Out of the Box Theatre Co. and UCSB Theater & Dance presented a varied bunch of plays this spring and here’s a little roundup of what went down. Out of the Box’s “Fun Home” jumped full throttle into the musical adaptation of cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s wrenching memoir of her coming out as queer and the devastating effects of her father’s closeted homosexuality. Heavy stuff, which was handled with sensitivity, care and even some humor by director and guiding light Samantha Eve and a cast of talented locals. UCSB’s offerings kept the diversity quotient high, beginning with five short plays written and produced by students who handled all aspects of each play, ably assisted by the superb faculty, all part of the department’s annual New Works Lab project. They were bare bones presentations only with regard to employing minimal scenery and props. Subjects ranged form contemporary hook-ups to a tragic unintended consequence from movement protests, religious cults, the foibles of playwriting and the disintegration of a couple’s relationship in the near future. The final production of UCSB’s season of theater, “Into the Beautiful North,” is a fully staged production of Karen Zacarias’s adaptation of Luis Urrea’s novel about the surreal journey a young Mexican woman and two friends make to the U.S., inspired by seeing the movie “The Magnificent Seven” (inspired by Kurosawa’s “The Seven Samurai”) to find seven Mexican men to rid their little town from drug dealers and corrupt police. Visually arresting with gorgeous lighting, projections and a maleable set, directed with humor and passion by Shirley Jo Finney and acted with youthful energy and aplomb by the student cast, this was a great show to end the spring theatrical offerings in our arts rich community! Through June 1st at UCSB’s Hatlen Theater.
