Circle Circle dot dot is a young theater company that keeps exploring new ways to connect with audiences. Their latest production, "San Diego I Love You" experiments with a site specific performance.
Looking for romance in San Diego? Perhaps Circle Circle dot dot has just what you’re looking for.
"'San Diego, I Love You' is based off of true stories that we collected among friends that encountered different romantic happenings out in public," say Katherine Harroff, artistic director of Circle Circle dot dot, "We believe every story we tell, needs to be told in a different way and so trying something site specific was another opportunity for us to find the right tools in telling a story."
"A site specific theater basically means that you are writing a piece to fit into an area that’s not a traditional theater space," says Patrick Kelly, director of "San Diego, I Love You."
"So people coming to this can come to Jake’s at the beginning of that story and expect to be taken care of as an audience and taken to each location where they can see this romantic story build," adds Harroff.
Last Saturday, Kelly was serving as "tour guide" for those of us attending the performance, "So what the tour does is start here at Jake’s on 6th, and you go on from location to location, you watch the scenes and the development of the characters and the story."
There are 5 scenes in the play with the same characters played by different actors. Harroff explains: "I play a character that’s played by four other people. We just tell different parts of the story, and they are also gender neutral characters so in one location it might be played by two women or one location it’s a man and a woman."
Co-writer Soroya Rowley offers this advice: " I would say wear comfortable shoes, you are going to be standing and walking most of the time."
She also adds, "The main challenge is for the actors cause they have to be ready for anything. People are going to be walking through your scene and like in one of the scenes we’ll drive by."
"It's scary," admits Harroff, who co-wrote the play and plays one of the Alex's, "You are not in a controlled environment, you are in a location where people might randomly show up. But it’s also really exciting because as a community based theater we’re telling true stories so this has been a really thrilling experience for us because we are able to tell the true stories in the environments where they are happening."
"What’s fun for me," says Kelly, "is it’s the chance to bring the art to the people. I’ve always found that working in a theater you really sort of cut yourself off a little bit from the general public."
"We’re hoping that it becomes a piece that we do every year and that it’s a different love story that we’re telling and we tell it in a different part of San Diego," says Harroff.
Circle Circle dot dot’s fresh, funny, and site specific romantic comedy “San Diego I Love You” runs this weekend and next in Hillcrest. For more information, visit the Circle Circle dot dot website.
CAST
Scene 1- “Best Friend's Forever”
Katherine Harroff- Alex
Brian Burke- Chris
Scene 2- “The Morning After”
Kathryn Byrd- Alex
Whitney Shay- Chris
Scene 3- “Do You Come Here Often?”
Justin Warren Martin- Alex
Shaun Tuazon- Chris
Evan Kendig- Pat
Scene 4- “Ex-Communication”
Delia Knight- Alex
Jon Huckaby- Sam
Scene 5- “Bon Voyage”
Laura Kaplan-Nieto -Alex
Michael Nieto- Chris
CREDITS
Patrick Kelly- Director
Katherine Harroff and Soroya Rowley - Writers
