Alright, it’s been a crazy couple weeks for me.  Car is outta commission and I’m just gonna help my brother get a new engine for his box chevy and drive that bitch around.  Alright so let’s start with Firehouse.  

So I enjoyed this play.  The story was great and all the actors were excellent except for Ed Morrone.  He was whatever, lol.  The story is about a firefighter (de los Reyes) caught in the middle between staying loyal to his comrades and staying loyal to his neighborhood.  Racism plays a role in this story and it definitely doesn’t steer away from the truth of some people’s actions.  I don’t want to give a lot away so I’ll leave it at that.  I really liked Jossara Jinaro.  great actress and super fine ;)  You can tell the story was inspired by occurrences like the Sean Bell case.  It was some real shit pretty much.  I was hopin’ Jossara Jinero would get naked during the play but it didn’t happen, haha just kiddin’…no i’m not.  Kamar De Los Reyes gave an excellent performance as Robert.  You got 3 great Latino actors: Kamar de los Reyes who’s Puerto Rican, Jossara Jinaro who’s Brazilian-Colombian, and Dave Baez (plays Pito) who’s Puerto-Rican.  I’m sure the original actor that plays Pito, Elvis Nolasco is Latino too but I dunno.  I know this dude Baez is on that show Dexter, which I don’t watch but I did my research.  I gotta mention the white boy Jon Southwell who plays William as well.  He too gave a great performance.  I definitely recommend this play to everyone especially Hispanics because like Jinaro said, “We’re trying to get more Latinos to come!”  Do the damn thing and go see this!  Gotta mention the reggaeton songs they played during the scene changes, haha, that was shit was tight.  They played Calle 13 and Tego Calderon.  After that play, me and my cousin was bumpin’ 96.3 FM (Latino 96), lol.  Check out the pics, you can actually see my face.  whatever, I ain’t the Theatre Ninja! lol

Here’s the pics I took that night…

Kamar de los Reyes, Ed Morrone, and Jon Southwell

Gerald Downey, Jon Southwell, Ed Morrone, and Kamar de los Reyes - THE FIREFIGHTERS!

Picture of the set.  It came out a little dark but I like the way it looks.

Me with Jossara Jinaro.  So pretty, I had to take a pic with her! haha. great actor.

Dave Baez - Played a great crackhead! haaaaa

FIREHOUSE!

Alright, i gotta bounce.  But I got the “Jamaica, Farewell” review comin’ up tomorrow (most likely). PEACE!

Alright, so this weekend, I was definitely slackin’ with the tweets.  My phone’s been fuckin up on me for a while now.  I don’t rock a smart phone.  I’m workin with a Verizon LG envy.  It’s pretty lame, that’s all i gotta say.  My battery starts running out randomly sometimes and I can’t even take photos when that shit starts happening cause that’ll just eat up whatever power i have left.  I’m gonna get an Iphone…watch.  

So here’s what went down on Friday night.  I go to pick up my cousin like at 7:20.  I get to her house and call her to come outside.  She tells me, “i’m on my way!  wait like 5 minutes.”  I wait.  And wait.  this bitch finally gets home like almost 20 minutes later.  But hold up, that aint the end of it.  She stilllllllllll gotta get ready “real fast.”  I’m textin her ass to hurry the fuck up, worried about not being able to get in, and I notice the time and its like 8:10.  She finally comes out like 5 minutes later.  I’m pissed off but I’m tryin’ to stay positive so I let it go and just rush over to the Whitefire Theatre.  We get there like at 8:35 and the lady’s like “oh, i’m sorry, I can’t let you in because it’s very disruptive to the audience.”  I’m like “fuuuuuuucccccck.”  So we sit down to wait for the 2nd act.  But as i sat there, listening to my cousin whisper to me how the lady creeps her out, I thought to myself, “man, fuck this.  I ain’t tryin to just watch a 2nd act and not know what’s goin on.”  So we left.  I’m going to try to go this Friday.  WITHOUT MY COUSIN.  Sorry Whitefire :/

So Saturday rolls around and i’m on my way to NoHo Stages to watch “The Birthday Boys.”  I take my other cousin this time.  We get there and some people were giving me this look:

LOL, I was like “what the fuck?”  I did stand out from the rest of the artsy-theatre people.  I believe people just thought that I didn’t look like the type of person that would be there.  That, or the white people just thought I was some ‘hood hispanic dude who must have been dragged there by somebody, hahaha.  

