Pilgrim, the New Rock Musical

Pilgrim is an entertaining but unusual event. It is a rock musical by John Stothers, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics. Performances will run at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood until April 9th. The characters seem to come from a medieval sector of the world of Mad Max. There is a social class conflict between "crafters," who make things, and "guildmasters," who rule a town with no name. The crafters are well played such fine actors as Lowe Taylor, who recently appeared in I Come for Love at ANMT. Their costumes make the crafters look like workers at a Renaissance Faire, except with MTV-type variations in the costumes, like dreadlocks and a bare-chested tinker. The guildmasters wear long black leather outfits that may have been worn by the sadistic demons from the Hellraiser movies. The tinker, played by Tom Korbee, is the hero of the story. There are some interesting bits between him and Anna, a guildmaster's daughter, played by Jessica Rush. She marries him to avoid marrying Metsys, a guildmaster played by Jeffrey Stackhouse. The love triangle and the love story are the most satisfying stories in the play. A political drama runs through the plot, beginning when the tinker is put in prison and meets a mysterious madman named Hieronymus, played by Robert Patteri. He gives the tinker obscure clues in Latin to help him complete his quest.

The rock concert sensibilities of the show spawn some of the most interesting and entertaining aspects of the show, but also the most puzzling. The music is an effective fusion of standard rock sounds with musical theatre. It's as if some head bangers from the 80's grew up and put some intelligence into writing a rock opera. The result is lyrical or dramatic melodies over power chords and a script that mostly makes sense. After that, the choices become curious. The world of the play occurs in a deliberately non-specific medieval town, but the culture of that world seems to come out of specific developments, like the establishment of the power of trade guilds in late Medieval Europe. The effect leaves you feeling that this world lacks grounding. If John Stothers had drawn a more detailed picture of his guild culture, by describing what kinds of guilds these are, for example, it wouldn't have been quite so disorienting. By leaving out such details, Stothers seems to be relying on the power of ignorance to mystify and enthrall. That works well for illiterate adults or teenage boys hooked on their Playstations, but it might not be enough for many adult theatregoers. The word "pilgrim," for example, makes you think that the tinker will go on a religious journey, but the "pilgrimage" of his dreams makes no reference to anything that would make the journey in his dreams anything that specific or special. If the town had a name, like the name of the town in Urinetown, the world of the play would have a stronger anchor, but as it is, it contributes to the feeling of this world, and Stothers intentions, being in limbo. The clues in the tinker's quest are Latin words like "despero." Hieronymus explains what they mean, but theatre is about showing, not explaining. It would have been clearer if the tinker had met an allegorical character named Despero in his dream who helped him get through a specific step in his journey, like Virgil helping Dante through The Inferno. Still, I would recommend this show for most adults who enjoy theatre, just so they can see the fascinating work of the designers and performers. The acrobatics of the Myo Dance Company offer intriguing new possibilities for the potential of using dance and acrobatics for storytelling. For example, in one of the many dream scenes, an acrobat dangles from a red scarf for a moment, seemingly in a moment of ecstasy, and then falls into a flaming pit. It seems to depict Anna's emotional turmoil, as if she were going from heaven to hell, but the reference is generic enough to refer to anyone enduring hardship. If the effect had added new information by telling something about the story from the point of view of a dream, it might have achieved significance, but as it is, it's just a fun idea to watch. Still, the fact that the spectacle comes this much closer to telling the story in a new way is an achievement which ranks above whatever storytelling you might think happens at a Cirque du Soleil show.

The tragic ending of Pilgrim doesn't quite payoff. It depends on sympathy for the poor crafters which is not possible, given the lack of detail which would help the audience empathize with the crafter society. This is another area where Stothers seems to have left the writing unfinished. Still, this show is worth seeing. There's a guy on stilts who seems to represent someone, I'm not sure who, but he does some cool things. The music is entertaining, though the only memorable song is a love ballad called "Iron and Silver." All of the performers are excellent. The costumes, lighting and sets have a great rock show feel. The set is a scaffold with catwalks reminiscent of the set for Rent, except that it has a wooden wheel on it to make it look medieval and the whole thing spins on a turntable. It's interesting at first, but by the second act, the scaffold becomes tiresome, as if it were a frame for something that you never get to see built to completion. This is an entertaining show for everyone other than octogenarians who hate rock 'n' roll. High school kids will especially love this show, even if the second act isn't as intense as the first. The creators should publish the show specifically for the kids to perform at their schools. They'll make a mint if they do. Spread the word to your local high school: The next step in the evolution of the rock musical is here!

The Vanusi Tribe

Last Friday I was substituting for a P.E. teacher. The classes started outside at the basketball courts at Van Nuys Middle School, but the rain drove all the classes inside. The regular P.E. teachers set up a game for the students to play which involved several large inflated balls like beachballs, only tougher. Some of the balls were around eight feet tall. Others were smaller, about three times as wide as a humand head. The four classes sat in quadrants around a circular area on the gym floor where two or three teachers stood. The students were supposed to push the balls around to the other quadrants while music played. If a ball went to the center, a teacher would volley the ball out. I was one of those teachers.When the music started, one of the kids grabbed a ball and threw it right into my face. A yell of enjoyment went up from the crowd. Some of the kids don't like me in this school because they know how strict I am. Maybe watching me get hit was their chance to get revenge for the detentions and referrals I had given them. I decided to stand my ground. Rather than push the ball back politely the way the other teachers were, I decided to hit them like a street fighter. I was wearing a brown bomber jacket over my T-shirt and jeans, so I was already dressed for the part. When one of the big balls came my way, I would launch it back with a jab or a right cross. Shouts of approval went up from the crowd. The climax came when a big ball ricocheted of a kid who quickly sent it toward my head. I quickly deflected it with a left uppercut. The kids yelled a big "Oh!" in surprise. After the game was over, one of the bad kids said, "Hey, Mr. Sanchez! Nice moves!" I felt a bit like I could have been in a scene in an Indiana Jones movie where Indy endures a challenge from a tribe of pigmies, let's call them the Vanusi Tribe, and wins their respect.

Parents I Hate

I just got out of a class where I was assisting a math teacher. I was sitting in the back next to a boy who sat in his desk doing absolutely nothing. I told him to do the warm up, but he kept saying he didn't know how to do this. Of course, the real problem was that he just didn't want to. The teacher was there to show him and everyone in the class how to do proportions. I made him copy the problem on the overhead projection to a piece of paper, but didn't do anything after that. I asked if his parents make him do his homework. He said that they make him do his homework, except for math. His mother doesn't know how to do this math. His father does, but his father lives in Corona. The heart of the problem has nothing to do with which parent knows how to do the math. His parents have taught him to give up on himself.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is full of students with parents who teach their children to give up. Parents and politicians can punish teachers all they like, but teachers can do nothing to stop bad parents from ruining the education, and by extension, the lives of the children. All I can do about such parents is hate them.