Sanctuary City
by Martyna Majok
Pasadena Playhouse - September-October 2022
Zi Alikhan (Director)
Chika Shimizu (Scenic Designer)
Jojo Siu (Costume Designer)
Solomon Weisbard (Lighting Designer)
John Nobori (Sound Design)
Amanda Rose Villarreal (Intimacy Coordinator)
Brandon Hong Cheng (Stage Manager)
Lydia Runge (Assistant Stage Manager)
Omar Madkour (Assistant Lighting Designer)
Ana Nicolle Chavez: G
Miles Fowler: B
Kanoa Goo: Henry
Photos: Jeff Lorch
“The production, which is performed without an intermission, brings the play’s first half to life on a darkened set framed with monkey bars that are as theatrically playful as they are thematically imprisoning. Zi Alikhan’s concentrated staging leans into the abstraction and lets the performers conjure through their deeply felt acting the maze of their perilous adolescence.
The actors never take a wrong step in this section. Chavez’s G can’t conceal her scars. Her resilience is undeterred, but her capacity for joy has been hobbled.
Fowler’s B hasn’t been battered in the same way, but his inner torment will eventually have to be confronted. When that moment belatedly arrives, the emotion flows in a silent torrent.
The play’s second half is furnished with more visual realism. Chika Shimizu’s set design now evokes what Solomon Weisbard’s lighting was tasked with initially establishing — the psychological backdrop of an untenable social reality.”
