Bare Bones Theatre: Grassroots Art Movement

Now in its third year, Bare Bones Theatre has carved out its niche where actors and audience experience plays in their raw infancy.

This one-of-a-kind theater experience keeps demonstrating why the arts are essential. And here it is, December 2018, another unexpected adventure. Ava Burton, an original cast member for Hazardous Materials by Beth Kander was replaced last minute by Diana Burbano.

In addition, it was announced that the play needed to be more refined before it will go on the road. But this is what you get when you go and experience this unusual hybrid of a theater lab table-read in an artist studio in the middle of Laguna Canyon Road.

It was interesting for me to see how much one replaced actor can influence a play so drastically and how much this alteration can affect the whole performance.

The four-actor story evolved with one couple playing investigators, in the now (the original cast), versus the couple in 1955 whose story is investigated (with the replacement actress). The investigators were smooth, played in symphony and were very entertaining. The two friends of yesteryear, in contrary, felt disconnected in performance and story, even though the storyline about the loneliness of two widows and the intimacy through their sameness would have lent itself to plenty of gravitas.

Never forget, it is a work in progress, and you can talk to the actors and playwrights during the after-performance discussion that is always educational and gives more in-depth insights into the craft.

If you want to have an uplifting experience that Apple TV and takeout can not deliver yet, you will enjoy this experiential live-performance. And please help support this Laguna grassroots art movement.

Bare Bones Theatre is a script-in-hand play reading series for the discerning theatre goer. Make tax deductible donations to ART WOW here.

Multimedia artist Michaell Magrutsche has written three art books and facilitates the SelfAwareArt.com/workshop.