‘Everyman’ for Itself

The Alternative Repertory Theatre has had its hassles opening its new playhouse in Santa Ana’s funky Artists Village. Construction delays with everything from the floor to curtains to the stage lighting caused ART to postpone its opening twice.

But now, organizers say all is in place and the world premiere of its commissiond “Barrio Everyman” by Roy Conboy is ready to christen the theater in the Grand Central Arts Center on North Broadway.

The play by Conboy, a longtime Orange County resident who now lives in Northern California, opens tonight and will continue through Feb. 27.

Conboy visited the theater in November when he met with the cast and participated in the first readings of “Barrio Everyman.” Like everybody else associated with ART, he’s eager for the run to begin.

“Yeah, I’m really ready, just like they are,” Conboy said with a laugh during a recent telephone interview from his Rohnert Park home, about 40 miles north of San Francisco. “This has been put off and put off and put off, but now it’s going to happen.

“They’ve [ART’s staff] been friends of mine for years and I’m happy for them. . . . Of course, this is a premiere and I’m excited too. It’ll all be a surprise.”

Conboy knows most of ART’s regulars from his late-’80s, early-’90s days teaching drama at Santa Ana College and as founder of the Santa Ana-based Cucucuevez Multi-Cultural Theatre Company. So when ART, which spent its first 10 years putting on plays in a south Santa Ana industrial park, went looking for a writer to create a contemporary version of “Everyman,” the frequently produced medieval morality play, Conboy was an easy choice.

Conboy, who is active in the Bay Area theater scene and teaches at San Francisco State, is known for his use of streetwise language in his comedies and dramas. That edgy style appealed to ART, as did the opportunity to take a classic like “Everyman” and give it a contempo shake-up.

“The challenge was finding ways to reflect the original piece, it’s themes and story,” he said. “I was trying to reflect that [while] having it resonate in this more secular and diverse time that we live in.”

The story of “Everyman,” as any literature or drama student can tell you, centers on a regular guy who is confronted by death and must evaluate and change his life. He has various encounters, all leading to an understanding of both morality and mortality.

Conboy renamed him “El Hombre” and has “Muerte,” the death figure, visit him in the barrio. As Muerte takes him on his self-revealing journey during Christmastime, El Hombre collides with his parents, a street singer, the Four Aspects (Strength, Beauty, Five Wits and Discretion), helpful and not-so-helpful friends, even a group of avid department-store shoppers waving their credit cards.

The playwright turned to teatro, a style he’s worked with for years, to transform the play.

“Teatro is a Chicano type of theater that is very theatrical and presentational,” Conboy explained. “It’s not big on realism [so it] asks the audience to use its imagination quite a bit. Also, the acting style can be broader, which makes sense here.

“Teatro is really the style that first got me excited about the theater years ago. I wanted to bring that form to ‘Barrio Everyman.’ ”

He also saw similarities in characters and themes between many teatro plays and the original “Everyman.” For one, death often makes an appearance in folkloric presentations and the battle of spiritualism versus materialism is a frequent issue.

“As for Death, he shows up in a lot of Teatro, and then there’s the ‘Day of the Dead’ imagery,” Conboy said. “Doing it this way seemed like a good fit.”

In keeping with another teatro tradition, the cast members handle multiple roles, using masks and costume changes. For instance, the actor playing Muerte first shows up as God’s messenger.

The song that opens “Barrio Everyman” also has a teatro flavor. The singer, clearly in an urban environment, lets everyone know at the start that the world El Hombre travels through is not always a welcoming place:

There’s no room at the inn

No room at the shelter

No room at the Motel 66

There’s no room at the Vons

No room at the Biltmore

No room in the dumpsters of the rich.

A bit later, we’re told it’s time for the tale to begin:

It’s a story/A song

A cautionary cuento

All wrapped up with your name on the bow

So let’s rip it right open

And squeal with surprise!

Vamonos!

The lyrics are often hard-edged and so is the music, explained Conboy, because he thought that by incorporating rap and other current styles, the play would be more immediate. Beyond that, though, he said he just likes using music in his work.

“I have a musical background in rock ‘n’ roll and love to bring a dance-like quality to my writing,” he said. “That helps to go with the rhythm of the language [and] can enhance the overall experience as much as the ideas that are there.”

If it all adds up, Conboy believes, the audience will connect to El Hombre, someone most people should be able to identify with.

“El Hombre embodies a real kind of struggle that we have in life,” he said. “We crave success, but success at what cost? How do we measure that? That’s a theme that drives my work much of the time.

“I found the arc of his character when I considered how he was going to change, how he was going to find some wisdom in life,” Conboy said. “I hope everyone sees that.”

* “Barrio Everyman” premieres today at the Alternative Repertory Theatre, 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. 8 p.m. Continues at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. $22-$25. Through Feb. 27. (714) 836-7929.