‘Castaways’: La Jolla Country Day alumni to perform at San Diego International Fringe Festival

With many years of friendship behind them, some La Jolla Nation Day Faculty alumni have been making ready to carry out onstage collectively for the primary time on the upcoming San Diego Worldwide Fringe Pageant.

Their play, “Castaways,” written and produced by 1979 Nation Day graduate Liz Coley, will probably be carried out 5 occasions from Friday, June 3, to Wednesday, June 8, in Balboa Park.

The present — its world premiere — is offered by the Torreys Gamers, named for LJCDS’ mascot, the Torrey, and contains Coley, former LJCDS instructor Will Erickson, LJCDS alumni Reegan Ray, John Tessmer and Lee Monroe, and native actors Terri Park and Michael Rodriguez, who didn’t attend Nation Day.

All presently reside in San Diego County, besides Coley, who lives in Cincinnati and can fly in for the present.

“Castaways” is an “existential comedy” that imagines characters Mary Ann and Ginger from the Nineteen Sixties TV present “Gilligan’s Island” in reminiscence care, for folks residing with types of dementia, Coley mentioned.

Coley, a fan of the comedy collection about seven castaways stranded on an island, wrote the play a number of years in the past after studying that the actresses who performed Mary Ann and Ginger — Daybreak Wells and Tina Louise — had been the one solid members nonetheless residing on the time (Wells died in December 2020).

“I believed, ‘What sort of automobile might convey the 2 of them again collectively?’ It’s an homage to these two actresses who’re so iconic; they describe the dichotomy between the varieties of ladies that males preferred,” she mentioned.

“Castaways” additionally weaves in Coley’s experiences with reminiscence care throughout her father’s “declining days.”

“I had this concept that unites these two elder girls who self-identified as Mary Ann and Ginger, whether or not that was true or not,” Coley mentioned. “That was how they defined to themselves that they had been marooned someplace and remoted and making an attempt to flee.”

She then included concepts from the 1953 play “Ready for Godot,” about two characters who talk about a 3rd who by no means arrives.

“There have been many similarities between what occurs in ‘Ready for Godot’ and what occurs in reminiscence care,” Coley mentioned. “Right here comes one other day and it’s simply the identical and we’re nonetheless ready for one thing.”

The play explores the query “How do you reside the brand new day whenever you don’t keep in mind what occurred yesterday?” she mentioned.

The Torreys Gamers are an “ad-hoc reunion group put collectively to provide this play,” Coley mentioned. The group shaped in 2019 when Coley utilized to the Fringe Pageant for the play’s inclusion. The pageant was postponed twice as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re lastly attending to do it,” Coley mentioned. “It’s a pleasure for us to be reunited and dealing collectively.”

She mentioned attending LJCDS meant experiencing “an actual closeness throughout the grades and with the college, and it’s not even like rekindling it [now]. It’s at all times been there.”

Tessmer, who additionally runs the La Jolla Theatre Ensemble, mentioned he’s wanting ahead to the performances. Having the Torreys Gamers along with their numerous appearing, producing and directing abilities is “actually particular,” he mentioned.

Tessmer mentioned he hopes the Torreys Gamers and La Jolla Theatre Ensemble will work collectively sooner or later, noting that the ensemble has completed readings of Coley’s performs.

‘Castaways’

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 3; 4 p.m. Saturday, June 4; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, June 5; 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 7; and 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 8

The place: Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre, Balboa Park, 2130 Pan American Plaza, San Diego

Price: $10 (pageant passes can be found)

Data: sdfringe.org ◆