Waiting For Modjeska Playhouse

Vladimir: Well? What do we do?
Estragon: Don’t let’s do anything. It’s safer.
Vladimir: Let’s wait and see what he says.
Estragon: Who?
Vladimir: Godot.
Estragon: Good Idea.

There are only about a hundred chairs. They all face the same direction. The walls are black. People enter and sit. The house lights dim and then you are sitting in the dark and there is a circle of light on the floor, maybe two feet from you. Two men enter:

Vladimir: Christ! What has Christ to do with it? You’re not going to compare yourself to Christ!
Estragon: All my life I’ve compared myself to him.
Vladimir: But where he lived it was warm, it was dry!
Estragon: Yes. And they crucified quick.

You are a foot away…part of it…you are right there and you can feel the actors playing off of you…it’s magic…the person next to you…that stranger in the dark…she is part of it too…the magic…somehow what you know has been transformed inside the box…the black box…when an actor moves it’s like you’re moving…sometimes you’re afraid, sometimes you laugh…you cry…someone sighs…was that an actor or someone else…you smile…it’s magic…

Outside it is daylight and people drive up and down La Paz living lives of quiet desperation. They go home and watch a rerun of Law And Order. It’s the one where they arrest the wrong person first, but then they get the right one and there is a trial. That episode of Law And Order. You’ve seen it before and it never changes. It makes you feel safe and dead inside.

There are only about a hundred chairs. They all face the same direction. The walls are black. People enter and sit. The house lights dim and then you are seated with strangers in the dark and there is a circle of light on the floor very close to you. A black man and a white woman enter; they are dressed in rags:

Estragon: Yes. And they crucified quick.
Silence
Vladimir: We’ve nothing more to do here.
Estragon: Nor anywhere else.
Vladimir: Ah Gogo, don’t go on like that. Tomorrow everything will be better.
Estragon: How do you make that out?

Sometimes when you read a book it has changed on you. The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn is a great example of that sort of book. Always changing like the Mississippi River itself. Not too many books like that are written these days. Television never changes. Things that always stay the same kill the soul because that is not how the natural world works. Cut your grass and watch what happens.

Live theater is never the same. A theater company could perform nothing but Waiting For Godot and it would never be the same play twice. Live theater makes us live. It lets us experience in a very intimate way what it means to be human.

There were several proposals submitted recently to the city’s Community Services Commission by groups that are interested in a better use for the Potocki Center. All of the proposals are available to the public on the city’s web site. Most of them are boilerplate mission statements or articles of incorporation. Most of them don’t seem to have much in the way of a business plan or a vision as to how to improve our already fine city. I’m sure they are good organizations, but reading their proposals suggested they either banged it out the night before it was due or they just didn’t really care how they came off when it was read. Perhaps because – in the case of the present tenant – they assumed it was already a done deal.

And then there is the Modjeska Playhouse who presented a 112-page proposal that clearly shows how serious they are about becoming a productive part of Mission Viejo. In their proposal they speak to the many ways in which they will enrich Mission Viejo:

• They will offer drama workshops and acting classes to children of all ages;
• They will offer mentorships to students planning a career in any apsect of the theater;
• They will perform skits and plays for free in every elementary and middle school in Mission Viejo.

They have had Robert Coffee Architect and Associates draft up their plans for turning the seriously underused Potocki Center into a wonderful cultural jewel that will fit nicely into the trail from the Library to the Community Center.

It is not surprising at all that the Modjeska Playhouse proposal was so complete and thorough, because its founding artists are all professional actors with years of acting experience, touring experience, and teaching experience in various venues, including SCR.

The Modjeska Playhouse will cost the city about half of what former Council Member Reavis cost us with her slanderous statements about former City Manager Dan Joseph, the ensuing lawsuits, and all the legal fees. And it will be about $85,000 less than Council Member Schlicht, Former Council Member Lesdesma, and Dale Tyler costs us with their recall of a council member mere months before an official election. In fact, it will cost about the same amount as Council Member Reardon and Tyler cost us with their attack on personal property rights that was defeated 2 to 1 by the voters of Mission Viejo.

Of course, every one mentioned in the above paragraph except, for Dan Joseph, will say “we should wait because…” That is the most often and the most costly phrase ever uttered in Mission Viejo when it comes to civic projects. “We should wait.”

Vladimir: We have to come back tomorrow.
Estragon: What for?
Vladimir: To Wait For Godot.
Estragon: Ah! (Silence) He didn’t come?

All of the dialog used in this piece is from Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett.