BWW Previews: 1000 MILES at Theatre Lab
"I want to push fear away as far as possible," Cherise James tells Matt Stabile. Vanessa Garcia nods, jotting down a quick note, and James continues to deconstruct her narrative. She moves from point to point, culminating to a moment when "the play stopped being about escape." As James and her fellow cast workshop Garcia's play 1000 Miles, the grandeur of Garcia's world astonishes, all while Stabile prepares the reading for this weekend. As the second of this year's Playwright's Forum and Master Class Series, Garcia's 1000 Miles is coming hot on the heels of Nilo Cruz' Alice N., a work of passion and dystopia that beautifully foils what has come before.
Most of the evening consisted of deconstruction, delineation, and deliberation of each cast member as Stabile directed them to explore. Trayven Call, playing Peter, revels in a joyous delight at the layered dialogue, expansive possibility, and scope of his part in Garcia's world. 1000 Miles first showed its face to the public this July, in readings at both the GableStage and Lake Worth Playhouse, but as Garcia continues to sharpen the recesses of the script, performers like Call are swept up in the passions. His performance alongside James will be markedly explorative, from the opening lines they share, through their individual journeys.
The world of Garcia feels caught between Orwell and Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, somewhat magically realistic, yet somewhat a clear contemporary portrait. Her dystopia manages restrictions of religion, immigration, police state holds on resources and speech, and more. Her small cast views horrors, of violence and imprisonment, and deals with the difficult ties between. The title itself refers to one of her world's locations, 'One Thousand Miles Across the Sea', which is not the land lying beyond mountains, or even what lies separated by a Berlin Wall-esque barrier. There is a lot to absorb from the background and subtle undercurrents of 1000 Miles, which is Stabile's challenge in a reading.
Stabile shares notes and ideas with stage manager and the reading's sole tech hand, Joanna Orrego. Orrego worked the past three readings, transitioning from director to director and script seamlessly, and she shows no signs of slowing. We share hellos, and she continues her due diligence on Garcia's work.
As the talks of intention, desires, dangers, and delusions moves from Jumbotrons to the ramifications of colonialism, both James and Rachel Finley show intense consideration. Finley sits aside James, and plays Viola, a character seeking retribution and an escape from this fear. Finley serves delightful sway in the beginning bits of dialogue with Call, and grows steadily through 1000 Miles.
Perhaps Garcia's most lovable character in 1000 Miles, Maria (played by Francisca Muñoz, who stole hearts in last weekend's Sotto Voce), is a free-souled owner of the local bar that seeks enjoyment despite the inevitability inherent to the city. As she works with Call, Carlos Alayeto, and Finley, her quick wit and chemistry with each should be a ticket-seller by itself.
Garcia, a fresh voice in Miami's playwriting scene, has brought forth a passionate post-Trump piece that continues to expand its borders. With her workshop, and the countless notes she furiously took down, 1000 Miles nears adulthood as a script, and it may be this Friday when it is most raw and vulnerable to an unfamiliar audience. As the Theatre Lab proudly says, "If you love new work in American theatre, now there is Theatre Lab." 1000 Miles is an opportunity, an open door chance at developing art, that shouldn't be overlooked.
1000 Miles reading will be held at the Theatre Lab, October 13th at 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door. Garcia will hold a master class October 15th at 10:00am.
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