{"id":253734,"date":"2018-10-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/swim-against-the-tide\/"},"modified":"2018-10-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T07:00:00","slug":"swim-against-the-tide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/swim-against-the-tide\/","title":{"rendered":"Swim against the tide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Jean Lowerison<\/p>\n

Diversionary Theatre presents the San Diego premiere of \u201cBull in a China Shop\u201d \u2014 which Kim Strassburger directs \u2014 through Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

The bull in this case is butchy dyke Mary Woolley, applying for the presidency of women\u2019s seminary Mt. Holyoke in 1899. Woolley has her sights on change \u2014 nay, revolution \u2014 in the education of women, and she doesn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want a training ground for good, pious wives? F*** that,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ll give you fully evolved human beings. So you\u2019re afraid they won\u2019t find husbands? So what? I say: if a man is interested in headless women, send him to France.\u201d<\/p>\n

She gets the job and settles in. Partner Jeannette Marks, a wannabe writer who will teach English at Mt. Holyoke, comes along, but they will not live together until work on the president\u2019s house is completed. They immediately start to change women\u2019s education \u2014 radically.<\/p>\n

But charming firebrand Woolley (Jo Anne Glover) doesn\u2019t count on the crushing forces of tradition in women\u2019s education. This tradition is represented by Dean Welsh (Milena Sellers Phillips), who first sniffs about a report that Woolley has been seen climbing three flights of stairs each night to kiss Marks goodnight, and then complains that Marks skips office hours and \u201ctreats department meetings with disdain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Swim
(l to r) Jeannette Marks (Tamara McMillian) alongside Pearl (Andr\u00e9a Agosto)\u00a0(Foto por Daren Scott)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on letters between these two historical characters over a 40-year time period, \u201cBull in a China Shop\u201d imagines some of the events in the lives of these pioneers in what playwright Bryna Turner calls the \u201cqueering of history,\u201d which she defines as making room for people who have been denied a place in the narrative.<\/p>\n

Change is afoot, on the smaller interpersonal level between Woolley and Marks as well as on the larger, societal stage of the movement toward women\u2019s rights. Marks meets student Pearl (Andr\u00e9a Agosto), who develops a big crush on her teacher. Later, Marks will move out of faculty housing to an off-campus location where she will room with philosophy professor Felicity (Maybelle Covington).<\/p>\n

While these three continue to push revolutionary notions \u2014 and even get arrested for trying to vote \u2014 Woolley finds swimming against the educational establishment a difficult proposition.<\/p>\n

Strassburger directs with a light touch, letting these fine actors draw a striking, though profanity-laced, picture of the beginnings of the women\u2019s rights movement.<\/p>\n

Glover\u2019s Woolley, who knows how to play the academic game, is a fine foil for McMillian\u2019s younger, more impetuous Marks. She makes work life more difficult for Phillips\u2019 Dean Welsh, who has to deal with bothersome realities including the private funding that allows Mt. Holyoke to survive.<\/p>\n

Covington\u2019s Felicity provides a good stabilizing influence, roommate and fellow protester for Marks.<\/p>\n

Agosto is adorable as Pearl, president of the secret society of fan-girls of the Marks-Woolley relationship, and a willing soldier in the revolution.<\/p>\n

\"SwimRon Logan\u2019s set suggests academia. Curtis Mueller\u2019s lighting and TJ Fucella\u2019s sound seem a tad more updated than the plot \u2014 taking place between 1899 and 1937 \u2014 would indicate, but they\u2019re lovely, as are Beth Connelly\u2019s costumes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to swim against the tide, but Turner makes the journey amusing as well as moving, daring and even a bit scary. The revolution isn\u2019t over yet, but \u201cBull in a China Shop\u201d offers an amusing, fast-paced, 80-minute glimpse into its beginnings.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jean Lowerison es miembro desde hace mucho tiempo del C\u00edrculo de Cr\u00edticos de Teatro de San Diego y puede ser contactada en infodame@cox.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Jean Lowerison Diversionary Theatre presents the San Diego premiere of \u201cBull in a China Shop\u201d \u2014 which Kim Strassburger directs \u2014 through Oct. 14.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":229401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Swim against the tide","_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-253734","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\/253734","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=253734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}