and heidi blickenstaff as “katherine” (l) cast of signature theatre’s production of freaky friday.
(r) emma hunton as “ellie” (left)
How do we help build communi- ties, increase un- derstanding, listen better, speak more compassionately? How do we take
care of people who have no voice and nurture the bonds between people?’ Freaky Friday is a
story about mutual understanding, about crossing the gulf and
understanding our differences and similarities.”
discussed that, “We have a double turn table, for counter motion and so much of the show’s staging is the flip side of things. The turn-tables keep flipping and turning. I am enjoying this adventurous and brave cast, they are very open to learning new things. We have Sergio Trujillo as our choreogra- pher, you know him from Jersey Boys, Memphis and Chasing The Song, but he has also gone on to Broadway to do Gloria Estefan’s Get On Your Feet andA Bronx Tale. He is extraordinary at creating dance as story and story as energy and playfulness. The dancing is very fluid, it never stops for set changes. We also incorporated these very ingenious columns that have 17 different looks; from being part of the kitchen to school lockers, the closet and a wedding. The show has a lot of little surprises and all kinds of great toys to play with.” But, whyFreaky Fridaynow? To answer, Ashley offered this, “It is a contentious time in our country. I feel like how divided our nation is, was so laid bare by this election. Americans are not
listening or talking to each other, they profoundly don’t understand each other. Artists, looking at the challenges we face now must ask: ‘How do we help build communities, increase understanding, listen better and speak more compassionately? How do we take care of people, who have no voice and nurture the bonds between people?’Freaky Friday is a story about mutual understanding, about crossing the gulf and understanding our differences as well as our similarities,” FollowingFreaky Friday, the La Jolla Playhouse
10th anniversary season is filled with brave new works. Ashley selected two new musicals and four new plays, “The first play is called Kill Local. It will be out this summer and tells the story of a Mother/Daughter family of contract killers. It’s a dark comedy and after reading the first draft I was very excited about it. One of our two new musicals, centers around the music of Jimmy Buffet and the other is about the life and work of Donna Summer. The Jimmy Buffet show is titled Escape to Margari-
taville. The plot centers around a guy working in a beach bar and fronting the house band. He falls for a woman, with a big career and a lot of ambition. He gets the girl, loses the girl and then gets the girl. They are the last two people in the world who should ever be together. Watching what it takes for them is big fun and so are the songs. Buffet has written four new songs for the show. You don’t have to be a ‘Parrot Head,’ even people who don’t know Buffet would recognize 20 of these songs. The joy of living, lives in them. We also are working on a play called At the Old Place about second chances andWild Goose Dreams, about a woman refugee from North Korea and a South Korean man. It is a very current, very political and romantic story.” Ashley has another cause to celebrate, beyond
his 10th Anniversary milestone with La Jolla Playhouse, their “Page to Stage Show,”Come From Away is heading to Broadway! “We have a one night concert presentation here onSaturday, February 4, the day before the Broadway cast goes to New York. It is very much the same cast from two years ago now. The play has developed and changed, the character’s journey are more specifi- cally written and crafted. We had such an amazing time launching it. The concert will be the same as the one that we did in Gander. The whole cast went and we performed the show twice in an ice skating rink, on the anniversary of 9/
11...It was one of the most emotional experiences. Each show had a sold-out crowd of 2,500 people, which means 5,000 people attended, half the population of Gander saw it. The feeling in that room, how generous they are, it was an emotional feedback loop. Like a rock concert meets a religious ceremony, meets the best Super Bowl series ever seen. When the audience could feel the play nearing the end, people stood up and started cheering and screaming. Each of their seven towns picked a charity beneficiary and all proceeds were donated there in Gander.”
Freaky Fridayrunsthrough Sunday, March 12 at the La Jolla Playhouse. For tickets and more information, call 858.550.1010, or go to
lajollaplayhouse.org.
FEBRUARY 2017 | RAGE monthly
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