So they finally let us in and all you see on the stage is this guy with a ski-mask, lookin’ like a straight burgler, just standing there holding one of the lights and just mean-muggin’ the shit out of the audience.  It was kinda creepy.  The set was badass.  I really liked the whole feel of it.  The whole play takes place in this room where these terrorists have taken 3 U.S. Marines hostage.  Throughout the show, you watch as these marines try to deal with their situation.  All of them know each other previous to being captured and there’s a whole lot of arguing between the 3.  A lot of yellin (it was a little too much at times.  felt like sayin “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” a couple of times).  

The actors were excellent.  I think they did a great job.  The story was very cool and creative.  However, I would of enjoyed the play way more if it just stuck to being suspensful and dark, without the comedy.  I guess it just wasn’t my kind of humor.  I mean people were crackin’ up.  Just me and my cousin weren’t, hahaha.  There were times where the whole audience would burst out laughin and my cousin and I would just look at eachother like, “really?!”  lmao, the humor was just corny.  Totally appropriate for the audience though.  I could tell they probably thought the humor was very “daring” at times when in actuality, it wasn’t, lol.  It got kinda boring to me at one point, hearing these 3 Marines blab and blab about shit that wasn’t funny.  

I liked when the leader of the terrorists came in because it hyped up the suspense a little more.  I gotta give it up to Gabriel Reed for playing a good terrorist.  This dude was a straight up boss as the leader of the militia.  In all, I liked the story, I just wasn’t feelin’ the dialogue.  Made me wanna take a nap at times, I’m sorry.  But in all honesty, they did a great job with the overall presentation.  Really dug that damn set, man, hahaha.  It felt like you were in the room with the marines.  I just felt like the 4th Marine and Lance wasn’t lettin ME sleep! haaaaaa.

Thank you to Gregory Crafts from Theatre Unleashed.  Don’t take my opinion as the one that matters (i’m sure i don’t gotta tell you).    

So this weekend, I’m goin’ to 2 plays.

On Friday night, i’ll be goin’ to see “Firehouse” (Laura Coker & The Whitefire Theatre) at the Whitefire Theatre.  I know it’s about a man who’s been through some shit as a firefighter, lol.  I know race plays a role in this play (every story needs a little racism, right? haaaa).  Let’s see how this goes…

On Saturday night, I’ll be goin’ to see “The Birthday Boys” (Theatre Unleashed) at NoHo Stages.  As Theatre Unleashed told me, it’s “crazy shit,”  and I like crazy shit.  Its about 3 U.S. Marines who’ve been taken hostage (and hopefully tortured, hahaha, na jk), and they do pretty much what they have to do to survive.  i’m wit it.  

i’ll let yall know what I thought of these 2 plays on Monday. PEEEZZZOOOWWW

So me and my 2 friends got there a little late because dumbass google maps decided to be a dick and direct us to the wrong address.  It’s all good though, we made it and only missed a few minutes.  As I walked in, the place smelled like incense.  John Lennon (played by Tim Piper) is on stage speaking to the audience.  The stage is all decked out 60’s style.  I looked and thought, “damn, this is some real hippy shit!  alright!”  It was pretty tight though, the vibe was definitely set and I felt like I was in the 60’s.  I kept lookin’ at 2 of the band members because i was like “man, these mothafuckas look like Slash’s (gun ‘n roses) long-lost brothers!”  Tim Piper does an amazing job as John Lennon.  This dude looks like him, talks just like him, sings like him, does the same mannerisms as him, everything.  I was very impressed.  He walks you through the show, as though he were having a one on one conversation with you, projecting Lennon’s feelings and emotions, as though it were the real John Lennon expressing them, himself.

I really liked the music performances.  Him and his band performed songs such as - Julia, Come Together (which was MY FAVORITE performance), We Can Work It Out, No Reply, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, A Day In The Life, Don’t Let Me Down, Imagine, and more (song titles provided to me by my friend, a Beatles fan, because my ass can’t name any of them).

I’m not a Beatles fan but I was still able to appreciate the music.  At one point Lennon (Tim Piper) came to the audience and took song requests - sang and played them on his acoustic guitar.  Everyone sang along (except for me, of course).  In all, I thought it was a great play that any Beatles fan should see.  Me personally, I would of preferred just the music.  I just wished I had blazed a little before goin’ in, ya know.