By IRENE MANAHAN Special to the Daily Press
SANTA MONICA PIER Back in 2002, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wanted to add a fresh twist to her next curtain-raiser.
Her idea was to commit herself to writing and developing one short drama... every single day... for a whole year.
Three years later, the brainstorm that is “365 Days/365 Plays” hit the stage. By November, the shows will have debuted in 16 cities in more than 600 theaters nationwide, making it the largest theater festival of its kind in American history.
With each new city comes a new theater, a new set of plays,a new director and a new cast.
“Audiences will be amazed at the diversity. Each individual company is very unique and presents the plays differently, but still with the same great passion and energy,”said Diane Rodriguez, an associate producer for 365 L.A. “We're about a quarter of the way through our year and each company has really stepped up to the plate.
“They’ve done amazingly well.” The latest installment, entitled “Nine by Parks,” is set to premiere at the end of the Santa Monica Pier this weekend.
Center Theater Groups spearheads the city of Los Angeles’ performances, organizing the casts and artists, and will present “Nine by Parks” in collaboration with the arts organization Empire of Teeth.
Michael Sakamoto, a director, producer and performer in “Nine by Parks,” explained that Parks wrote the plays back in 2002 and 2003 during the “immediate months of, and consequences thereafter, of the Iraq War.” The plays emphasize the “crisis of American culture” and “war consciousness.” While two plays comment specifically on war, the others “deal with the angst of culture.”
Sakamoto said that the plays touch upon both comedy and drama.
“It’s an absurd element that really walks that thin line between the two,” he said. “They’re all different, but as a whole, they deal with the subconscious of contemporary American culture.”
The pier serves as a “site-specific” location. Within this historic space, filled with shops, restaurants and entertainment, Empire of Teeth is seeking to present live drama within the “real world” — the very thing that the plays will comment upon.
“What’s special for us, is we’re holding the plays on the very end of the pier, which was the end of Route 66, the great American highway,”Sakamoto said.“Our production is largely about the American crisis, playing out the past, present and future of the American dream.
“It’s a beautiful setting with people out,just trying to enjoy themselves,” Sakamoto said of the pier location. “The play questions everything there is about that setting. It will force the audience to question why they’re enjoying themselves, why they’re doing anything. They’ll question American culture, what’s OK and what’s not, what’s acceptable, as men and women and families, workers and artists.”
“Where usual theater space is “very safe and protected,” Sakamoto said, “being out in the public, anything can happen. We have no control over the environment, and the crowds of people give our work spontaneity.”
Sakamoto and his group have been developing “Nine by Parks” since fall 2006.
“It’s satisfying, personally and communally,” he said. “I get to put my own artistic vision and stamp on a world premiere of the production of one of the leading contemporary playwrights in country.”
This weekend’s play titles include: “Hail and Fairwell” “Worms” “The Lake Shore Limited” “Orange”
“The Original Mother******” “(Again) Sometimes God is a Soprano” “Father Comes Home From the Wars (Part 2)”
“The River Through Elizabethtown, New Jersey”
“Nine by Parks” premiers at the Santa Monica Pier (at Ocean and Colorado avenues) on Saturday, Feb. 10, and Sunday, Feb. 11, at 5 p.m., with a pre-show performance at 4:45 p.m. Tickets are free to general public.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 9, 2007. Read the original PDF.