward and re-engage with your life, a lesson that it took many of them years to learn on their own.
This play also illustrates what often goes unnoticed: that we are all healing from something. Whether we are wounded veterans of an unpopular war, a caffeine addict, or simply a dog with a broken paw, we all do our best to happily walk that five mile hike of life where the path is not clear, but the picture of a better day lets us smile through the pain.
"Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter," directed by Oanh Nguyen, runs through Sunday, May 16 at the Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave. Showtimes are: Thursdays at 8 p.m.; Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets and info: 714-777-3033 or www.chancetheater.com.
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THEATER REVIEW
'Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter'
by Melinda Schupmann, Back Stage West
[ Link to Back Stage West l Post Your Own Review ]
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| Casey Long and Jennifer Ruckman |
There are lots of ways to acquire wounds along life's path, and playwright Julie Marie Myatt has chosen to gather her fictional flock of offbeat characters in a real-life low-desert location called Slab City, the former Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap near Niland, Calif. Long abandoned by the military, it offers a loosely structured community that well suits Myatt's disenfranchised group of walking wounded.
Jenny (Brenda Banda) has returned from Iraq, having lost a leg and with PTSD nightmares that make her afraid to return home to her children and reenter the civilian world. Taciturn and guarded, she hooks up with loquacious Lou (Jennifer Ruckman) at a Los Angeles bus station. Lou's addictions to sex, alcohol, smoking, and gambling drive her to a rootless existence, though she returns again and again to Slab City. Playing a seriously creepy bus-station ticket taker, Maxwell Myers takes a small role and adds a comic touch to the morose proceedings.
Finally at Slab City we meet Buddy (Casey Long), a preacher whose childhood abuse has left him battered and whose tentative liaison with Lou is complicated. As Jenny stays at this way station, she encounters Donald (Brandon Sean Pearson), a truculent loner who abjures society and is as deeply damaged as the rest of the folks there. Lou also takes advice from Cheryl (Karen Webster), a self-styled psychiatrist who is outed by Donald as simply a failed hairdresser.
Shaun Motley's concrete slabs and minimalist set design create a linear plane that adds to the stark existence and solitude of the desert dwellers. Oanh Nguyen's taut direction allows for just the right amount of pathos coupled with wry humor. Anthony Tran's costumes also paint a picture of people on the edge.
The ensemble makes the most of Myatt's stylistic story line, developing sympathy for the circumstances of the lives of people who bear almost insurmountable burdens. Ruckman and Long are particularly memorable, and Banda's enigmatic silence brings other characters into relief.
There are moments when the dialogue takes itself a little too seriously, but examining others' coping strategies makes for thoughtful reflection.
Presented by and at the Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. April 17–May 16. Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (Exception: Sun., 5 p.m., April 18. Added Thu., 8 p.m., May 13.) (714) 777-3033. www.chancertheater.com.
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PATRON REVIEWS
Very impressed
posted by Linda S. Bryan on 5/10/10
My husband and I were very impressed with the entire experience. The acting was exceptional, especially Jennifer Ruckman as Lou. Our son is an Army Ranger.
As a combat Veteran myself, "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter" rings true and piercing
posted by Ronnie Guyer on 5/10/10
Up close and personal outreach experience is what The Chance Theater shines at bringing to an audience's theatrical experience. As a combat Veteran myself, "Welcome Home Jenny Sutter" rings true and piercing as it depicts one person's journey home, begining to feel loved again, not hated. A most uplilfting human story.
Ronnie Guyer
Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965
One of the best dramas I've seen on the Chance Stage
posted by Kathy Esfahani on 5/10/10
What a terrific show! All the actors were great and Casey Long absolutely disappeared into his character. He was amazing. I found the play itself really wonderful. The characters were very believable and the dialogue was real. There was a nice dramatic arc to the whole. I was very moved by this play and consider it to be one of the best dramas I've seen on the Chance Stage--and I've been attending regularly for several years. Bravo!
A very well acted and directed play
posted by Don French on 4/27/10
A very well acted and directed play. Our party of four enjoyed the performance. The sets were uniquely effective and helped to maintain the mood and theme of the play. Extremely forceful actors one and all! Just enough profanity to be realistic.
Outstanding, powerful, and emotional
posted by Bill & Bess Bowman on 4/23/10
Outstanding, powerful, and emotional. Great acting, with the actors exactly matching the role of the characters in the story. The most impact that a relatively simple plot line could possibly offer.
Very insightful
posted by Penny Janus on 4/22/10
Really Great! Very insightful. Lot's of humor for such a serious topic.
Fantastic!
posted by Sandy Tuckman on 4/20/10
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter was fantastic. The story, the acting, the sets were all wonderful Thank you for a most enjoyable evening.
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