BWW Reviews: The West Coast Premiere of LONG WAY GO DOWN Examines the Borders People Cross to Find a Better Life

The Art of Acting Studio's professional company, The Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company, presents the West Coast Premiere of Long Way Go Down by Zayd Dohrn, directed by Don K. Williams and produced by Johnny Patrick Yoder, through June 7, 2013 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8PM at The Art of Acting Studio, 1017 N Orange Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90038.

The Art of Acting Studio is a nonprofit acting school in Los Angeles. It is the official west coast branch of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting New York City. The Studio's mission is to create an environment with the purpose of nurturing theatre artists who value humanity, their own and others, as their first and most precious priority while providing art and education to the greater community.

The group certainly has succeeded magnificently with Zayd Dohrn's Long Way Go Down, a fast-paced and often brutal story with hyper-realistic dialogue in English and Spanish. With evocatively moody original music by Jared Swanson and an incredible multi-level and location set by Michael Allen, effectively lit by the show's producer Johnny Patrick Yoder, the intense one-act tells the story of four people from two Americas, each hell-bent on finding a better life and willing to cross any border, both physically and emotionally, to do it.

Nini (Orlando Chavez) and his pregnant girlfriend Violetta (Michelle Ramos) are two people desperate for a new beginning north of the imaginary line carved out by generals, politicians, settlers and presidents that separates Mexico and the United States. Chavez and Ramos display constant, in-the-moment acting skill, pulling on heart strings with their sad tale, and then dragging you down into their world of brutality, sexuality, and manipulation of others to achieve their end result of a better life north of the border.

Like so many others, Nini and Violetta's only way out is through is an expensive and dangerous journey in the bottom of a semi-truck piloted by Billy (Michael Keith Allen), a cagey and hawkish smuggler who expects payment on the other side for his services. Billy May be the coyote, but Nini is the wolf willing to bite off his own foot to escape the trap he is in when he cannot pay for Violetta's freedom. Dragged into this struggle is the smuggler's seemingly innocent son Chris (Dan Evans) who finds himself caught in a web from which there seems to be no escape.

Moments of brilliance occur throughout the play including when Chavez turns on Evans after they share a joint and bottle of tequila, Evans and Ramos when he realizes she can speak English, in the truck when Chavez changes from innocent victim to wolf against Allen's coyote, and Ramos' change of heart when she believes her lover is dead and Evans is her only way left to freedom. Each actor's physical and emotional transformations certainly reflect the act of acting to it zenith.

Long Way Go Down by Zayd Dohrn

Directed by Don K. Williams

The Art of Acting Studio

1017 North Orange Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90038

12 Performances, May 17 - June 7, 2013 Tickets $18

For more information please visit: www.artofactingstudio.com

Photos by Johnny Patrick Yoder

Dan Evans as Chris and Michael Keith Allen as Billy

Orlando Chavez as Nini and Michelle Ramos as Violetta

Dan Evans as Billy and Orlando Chavez as Nini

Michelle Ramos as Violetta and Dan Evans as Chris

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