Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
The American Dream is one of the main reasons why people come to America in such numbers; some with boats, some with busses. Some are fortunate enough to create a better life, but some go through difficulties and ugliness of being an immigrant, doing things they don't want to do, all in order to survive and stay in America. Some experiences are brutal; to the point of becoming the American nightmare instead of American Dream. The lives of two people who came from different parts of the world, one from Philippines and the other from Texas are explored in this story, and by crossing paths in 1980 in Los Angeles, their journeys intermingle.
The play was created during the pandemic. The playwright Roger Q. Mason is an award-winning writer, performer and educator who satirizes and revises history to disrupt the biases that separate rather than unite. English language is something that is deeply explored; this show is written with the language that is rich and mouthful. Mason said, "Hide & Hide represents a style of writing that I love dearly: poetic expressionism. A fusion of spoken word, image-ism, and jazz poetry, this dramaturgical vocabulary is where I feel most at home in the theatre. It allows me to sing from the page, to take you as an audience to those deep recesses of your subconscious world that don't often catch light, except when we dream."
After the show, there was an interview with two actors and a playwright, who expressed their love for writing and how much their careers as educators means to them. Mason was giving speeches from the time they/them could speak, and they/them knows how to express beautifully, yet something may be hard to comprehend. Amielynn Abellera, who plays Constanza de la Fe had a challenge figuring out how to lift the words off the page at first, when she could not understand the script in her first reading. Interesting, because she did such an incredible job in the performance. Both actors are phenomenal! It is worth seeing it, indeed.
The fast pace from the start goes until the very end, sometimes through words and at other times through actions. Both actors run at the opening and at the closing saying, "Blood rises fast when you are running run... run... run." The chemistry between two actors is powerful and their emotions are deeply felt. The play is quite difficult, but they go through it with ease. Abellera and Ben Larson, who plays Billy Adams, do a fabulous job. They beautifully lift the messages, feelings and expressions. Their performances are uniformly excellent.
***The story of Hide and Hide includes mature language and themes, sexual assault, suicide, and self-harm.
Produced by Gary Grossman and Armando Huipe with associate producer Logan Ellis for Skylight theatre company, Hide & Hide is successfully directed by Jessica Hanna. "I first encountered Hide & Hide at LA Performance Practice's LAX Festival in October 2023. The characters and their struggles stuck with me, and I knew we had to work with Roger on this piece. Amielynn and Jessica, both of whom are friends, were involved and I thought it would be a wonderful reunion around a powerful and moving story about people on the fringe of society-people who connect on a deep level with an insatiable desire for reinvention in the hopes of finally feeling respected by and included in this notion of America," says Gary Grossman, Skylight Producing Artistic Director.
The rest of the Creatives are, Christopher Scott Murillo (Set Design), Wendell Carmichael (Costume Design), Brandon Baruch (Lighting Design), Amelia Anello (Sound Design), Nicole Bernardini (Prop Master), Celina Lee Surniak (Intimacy & Fight Director), Victoria Hoffman (Casting Director), Giovanni Ortega (Dialect Coach), Letitia Chang (Production Stage Manager).
The show runs from May 16 to June 29, 2025 at Skylight Theatre, 1816 ½ North Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, CA. 90027, with the performances on Thursdays at 8:00pm, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30pm, on most Sundays at 3:00pm (two performances are at 7:30pm), and one Monday at 8:00pm (NOTE: There are irregularities throughout the schedule). The regular tickets are $20 - $42, Students $20 and Seniors (50+) $35. To access a limited amount of Pay-What-You-Can tickets to any performance, use a code ACCESS (advance sale only.)
Run-time is approximately 90 minutes (no intermission).
Reservations can be made by calling 213-761-7061 or online at https://www.skylighttheatre.org/hide-and-hide
Parking information: http://skylighttheatre.org/plan-your-visit