{"id":245825,"date":"2013-02-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/warming-up-to-mccraney\/"},"modified":"2013-02-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T08:00:00","slug":"warming-up-to-mccraney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/warming-up-to-mccraney\/","title":{"rendered":"Warming up to McCraney"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>Extraordinary casting and heroic performances fascinate in \u2018The Brothers Size\u2019<\/p>\n

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

Who are they, these people who speak in unfamiliar accents, seem so simple and rough, and yet have such profound emotions? Who is this playwright, who has actors speak their stage directions before they perform the movements?<\/p>\n

\"Warming
(l to r) Joshua Elijah Reese, Okieriete Onaodowan and Antwayn Hopper in the Southern California premiere of \u201cThe Brothers Size\u201d (Photo by Henry DiRocco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The answers explain in part the worldwide fascination with young playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney and his oeuvre, in particular the Yale graduate\u2019s trilogy \u201cThe Brother\/Sister Plays,\u201d which concerns the people who live in \u201cthe distant present\u201d in the projects of fictional San Pere, La. It is near the bayou, and they are dirt poor. The patois they speak is influenced by the Cajun speech common in this part of the world.<\/p>\n

Directed by McCraney\u2019s Yale classmate Tea Alagi?, \u201cThe Brothers Size,\u201d is the second play in the trilogy. It can be seen in its Southern California premiere at The Old Globe, through Feb. 24.<\/p>\n

The first play in the trilogy, \u201cIn the Red and Brown Water,\u201d was produced recently by University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Though it is not necessary to see all the plays to appreciate one (the third is titled \u201cMarcus; or the Secret of Sweet\u201d), this viewer\u2019s experience of UCSD\u2019s \u201cIn the Red and Brown Water\u201d brought depth of understanding to \u201cThe Brothers Size.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they became accustomed to the odd cadence, the characters\u2019 names \u2013 from African mythology \u2013 and the quirky stage directions, the opening night audience warmed to the work and laughed more and more. The effect was magical and cumulative due in part to the playwright\u2019s natural and slow crescendo, the extraordinary casting, and Alagi?\u2019s spare staging in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. She directed the play\u2019s world premiere at Yale and the Public Theatre, as well as subsequent productions at the Studio Theatre and The Abbey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Brothers Size\u201d concerns Ogun Henri Size (a heroic performance by Joshua Elijah Reese), who is Oshoosi Size\u2019s older, solid, hard-working brother. Just released from prison, the pleasure-bent and bone-weary Oshoosi (appealing Okieriete Onaodowan) takes a job in Ogun\u2019s automotive shop.<\/p>\n

Ogun\u2019s love for his brother Oshoosi is palpable and heartbreaking. He is such a good man and he is helpless.<\/p>\n

The third character is Elegba (Antwayn Hopper), a convict who protected Ogun in prison. He oozes sex appeal and menace.<\/p>\n

Percussionist Jonathan Melville Pratt, who wrote the original music, supports the three actors and punctuates the action. These characters are definitely a tribe apart and absolutely unique to the average playgoer\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n

Peter Ksander\u2019s scenic design consists of the bare stage floor, a pile of rocks (Ogun is building a driveway that he admits goes nowhere), and a circle of white particles released from Ogun\u2019s bucket in the first scene. Pondering their mythic significance and composition is a fascination.<\/p>\n

Michelle Hunt Souza contributes the homely costumes that never saw an iron; no shirt for Elegba, and Hopper is, as he must be, wondrously built. Gina Scherr\u2019s lighting and Paul Peterson\u2019s sound make fine contributions to the potent effect.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Brothers Size\u2019<\/strong>
\nWHERE: The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way (Balboa Park)<\/strong>
\nWHEN: Sun., Thurs. and Wed. at 7 p.m., Thurs. \u2013 Sat. at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. through Feb. 24<\/strong>
\nINFO: 619-234-5623<\/strong>
\nWEB: theoldglobe.org<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extraordinary casting and heroic performances fascinate in \u2018The Brothers Size\u2019 By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic Who are they, these people who speak in unfamiliar accents, seem so simple and rough, and yet have such profound emotions? Who is this playwright, who has actors speak their stage directions before they perform the movements?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Warming up to McCraney","_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-245825","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\/245825","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=245825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}