Word: valdina
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...confidence and complete absorption of the cast in their larger-than-life roles provide an energetic consistency to this production which is, unfortunately, lost among the ruckus. The voice-overs, the eerie new age music composed by Valdina and the entire scenes played offstage create an audial saftey-net which attempts to hold the production together...
...told Valdina twenty minutes of television is an effective dramatic device? Video of this extended duration encourages the audience to become either bored or intellectually passive, as if they were watching television on the couch at home. This shouldn't be the aim of experimental theater...
Only once in this production is video used in a thought-provoking manner. In one dream sequence, a filmstrip of a surreal childhood canoe trip is projected on the backdrop while the scene is played out on the stage. This creates the disturbingly effective visual juxtaposition which Valdina strives for throughout the play but rarely achieves...
Much else gets lost in the mayhem. Valdina has a talent for witty, understated dialogue. A series of scenes portraying Caleb and Angela thoughout the day in the office is subtly humorous, and gives the actors a chance to be human; for once, they aren't running around screaming. The same may be said for a scene in which Angela and her boss, Vanessa (Holly Kretschmer) sit at a lunch counter discussing the various attributes of okra vs. eggplant, under the adoring eye of their busboy, Javier (Spyros Poulios), who likes "both okra and eggplant." These brief, intelligent scenes make...
This is theater at its most superficial. There is no coherent message or even mood behind Valdina's piece. It's a shame, because the efforts of the actors are obscured within this shallow fluff, as are Valdina's fine talent for dialogue and musical composition. Ultimately, Jordan Valdina's "As Breath in the Wind" is about as satisfying as watching MTV for an hour and a half. Something new happens every minute, and yes, each new effect attempts to be provocative and disturbing, but there's no common vision to unite all the fragments. At the end, little stands...