A queer rent boy and a Filipina immigrant keep their California dreams alive in 'Califas Trilogy'

Dreams erode. Whether challenging the American Dream of stability, the Californian imaginativeness of expanse oregon the glittery illusions of L.A., Roger Q. Mason’s “Califas Trilogy” dives into the meltdown of story and the anticipation of repair among ruins.

“L.A. is the benignant of metropolis that builds 1 procreation of advancement connected apical of the other, forgetting astir the past procreation portion reaching for the next,” observes Mason, whose trio of caller plays carnivore the Chicano nickname for the state. “It’s a spot of grasping. And anytime you reach, arsenic you climb, you ever permission thing behind.”

Sometimes what’s near down are the dredges of past and time, which Mason resurrects onstage. “California Story,” directed by longtime collaborator Michael Alvarez, kicks disconnected the trilogy by vacillating betwixt the mid-1800s, the contiguous and the twelvemonth 2051, exploring the satellite of Pío Pico (Peter Mendoza). The past Mexican politician of the state, helium reckons with land-grabbers successful the last epoch of Mexican governance earlier the United States annexes the territory.

“I wanted to constitute a portion astir the outgo of ambition, and I happened upon the communicative of Pico,” says Mason, musing implicit the humanities figure’s beingness successful a portion undergoing fleeting governmental eras betwixt Spain, Mexico and the States. “His grasp for power, meaning, acceptance, stableness and affirmation are precise overmuch California’s story. It’s wherefore everyone moved to California.”

“California Story,” the archetypal play successful the trilogy centers connected Pío Pico, the past Mexican politician of the state, and the outgo of ambition.

(Michael Rowe / For The Times)

The 2nd portion of the trilogy, and the longest-running of the 3 performances, “Hide and Hide” zooms guardant to 1980 into a coarse and degrading City of Angels. Directed by Jessica Hanna, different longtime collaborator, the rubric is simply a translation of the Tagalog “TNT” (tago ng tago), a word among Filipino expatriates for chap migrants without their paperwork oregon with expired visas. In this neo-noir two-hander, Constanza, a Filipina immigrant, and Billy, a queer Texan youth, find themselves thrown unneurotic arsenic they effort to dodge instrumentality enforcement — some migration officers and transgression investigators — and escaped themselves of sins from their homelands.

Their sins are disfigured — and besides defensible, committed retired of a request to survive. In enactment with the playwright’s different works, Mason expresses taboos done shimmering poesy and originative multipart casting that gives actors a accidental to showcase their flexibility and range. The villainous Ricky, a predatory Filipino migrant who has risen to the presumption of American lawyer and green-card matrimony matchmaker, is voiced done Constanza (Amielynn Abellera) and Billy (Ben Larson), arsenic good arsenic audio recordings. The effect is not conscionable haunting. It’s arsenic if strategy corruption is infecting victims, akin to demonic possession.

“Ricky becomes a portion of them,” notes the dramatist, who purposefully creates roles that showcase the athleticism of acting. The victims “embody that surreptitious, sometimes unscrupulous navigation of America, its ineligible strategy and avenues for slick navigation of the law. He is the embodiment of the Western exemplary number but besides a disillusioned rebel against it.” It’s an creator prime that besides blurs boundaries betwixt oppressed and oppressors, revealing the complicity of the American Dream.

“At the halfway of this portion is simply a cautionary communicative astir what it means to taxable wholeheartedly to anybody’s dream, including your own,” Mason explains. “Constanza is truthful determined to go an American national that she sacrifices galore things, including her principles, successful bid to attain that dream.”

Roger Q. Mason stands down Michael Alvarez, manager of 2 plays successful their “Califas Trilogy.”

(Michael Rowe / For The Times)

The finale of this Golden State triptych comes successful a limited-run presumption of “Juana Maria,” the astir precocious written play of the three. Also directed by Alvarez, it portrays the last months of an Indigenous pistillate brought to the Santa Barbara Mission from the distant land of San Nicolas by an American sailor. Mason consulted Chumash and Tongva artists and conducted fieldwork successful the Channel Islands, Santa Barbara, and museums crossed L.A. and Ojai portion penning and researching the play. With these methods and engagement, Mason says, “I deliberation of ‘Juana Maria’ little arsenic a showcase and much a assemblage sharing. This is what we’ve travel up with frankincense far, here’s what we’ve learned and what we’re committed to.”

While “Califas” has been decades successful the making, it arrives astatine a precipitous infinitesimal for Los Angeles. Recognizing the devastation of the wildfires and caller national budgetary cuts to the arts, Mason inactive expresses courage, gratitude and a telephone to action. Social and nationalist dreams whitethorn crumble, but they are not the sole dreams and realities.

“If you tin ideate a aboriginal here, successful the theater,” assures Mason, “then you person the impervious you request to manifest the aboriginal successful the world.”