Cheap Seats Brainpeople

Welcome to Cheap Seats, where every Thursday we’ll talk to folks behind the scenes of the stage events opening around town, in order to give you a flavor of the productions that won’t be found in any of the promo materials.

Brainpeople at UrbanTheater Company (starts November 11)

Promo pull quote: “Taking place in a not-so-distant future, the sounds of a war-torn Los Angeles fill the air. Tensions rise, true colors are revealed, and the main course is not the only thing with claws.”

What it’s really about: In his play Brainpeople, playwright Jose Rivera returns to the post-apocalyptic setting that has characterized many of his previous plays, examining the roles of three woman living in a dystopian, militant society and the ways in which they cope. For Rosemary, that means creating multiple personalities, the “brainpeople” of the play’s title. “It’s about a wealthy woman, Mayannah, who invites two complete strangers to her house every year to have dinner,” said Marilyn Camacho, starring as Mayannah in UrbanTheater’s production. “I don’t want to spoil it, but there’s a reason why she has this big elaborate dinner for two people every year. We end up finding out that everyone there wants something, and it turns out that miraculously what everybody wants gets fulfilled.”

Fun fact: With his screenplay for the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries, Jose Rivera became the first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Academy Award.  Brainpeople presents a first for UrbanTheater Company as well. “It’s our company’s first all-woman show.” Camacho said. “We’ve been around five years, and this will be the first time we’ve had an all-woman cast, with a woman director. That’s huge for us, because a lot of our shows have been male-heavy, so it’s all about girl power with this one. We’re excited to have a show that can really represent the women of the company.”

Best reason to try it: Rivera’s Puerto Rican heritage makes his work a great fit for Humboldt Park’s UrbanTheater Company, which caters to a largely Puerto Rican audience. The magical realism of Rivera’s writing is a nice change of pace for the company as well, as its last season focused primarily on gritty stories told from a realistic street-level perspective. “We’re in a great community that is really underrepresented as far as the theater scene goes,” said Camacho. “I think a lot of people are afraid to touch certain shows for fear of how the audience will react, and one of the greatest things is we’re able to put on some really cutting-edge work. We are the only professional theater company working out of Humboldt Park, and that gives us a distinct voice that’s the best reason to come to our part of town.”