Damion Horsley, left, and Andrew Hernon share a tender moment in the play "Next Door." (Photo by Sun Lee)
Story Created:
Aug 28, 2009 at 1:56 PM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 28, 2009 at 2:01 PM PST
“Next Door,” a two act drama playing at South Los Angeles’ Stage 52 Theater, takes a thought-provoking look at multiracial and class co-existence through the eyes of three different family situations.
The play, to be staged Friday and Saturday, is produced by nonprofit theater ensemble Streetlamp Studio.
In one story, single Black mother Anita (Malika Williams) works and attends night school, all the while trying her best to raise 16-year-old Kishon (Damian Horsely) who yearns to learn more about his absent father.
In another, Denise, a teenage Latina (Anna Klein), is a bright, geeky, student whose pregnancy could derail her dream of attending college.
Connecting them are Sarah and Michael (Jenny Vaughn Hall and Andrew Hernon), an ultra-liberal White couple who are both teachers and anxiously expectant parents.
Vaughn Hall also wrote the play, woven from real-life stories of people in her South L.A. neighborhood, and it was produced by Sarah Sandberg and directed by Naisa Wong.
Both Horsley and Klein portray students of Vaughn Hall’s character, who, to Anita’s chagrin, has her son composing rap tunes for his English tutorial assignment.
Meanwhile, Hernon has also run afoul of the “scary Black woman” by encouraging Horsley to talk about wanting to reconnect with his dad.
It’s a set-up: White guilt, Black anger and Latino regret, that seems predictable at the outset but Vaughn Hall crafts the interlocking stories with wit, verve and ultimately pathos.
To quote Rodney King: “Why can’t we all just get along?”
For cynics it might just be a utopian dream, but there is considerable evidence that a majority of us believe in a society where different races and classes can peacefully co-exist.
However, in L.A.’s volatile, car-obsessed environs that gives rise to the kind of thorny questions contemplated here. For instance, how can we create a truly multicultural city when neighborhoods are almost willfully divided by race, culture or economic design?
It may be a joke, but the Mid-City dweller refrain, “I don’t go east of La Brea,” can ring very true.
How can we also be good neighbors if we are so suspicious of outsiders?
“They still think you’re cops,” Williams jokes to Vaughn Hall of her Black and Latino neighbors when a hint of a friendship starts to develop.
And ultimately, how can we ever be good neighbors if we instantly judge anyone by the color of their skin and the content of their wallets?
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