Credit: Daren Scott
By Victor Payan
San Diego-born playwright Richard Montoya has been on a prolific hot streak for the past several years. His expert mix of weight and whimsy have made him a favorite of local audiences, and his latest play, Federal Jazz Project, is yet another winner. A collaboration with local jazz master Gilbert Castellanos, Federal Jazz Project delivers a verbal and musical tour de force that digs into the dark underbelly of World War II-era San Diego and provides a fascinating history tour of America’s Finest City.
Fans of local lore and lovers of great jazz should rush out to see Federal Jazz Project before it concludes its World Premiere run at the San Diego Repertory Theatre this Sunday at 2pm.
Federal Jazz Project shines on many levels and features some brilliant writing by Montoya. Stellar live music by a Castellanos-led jazz quintet and strong performances by a capable cast round out the story of Kidd (Joe Hernandez-Kolski), an idealistic impresario, whose hopes of launching the careers of two singing and dancing sisters named San Diego and Tijuana, played Lorraine Castellanos and Claudia Gomez, are thwarted by the guardians of San Diego’s military-industrial complex.
The projection design is well-done, and the set is well-utilized. The transition between Tijuana’s tap dancing success and her arrest is a bit rough, but is consistent with the historical realities of the era.
Federal Jazz Project plays to Montoya’s strengths, incorporating audience participation, skewering of the fourth wall and peppering in surreal interludes, such as when a buoyant Lawrence Welk, played by Mark Pinter, introduces guest servicemen musicians to play for the audience. Somewhere in your enjoyment of the musical talent of the soldiers, you realize that they are modern corollaries to the World War II veteran musicians portrayed in the play, and that war is as much a part of the San Diego experience as surf, sand and sunshine.
The tone of the play starts out light enough to woo the audience and slowly darkens, leading up to a powerful ending that features a brilliantly-written anti-war tirade delivered with righteous fury by Kidd’s Marine grandson (also played by Hernandez-Kolski).
Montoya teases the audience with gags about San Diego’s various communities throughout the play, and he certainly knows how to keep the laughs coming. His writing is at its strongest, however, when he is riffing to the audience about subjects such as the trenchcoated Rafas, played by members of the Cabrones Motorcycle Club, again blurring the line between actor and actuality.
The play’s title hearkens back to New Deal programs, specifically the Federal Theatre Project, and it is apt that the project was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Whether in collaboration with his partners in the comedy troupe Culture Clash or as a solo playwright, Montoya has delivered a string of dazzling, daunting and mature works that dig deep into America and deftly dismantle its myth-making apparatus.
It’s a rare gift to make audience members laugh while you are peeling the layers off of their city’s past. Montoya succeeds because he is both the ringleader and ringmaster of a carefully orchestrated circus of punchlines and pathos. And the rest is history.
Federal Jazz Project’s final three performances are Friday and Saturday at 8pm; and Sunday, May 5 at 2pm at the San Diego Repertory Theater, 79 Horton Plaza, in downtown San Diego. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 619-544-1000 or visit www.sdrep.org.
Victor Payan is an award-winning writer and cultural critic. His website is www.victorpayan.com.
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Got my tickets for Sunday’s matinee. They are rather expensive at $50. per and that’s a senior rate, but it sounds like a helluva show especially for a jazz fan like me. Gilbert Castellanos is a great trumpet player, and I’m sure worth the price of admission alone. San Diego history buffs should dig all the historical references.
We just got back from the Friday night performance. I was IN the moment that Tijuana appeared in those red shoes, juicing the jazz with a sensual percussive tap. OOOOO yah. The jam session tonight included stellar jazz artists who were sitting in the audience and were called up to the stage. The artists who participate change from night to night- tonight’s jam session was smokin’.
It’s always thought provoking and fun to see how Richard Montoya has provided yet another lens with which to inspect our fair city. He’s been doing this for a number of years now and he maintains a keen ear and a sharp eye on what changes and what stays the same.
I’m listening to Gilbert Castellanos CD that we picked up after the performance, keeping the Federal Jazz Project going into the wee hours of the night.
I went to Saturday evening’s performance. I wanted to see it from the first time I read the description. I wanted to take my teenage daughter who loves the theater but as a senior, there are so many activities on her calendar, I ended up attending alone and I don’t regret it in the least! This production was wonderful, Richard Montoya’s presence and humor kept the story moving and Gilbert Castellanos’ playing with his HOT, HOT quintet were simply amazing. The story of Kidd and his pain after his grandson returns from war was so moving in search of his grandmother was stirring to say the least. The story revealed history not known whether it was fiction or not. The Federal Jazz Project should be played again with the same cast on Broadway.
We went to the last performance on Sunday afternoon. Certainly, a great work of art! Full of interesting writing and humor. Montoya introduced us to a world that we had little knowledge of deftly weaving many threads into a comprehensive whole. An improbable but real combination. Whoever thought that a Chicano tinged storyline would feature a hard bopping trumpeter like Castellenos who is in the mainstream of the jazz tradition sans salsa. Interesting!