San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
THEATER NOTBOOK
Backyard Renaissance’s ‘Dry Powder’ a family affair
Jonah Gercke grew up in a theatrical family, where both of his parents run local theater companies: Francis Gercke of Backyard Renaissance in San Diego and Kristianne Kurner of New Village Arts in Carlsbad.
But for the 22-year-old Gercke, who uses the pronouns they/them/ theirs, film was always their first and only passion. At age 9, they could recite from memory the weekly film national box office tallies. And after graduating from high school in Carlsbad, they filmed a documentary on teen relations in Israel and the West Bank that earned the budding filmmaker a 2018 Genius grant from OZY Magazine.
But the pandemic’s arrival last spring brought Gercke’s career to a halt — just as it did those of the filmmaker’s parents and stepmother, Jessica John Gercke, who is executive director of Backyard Renaissance. During frequent beach walks last year, Francis and Jonah Gercke commiserated on the shutdown of their industries and began collaborating on a way to combine their chosen art forms: a filmed play that will begin streaming April 23.
“Dry Powder,” a high-intensity play by Sarah Burgess, is being produced by Backyard Renaissance, with Francis Gercke as its stage director and Jonah Gercke as its cinematographer. It’s about a scandal-plagued corporate finance firm that hopes to salvage its reputation by buying a familyrun luggage company, but the finance firm’s callous owner makes promises to the luggage company’s owners that he may not keep.
“The play exposes the gameplaying that occurs in corporate business dealings, but it also asks us what happens when we consider that there are personal lives at stake in every numerically rational move,” Jessica John Gercke said in a statement.
“To get that across, we need our viewers to connect to these characters, and that feels challenging for theater-lovers when a camera separates the actors from the audience. Jonah and Fran spent weeks on the shot list and developed a language with the camera that we hope will both welcome viewers into a traditional theatrical setting, but brings them up close and personal when it really counts.”
Jessica John Gercke co-stars in the play with Javier Guerrero, James Hancock III and Carter Piggee. The play will stream on demand April 23-25 and April 30-May 2. Tickets will be sold at backyardrenaissance.com.
San Diego Opera singers for ‘Barber’ unmasked
San Diego Opera’s upcoming parking lot production of “The
Barber of Seville” will be preceded by a concert at 7:30 p.m. April 24. Its featured soloists have recently been announced.
The concert, titled “When I See Your Face Again: Unmasking the Music of Notorious Pandemics,” will feature three San Diego soloists, soprano Angelina Réaux and local musical theater stars Allison Spratt Pearce and James Newcomb. The concert will be presented in the Pechanga Arena parking lot at 3500 Sports Arena Blvd. For tickets, visit sdopera.org.
‘My Brooklyn Hamlet’ opens for streaming April 23
Scripps Ranch Theatre and Oceanside Theatre Company have teamed up on a new streaming production of actor/playwright Brenda Adelman’s one-woman show “My Brooklyn Hamlet.”
The play was inspired by
Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” but is based on Adelman’s own family story of murder, love, betrayal and forgiveness. In 1995 Brooklyn, Adelman’s father shot and killed her mother and then married her aunt a few months later. In “Hamlet,” Hamlet’s uncle kills his brother and then marries Hamlet’s widowed mother.
Adelman stars in the production, which was directed by Charles Peters and filmed and edited by Ted Leib. The film will stream on demand April 23-25 and April 30-May 2. Tickets are $22. To register for a link, visit scrippsranchtheatre.org/ mybrooklynhamlet.
North Coast Rep adds much-requested bathrooms
During this long pandemic closure, North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach has taken steps to resolve its No. 1 customer complaint: its bathrooms.
Since its founding in the Lomas Santa Fe Plaza shopping center in 1982, North Coast Rep has had just one unisex stall on its property, as well as access to additional nearby restrooms that require climbing stairs to a second floor. But thanks to grant money the theater received in September, the theater now has three new Adacompliant onsite bathroom stalls. The theater will unveil its new facilities when it aims to reopen in September.
The renovation was achieved through a $25,000 grant from the Parker Foundation, with an additional $15,000 matching fund grant. The company is now working to raise an additional $15,000. Visit northcoastrep.org/ support-us.
pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com