Theatergoers eager for an experience that feels both comfortingly familiar and excitingly new after a fifteen-month hiatus from live entertainment can now Head East (or Go West on alternate nights) for an evening of six short plays performed under NoHo skies in The Yard, the Group Rep’s newly constructed outdoor space next door to the membership company’s longtime home.

Head East takes place at a half-dozen roadside motels along fabled Route 66, and a diverse bunch of comedic-dramatic one-acts it is.

Lloyd Pedersen’s lighthearted A Different Man, directed by Larry Eisenberg, stars Katelyn Ann Clark as a middle-aged wife who discovers that sex is better when imagined with Brad Pitt as her bed partner, no matter that hubby Fox Carney can’t quite match Brad in the Hollywood hunk department.

Things take a serious turn in Steve Shaw’s Cleveland And Dallas, directed by Barbara Brownell, featuring Mark Stancato as a country music star with songwriter’s block and Paul Cady as the longtime friend who might just be the man to get his buddy’s creative juices flowing following a devastating fire.

Denise Downer’s Midnight Meeting, directed by Linda Alznauer, has married man Sal Valletta’s extramarital tryst with the much younger Melissa Lugo interrupted by Manny Rodriguez, a young man whom only one of the motel guests can see, with Kelley Goode adding Deep South spice along the way.

JC Gafford’s The Journey, directed by Bruce Kimmel, not only gives Erika Bowman and Maria Kress a pair of terrific roles to play (as longtime besties on a road trip), it allows Bowman to show off power pipes I’ve already saluted in my reviews of Violet and Once On This Island.

Venus Flytrap, written by Van Boudreaux and directed by Heidi Mendez, has Todd Andrew Ball forced to choose between the safe and stable life he’s been planning with fiancée Penelope and the possibility of risk and adventure with a stranger named Alice (Jennifer Whitney).

Last up, Last Exit For Lodging, written by Bill Fitzhugh and directed by Melanie Lee, imagines Motel 66 as purgatory, with Jennifer Karraz as its latest arrival, Chris McGahan as the way-station manager, a wacky William Wilson popping by to check up on Chris’s job performance, and Cathy Diane Tomlin as a last-minute arrival with a surprise up her sleeve.

Originally planned as half of a 2020 “Upstairs at The Group Rep” offering, Head East seems tailor-made for the company’s parking lot turned outdoor theater stage, especially since scenic designers Bert Emmett and Chris Winfield have situated each playlet just outside Rooms 1 and 2, with assorted configurations of patio furniture giving each one-act a slightly different look, as does Douglas Gabrielle’s sunrise to moonlight lighting.

Doubling as sound designer, Shaw has assembled a just-right collection of road-trip pop tunes during set changes, with Angela M. Eads’ assortment of just-right costumes completing the production design.

Direction and performances are uniformly fine, though I’d be remiss not to single out Wilson’s gleefully quirky Richard in Last Exit, and it’s a bonus treat to hear Stancato show off country strumming and vocals and Bowman’s bluesy belt reaching the heavens above.

Go West is produced for The Group Rep by Brooklyn Sample and Stevie Stern, with Kathleen Delaney serving as executive producer.

Sammy Strittmatter is sound engineer and Hisato Masuyama is sound operator. John Ledley is stage manager and Raquel Brooks and Alex Brown are assistant stage managers. Nora Feldman is publicist for The Group Rep.

For actors and audience members vaxxed to mix and mingle sans masks, this eclectic bunch of plays feels like a return to the good old days at The Group Rep this month and next, with a summer-ready outdoor setting providing an added incentive to Head East (or Go West) to Motel 66.

The Yard at The Group Rep, Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood.
www.thegrouprep.com

–Steven Stanley
June 19, 2021
Photos: Doug Engalla

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, The Group Rep