by Shirley Lorraine

A Glimpse into Actor Training and Trials

Santa Paula Theater Center has once again brought a thought-provoking and unusual play to their main stage. The current production is Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker. The play garnered an Obie Award for Best New American Play in 2009. The title refers to a specific theater game used to prepare actors for the unexpected.

Set in the small town of Shirley, Vermont, the action takes place in a community room lined with mirrors. Five students have signed up to attend the multi-week acting class designed to help them open themselves to each other, to themselves, and to be adaptable to whatever comes their way as they embark on the adventure of being on stage.

Their reasons for attending vary greatly. Theresa (Shelby Dickinson) is already a professional actress but who feels a need to get back to basics after the end of a relationship. Shultz (James James) is newly divorced and feeling out of place both in the class and in the world. Lauren (Amber Shea Hodge) is a petulant 16-year-old with a few chips on each shoulder. James (William Hubbard) is married to Marty (Victoria McGee) who is leading the class. It is unclear whether he is there of his own accord or if he is there to support his wife. In any case, he participates willingly.

The play is a true ensemble piece. Each actor has spotlight moments before blending back into the group. The circle rotates with each player having their time to shine. All five participants struggle with different aspects of the theater games, reluctant to share too much with strangers and yet willing to play along, for the most part.

As they engage in verbal and physical games requiring thoughtful or quick responses, they each stumble before finally finding solid footing. As individuals, their personal circles also grow and shrink as they find ways to relate to each other.

A few audience members were overheard questioning what the actors were supposed to gain from the seemingly fruitless and repetitive exercises. The object of the games was often not apparent. If you haven’t been to an acting or improv class, this is foreign territory.

The repetitive nature, for me, created a plodding pace. Whether that was a directional choice or written to be so, I found myself thinking there should be more. There are moments when no actors are on stage and the audience is left looking at themselves in the mirrors. Intentional? If so, in my mind, that’s a deep stretch to ask an audience to make.

While each individual character showed a flash of depth, none were fleshed out enough to make me want to root for them. The playwright attempts to pull the whole thing together in the last moments, giving a glimpse ten years into the future as a “where are they now?” Honestly, it wasn’t enough for me to be engaged. But you may feel quite differently.

Circle of Transformation continues through October 8. www.santapaulatheatercenter.org.

Streaming Spotlight by Cindy Summers
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones – Netflix

In 2003, Dan Buettner researched communities with increased longevity, identified as blue zones, while collaborating with a variety of experts, including anthropologists, historians, dietitians, and geneticists, “to reverse engineer longevity”. These early trips focused on Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and Loma Linda, California. Now twenty years later, Dan revisits these communities along with several more and shares his findings in this very informative documentary regarding how to enhance and extend our lives.

Okinawa Japan is known to have the longest lived people in the history of the world, with more women outliving men, as well as extremely low cases of heart disease, diabetes or dementia. Major reasons for Okinawa becoming a blue zone were: diet consisting of medical foods with low caloric density; practicing Hara Hachi Bu – to eat only 80% of the meal; promoting balance and core strength though daily activities; having Ikigai – a mission/purpose that contributes in a positive way; and social connection though Moais, which are a committed social circle of people who generally got together by pooling their money and helping each other in times of hardship.

Sardinia, Italy was unique in that the ratio of female to male centenarians was one-to-one instead of the average of five-to-one women over men in other blue zones. Living longer in Sardinia was attributed to: regular activity due to steepness – steep roads and houses with several flights of stairs; good carbs, high carb diet mainly of minestrone soup and sourdough bread; control stress – Men work, most as shepherds. but are not stressed by work; and care for elders.

Loma Linda, California is a Seventh Day Adventist Community where residents live longer than other place in California. The main factors for longevity in Loma Linda were: serving the community through volunteering; eating a plant-based diet prescribed when Founder Ellen White had vision to live a balanced diet focused on vegetarianism mainly comprised of fruits, legumes, cereals, vegetables and nuts; faith – being part of a faith based community; and finding the right tribe – surrounding yourself with active people and those with vegetarian lifestyles.

Ikaria, Greece is isolated and self-sufficient, where residents live on a Mediterranean diet with very little meat. Contributing factors to longevity in Ikaria were: herbal teas from local plants;
raw honey from local beehives moved around the island as the season progresses gathering from many natural elements; partnership in the form of nurturing relationships; wine made from local grapes without chemicals and considered medicinal; and dancing and laughing.

Nicoya, Costa Rica is a rural, isolated region with 3.5 times more centenarians and an average biological age of 10 years younger over chronological. Contributing to Nicoya’s large centenarian population was: Plan de Vida – a sense of purpose; doing things by hand; slow down making time for things that matter; and the three sisters diet – black beans, squash and corn.

Dan spearheaded creating a blue zone in Lea, Minnesota, initially getting residents together for walks (moais), then setup volunteer activities, then made changes for healthier food choices, and lastly changes to allow for more natural physical activity. The target was an average 2 year increase in life expectancy, and amazingly after 1 year had a 3.1 year increase. Dan discovered that in the end it’s how blue zone wisdom is applied to benefit communities by making changes to help make the best choice an easy choice and the realization that the things that help us live a long healthy life are the things that make life worth living.

Runtime: 4 – 30m episodes