Pauline Adamek
Pure, authentic and uplifting – writer/director Pel Tedder”™s fine play, Jaybird & Hallelujah, is currently playing at the NoHo Actor”™s Studio until Aug 7th.
Jaybird & Hallelujah is a serio-comedy about the mysteries of the afterlife, in which several troubled souls share their touching stories.
Tedder”™s play is set in Purgatory where a handful of characters assess their situation and examine what brought them to this stage of torment in limbo. Finding themselves stuck on a bus travelling through difficult terrain, this group of passengers each has their own cross to bear. What happens next – only God knows.
We meet a tough-talking, agitated young guy Willie (Eric Goldrich) and his affectionate, consoling girlfriend Adriana (Sarah Delpizzo) who urges him to seek out the silver lining. One velvet-smooth character, Swamp Rat (Greg L. Grass) also takes a positive outlook to their dilemma, spouting words of comfort in a self-deprecating fashion, such as, “I”™m just an old man talkin”™. You don”™t have to listen to me. I”™m just tryin”™ to cheer you up.”
But there are icy roads and menacing rioters and weirdos at large, threatening their bus trip to the corner of Jaybird and Hallelujah Streets, where the doorway to Heaven may be found.
Some of these characters, including Lena the disgruntled bus driver (Danielle Lofton), have been on this cyclical journey for years and years, in search of their salvation. As Lena puts it, “There”™s no going back. You are on this bus for a reason.” One nervy girl Cassie (Nelinda Palomino) is a newbie. She”™s always cold because she died after freezing to death in a dumpster. Cassie”™s story is especially heartrending. When the setting shifts from the bus to a diner, we see Cassie get a chance for something she”™s been longing for her whole life. Here new lessons and tests are created for these lost souls to deal with as best they can.
Tedder tells me he was inspired to write this play after riding an LA city bus for a year and encountering a whole range of eccentric personalities. “In that job you see some extraordinary and crazy things,” he smiled. He had also heard a song that had the lyrics, “˜What if Heaven is just another door?”™ and that got his brain humming about different interpretations of the afterlife. Within thirty minutes, Tedder says, he had outlined the main idea for his play.
Most nights The Ukomo Theatre Project presents the same play with two different casts, therefore two different interpretations and strikingly different endings. It”™s an interesting experiment and one that pays off. Subtitled “˜The Redemption”™ and “˜The Salvation,”™ both these versions of Jaybird and Hallelujah will play on Saturday 31st July. The last night for “˜Salvation”™ is Fri Aug 6th at 10pm, and “˜Redemption”™ plays until Sat Aug 7th.
There are some beautiful and touching moments, especially towards the end. Flashes of comedy are underpinned by its serious theme. Never bleak nor hopeless, Jaybird and Hallelujah is a gentle reminder to us all to live the best life we can. Tedder”™s poignant play promises to change the way you think about life, death and what happens after death.
WHERE:
NoHo Actors Studios
5215 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood;
WHEN:
Plays: Sat., 9:15 p.m. & 10pm or 10.30pm;Â thru Aug. 7th, 2010
BOX OFFICE:
Tickets are $13.00 (or only $10.00 if purchased in advance)
Contact PEL OR BROOKE:
ukomoproject@live.com (818) 761-2166
peltedderco@live.com (818) 276-5509
Review by Pauline Adamek
Thank you so much for the review(s).
Having a work of mine invoke those reactions/emotions that drove you to pen those articles in the way that you did is what I crave in my creative life… Sustenance to a perpetually hungry man, if you will.
Thanks to you, your Ed & LA Weekly for appreciating my work.