Arts & Life

Doubt…or confusion?

The lights went down in the Beach Auditorium just a few minutes after 8 p.m., the promised starting time of the attempted adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Doubt: A Parable.

The show was directed by Jay Dent, a Cal State Long Beach senior theatre major as part of her thesis for the University Honors Program. The auditorium went dark, and what came next was puzzling, to say the least.

If “giving a voice to the underdogs,” which is what Dent is “all about” according to the LB Press Telegram, means throwing together a rag-tag show with better artistic design than acting … job well done?
The CSULB Theatre Arts Department typically produces shows that rely on much more than a confusing array of overdone stage makeup, distracting lighting and cliché costumes. Doubt had three official show times, a runtime longer than the department’s weekly showcase performances, which are also primarily student-run, but typically of higher quality.

In other words, the show didn’t exactly merit a five-out-of-five star ranking. To delve into the explanation of that conclusion further would compromise the intense spirit of the production, the director and her 25-page thesis, which will most likely be held under a harsher light during the grading process.

The production aside, Dent created a particularly fascinating concept. It may be that her thesis was not made clear through the show itself, but the spirit of the cast, the encouragement of the rather sizeable audience, composed of primarily family and friends, and Dent’s closing words conveyed an underlying sense of inspiration and hope.

Dent not only produced this show, she also founded the Black Actors Union on campus, and tied that to her production by casting primarily minority students in the various roles. She chose to adapt a play, set in the Bronx in 1964, which revolves around a fiery nun’s suspicion that a priest has molested the first black student to attend their Roman Catholic elementary school.

The CSULB “scooter twins,” Joseph and David Lee were among the actors, playing roles that pitted them against each other as a “good angel” versus “bad angel” duo. This was a rare experience as the twins are typically 100 percent identical from extreme Mohawks to stylish footwear, as they ride through campus on blue, motorized scooters.

Although Dent’s thesis was unclear, a dialogue between the nun and the black student’s mother may have been the closest guess to Dent’s intended argument. The scene raised questions about racism, homophobia and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. If Dent could have concentrated on seeking answers to those questions over the course of the show, and lost some of the “theatricality,” the project may have been more sophisticated.

A free show is a free show — you get what you pay for. Dent is a motivated young person, with a group of supporters who admire and adore her. As she stage-dove into the arms of her cast and crew after her closing words, it became clear that the show itself was not the point. The true art surfaced in the form of trust amongst every member of the production. It was a trust far beyond any mention of doubt.

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