PRESS RELEASE: Native Gardens, May 24 – June 16, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2024
Contact: Kira Catanzaro, Marcom Manager
kira@6thstreetplayhouse.com

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors. Don’t They?
6th Street Presents Native Gardens May 24 to June 16, 2024.

SANTA ROSA, CA (May 8, 2024) – Just in time for summer, 6th Street Playhouse has planted Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías on their Monroe Stage. Directed by veteran theater artist Beulah Vega (Mary Jane), this uplifting, funny, feel-good play draws its humor from each of its well-intentioned yet imperfectly human characters. It runs from May 24 to June 16, 2024.

“A true breath of comic fresh air… Beyond snappy one-liners and garden hose fights, the play challenges audiences to look beyond petty differences and rediscover our shared decency.” – DC Theatre Scene

Pablo Del Valle (Lorenzo Alviso), a rising lawyer, and his very pregnant wife, Tania (Lexus Fletcher), a doctoral candidate, stake their claim on the American Dream when they purchase their first house next door to Frank (Ron Smith) and Virginia Butley (Sheila Lichirie) in Washington D.C. Frank and Tania discover a shared passion for gardening but soon find they have vastly different horticultural philosophies and practices. Frank spends his retired days fastidiously manicuring his well-established, formal garden and dreaming of winning the Potomac Horticultural Society’s annual gardening contest. Earth-friendly Tania has plans to create a garden filled with regional indigenous plants to attract beneficial insects.

Both couples are happy to replace the eye-sore chain link with a wood one before Frank’s contest and a barbecue Pablo is hosting for his law firm, but the friendly neighbors soon spiral into a feud when the truth about the fence line is unearthed, exposing both couples’ notions of race, taste, class and privilege.

“Native Gardens is a big, funny show. Karen Zacarías pokes fun at things we shy away from but not in a mean-spirited way. She gives us permission to laugh.” – Beulah Vega, Director

Director Beulah Vega returns to 6th Street Playhouse, where she produced the “Heroines, Harpies, and Harlots: A Woman Speaks New Play Festival” and others. She has been directing in Sonoma County for more than twenty years. Her most recent production was last year’s Mary Jane at Left Edge Theater.

Among the many reasons Vega was drawn to direct Native Gardens is Mexican-American playwright Karen Zacarías’ ability to bring an audience through heavy subject matter and leave them feeling good on the other side. Vega brings her experience as a first-generation mixed-race American and fifth-generation Californian to the production. She sees the truth from both sides of the fence and in each character.

In this production, Americana meets Magical Realism, a genre most often associated with Latin-American literature. Vega infuses the underlying theme of Americana; the ideals that have come to characterize America, such as The American Dream, its cultural heritage, history, folklore and the land itself, with the creative latitude that the veil of Magical Realism provides. Every moment of the play is grounded in the truth but with heightened reality woven in as everyday experiences.

American Theater Magazine recently hailed playwright Karen Zacarías as one of the ten most-produced playwrights in the US. Her award-winning plays include The Copper Children, Destiny of Desire, Native Gardens, The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana and the adaptation of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent.

She is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage, a core founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons – a large national organization of artists seeking to update the American narrative with the stories of Latinos – and is the founder of the award-winning Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT). YPT was cited by the Obama administration as one of the best arts education programs in the nation. Casting for Native Gardens celebrates the rich cultures and ethnicities talked about in the play.

Lorenzo Alviso plays the upwardly mobile Lawyer Pablo Del Valle. He is a Sonoma County-grown Bay Area actor and vocalist who has been seen on the 6th Street stages as Georg Nowack in She Loves Me, Nigel Bottom in Something Rotten and Duarte in The River Bride, among others.

Lexus Fletcher plays doctoral candidate and pregnant native gardening enthusiast, Tania Del Valle. She is making her 6th Street Playhouse debut after playing Kat/Amelia in Mary Jane at Left Edge Theatre with Vega last year.

Ron Smith plays Frank Butley, the sensitive retiree devoted to his pristine English garden. Smith returns to 6th Street Playhouse, where he was in several productions, most memorably August, Osage County. He has appeared in productions throughout Sonoma County.

Sheila Lichirie plays Frank’s wife Virginia Butley. Virginia is an engineer and executive working for a large defense contractor in the DC area. Friendly and civil, her opinions are well ingrained and she will fight ruthlessly to protect her turf. Lichirie played Linda in Death of a Salesman and Mrs. Tilford in The Children’s Hour, both at 6th Street.

The scenic design by Luca Catanzaro (She Loves Me, Little Shop of Horrors) is inspired by early 20th-century painters like Andrew Wyath (“Christina’s World”) and Grant Wood (“American Gothic”). It places the audience in a garden of magical realism. The lighting design is by Ryan Severt. The costumes are by Gail Reine and the sound design is by Ben Roots. The 6th Street Playhouse expert staff technicians include technical director, Martin Gilbertson; assistant technical director, Rick Baker; props by Ben Harper & Rachael Anderson.

The Cast of Native Gardens is as follows:
Pablo Del Valle / Lorenzo Alviso
Tania De Valle / Lexus Fletcher
Frank Butley / Ron Smith
Virginia Butley / Sheila Lichirie
Ensemble / Sergio Diaz
Ensemble / Bianca Trentadue
Tania Del Valle Understudy / Malia Abayon

Dates / Times:
Opening Night: Friday, May 24, 2024 at 7:30 pm*
*A champagne reception follows to celebrate the show with friends, the cast and the artistic team.
Runs: Thursdays – Sundays (See website for details.)
Run time: 90 minutes with no intermission
Tickets cost $29 – $45 and are available online at 6thStreetPlayhouse.com
or by calling the Box Office at (707) 523-4185.