REVIEWS

Nowhere On The Border is a must see!

"A brilliant drama ... a remarkable piece of storytelling"
............Michael Eck, TIMES UNION (Read the entire review)

"There's nothing to compare this to. The play is so splendidly written, the acting so sublime that I feared I might run out of superlatives in describing it ... This is must-see theater at its very finest."
............Carol King, DAILY GAZETTE (Read the entire review)

"It's an exceptional play with an exceptional cast in an exceptional production by an exceptional director, deserving of full houses . . ."
............Charles Kondek, HUDSON-CATSKILL NEWSPAPERS (Read the entire review)

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A brilliant drama 'Nowhere on the Border’

By MICHAEL ECK, Special to the Times Union

HUDSON -- A lone figure is briefly wreathed in shadow and light, a gossamer monument shimmering in the desert heat.

And so begins Carlos Lacamara's "Nowhere On The Border."

Stageworks is giving the piece its professional premiere, and Lacamara should thank the stars over Arizona for his luck, because this is the kind of work the troupe excels in.

That figure is Pilar Castillo, a young woman crossing the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. She is traveling with a few others, all evading the unmerciful gaze of the sun and the border patrol.

Her father, Roberto, is also in the desert, searching for her. She left to find her husband in America, whom she has not seen in three years. Roberto followed, looking for his little girl.

The crux of the play is a meeting between Roberto (played by Lacamara) and a volunteer vigilante -- a member of the Homeland Patriot Project -- named Gary Dobbs (Stewart J. Zully).

Gary is a Kentucky steelworker who lost his job when the factory moved to Mexico. His presence on the border isn't quite a vendetta, but it's not far from it either.

But as drama -- and Lacamara -- would have it, the two men are closer kin than either one first realizes.

Lacamara balances the tension with flashes of humor, and in the scenes depicting Pilar and her traveling companions, genuine poignancy.

Lacamara and Zully are well paired. As the fathers come to understand each other, both allow their characters to ripen and open. It's very good work...

Romina Sacre as Pilar borders on brilliant. Her scenes with fellow émigré, Jesus (Gustave Heredia), and their coyote, Montoya (David Arca), the man assigned to smuggle them into America, are a strong foil to those of Lacamara and Zully.

Lacamara's plot actually twines the interlocking scenes of past and present tighter and tighter as the play moves to its heartbreaking conclusion.

The real star of this production, however, is director Laura Margolis, who has helped shape this play into a remarkable piece of storytelling.

Making use of Stageworks' deep playing space, she allows multiple planes of time and plot and understanding to occur at once.

With the aid of scenic designer Randall Parsons, sound designer Jeffery Lependorf and lighting designer Frank Den Danto III, she creates a finely grained picture of the desert and disaster.

And she makes it clear that much of that disaster stems from the inability of either country -- the United States or Mexico -- to make up its mind about what is right when cultures collide, as Lacamara would have it, nowhere on the border.

Michael Eck is a freelance writer from Albany and a frequent contributor to the Times Union.

Theater review "Nowhere on the Border"
Performance reviewed: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Stageworks, 41-A Cross Street, Hudson
Length: 90 minutes Continues: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Through Sept. 13
Tickets: $24-$29
Contact: 822-9667; http://www.stageworkshudson.org

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Writing, acting make 'Nowhere' a standout

CAROL KING For the Daily Gazette

Stageworks/Hudson bills itself as "Theater outside the box." It is that and so much more.

Driving home Friday after the opening night presentation of "Nowhere on the Border," I thought, "There's nothing to compare this to." The play is so splendidly written, the acting so sublime that I feared I might run out of superlatives in describing it. This is must-see theater at its very finest.

The play takes place on a stretch of desert on the border of Arizona and Mexico. Gary (Stewart J. Zully), a volunteer Minuteman, discovers Roberto, played by Carlos Lacamara, who also wrote the play. Assuming he is an illegal immigrant, possibly a drug smuggler, Gary phones for back-up. Also present is a dead body, a young girl who has died in an attempt to cross the desert into the U.S. As the two men wait for representatives of the border patrol to arrive, the events of their lives unfold.

Gary is a former steel worker who has lost his job and been forced to work in a Hallmark store managed by his wife. His son is fighting in Afghanistan. Roberto is searching for his daughter, Pilar (Romina Sacre), who has left their home in Mexico to find her husband. He has immigrated to the United States in search of a job.

The play weaves seamlessly back and forth in time, telling the story of Roberto's troubled relationship with his daughter, his attempts to stop her from what he considers an impossible quest, and Pilar's desperation to find her husband, who has been missing for three years.

The intensity of the story makes for transforming and relevant drama, but it is the humanity of the characters that transports the audience into their circumstances. And on opening night, this audience member was transported into an alien yet completely familiar world of love, fear, friendship, understanding and empathy.

