|
Design Credits
Rights and Policies
Staff Login
Rent
the Helen Mills Theater for performances, screenings, and readings.
|
|
The Immigrant Experience
by Adrienne Cea
Seven.11.2005 reviewed April 3, 2005
|
|
|  | |
| Debargo Sanyal in Seven.11.2005 |
| Photo Credit:Rohi Mirza Pandya |
| "They've all come to look for America." That line from Simon and Garfunkel's "America" is central to the story of Seven.11.2005, now playing at the Lower East Side Tenement Theatre. The play and theater are a perfect fit. Located in the basement of a building constructed in 1863, the theater is surrounded by museums, gift shops, and stores dedicated to preserving the memory of immigrants who migrated to New York's shores long ago. The air is thick with stories, and everyone passing through is eager to hear one.
Desipina and Company has taken advantage of this inquisitive atmosphere by producing Seven.11.2005, a South Asian production that respectfully and skillfully pays homage to the neighborhood's rich history while promoting tolerance for the diverse community currently residing there.
Both walls of this tight, century-old space, which is designed to resemble a 7-11 convenience store, are adorned with plastic shelves and several household items such as tissues, orange juice, coffee, and cigarettes. Upon examination of this set, one cannot help but wonder: Who are these people who work all day and night at 7-11s?
Seven.11.2005 blows the lid off this question in a series of seven 11-minute skits about South Asian immigrants from all walks of life trying to get by in America while working in a convenience store.
The play thrives in its setting. The stories are intriguing, the characters believable, and the dialogue custom-made for its predominantly South Asian audience. There were audible squeals of delight whenever they heard a familiar phrase or dialect spoken onstage.
The play kicks off with a lovelorn American man (Andrew Guilarte) and a woman (Lethia Nall) flirting in a Paris convenience store. She once immigrated to the same area of New York where he lived and attended the same four-year college before she returned to Paris. The American is intrigued by their shared geography, and his flirtation turns sincere until he realizes that their different life paths render a budding relationship impossible.
When this scene ends, Guilarte effortlessly slips from his role as a suave, romantic seducer to an obsessive, nerdy comic-book dork in a scene that played to big laughs and appreciative applause.
It is important to note that there are no blackouts between scenes. When one skit ends, the actors quickly launch into their next characters. In a testament to their skill, they make these transitions smoothly and fully, shedding all traces of their previous characters like a dead skin.
However, one scene, called "Beckoning Cat," played too powerfully for its own good. It features a rowdy deadbeat (Jackson Loo) and a scheming convenience store owner (John Wu) plotting to steal a winning lottery ticket from a naïve, likable bus driver (Debargo Sanyal). Sanyal embodies the character of the driver so entirely that he becomes the simple, trusting man.
For most of the scene, he sits on a crate happily sipping coffee and munching on a cheese Danish while the two men formulate their evil plan. The skit's buildup clearly affected the squirming audience, who sympathized with the bus driver. When the scene reached its bitter climax, the walls echoed with screams of protest. This transition marked the only time the play moved on while the audience did not.
Fortunately, the play ends on a light note. The final skit is a musical, "Soonderella: A fairy tale of a different color." Upbeat, foot-stomping music plays as the characters break into hilarious dances. The closing moments are light and comical and concluded to the upbeat tempo of handclapping South Asian music.
This well-acted play is compelling regardless of your heritage and ethnicity, although there is no denying the effect it had on the South Asian audience members, who looked thrilled to see their culture accurately and colorfully portrayed onstage.
Seven.11.2005 gives voice to a neighborhood whose air is crackling with untold stories, and joy to those who are eager to hear them. By the play's end, one thing is for certain: you will never look at a convenience store the same way again.
 Click here to view the printer-friendly version of this review
|
|
Tenement Theater
|
Category: One-Acts
Written by: Anuvab Pal, Celena Cipriaso, Rishi Chowdhary, J.P. Chan, Debargo Sanyal, Rachel Astarte Piccione, Samrat Chakrabarti & Sanjiv Jhaveri
Directed by: G.R. Johnson
Produced by: Desipina & Company
Opened: March 31, 2005
Closed: April 21, 2005
Running Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Theater: Tenement Theater
Address: 97 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
Yahoo! Maps Directions
| |
|
Tickets: $15.00
$11 student/senior
|
|
|
Creative Team
Written by:
Samrat Chakrabarti & Sanjiv Jhaveri (Soonderella), J.P Chan (Beckoning Cat), Rishi Chowdhary (Color Me Desi), Celena Cipriaso (Salesgirl), Anuvab Pal (Paris), Rachel Astarte Piccione (Intimiate With the Locals), Debargo Sanyal (S.A.M.O.S.A)
Directed by: GR Johnson
Producing Director: Rohi Mirza Pandya
Production Manager/Set/Lights: Vincent Hokia
Musical Director: Samrat Chakrabarti
Artistic Director/Dramaturg: Rehana Mirza
Associate Artistic Director: Ashok Sinha
Director of Media Relations: Gitesh Pandya
Jon Kern: Dramaturg
Sound Designer: Gareth Hendee
Costume Designer: Jennifer Fisher
Dialect & Vocal Coach: Sanjiv Jhaveri
Graphic Design: Nilou Moochhala
Original 7-11 Art: Atif Toor
Cast
Lethia Nall
Andrew Guilarte
John Wu
Jackie Chung
Kavi Ladnier
Debargo Sanyal
Jackson Loo
Crew
Production Manager: Vincent Hokio
Stage Manager: Catherine Lee
|
|
|
|
|
|
