Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
Every Monday, at 11 am Marilyn's parent group is in session. It's a weekly support group for parents of children with learning disabilities. People who have kids with addiction issues or learning challenges need attention ... Especially if parents couldn't stay together.
Managing things with grace makes a big difference. It's all about ET - educational therapy, untangling anger for desire and forgiving yourself if you didn't handle the motherhood stuff in the best way possible. The fact is, we step into the role of parent, but sometimes we are just not ready for it, so we just do our best. Not being blindly hard on ourselves, but practicing self-forgiveness, instead of judgment and resentment with gratitude is the way to go. Taking advice such as, 'It works like a charm rewarding a kid with macaroni and cheese for cleaning his room,' helps enormously.
Many may find their life experiences in the story of Atypical Grace, a solo performance created, written, and performed by Maria Fagan Hassani, who plays multiple characters-- 12 characters to be precise. She has worked with kids and parents for over 20 years and while this show is not autobiographical, it is an amalgamation of the years spent in private practice working with children who struggle with the learning process, as well as supporting their families. It's apparent that she has an addiction issue with her own granddaughter and went through the struggles to forgive herself and break generational patterns. That is why she can easily understand others and help them.
Produced by Jessica Lynn Johnson and directed by and developed with Heather Dowling, who is also a character coach. Some of Maria's characters stand out clearly and by having three chairs on the stage and a projection on the screen behind her helped the audience to see different environments, to see the characters. Jessica Lynn Johnson and Heather Dowling create a lot, and they work like a charm together.
There are many strong moments in the play, especially at the end when Maria's emotions come out very strongly. In Special Thanks To, she notes ' My heart, my husband, Mehrdad; my talented director, Heather Dowling; my acting coach extraordinaire, Christinna Chauncey; my fabulous social media guru; Samantha Harris; Henry Parker Elder, my tech guy; Kenny Johnson, my skilled videographer; Mary Lou Sandler, my expert graphic designer; and the countless parents and children I have worked with, I will forever be grateful.
Atypical Grace can be seen at The Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave, in West Hollywood on Sunday June 22 @ 4:00pm and Friday, June 27 @ 7:00pm.
The show's running time is 60 minutes.
Tickets are $15 at https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10815?tab=tickets
*** I especially like the talk back after the performance.