![\"Daniela](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/DaniMillan_PaulAraujo_2web.jpg\")
<\/a>In addition to the accent (Tatiana Suarez-Pico\u2019s world premiere play, \u201cLesson 443\u201d was originally titled \u201cThe Anatomy of an Accent\u201d), 15-year-old Cari Gonzalez (Daniela Millan) also has a super-critical dead mother (Wendy Waddell) who harangues her every day; a still-grieving dad named Manny (Paul Araujo, playing a man as rigid as the bulletproof vest he wears while driving for a politician); Aunt Lottie (her mother\u2019s twin sister, also played by Waddell, who may or may not have had\/is having an affair with dad); and a rocker boyfriend named R (Anton Mabey) who wears eyeliner and packs condoms.<\/p>\n Cari\u2019s Anglo mom died of cancer when Cari was still an infant, so Manny took her to live with his parents in Mexico. Thus, Spanish was her first language. Two years ago they settled in Ohio to take advantage of better education and preparation for college. Like most teenage girls, Cari\u2019s desire is to fit in.<\/p>\n Maybe the protracted, one note story would go down more easily if either Millan or Mabey really played the guitar (Millan is only 16, and Mabey is her contemporary), or if the observer were persuaded to believe that any of these people, living or dead, truly gives a rat\u2019s ass about anyone other than themselves, or if there were convincing evidence that change is possible and permanent.<\/p>\n Those seated in the dark deal with magic realism, delusion and an insurmountable Mexican accent, the latter being the primary, most explored dilemma. Granted, there are laughs, but it\u2019s a packed, overlong evening from Suarez-Pico, author of numerous plays, a staff writer for NBC\u2019s \u201cParenthood,\u201d and a graduate of Actors Studio Drama School\/New School University.<\/p>\n Perhaps Suarez-Pico will continue to work on \u201cLesson 443,\u201d clarifying it and exploring motivation. Surely she could not wish for a better first production than that afforded by Moxie. Natalie Khuen\u2019s meticulous set and Emily N. Smith\u2019s character-based costumes are tops.<\/p>\n \u2014Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. You can follow her blog at charlenebaldridge.com<\/a> o llegar a ella en charb81@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Charlene Baldridge Hey, it\u2019s not nice to rain on anyone\u2019s coming-of-age story, especially not that of a teenage girl who feels like a misfit because she\u2019s got a Mexican accent that complicates her assimilation into a high school in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":248609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Take a \u2018Lesson\u2019 from this","_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-248608","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\/248608","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\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
(Courtesy of Moxie Theatre)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>Despite longing for sex and having of sex, neither couple packs much emotional heat. Despite the efforts of director Jennifer Eve Thorn, a young star is not born. Lottie is much more intent on her career as a magazine editor than she is on loving her machismo brother-in-law or taking on his daughter. Manny is a frustrated writer\/poet (not very good) who leaves groaner metaphors all over the place. Carrie\u2019s ghost is still pissed off, so she is not a reliable, truthful source of information. But ghosts seldom are.<\/p>\n