The two men talk of their very different cultures and, in the process, discover how alike they are. They share feelings and recipes. Gary tells Roberto -- who he keeps calling Ricardo -- the story of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Needless to say, Roberto finds the story appalling, especially considering it is told to children just before they go to sleep. The exchanges are often touching and, in the capable hands of the two actors, hilariously funny.

Zully plays Gary with a superb blend of patriotic American machismo and male vulnerability. Lacamara's Roberto is whip-smart and resourceful but laid-back in his approach to his captor. These characters could be stereotypes, but Lacamara's exceptional pen never allows that.

Director Laura Margolis has assembled a remarkable design team. Scenic design by Randall Parsons creates a tortured desert landscape; lighting by Frank Den Danto III offers sun-blistered days and star-encrusted desert nights.

Run, don't walk, to experience this riveting production.

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MAKE A RUN FOR 'NOWHERE ON THE BORDER' By Charles Kondek For Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

 

For the past 14 years Laura Margolis, artistic director of Stageworks/Hudson has devoted herself to producing theatre writ large, sometimes writ larger than life itself.

The third effort in the company's 15th season is the professional world premiere of a searing, sizzling drama, "Nowhere on the Border," by playwright/ actor Carlos Lacamera. It follows a long company tradition of 'Theater outside the Box,' and surely earns a spot very near the top of the long list of Margolis’ achievements. The production is Broadway caliber, insightful as it is intriguing, powerful as it is provocative, amusing as it is anguished, and something you will not soon forget.

The desert no-man's-land between Mexico and the United States, under a merciless sun, has in recent years been traveled - usually by foot and mostly at night to avoid the heat and the Border Patrols - by thousands of men, women and even children attempting to reach and partake of the American Dream across the border. Some make it; others do not.

Gary, a blunt, burly volunteer with a Homeland Patriots group, while on duty stumbles across Roberto, a Mexican asleep by the side of the road. A dismembered body of a woman lays nearby. Roberto explains he has a visa and he is waiting for the Border Patrol to come and remove the body. He further explains he's been in the area for two weeks searching for his daughter, Pilar. She left home in order to find her husband who has been away in Arizona for three years.

The two men settle into an uneasy truce as they await the authorities. The play then shifts back and forth in time and place as secrets are revealed and ideologies are explained and debated. Both men are concerned for their children: Pilar is believed lost somewhere out in the desert; Gary's boy is fighting in Afghanistan. Both men are macho males who don't like working for women: Roberto for Pilar who started a vegetable/fruit stand to earn money in order to make the trip to Arizona; Gary, without a real job of his own, occasionally assists his wife who manages a Hallmark greeting card shop. Roberto used to work in a copper mine in Mexico; Gary's father was a coal miner. Some similarities, but the gulf between the men doesn't get all much smaller until the last moments of the play.

The play's cast includes Stewart J. Zully as Gary, the embodiment of a Kentucky red-neck, loud, easy to anger, and intractable in his reasons for doing what he does, proudly protecting his country from illegal Mexicans and Arabs. He is a force to be reckoned with.

Zully is the only actor in the cast who is not Spanish. The four others are fluent in the language, adding a certain verisimilitude to their Spanish accented English dialogue.

Roberto is playwright Carlos Lacamera, and the part belongs to him. Why shouldn't it, he wrote the role for himself, and he's terrific. He is almost the stereotypical movie Mexican, but his truth and honesty save him.

Gustavo Heredia is Jesus, a fellow Mexican who befriends Pilar, and the organizer of the smuggling operation and the group's guide is David Area. Both do very clean and capable work.

The joy of the evening is Romina Sacre as Pilar. Growing up she wanted to be a saint; all she wants to do now is cuss. Sacre is extraordinary, becoming bitter and colder as the trip continues, yet more and more determined to find her husband. Sacre effortlessly and fearlessly peels off layer after layer of the character, artfully exposing all, and in doing so embraces a wide range of emotions with considerable courage.

The little patch of desert sand, rock and scrub brush is by designer Randall Parsons, and if you begin to get thirsty during the course of watching the show, it's because of him. Parsons has also placed the set in front of a beautifully painted back drop of the mountains in northern Mexico, romantic and haunting at the same time. All of this is expertly lighted by Frank Den Danto III who has designed a number of Stageworks productions. Another design veteran is costumer Janet Sussman. The clothes are all they should be and more. The composer/sound designer is Jeffery Lependorf, and what one hears is lonely, plaintive and occasionally punctuated by something Tex-Mex.

It's an exceptional play with an exceptional cast in an exceptional production by an exceptional director, deserving of full houses the entire run at 41-A Cross Street in Hudson until September 13.

   For tickets, call 518.822.9667.