In a narrative with outrageous, less-than-savory personalities, one character stands aside: the stage.
Or, on this case, the Thirteenth-story penthouse of the Oviatt, which is the setting for a brand new immersive theater manufacturing working this month in downtown. “Citadel within the Sky” goals to inform a slice of a largely forgotten Los Angeles story: the high-society lifetime of James Oviatt, the as soon as famend clothier of the silent movie period who had a protracted, sluggish fall from grace.
The identify of the present stems from the nickname for the Artwork Deco palace, which sits atop an Olive Road constructing in Oviatt’s identify. The penthouse is a set of intimate rooms, every ornate and stuffed with private, hand-crafted particulars (a few of them eccentric, reminiscent of a tiny house designed to imitate a personal rail automotive).
“Citadel within the Sky” is designed in order that visitors observe sure actors from room to room throughout an Oviatt-hosted celebration. Every scene is brief, at about 5 minutes, and members select their very own journey all through; they may, say, spend the night trailing actors enjoying Oviatt and his household or tail different performers enjoying invited visitors.
Outfitted in French marble, zebra-skinned bar stools and exquisitely etched home windows that block the view of downtown — a narcissistic transfer that appears to argue that what’s inside issues greater than the world past — Oviatt’s penthouse is devoted to the preservation of consumption. This paper, in 1930, described the residence as “architecturally swish, luxurious in appointments, luxurious and inventive adornment.” The bottom flooring of the constructing, now residence to the Cicada Membership, as soon as housed Oviatt’s prestigious clothes retailer, Alexander & Oviatt.
“Citadel within the Sky” probes what sort of temperament it takes to create such an area, one equally devoted to socializing and a flaunting of wealth with fragile accouterments — these etched home windows got here courtesy, for example, of famed artist Rene Lalique. The story isn’t fairly, however it’s additionally one which has to stroll a fragile line. Oviatt in his later years turned recognized for excessive right-wing views, a lot in order that he as soon as described to this paper the racist and antisemitic Christian Protection League as “an awesome group.”
The present explores the strain in a sure sort of extra. There’s a lonely need to belong, and it’s contrasted with a warped, offensive thought of the stainless.
Chad Coe as silent film star Harold Davis and Connor McRaith as James Jr. within the immersive theater manufacturing “Citadel within the Sky,” a Prohibition-era set play described by one its creators as an “eat the wealthy” story.
(Zak Agha)
Tales of Oviatt generally converse of his perfectionism with nostalgia reasonably than the harassment that it was. In response to delusion, he made the journey from his penthouse to the shop early every morning, and theatrically dragged his white gloved fingers over the store’s show circumstances on the prowl for mud. Unsaid however presumed is the frustration that adopted.
“It’s an eat-the-rich story,” says Tracy Phillips, one of many three principals with Underneath the Rose productions, of which the self-funded “Citadel within the Sky” is its first present.
“I feel that’s the one solution to deal with any individual like that,” provides Phillips, a longtime dance choreographer.
“Citadel within the Sky” is ready throughout the Prohibition period, when Oviatt was on the top of his energy and social prominence.
“The current doesn’t look again fondly on lots of people in historical past, notably him, if you recognize something about his unsavory traits, to say the least. We don’t go there within the present, however we guarantee that we destroy him. This isn’t man,” Phillips says.
Along with Phillips, Underneath the Rose is run by Denna Thomsen and Kristin Campbell-Taylor, all veterans of assorted elements of the L.A. dance neighborhood. “Citadel within the Sky” got here collectively in about six months, the three say, though they’d been tinkering with an immersive idea impressed by the primary Academy Awards in 1929 on the Hollywood Roosevelt earlier than discovering the Oviatt story. When in search of venues to accommodate a manufacturing, they stumbled upon the Oviatt constructing and its penthouse and realized a few of his historical past. They instantly modified course. “We have been within the house, and it was so lovely and immediately transported you to a spot,” says Campbell-Taylor.
Campbell-Taylor, a producer whose credit embody “So You Assume You Can Dance” and “The Masked Singer,” says the crew was impressed by reveals reminiscent of “Sleep No Extra,” a long-running New York manufacturing that duties visitors to piece collectively the narrative by following numerous scenes all through the McKittrick Lodge. “Citadel within the Sky” members are invited to stay round after the manufacturing for a post-show reception with a bar and a reside band; that’s additionally time to mingle with strangers and talk about which scenes every of you missed.
“Citadel within the Sky” explores the sophisticated, controversial lifetime of James Oviatt. Pictured, from left, Circus-Szalewski as Oviatt, Connor McRaith as James Jr. and Nicole Pacent as Mary Oviatt.
(Underneath the Rose productions)
“We labored actually laborious to weave collectively and craft narrative and emotion so you’ll be able to have an understanding, even when you don’t know what occurred,” Campbell-Taylor says. “Our present is a deconstructed narrative, however it does have a starting, center and finish for every character, and a starting, center and finish for the present itself.”
In my time with the present on its opening weekend — “Citadel within the Sky” runs trough Nov. 30 — I opted to get a glimpse into every character’s storyline reasonably than sticking with one performer for the night. I noticed the isolation felt by Oviatt’s spouse, Mary (Nicole Pacent), the misguided consideration sought by his son, James Jr. (Connor McRaith), and a performative marriage from Hollywood actors going up in flames.
The Oviatt I witnessed, as carried out by Circus-Szalewski was controlling, voyeuristic and determined, and it helped to have learn up a bit on the actual Oviatt’s historical past earlier than seeing “Citadel within the Sky.” To know, for example, that he proposed to his spouse, a former store lady half his age, after seeing her at work in his retailer. Oviatt’s identify appeared commonly on this newspaper all through the ’20s and ’30s. His yearly journeys to Europe for trend inspiration have been the stuff of gossip-making headlines.
“James Oviatt was very transactional in all of his relationships with everybody round him,” Campbell-Taylor says. “Each side of these transactions was one thing we explored lots.”
“Citadel within the Sky” will be frivolously interactive. For the majority of the 21 and over present, we’re merely an viewers, watching in a single scene a bed room seduction and the outcomes of overindulging at a celebration in one other. (It’s mentioned that Oviatt all through Prohibition had a close to countless provide of alcohol, turning his events into a number of the most in-demand locations within the metropolis). However there are occasions we could also be spoken to, or discover ourselves participating in a sport of Rock Paper Scissors with different attendees.
Different scenes, nonetheless, are purely interpretive, pulling on the experimental dance choreography experience of Phillips and Thomsen. One encompasses a character giving himself a shave, the day by day process handled as if it’s a fragile dance atop a music field.
Don’t, in different phrases, anticipate any massive Charleston-inspired dance numbers. “That’s one thing we’ve all seen earlier than,” Phillips says. “It was a problem to remain inside the period, however these have been full folks. They didn’t solely do the Charleston. That’s only one little factor that has lingered. That they had full lives, and we needed to specific that by way of dance and efficiency with out falling right into a novelty.”
The hope is that “Citadel within the Sky” gained’t really feel solely like a interval piece, regardless of the costumes and aesthetics of the penthouse. In any case, its themes, centered on the vacancy of energy — and the vapidity of those that search to be near it — are timeless, particularly on this metropolis.
“We put you within the current, though we’re telling a narrative concerning the previous,” Phillips says.
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