SHAKING AND SIZZLING
posted by James Reel
After some time off, I’m back in my usual Tucson Weekly spot(s) with two items. First, a review of the latest fare from Borderlands Theater:
Los Angeles is one big seismic hazard, and nowhere more so than in the vicinity of Esmeralda Portillo and Sam Reyes. They work for a big law firm--she's a physically extroverted secretary, and he's an introverted intellectual accountant. They're about as different as can be, and they grind against each other like two tectonic plates, each heading in the wrong direction. Esmeralda has a tendency to shake things up, anyway; her father used to call her "Earthquake Chica."That’s the intro; find out what I think about it all here. Then, a look at Invisible Theatre’s migrating cabaret series;
That's also the title of the Anne Garcia-Romero play being produced by Borderlands Theater, a company that often explores the fault lines between cultures. This time, though, the unstable plate boundaries are between two individuals shifting within their shared Mexican-American culture.
Lucky for Invisible Theatre that "cabaret" is a state of mind.Find out more here.
Basically, cabaret is a kind of entertainment usually involving song or comedy, presented in a small room. Traditionally, that small room is a cafe or nightclub where patrons sit at tables, but this year, IT is moving its cabaret series into its own traditional 80-seat theater.
What's now called "Sizzling Summer Sounds" started about a decade and a half ago as a comedy-improv series featuring Molly McKasson and IT director Susan Claassen, but it morphed into a mostly musical offering. After several years at the Doubletree, the events shifted to the Arizona Inn; last year, remodeling and changing priorities there sent the series to Soleil restaurant in the foothills. But since then, the restaurant has been sold twice and is itself being remodeled, leaving the summer sounds without a place to sizzle.
"We thought before we go into another venue, it would be good to get at least a 50-year commitment before we build another stage," jokes Claassen.
So she has relocated the performances to her own theater...
