"I've grown accustomed to your soul."

Just yesterday I had the opportunity to witness community theater at its best. While at the Chino Community Theatre's production of They're Playing Our Song, I felt completely intrigued and engaged by the small yet profoundly moving cast. Although the context of the play could have been perceived as limited due to the fact that there were realistically only two speaking roles, the director and cast found it as a challenge to prove just the opposite. As the plot proceeded and was able to develop, I too began to relate to the main characters Sonia and Vernon better each time. It was almost as if you were building some sort of audience-actor relationship that made the entire performance more believable despite its proximity to reality.

Now at the beginning of the performance, I was actually quite disappointed with the actors on stage. Though I am far from an expert on the matter, I was consciously aware of the minor indiosyncracsies of Gracie Arvizu (Sonia) and Christopher Diehl (Vernon) that almost detracted from the overall success of the performance. What probably irritated me to no end was the fact that Vernon would never make any connection with the audience. It almost seemed as though he was too afraid to look into the eyes of a viewer for fear of breaking character, perhaps. Still, his gangly sort of complacent personality really did his character in for me. Another minor concern regarding the performance was that as the only essential characters of the performance, Sonia and Vernon themselves did not have the initial spark that would make them believable as a couple. With differing internal clocks, Sonia and Vernon constantly stepped on each other's lines or interrupted each other. This may have come across as unprofessional on the part of the actors.

That's going to be all for now, but I'll make sure to elaborate a bit more on the context of They'e Playing Our Song and the entire set-up of the performance.