HFF18: STAND DOWN THE MARCH
REVIEW: STAND DOWN THE MARCH
BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO
In the profusion of the over 100 works in the “ensemble theatre” category at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, Naomi Brodkin’s play Stand Down the March is a diamond in the rough. The play was commissioned by Next Theatre of Evanston in 2011 and went on to win the “New Voices: Emerging Talent” award from the Chicago Jewish Historical Society in 2012. Now the play is making its LA premiere in a political climate that makes this work even more timely.
Taylor Bostwick as Liv (Photo Credit Micah Gardner)
Stand Down the March follows college senior, Liv, who is looking for a cause that she can support with genuine personal interest. While searching for her “thing”, a cause finds her when she learns that one of the professors at her college is a Holocaust denier who is planning a march on campus. What makes this story so compelling is both the clarity is the protagonist’s desire, journey and the subtle lessons this piece teaches audiences about what actually happened to the Jewish population under Hitler’s power.
Once we get past the somewhat cursory exposition of the play, Brodkin’s story picks up steam with unwavering tenacity. This is made even more clear with Taylor Bostwick’s portrayal of Liv—Bostwick is on a mission with razor-sharp focus, we can sense her sense of confidence develop, hesitate, then accelerate to the very end. In such a short running time, audiences can see Liv mature from a fickle college kid to a young woman with a purpose. Even though Liv is our central character we also see the other characters go through similar transformations in their interactions with Liv or solo vignettes. In all the characters we see that at heart of this play there is also a lesson in the importance of sacrifice. The subtle shifts from character to character add layers to the play that keeps the audience engaged while never losing sight of the primary story at hand.
Naomi Brodkin (Writer) and Irene Marquette (Director).
Both in the writing and the direction by Irene Marquette there is so much careful attention to ensure that all the characters on stage are real people. Caty Gordon (Ava) is the effervescent young actress who is working hard to be accepted into a showcase—all of Gordon’s scenes are a sincere representation of the struggle of an artist—in a city like LA we all have friends like Ava. Chris Baker (Joel) is looking to make his mark as a reporter, his devotion to Liv’s cause goes from selfish to selfless in the end. Charlie McCracken plays Karl the Holocaust denier, although his acting is mainly stoic there is still humanity in his story making him feel like a person, not just an antogonist. Bredan Scannell (Riley) is the gay college student who although is played over the top, did bring levity to the play—simply reeling in his character will serve to balance all the other performances.
Stand Down the March is an inspiring piece of theatre that dares to tackle serious subject matter while delivering a thoroughly gratifying evening of theatre. After speaking with the writer briefly after the show she mentioned the possibility of adapting this story as a screenplay, a medium for which this piece will definitely flourish given the kind of focused character-driven story telling it already possesses.
TICKES AND MORE INFO:
LOCATION: Broadwater Main Stage at:
1078 Lillian Way
Los Angeles, CA 90038
DATES:
Friday, June 1 @ 9:30pm
Saturday, June 9 @ 11:30pm
Sunday, June 10 @ 3:30pm
Thursday, June 14 @ 9:30pm
Sunday, June 17 @ 5:30pm
Tickets: http://HFF18.org/5382
