Tales of the City: Communiversity Project Brings Carson Residents' Stories to the CSUDH Stage

We were meeting with a community that is very driven, and wants to improve their lives ... It’s interesting to see a strong social purpose behind a lot of what was being said. - Bill DeLuca, professor and chair, Theatre Arts

Open auditions for “A House Named Eden,” by nationally acclaimed playwright José Cruz González, will be held in the University Theatre at Cal State Dominguez Hills 7- 9 p.m., September 5-6.

Auditions for the play, which is based on interviews done of a host of Carson residents from all walks of life by Dominguez Hills theatre students, are open to the public. Bill DeLuca, professor and chair of Theatre Arts, was encouraged by the willingness of Carson residents to open up about life in their city for the sake of the project.

“I guess we all went in thinking, ‘What if we ask these questions and people clam up, because they’re too nervous to talk?’ But there was never one moment when people didn’t want to talk. We would come in prepared to ask ten questions, and we would get through three.

“We’d ask a question like, ‘What is the most beautiful place in your community?,’ and people would start talking about the fig tree that used to be on Figueroa, or the Japanese Garden at Dominguez Hills. At first, you would think they were ‘performers’ themselves, they like to hear themselves talk. But it really wasn’t that. Carson seems like a community that has gone through a lot of political wrangling and debate, and people value that arena. We were meeting with a community that is very driven, and wants to improve their lives, like people who are concerned that seniors aren’t just playing bingo. It’s interesting to see a strong social purpose behind a lot of what was being said.”

According to DeLuca, the title comes from the city’s image as “a place where people get a second chance. We met a lot of people who are working in battered- women’s shelters and AIDS programs. So, 'A House Named Eden' is an attempt to say that the immigrant cultures that came to Carson were looking for a better place, but that they also found in the process a world that takes account of helping others. So the “House” is like a halfway house, like Charlotte’s House. It’s kind of a metaphor for the whole community, not about any one specific shelter or person.”

The spirit of community and learning about what makes one was irresistible to two of DeLuca’s students, William Jaramillo (Class of ’06, B.A., Theatre Arts) and Elizabeth Hernandez (Class of ’06, B.A., Theatre Arts).

“They both really enjoyed the process,” he says. “I honestly think that this has been kind of a crowning achievement for them, since they graduated in May. They’re helping me out with the auditions, and they may even be in the show. They want to see it through. For them, the process of interviewing was worth doing, even without a production.”

The Carson Fine Arts and Historical Commission commissioned Gonzalez to write the play. González served as project director of South Coast Repertory’s Hispanic Playwrights Project for 11 seasons. He has written for the “Paz” series produced by Discovery Kids for “Ready Set Learn!” In 1985, González was a National Endowment for the Arts Director Fellow. He received his M.F.A. in directing at UC Irvine and teaches theatre at CSU Los Angeles. González is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. and an associate artist with Cornerstone Theater Company, a community-based company that has worked with CSUDH’s Teatro Dominguez.

“A House Named Eden” is scheduled to run October 20-29 in the University Theater. For more information, contact (310) 243-2400.

- Joanie Harmon