Review: HISTORY LIT Presents Three Immersive Plays at Perfectly Matched Locations Around the Pasadena Museum of History

Unbound Productions led by Jonathan Josephson, Paul Millet and Jeff G. Rack is probably best known for their WICKED LIT presentations at the Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery in Altadena during the Halloween Season each year. I have attended that series for several years and always am amazed by the thoroughly entertaining technical wizardry so precisely matched to the macabre and often frightening locations within the on-site tombs and graveyard.

In 2011, the group presented its inaugural HISTORY LIT reading series, produced in conjunction with and presented on the grounds of the Pasadena Museum of History as well as at private readings at Los Angeles-area schools. In 2012, the plays, focusing on teaching history is creative ways, were presented in a full production on the grounds of the Museum and the adjacent Fenyes Mansion, the same location where this summer's HISTORY LIT series is again playing as three perfectly matched immersive plays on the Museum's beautifully lush grounds through July 31, 2016 at 7:00pm at the Pasadena Museum of History, 470 W. Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91103. For Tickets: http://unboundproductions.org/history-lit

When you check in, you will receive a color-coded program which indicates the group with whom and in what order you will walk around the site to witness the plays. The entire audience returns to a central meeting point in front of the historical Fenyes Mansion, led by time period costume-matched Tour Guides who go on to appear as characters within the play at the location where they have led you. Try to stay as close to these guides as you walk with them as their comical banter is not to be missed. I truly enjoy asking them questions as we walked, knowing their improvised answers will perfectly match the characters they are playing.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Two Pictures in One" adapted by Paul Millet from the short story "The Two Altars: Or Two Pictures in One" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and directed by Darin Anthony inside the gorgeous and intimate Curtin House, adjacent to the Fenyes Mansion. Listen to and read the description carefully before following your Tour Guides as this play is presented as a simultaneous chronicle of the lives and fates of two early Massachusetts families: the Wards, an 18th Century Anglo family living during the early days of the American Revolution and the Caffeys, a 19th Century African-American family living ten years prior to the Civil War. By juxtaposing these two points in time, this play examines ideas of freedom and personal consequences with the two casts appearing on the same set at the same time but never interacting with each other, not even when all six characters are sitting at the same dining table together.

Tour Guides who take on roles in both plays are Eric Keital as Charles/Phillip/Auctioneer #2 and Caleb Slavens as Frederick/Henry/Auctioneer #2. The Wards actors include: 7-year old Bradley Bundlie at younger son Dick, Madeline Fair as his mother Roxy, and Connor Scott as older brother John. The family is doing their best to assist the troops in the American Revolution by providing homemade blankets and socks, but are soon to get word the war has taken the life of their patriarch who was fighting with George Washington. The Caffreys are Jacquelin Schofield as Mae, the fundamentally good wife and mother to 15-year old A'lasia Simone as her educated daughter Mary, and Tony Williams as her husband George, an escaped slave now living as a free man with his born-free wife and daughter. But a knock at the door during dinner pulls George away from his family when brutal slave hunters appear with chains to take him back to Georgia and his "owner." The brutally of the abduction and slave auction scenes bring home solid reasons why the Civil War would soon break out to allow all people to live free no matter the color of their skin. Watch how effectively director Darin Anthony keeps the movements and reactions of the two families separated from each other even when appearing together so the storylines never overlap.

"The Girl Who Owned a Bear" is an original play by Jonathan Josephson, adapted from the short story of the same name by L. Frank Baum, directed by Paul Millet and staged inside the current exhibit at Pasadena Museum of History: Flying Horses & Mythical Beasts: The Magical World of Carousel Animals. The play was adapted to be specifically presented in this location with the fabulously decorated carousel animals a fitting backdrop to the somewhat spooky tale that recounts what happens when a haplessly malevolent storybook author attempts to take his revenge for repeated rejection on a publisher's insufferable and thoroughly spoiled young daughter. We're not exactly sure, but we do know this - don't mess with the bear who rules the roost with his claws of death.

The cast includes Elyse Ashton as the Clown you might miss seeing on your way past where she stands among the horses on your way in, Chairman Barnes as Peter Smith, the Tour Guide who turns out to be the disgruntled author looking for revenge and then morphs into the threatening Bear, Mark Bate as the Donkey, Melissa Perl who romps around as the Monkey, and Morgan Zenith as the impish Jane Gladys who often screams for the unseen Nora who must be her Governess she treats as her own private servant. But despite all her annoying behavior, in the end her cleverness wins the day as well as her reprieve from all the animals. But the real star is the exhibit itself, which is open to the public for viewing - something I plan to do while to allow the magic of all the carousel animals take me back to my childhood.

"The Garden Party" was adapted by Jonathan Josephson from the short story of the same name by Katherine Mansfield, directed by Aurora Culver and staged throughout the luxurious gardens of the Fenyes Mansion. Escorted by Preston the gardener (Sam Silverstein) who was more than happy to interact with audience members during our walks through the gardens to various story locations, his cocky accent and overall presence adding to the reality of those working class folks living in "chocolate eyesores down the lane" from the Sheridan estate.

It was an ideal night for a party held earlier in the evening at the Sheridan estate and young Laura (talented teenager Summer Ruyle) has had the time of her life playing hostess to a throng of party guests. As she enjoys evening tea (with an impressive silver tea set and beautiful china cups) with her mother Cecelia (Hannah Whiteoak), their easy banter is interrupted by the arrival of her father (perfectly upper class and [proper Raymond-Kym Suttle) who makes his grand entrance down the impressive staircase. But when he recounts his tardiness was caused by an unexpected accident befalling a stranger who lives down the road, Laura's congenial life is changed forever when she convinces her parents she must visit the stranger's family to express her anguish for partying while they were suffering a great loss in such close proximity.

Walking through the gardens at night to a small wooden building down a path from the grand mansion increased the realistic division of those living so close yet so far apart. Laura's compassion when she meets Cockney Eloise (Cheryl Ann Gottselig) is palpable, and represents how the future generation will no longer look down upon those with less as if that makes them a lesser person. The final scene where her parents realize Laura's attitude to offer sympathy to their neighbors was the correct thing to do proved class differences around the turn of the 20th Century were moving in the right direction towards equality.

In all three plays, each character is costumed to time-period perfection by Christine Cover Ferro, Unbound Productions resident costume designer. And since you will often be within inches of each character, no doubt you will also notice the attention to detail on every dress, coat, seam, button and bow.

The total package of plays presented by Unbound Productions provides history lessons in a format making them thought-provoking as well as thoroughly entertaining. Do your best to be part of the audience before the show ends on July 31.

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