{"id":246414,"date":"2013-08-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/what-a-magical-ass\/"},"modified":"2013-08-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T07:00:00","slug":"what-a-magical-ass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/what-a-magical-ass\/","title":{"rendered":"What a magical \u2018Ass\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

ion theatre\u2019s latest glimmers amid all the glorious glitter<\/p>\n

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

Oh, all the things vegetable and mineral you\u2019ll see pulled from Bottom\u2019s ass in ion theatre company\u2019s \u201cAss, or a Midsummer Night\u2019s Fever\u201d!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about movement \u2013 the kind that takes place on a public dance floor. You and your glitter are encouraged, nay implored, to become part of it \u2013 cellphones turned on \u2013 to make as many videos and photos as you wish and to become disco-boogiers.<\/p>\n

\"(l<\/a>
(l to r) Brittany Taylor and Marco Puente (Photo by Darren Scott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s even a dance contest with coaching by characters DJ Meter and Lizard Sanders, whose names might give the clued-in some glimmer amid the glitter as to their Midsummer-ness. Even a Bardophile may find this a long and winding path through Shakespeare\u2019s forest near Athens. One needn\u2019t know a thing about the original plot, though, and perhaps it\u2019s even best to be a babe in the woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cAss\u201d breaks all the rules from the moment one enters the cabaret space set up in ion\u2019s BLKBOX URBN CNTR 4THE ARTS @ 6th and Penn, and knowing their hood, co-directors Glenn Paris and Claudio Raygoza have conceived a feverish mix of Shakespeare, \u201cStar Wars\u201d and Studio 54, to borrow their terms.<\/p>\n

Clever costumes are by Mary Summerday, lighting by Karin Filijan and sound engineering and stage management by the lam\u00e9-clad and proud Evan Kendig, whose character name is DJ Phuck Finn. Michael Mizerany provides choreography that is so relentless one wonders how the company can possibly do two shows on Saturdays.<\/p>\n

Rhianna Basore and Justin Lang play Titsonya and Obi-Ron, respectively. The young lovers lost in the forest are Sheila (played by Anne Gehman), Shirley (Brittany Taylor), and the aforementioned DJ Meter (Marco Puente) and Lizard Sanders (Shaun Tuazon). Bottom (perfectly cast Max Macke) and his Mechanicals (a mishmash of actor\/dancers already mentioned, including an orgasmically hopped-up Gehman) are party crashers.<\/p>\n

Familiar bits of staging and dialogue, not necessarily from the right Shakespeare play, remind some of us where we are in the fantasy forest never too far from Hillcrest but a long way from Balboa Park.<\/p>\n

As Bottom says, \u201cWe are children of a looser god.\u201d Line dancing led by Puente \u2013 everyone on your feet! \u2013 initiates audience members in the joys of the funky chicken. Other music includes Billboard chart-toppers \u201cIt\u2019s Raining Men,\u201d \u201cI Will Survive\u201d and \u201cYMCA\u201d \u2013 with shades of Diana Ross and The Village People \u2013 and on another note entirely, \u201cMagic to Do\u201d from Stephen Schwartz\u2019s \u201cPippin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAss\u201d is a magical way to get your groove on. Gather up your kinetic friends and do it. Wine, soft drinks and fruit plates are available for purchase in the space. Seating is cabaret style with long banquettes on either side of the playing space, and some high cocktail tables as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAss, or A Midsummer Night\u2019s Fever\u201d<\/strong>
\nWHERE: ion theatre company, 3706 Sixth Ave. (Hillcrest)<\/strong>
\nWHEN: Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 7:30 and 10 p.m. through Aug. 24<\/strong>
\nINFO: 619-600-5020<\/strong>
\nWEB: iontheatre.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ion theatre\u2019s latest glimmers amid all the glorious glitter By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic Oh, all the things vegetable and mineral you\u2019ll see pulled from Bottom\u2019s ass in ion theatre company\u2019s \u201cAss, or a Midsummer Night\u2019s Fever\u201d!<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":246415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"What a magical \u2018Ass\u2019","_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-246414","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\/246414","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=246414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}