CASA 0101 Theater, in Boyle Heights, opens its 25th season during Women’s History Month with Mujeres on the Verge. The four original one-act plays are written and directed by women and acted by women except for two men. The crew is mostly women as well.
Performances run through March 23, 2025. There is a 10-minute intermission.
Mujeres on the Verge tackles topics that universally affect women from a Latina perspective.
Eleven actors, some in multiple playlets, comprise the cast. They include Alejandro Bravo, Tricia Cruz, Alejandra Flores, Tina D’Marco, Carmelita Maldonado, Gisel Murillo, Ariana Raygoza, Saul Rodriguez, Raquel Salinas, Jasia Topete, Myrna Valasco.
All are accomplished actors with impressive credits. There wasn’t a weak or amateurish actor in the bunch and several demonstrated a command of comic timing.
Directors are Olivia Chumacero, Jacqueline Guido, Karla Ojeda, and Vilma Villela.
Writers are Lindsey Haley, Mariana Herrera, Maria G. Martinez, and Raquel Salinas.
La Noche de Anoche
La Noche de Anoche was written by Martinez and directed by Guido. The play stars Maldonado, Flores, and Raygoza, and is the story of an aspiring writer (Maldonado) tasked with caring for her elderly mother (Flores) who has Alzheimer’s. Her daughter (Raygoza) arrives from a school break to help.
The play tackles a woman’s frustration in delaying her dreams because caregiving is all-encompassing. Flores is authentic in the role of the elderly woman who goes in and out of lucidity. Raygoza attempts to convince Maldonado that she needs to put her mother in a home. The frustration of both is clear.
My only issue is that occasionally Spanish is spoken, which most of the audience understood, but I, as a non-Spanish speaker, missed some of the jokes.
The Fan Club
The Fan Club was written by Herrera and directed by Ojeda. It stars Murillo, Bravo, Maldonado, Velasco, Cruz, and Rodriguez. A perimenopausal businesswoman, (Murillo) who runs a bar, is engaged to a man (Bravo) who has shown a lack of interest in sex and who wants her to have his children, which isn’t a priority for her. He becomes demeaning and insensitive to her needs. She confides in her female customer/friends that she is experiencing the symptoms of perimenopause and that she is questioning her relationship.
Maldonado, Velasco, and Cruz are comical as single peri-menopausal women looking for a man. Rodriguez, who plays Marco the hot bartender, is adorably sexy as he dances around the bar.
La Mano de Dios
La Mano de Dios was written by Salinas and directed by Chumacero. It is a one-woman short play starring Salinas. She plays a menopausal woman who is estranged from her family because she is an alcoholic. It’s Christmas and she comes home late to find no one there.
While waiting, she talks about her past while nipping on sample tequila bottles. Salinas captures the mindset of a chronic drunk. Later, she finds out her mother is in the hospital and has missed messages from family members because she was too drunk to notice.
Salinas does an excellent job in a challenging role, although sometimes her dialogue is muffled and hard to understand.
Pleito (Rumble)
Pleito (Rumble) was written by Lindsey Haley and directed by Vilma Villela. It stars Maldonaldo, Velasco, Topete, Rodriguez, Flores, Cruz, and Bravo.
Maldonado plays an elderly woman and former singer (Lupita) whose daughter (played by Velasco) is taking a one-month trip abroad. The daughter places her less than thrilled mother in a nursing home temporarily.
Lupita meets three senior Chicana women residents, former Pachucas played by Flores, Cruz, and D’Marco who plays La Red. La Red and Lupita immediately recognize each other even though many decades have gone by.
La Red accuses Lupita of taking away her former boyfriend whom Lupita married and had children with. Topete plays the homegirl nurse who attempts to calm the women down. Bravo is an incoming male patient the ladies try to entice. The scene is comical, and each actor makes the most of it.
For more information and tickets visit the CASA 0101 website.
2102 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033
(323) 263-7684
Leave a Reply