Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
It is the 25th Anniversary Season Celebration at CASA 0101 Theater in East LA, where one can see another strong production put up by Josefina López (Founding Artistic Director) and Emmanuel Deleage (Producer and Executive Director), with Miguel Angel Delgado (Director/Technical Director), who is making his directing debut with an incredible production of 'Tuesdays with Morrie'. What an excellent job Miguel does capturing the special moments in time for two people, who met at one point in life as a professor and a student and their relationship maintained for the rest of the professor's life. Very touchy, hard-core play, but full of love and compassion. The play is based on a book by Mitch Albom, and so well written by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom, as a stage play.
It is an autobiographical story of a successful journalist who, after sixteen years of not seeing his EX-professor, whose nickname is 'coach', finds out that his favorite professor is suffering from Lou Gehrig's Disease and is placed in one of the nursing homes in Boston. He starts visiting him on Tuesdays, and as it turns out, the Tuesdays become the rituals for Mitch (Gilbert Reynoso/student) and Morrie (Vance Valencia/professor) to see each other and by developing the deep bond, they do not miss any of the Tuesdays, until the end of the professor's life.
Once very upbeat, a happy professor who loved music and dancing starts observing his own decay, as the cancer spreads and slowly takes away his nervous system, which weakens muscles and impacts physical functions. He wants to live as long as he can with dignity and pride, which becomes a challenge when he needs to let others bathe him, feed him, and move him. Lots of questions and discoveries come up during that time. He asks, 'How can one be prepared to die?', 'Is today the day to die?', 'Taking makes me feel like I am dying, but giving makes me feel like I am living' and 'By giving up yourself you will never die. People will remember you forever.' At those moments of surrender and capitulation, one starts negotiating with the unseen spiritual beings the possibility of becoming one of the angels upon translation into God's world. Morrie even organizes his own Memorial Service while still alive, so he can attend and hear what people are saying about him, with his own ears. Morrie starts observing and counting how long he can hold the breath, which sadly and undoubtedly goes down daily. That is the time when one lets go of everything and does not care who is wrong and who is right. In fact - nothing matters anymore. In those moments we usually forgive ourselves and others. Morrie expresses all those feelings with sincerity and deep connection. One of his finishing sentences is, 'The leaves on the tree are the prettiest just before they die.'
There is fantastic chemistry between the two actors. Love, compassion and responsibility are strongly emphasized in this play. When Morrie said, 'If I had another son, I'd like him to be you', Mitch is surely touched by it and the whole audience is touched by many moments in this intense, sad story. Morrie is at his best throughout the play and watching him shaking when trying to eat, most of the audience got teary eyes. The actors were natural and truly bouncing back off each other. They got everyone's attention to the point that listening became intense and watching with full capacity took place. Truly, a wonderful play!
The rest of the production team for Tuesdays with Morrie are: Gabrielle Maldonado (Music Composer), César Retana-Holguín (Scenic Designer), Alejandro Parra (Lighting Designer), Alejandro Lechuga (Costume Designer), Joaquín Madrid Larrañaga (Stage Manager), Angelica Ornelas (Assistant Stage Manager) and Props Manager, Lorena M. Ortega (Production Coordinator), Mark Kraus (CASA 0101 Theater Development Director), Itzel Ocampo (Social Media Manager and CASA 0101 Theater Marketing and Operations Manager), Gabriela López de Dennis, Soap Studio Inc. (Artwork and Program), Jorge Villanueva (Facilities Manager), Oscar Basulto (Box Office Manager), Al Aguilar (Production Assistant), Francis Gacad (Production (Photographer) and Steve Moyer Public Relations (Press Representative). Great job everyone!
There is only one weekend left to see this wonderful play at CASA 0101 Theater in the Gloria Molina Auditorium, 2102 East First Street (at Louis Street) across the street from the Hollenbeck Police Station, in East LA. This show is highly recommended! It runs on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm, for four weeks from April 18 - May 11.2025. Tickets are $25 per person for general admission; $22.00 for students and Seniors 60+ and Boyle Heights residents, as well as groups of 10 and more pay $20. Free Parking is available on several streets surrounding the theatre. Limited Free Parking is also available at the Boyle Heights City Hall Parking Lot located at 2130 East First Street (at Chicago Street) by entering the lot from Chicago Street.
Concurrently during the run of the show, a FREE Art Exhibit entitled, 'Abstract to Concrete: Barrio Expressions', examining the relations between abstract and concrete contemporary Barrio art, is available at the Jean Deleage Art Gallery, located in the lobby of CASA 0101 Theater. Curated by Jimmy Centeno, the exhibit features the work of five artists including: Fernardo Barragan, Jimmy Centeno, Pedro Rios Martinez, Carlos Rojas, and Richard Valdez. Nice work, indeed!
Reservations are highly recommended. For tickets, please call the CASA 0101 Theater Box Office at 323-263-7684, E-mail
tickets@casa0101.org or buy online at
http://www.casa0101.org
The running time of the show is 87 minutes, no including intermission. Join the conversation on Facebook @CASA0101Theater; on Twitter @CASA0101 and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/casa0101theater