A Creative Experience

On September 20, 2014 I joined some of my fellow Chapman theatre majors in attending South Coast Repertory’s production of The Long Road Today/El Largo Camino De Hoy in the City of Santa Ana Civic Center Plaza. The Santa Ana community inspired the creation of this new play, in which true stories are joined together to tell the stories of the Santa Ana Latino community. South Coast Repertory began this project’s journey two years ago, inviting more than 1,000 residents of Santa Ana to share their stories through a variety of community feedback sessions, staged readings, and story-sharing sessions.

It was a unique experience attending this play for the performance took place outside, and unconventionally so. After gathering around an outside stage for the opening scene, the audience was split into four different groups where we remained for the duration of the performance. Within our individual groups, we traveled to different performance spaces around the plaza where we then watched each space’s respective scene. In the program, playwright José Cruz González explains his intentions behind this project. He writes, “I imagined that our audience would gather together at a central place and then be sent on a journey encountering simultaneous performances, closing with a culminating experience where neighbors and visitors experience, “Tú eres mi otro yo” or “You are my other self”. I feel that González was spot on with his image of the experience. As I traveled to and from the different performance spaces, I felt that I was a part of a something greater; that I was a part of a community of sorts. As my group was being escorted between locations, I felt that the cast put in extra energy into making their audience feel at home.

González closes, “The key always has been to engage the heart and mind, in which we experience transformation and, hopefully, reshape our pre-conceived notions of neighbor/outsider through the exploration of self, space and perception.”

After the performance ended I left the plaza with warmth in my heart, happy that I could be a part of such a communal experience.