CAPPUCCINOS BOLSTERED BY THEATER, BALLET
                        As ACT launches its Nostalgic New Piece on Tosca
                                              By Carol Benet
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area theater
                                                                 Weeks starting June 18, 2010
                                                                 Vol. 12, No. 115
         “The Tosca Project” at ACT is a bold amalgam, an unusual theater/dance play with a fragile plot based loosely on San Francisco cultural history.
            Arts organizations are always looking for a new way to attract patrons and the American Conservatory Theatre is no exception.  They always try a musical at the end of the season to lighten it up.  And this year they present "The Tosca Project," an entertainment designed to draw in theater buffs, ballet fans, and North Beach habitués.
            “The Tosca Project” is the story of the legendary North Beach café of the same name, the result of an idea of Carey Perloff, Artistic Director at A.C.T., and ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli,.  Actors and dancers meet on the stage and recreate a history of the café since its inception.
            It starts in the early days, with a scene of a beautiful immigrant/newcomer (Rachel Ticotin) and the bartender (Jack Willis) who waits on her.  Soon another person enters (Gregory Wallace), a waiter turned fixture throughout all the years depicted.   The plot is weak, but  small episodes that took place there through the years make it clear that it is simply a history of the Tosca Café retold. 
            Soon soldiers, sailors, hipsters, hippies and others enter the plot and dance their parts.  Stars of the show are Lorena Feijoo and Pascal Molat, two of the San Francisco Ballet’s best dancers.  Feijoo has always been known as a dancer/actress. She creates comedians as well serious roles with grace – all while dancing expertly. 
            In one of the touching scenes she is the girlfriend of a sailor (Molat) who is then sent of to war and later returns damaged.  Little scenelets like these hold together, without quite enough glue, to produce the entire work.
            Gregory Wallace of A.C.T. is the waiter who sees all, one with a natural comic talent. He sees the Beatniks with Kerouac writing his chef d’oeuvre On the Road on a long roll of narrow paper and then reading it to an admiring audience at the Tosca.  Flower children too turn up and appropriate the café at will. 
            Sabina Allemann, former S.F. Ballet member, serves as a kind of muse in a vague role.  As the bartender, Willis is the curmudgeon who has trouble establishing a consistent accent, most likely aiming for Italian. 
            But thanks to the excellent cast of actors and dancers, it all adds up to enjoyable entertainment.  
            Ed. note: Apologies to our readers for the delay in filing this review, caused by computer hardware problems.
            “The Tosca Project”  runs through June 27. At American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco. For info:  415.749.2228
or go online. 

                                  #
        © Carol Benet 2010
        Carol Benet is a regular theater reviewer for artssf.com.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly)focus on theater, dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into recordings by local artists, and a few departures into books (by authors of the region)as well.
                      #

             Return to main menu.