Producer, ALISON ALBECK
Artistic Director BRADFORD LOURYK
Presents
LOVE/SAD
Written & Directed by J. bajir cannon
Following the October workshop production of ATELIER, and this past summer’s first annual Starving Artists Ball, Studio 42 has returned, mounting a complete production for the world premiere of LOVE/SAD by J. Bajir Cannon.
La Tea, Clemente Soto Velez
107 Suffolk St. (bet. Rivington & Delancey Sts.)
(212) 352.3101 or TheaterMania
January 8 – 25, 2003
Musical Director/Scenic Design kabir green
Set & Properties Designer sarah krainin
Lighting Designer ben spatz
Sound Designer tim jones
Stage Manager mandy sayle
Publicist jackie kristel
Starring
steven guy, sara bremen, daria polatin
matthew stadelmann, chad goodridge
richard dibella, lareysa smith, lara wulsin
jessica weinstein, devon berkshire, paco tolson
chris kaminstein, avi glickstein
Considering that this quirky work began as J. Bajir Cannon’s senior thesis while the author/director was at Wesleyan, the totality of this production of LOVE/SAD is rather impressive. Afforded this technique-rich, albeit materially bare bones incarnation, the ambitious script is well served by the Studio 42 machine.
Aside from a story that plays like a fairy tale, a la Lewis Carroll or the like, there are some quality peripheral details worth noting. There is a smattering of daring acrobatics, and some melodic singing thrown into the mix. There is mysticism and mystery, and basic questions of life and death, love and loss, and eternity versus finality. In terms of content, LOVE/SAD proposes that to pass away is merely to travel to the moon, where all earthly memories, including a sense of time, are quickly thwarted and become hazy. Remembrance can be had, if one will seek out the magic of the birds (or is it some sort of insipid sorcery?), but are living memories death even to one who has already passed on? Weighty questions, these.
Then, it does all come down to the rendering. In LOVE/SAD we meet a downed pilot and a young girl who has risked it all for the love of her prince. We meet those who had love and lost it, and those who would die for it. We meet those who never appreciated it and seek a second chance. We meet human beings in an otherworldly kind of place. Earth, Moon, Venus, Mars or wherever, the messages conveyed are pretty universal. Only the localities have changed.
So, did I like LOVE/SAD? I did. Imperfect, but promising, this play is full of the sort of youthful exuberance that keeps the imagination alive. So, keep an eye out for the author/director, J. Bajir Cannon. He dreams of magic.
- Kessa De Santis -