Hermosa Beach About Town
‘Distracted’ premiers at 2nd Story
Thanks to the stern admonitions to silence or turn off phones that precede a play, theaters are one of the few places where people can get away from screen time. After viewing “Distracted,” which opens at the Community Center’s 2nd Story Theater this weekend, audiences may keep their phones concealed for a little while longer.
“The statement of the play is that in such an over-communicated world, we have so much tech that it is keeping us from really communicating with one another and being intimate. We are constantly being distracted by beeps, buzzes, ringtones. It’s all getting in the way of real life,” said Jack Messenger, the show’s co-producer, and director.
“Distracted” was written by Lisa Loomer and premiered in 2007. It tells the story of Jesse, a nine-year-old boy acting up. His misbehavior causes the adult characters in the play to advance their own explanations, including that he is suffering from ADD, and lets the audience wonder whether Jesse is “dysfunctional” or merely different.
Messenger, a Manhattan Beach resident, and his wife Lois Bourgon, a co-producer, first encountered the play at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles. Their son had been diagnosed with ADD several years before and was struggling in high school. Messenger and his wife are veterans of local stages and have been putting on productions for years. They laughed at the performance of “Distracted,” but were also touched, and vowed to put it on themselves when the time was right. The ascension of President Donald Trump, whose cavalier use of social media has prompted accusations that he struggles to pay attention, seemed like the perfect opportunity.
The cast features nine actors playing 15 different roles, about half of whom are from the South Bay, Messenger said. Among the cast are people diagnosed with ADD and OCD, and a licensed marriage and family therapist.
Proceeds from the show will go to the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation and South Bay Families Connected. To purchase tickets, go distractedplay.brownpapertickets.com.
Author coming to St. Cross
Patrisse Cullors, a Los Angeles-based artist, and activist, will be appearing at St. Cross Church on Monterey Boulevard Tuesday night in an event organized by Pages Bookstore. Cullors, a Fulbright Scholar, is considered one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, and will be discussing her new book “When they Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.” The book was co-written with Asha Bandele and features a forward by Angela Davis. The event begins at 7 p.m., and RSVPs are required. Spots may be reserved using Pages’ website, pagesabookstore.com