Memorable performances and a stunning production design go a long way towards overcoming a tangled storyline and the absence of supertitles in Latino Theater Company’s thrillingly acted and visually stunning World Premiere drama Mascogos, now playing at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Miranda González’s historical-contemporary drama alternates between two distinctly different time zones and locales.

In the first, we are in Muzquiz, Coahuila, Mexico in the year 1864. In the second, we are in present-day Chicago. The main protagonist in both time zones is a young black man named Jamari (pronounced Hamari in Mexico and Jamari in Chicago).

Mid-19th-century teen Jamari (Rogelio Douglas III) dreams of joining revolucionario-turned-presidente Benito Juarez, no matter that Juarez and his band of rebels have pitted themselves against the Catholic church, represented locally by Padre Jose (Lakin Valdez).

Jamari’s chum Gechu (Rama Orleans-Lindsay), meanwhile, is bent on joining her American father up north, no matter that she hasn’t heard from him in over ten years, no matter the opposition of surrogate parent Mama Luz (Monte Escalante).

Flashing forward to the year 2025, aspiring drummers Jamari and Trudy (Orleans-Lindsay) have dreams of their own, though Trudy’s of changing high schools and going to the $40,000-a-year Chicago Academy of the Arts seems more a pipe dream than anything attainable, no matter how talented she is. (Jamari at least has already been accepted into the DePaul School of Music with a full scholarship and a $10,000 grant.)

And in both time zones, Jamari seems subject to “spells” that may well have audience members wondering if the two Jamaris may be one and the same.

 If this mini-synopsis of Mascogo’s early scenes already seems more than a bit convoluted, just wait until 1864 Jamari and Gechu start conversing in a native patois that playwright González translates in her printed script but not for the audience at the LATC.

Hence my wish that lines like “I jus trynna learn sum’than mo’” (spoken with thick local accents) had been projected as Modern English supertitles so that it would have been clear that what Jamari was actually saying was “I’m just trying to read something different.”

As for the reason for Jamari, Gechu, and Mama Luz’s presence in Mexico, it doesn’t help that González assumes we already know the history of the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who escaped slavery in Florida and Georgia to settle in northern Mexico in the early 1850s.

Despite these drawbacks, audience members willing to go along with not understanding and following everything that’s that’s being said and done on stage will be richly rewarded by the four fabulous performances director José Luis Valenzuela has elicited and a breathtaking production design.

Douglas is on fire as an actor playing dual roles with dramatic force, as a dancer exhibiting power and grace to Urbanie Lucero’s choreographed moves, and as a whiz on the drums, and the same can be said about the remarkable Orleans-Lindsay, who brings to vibrant, indelible life two very different young women, each with a dream she is bound and determined to make come true.

A particularly fine Escalante too creates two distinct characters, the maternal Mama Luz and Trudy’s sassy Aunt Shine, and Valdez is equally terrific as Mexican priest Padre Jose and gym coach gym teacher (sorry, make that Physical Education Facilitator) Mr. J.

 Not only does Mascogos score where acting is concerned (Sam Macias and Stephanie Hoston add to the onstage excitement in addition to understudying the four leads), you won’t find a more drop-dead gorgeous production in town.

François-Pierre Couture has created a set that, enhanced by Yee Eun Nam and Junyuan Xiong’s stunning projections, is pretty much a work of art made even more striking by lighting designer Xinyuan Li (Lee), and Maria Catarina Copelli’s weathered period costumes and contemporary urban garb are equally spot-on.

Add to this Robert J. Revell’s dramatic, evocative sound design and you’ve got a production worth looking at and listening to as the drama unfolds.

Jacqueline Guido is assistant to the director and Cydney Watson is assistant choreographer. Vanessa Mizzone Pellegrini is sensitivity specialist. Cynthia DeCure is dialect coach. Alexa Wolfe is stage manager, Martha Espinoza is assistant stage manager, and Mei Fei is production manager. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

 Overambitious Mascogos might be, and challenging to decipher, but with so much going for it where performances and design are concerned, the latest from Latino Theater Company has much to offer an adventurous audience.

Latino Theater Company, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre 3, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles.
www.latinotheaterco.org

–Steven Stanley
October 30, 2025
Photos: Grettel Cortes Photography

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Latino Theater Company, Los Angeles Theater Review, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Miranda González