Halloween Tales From The Women's (& Men's) Locker Room.

 

In what can only be described as an odd venue for theatre, the farm storage turned, community hall turned performance space in Ojai blossoms with the fruit of Halloween Tales From The Women's (& Men's) Locker Room.

 

 

In recent years, a number of theatre troupes have sprung up in the isolated one-time artist colony of Ojai, California, each with varying degrees of success and resilience. Halloween Tales From The Women's (& Men's) Locker Room offers a rare chance to see original works that are seasonal as well as thematically linked. The four fast-paced works are presented in repertory style with a touch of down home fun that is unique to Ojai. Constructed out of the works of three local playwrights; Elixeo Flores, Gloria De Leon, and Tom Eubanks. Halloween Tales From The Women's (& Men's) Locker Room is a compilation of four short works, each geared toward the Halloween season. Dressing (Flores) is presented as a tongue in cheek retrospective of a Southern Drag Queen looking back on life with humor and a touch of heartbreak. Grave Concerns (Flores) shows the grief and quirks of an offbeat Italian family brought together by the death of a relative. Sharing Is Caring (De Leon) touches on themes of sibling rivalry, secrecy, and reformation in the search for higher understanding. How To Make God Laugh (Eubanks) touches on sexuality, religious allegory, and morality with humor and editorial commentary. The four pieces work well together with Flores’ characters and situational drama standing out. De Leon’s allegory and propensity for hidden meaning pairs well with her story structure, despite the brevity of the work. Eubanks’ technical writing is the best of the group, though the seasonal theme is least apparent in his work.

While the venue cannot be considered a strength with difficult acoustics and seating that would suggest a high school band concert, the producers have given the show an audience friendly running time and provided a setting that seems to fit well the art of original works and shared artistic goals. The performances by mostly local community performers are, for the most part, strong, and the direction by Francisca Beach is efficient in highlighting the creativity of the work and individual abilities of each performer. Perhaps Beach’s largest accomplishment is in creating a successful performance with elements that fit the story both through performance and technical know-how.

Halloween Tales From The Women's (& Men's) Locker Room deserves its greatest acclaim for reaching a community through works that are local, interesting, and supported with the talents and abilities that original works rarely receive in Ventura County.