{"id":245142,"date":"2012-06-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/moolelos-blues-infused-authenticity\/"},"modified":"2012-06-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:00:00","slug":"moolelos-blues-infused-authenticity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/moolelos-blues-infused-authenticity\/","title":{"rendered":"Mo\u2018olelo\u2019s Blues-infused authenticity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHoodoo Love\u201d<\/strong>
\nWhen: Through July 1<\/strong>
\nWhere: 10th Avenue Theatre, 930 10th Ave. (Downtown)<\/strong>
\nThurs \u2013 Sat 8 p.m.<\/strong>
\nSun 2 p.m.<\/strong>
\nInfo: 619-342-7395<\/strong>
\nWeb: Moolelo.net<\/strong><\/p>\n

Award-winning play highlighted by playwright\u2019s flashes of poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Mo\u2018olelo\u2019s
(l to r) Kirkaldy Myers, Jasmine Hughes and Stu James and Monique Gaffney on set for Mo\u2019olelo\u2019s \u201cHoodoo Love.\u201d (Photo by Crissy Pascual\/Infinite Media Works)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Por Charlene Baldridge | Cr\u00edtico de Teatro SDUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mo\u2018olelo Performing Arts Company continues its exploration of \u201cother\u201d populations with Katori Hall\u2019s award-winning play \u201cHoodoo Love.\u201d The Blues-infused work plays through July 1 at the 10th Avenue Theatre, Downtown.<\/p>\n

The first work by an African-American woman to receive Britain\u2019s Olivier Award, \u201cHoodoo Love\u201d is set in Memphis, Tenn. during the Great Depression, a time when many African-Americans, freed from slavery, migrated to the north \u2013 indeed to the far corners of the nation \u2013 seeking employment and a better life.<\/p>\n

Toulou (played by Jasmine Hughes), a remarkably independent young woman with a talent for song writing, has escaped her rural family and lives alone in a cluster of shacks on a cul-de-sac near Beale Street, the putative birthplace of the Blues. Her next-door neighbor is an old conjure woman named Candylady (Monique Gaffney), who has had five husbands. Candylady loved them all and carries relics of each in her hoodoo bag. Toulou wants the Blues \u201cramblin\u2019 man\u201d named Ace of Spades (Stu James) to settle down with her, and the solicitous Candylady mixes up a potion to do just that. Meanwhile, along comes Toulou\u2019s no-count brother, Jib (Kirkaldy Myers), who declares he\u2019s come to where they are to set up a church.<\/p>\n

The male characters are not exactly likable. If it were otherwise, there would be no blues to sing. Jib is an unctuous arch villain, spouting Biblical verse, orating and posing. Ace of Spades, though he displays tenderness and has suffered loss (if his story is to be believed), reputedly has a woman in every town on his itinerant-musician route.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know my sister?\u201d asks Jib of Ace of Spades in their first meeting. Obviously, he means in the Biblical sense, which leads to Jib moving in with his sister. The men\u2019s relationship, fraught with jealousy and fueled with poker and bourbon, goes downhill from there. Such relationship cannot lead to a happy ending.<\/p>\n

This storytelling feels more authentic and less slick than most such tales told on the stage, but like most, it feels exceptionally long, clocking in at nearly 2 hours 30 minutes, including intermission. Between the San Diego Repertory, the Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse, we\u2019ve seen numerous treatments.<\/p>\n

There is nothing of dramaturgical surprise in \u201cHoodoo Love.\u201d The enjoyment of the piece, therefore, lies in its authentic feel, in the playwright\u2019s flashes of poetry, in the spontaneity of the music and in the performances.<\/p>\n

James is adept at guitar and possesses an exceptional baritone as well as an understated sensuality. Gaffney surprises with her finely limned character acting. Hughes is lovely to watch and listen to, though she only indicates playing guitar. Myers\u2019s posturing grows tiresome, partly due to the writing and partly to Nataki Garrett\u2019s stage direction. Garrett is the associate dean of the CalArts School of Theatre.<\/p>\n

David F. Weiner\u2019s scenic design is rather wondrous, as are costume designer Jeannie Galioto\u2019s preacher-man suits and country garb. Travis Stephen Gooden provides music direction, Stephen Terry is lighting designer and E.M. Gimenez is the sound designer. Dwight Bacquie is dialect coach.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHoodoo Love\u201d When: Through July 1 Where: 10th Avenue Theatre, 930 10th Ave. (Downtown) Thurs \u2013 Sat 8 p.m. Sun 2 p.m. Info: 619-342-7395 Web: Moolelo.net Award-winning play highlighted by playwright\u2019s flashes of poetry By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic Mo\u2018olelo Performing Arts Company continues its exploration of \u201cother\u201d populations with Katori Hall\u2019s award-winning […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Mo\u2018olelo\u2019s Blues-infused authenticity","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}