Created by OnWord Theatre, it’s a collection of 12 real-life stories interspersed with well-performed blues songs
player ready... With its blues-music score and boxes of tissue arranged within arm’s reach throughout the audience, OnWord Theatre’s world premiere “Adult Storytime: A Caregiver’s Guide to the Blues” may sound like a depressing show.
But it’s not. The play that opened Friday in the Light Box Theater at Arts District Liberty Station is about love, kindness, family, memories, resilience and the supportive communities we create when we care for a child, a friend, a spouse, a parent or a patient. Are some of 12 monologues told in the 75-minute show dark and sad? Yes.
But they’re also funny, touching, relatable and even celebratory.
“Adult Storytime” was created and directed by OnWord’s Producing Artistic Director Marti Gobel, who conducted interviews with friends, family, toddlers, colleagues and strangers who shared their real-life experiences on caregiving. It’s a personal project for Gobel. Her husband of 34 years, Jacob, leads the excellent onstage four-piece Storytellers Band from the keyboard. Their son, composer/musician Kemet, plays bass.
One of the monologues is about the Gobels’ daughter, Freedom, and Marti herself is the subject of another. Four actors embody all the “sharegivers,” performing 5- to 10-minute monologues distilled from the recorded interviews. A key piece of the show is how these stories are interwoven with 13 classic blues songs with lyrics that relate to each individual story.
Dave Rivas, left, Cecilia Cuevas-Torres, Jasmine January, Meesha and Wilfred Paloma in OnWord Theatre’s “Adult Storytime: A Caregiver’s Guide To the Blues. ” Performing all the songs is talented singer/musical theater performer Jasmine January, who brings polish and cabaret-style nuance to each song.
Some of her standout vocals are delivered in Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,” Big Brother & The Holding Company’s “Bye, Bye Baby” and Bessie Smith’s “Gimme a Pig Foot and a Bottle of Beer. ” The actors in the show are Wilfred Paloma, Cecilia Cuevas-Torres, Dave Rivas and Meesha, who each play multiple characters, mostly against type, which shows their range.
Rivas is endearing as Freedom Gobel, who tells a jubilant, wine-soaked story about how she and her fellow Georgetown Law School students arranged their schedules for a full year to collectively babysit a colleague’s 18-month-old son until graduation. Paloma is fiercely protective as the “anonymous Black woman” who employs tough love to keep a teen boy safe and sober in a juvenile care program.
And he’s sincere as Krystyna, a Polish woman whose mission is to entertain the residents of a nursing home. Cuevas-Torres is particularly touching as Bob, a retired pilot experiencing profound loneliness and caregiver burnout as he tends his wife of 37 years.
And Meesha pulls off the toughest role of all, playing Gobel herself, telling the story of the bond she formed with the residents of an impoverished Black township in South Africa, who embraced her when she traveled there to perform a play in a nearby city. Meesha’s re-creation of Gobel’s physicality, facial expressions and speaking style is uncanny. Many audience members will recognize their own experiences in “Adult Storytime.
” In fact, I was shocked by one of the stories about a woman named Barbara who was cared for by a team of family, friends and hospice workers. I discovered after the performance that Barbara lived across the street from my dying parents, who my sister and I were caring for at the very same time. Stories like this are all around us.
“Adult Storytime” offers recognition, insight, support and hope.7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 4 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through June 28
Please follow us on Google to support us United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Car strikes cyclist group on school camping trip in Netherlands — killing 3 children, 1 adultA car struck a group of cyclists who were on a school camping trip, killing three children and an adult on Thursday in the rural southern Netherlands, emergency services said.
Read more »
President Curtis: Adult Swim DropsRick and Morty Spinoff First LookWe agree. A baby with a gun is a no-win situation. Here's a first-look clip from Adult Swim's 'Rick and Morty' spinoff, President Curtis.
Read more »
Why summer flies by as an adult—but lasted forever when you were 10Blame your brain's filing system.
Read more »
PCC's adult education programs in jeopardy following state funding cutsPima Community College officials say the school faces an uncertain future for its adult education programs after state leaders agreed to eliminate funding for the Community College Adult Education Workforce Program.
Read more »