Travelin' to see The Perception Plays in Toluca Lake

Last night I went to see two one act plays that frankly surprised me. The name of the evening, The Perception Plays and the names of the two plays, Health & Safety and Dedication Page didn't really make me want to go, however I really was glad I got myself over there to see these performances.

The first play, Health & Safety finds two male room mates in their apartment. A doctor from a mental health center comes to judge whether one of the men should be living away from the mental center. The question: whose version of another person is correct? You need to decide for yourself so I leave that to you as the audience.

Austin Hebert as Klasky is very much at home on stage. He seems to be the most organic of the three actors in his role. Bechir Sylvain had some challenges in creating Bugs. He seemed to choose the more obvious idiosyncrasies, although some of those could be the choices of the writer and the director. However they needed to be deepened by the actor in a way to make them more believable and not so typical. Susan Papa appeared not committed enough to how her character acts in the beginning of the play, she seemed to be her strongest at the end of the play. The story and the theme by the playwright, Chad Baker, is fascinating for the audience. The performance is not yet at the level of the writing.

The second play, Dedication Page, is actually more difficult to create by the actresses and the director. Both actresses obviously have the experience to handle these roles. Stephanie Geyer as Madeline, the wife of the deceased writer, brings a wealth of emotion. Her role is clearly written but the role of Laura is the most difficult. Susan Baker who plays Laura brings her experience and strength to the role. She has a challenge to bring the emotion of this character so that the audience can see it when the writer restrains her with her motivation to write the last chapter. This is also a challenge for the director since it really is "talking heads". The staging kept movement in the play but it seemed that the director used avoidance too much of the time without allowing the actresses to use the set and room to avoid each other rather than staring at a bunch a pages which is unclear when it is the "only copy" of the last manuscript or other generic pages on the table.

Chad Baker certainly has an eye for themes that are universal. Audiences can relate to these stories and the audience last night did appreciate the performances. With such strong character-driven stories the work is with the actors and the director. As they perform these plays longer it may help them to find more reasons why they do what they do even though they never say these reasons.

I would recommend this evening to theater goer. It is great to go to a small theater and see professional performances.