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What Can We?

"Aluma’s visionary style sent the audiences through the roof”
- Long Beach Acting Examiner "comes across as ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ on Red Bull.”
- The Huffington Post "launched into Aluma’s fabulously physical style of theatre."
- Long Beach Acting Examiner “You will not be disappointed!”
- Hello Long Beach

Alive Theatre presents
What Can We?
by Craig Abernethy
directed by Jeremy Aluma
August – September 2010
at The Lafayette (Long Beach, CA)
As a part of Alive Theatre’s Long Beach Poppin’ Play Festival

“launched into Aluma’s fabulously physical style of theatre” – Long Beach Acting Examiner
“You will not be disappointed!” – Hello Long Beach
“A great way to begin the evening, it comes across as ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ on Red Bull.” – The Huffington Post

starring…
Johnny Arena
Brett Fleisher
Raymond Lee
Kat Primeau

Produced by Alive Theatre, Danielle Dauphinee, and Scott Lennard

What can we say in the theater in five minutes that has yet to be said? That has an impact? That might be profound?

Long Beach Acting Examiner Review - September 14, 2010 at The Lafayette

Jeremy Aluma kicked off the evening with his version of Craig Abernathy’s five-minute piece, What Can We. Abernathy’s short play was performed every night of the festival, but Thursday, Friday, and Saturday audiences received different casts. Aluma’s take threw Johnny Arena and Kat Primeau into the void as Yin and Yang to ask the question of, What can we do in five minutes? “Someone” appears from the nothingness (double cast with Brett Fisher and Raymond Lee) and the three are launched into Aluma’s fabulously physical style of theatre for the next few minutes. This controlled collision of a concise work and Aluma’s visionary style sent the audiences through the roof with this firecracker showstarter.

– Marlon Deleon

Huffington Post Review - September 8, 2010 at The Lafayette

The productions were four in number. They included What Can We Be, by Craig Abernethy, directed by Jeremy Aluma. Jumper’s with the Gypsy, by Nathaniel Kressen, directed by Roger Q. Mason. An Agreement Between Father and Son, by Lloyd Noonan, directed by Jerry James. And Eddie: A Musical About Failure, written and directed by Robert Edward.

The productions poked and probed at boundaries of what-is and what-could-be. Two were short pieces, sketches, really. The other two were more elaborate. Two were frenetic, past-paced, two were a little more reflective. One was a musical, with music provided by The Eddie Band: Ellen Warkentine, Roland Cruces, Ricky Cruces, and Thomas Amerman. The staging was minimal; it had to be, given the constraints of The Lafayette Ballroom. It was a little uncomfortable, until they opened the front door at the break to let in cool, fresh air. The acoustics were so-so, especially during the musical. It felt more like everything was taking place in a tent or under an awning, which gave the evening more a feel of street theatre that, I think, was precisely the point.

Besides whatever impressions you took home that evening, what you see when you watch these four productions is the ongoing forging of a theatrical identity. Each of the four pieces was about playing with potential and then finding and acting a role.What We Can is a fast-paced recital of the limitless things the actors (Johnny Arena, Brent Fleisher, Raymond Lee, and Kat Primeau) can do in the space of five minutes. (It’s enacted each night of the Festival, with a different director and, presumably, a different emphasis). They can steal a drink, love, fight, duel, or perform a ballet. A great way to begin the evening, it comes across as “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” on Red Bull.

– James Scarborough