Simple in concept, this one-act play’s power lies in the suspenseful, eloquent unfolding of the Lee family’s secrets. Playwright Julia Cho approaches these revelations as if she’s peeling away layers of an onion, and “Durango” becomes more poignant as it gets deeper to the core.
Read MoreLike most of Cho’s work, Durango is quietly devastating, and Carlos Murillo’s staging is fittingly both stark and tender. Marianna Csaszar’s austere, boxlike set is painted with a desert landscape, suggesting at once confinement and wide-open spaces. The cast’s understated but detailed performances let the play’s series of small, tense moments build to an emotionally shattering climax.
Read MoreLike the Hypocrites’ current buzz-heavy Our Town, this production uses skeletal but precise staging and only a few flourishing design surprises to reap huge emotional rewards, even in the face of Cho and Murillo’s final discordant moments. If only every theater in town had the nerve to try an ending like this once in a while.
Read MoreThe parallels to Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman are striking, but Durango is set in 21st-century America, where Korean immigrant Boo-Seng Lee is the father of Isaac, 21, and Jimmy, 15.
Read MoreCho is a compassionate and interesting young writer able to see the world from more than one side. "Durango" manages to deftly evoke a family where no male really has the words to reach another male. And one does not have to be of Korean heritage to recognize that condition.
Read MoreCho's play (with echoes of both "Death of a Salesman" and "Leaving Iowa") ... has the ring of truth. Anthony-Foronda gives a sensitive performance... Wang and Kaiko are easily likable and suggest a most believable brotherly bond.
Read MoreThere is a suspense element and a realistic and plausible resolution that is satisfying without resorting to hooky sharing of their secrets and each forgiving the other scenario seen in countless TV scripts.
Read MoreThe Arts Club of Chicago, in association with Silk Road Theatre Project and Next Theatre Company, hosted "In Conversation," a luncheon and panel discussion with playwrights Julia Cho and Heather Raffo. The conversation was moderated by Jamil Khoury and Jason Loewith, respective artistic directors of Silk Road Theatre Project and Next Theatre Company.
Read MoreTo the outside world, the Lee boys look like the perfect Korean American sons: Isaac plans to be a doctor and his younger brother, Jimmy, is a champion swimmer with a bright future. But when their widowed father, Boo-Seng, decides to take them on a road trip to Durango, Colorado, all three find themselves grappling with old memories and unhealed wounds.
As tempers flare and secrets break open, the difference between who they are and who they’ve pretended to be threatens to tear the family apart.
Read MoreNext Theatre Company, in collaboration with Silk Road Theatre Project and the Museum of Contemporary Art, produced a high-profile panel featuring the three most potent forces in Arab American theatre today.
Read MoreThis exclusive event for Silk Road Theatre Project subscribers and donors featured an intimate conversation with Sung Rno, playwright of Cleveland Raining, and Silk Road Theatre Project Artistic Director Jamil Khoury.
Read MoreThe adult children of Korean immigrants, Jimmy and his younger sister Mari live in Ohio but it might as well be the edge of the world. Jimmy has dreams of an apocalyptic flood, so he finds an old VW bug and hires a mechanic, Mick, to create an ark that runs on emotional loss. Mari is a medical student who wants to understand why her father left without a word, and why she likes to burn medical books. She befriends an injured motorcyclist, Storm, who talks tough but has a feel for the weather. As the rain falls, Jimmy and Mari discover the art of their family’s past, even as the water washes over their hidden histories.
Read MoreThis award provided a $5,000.00 cash gift and a marketing support package that included a full page ad in a Friday and Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune.
Read MoreYou start out thinking that El Guindi's sympathies lie more with the guy who respects his homeland (and you'd be right), but by the end of the play, you smell some politically incorrect and potentially dangerous ambivalence. And in the theater, that's tremendously exciting.
Read MoreOn March 7th's Dueling Critics segment on WBEZ’s (NPR) 848 show, critics Kelly Kleiman and Jonathan Abarbanel discuss the new play HEAT WAVE. At the end of the discussion when each critic speaks about a show they’ve seen this past week that they highly recommend, you’ll hear Kleiman speak about Our Enemies.
Read MoreThe dilemma isn't new, but it gets a powerful spin from El Guindi. Like it or not, what these "enemies" produce has an impact beyond what they intend, especially during these unstable times.
Read MoreThough long passages of El Guindi's script amount to a debate on the issues, the show never feels dry because the playwright leavens that debate with humor, sex, and a healthy dose of both intellectually and emotionally honest ambivalence.
Read MoreThere are few greater pleasures in the theater than watching an actor in a role that he or she seems to have been destined to play.
Read MoreDespite the weightiness of the material, El Guindi’s fluid story-telling skills, his delicious sense of irony and his bristling dialogue—hurled about the stage with pinpoint accuracy by an excellent ensemble—make this riveting entertainment.
Read MoreThis is a well written story of love, lust, hate, fear and a look at the Arab-American community that we do not often get a glimpse into, so besides being excellent theater, it is also a learning experience of a culture that we need to be aware of in the United States.
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