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DIVAfest

review by Chad Jones in the Oakland Tribune (May 24, 2002)

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Daring mix of styles, subjects
makes Divafest divine
By Chad Jones
STAFF WRITER

DIVAS are running rampant at San Francisco's EXIT
Theatreplex, a dynamic hotbed of activity spread
around four theaters in the dodgy Tenderloin
neighborhood.

The reason for all the larger-than-life ladies is simple.
The EXIT is in the midst of its first-ever Divafest, a
theater festival with, as the advertised tag line puts it, a
"female persuasion."

The festival, comprising seven shows, one reading and
an art exhibition, continues through Saturday and offers
a diverse and intriguing assortment of divas.

Among the entertaining characters on display at the
EXIT -- a prostitute, a prima donna, a sci-fi cabaret
singer, a drag artiste, a one-woman circus -- I chose to
spend time with a cheerleader and the queen of Dada.

You know a show is going to be interesting when the
star waltzes into the theater from the back of the
auditorium cooing, "Hello, hello," and planting kisses on
the cheeks of those (myself included) she passes on her
way to the stage.

Christina Augello, the founder and artistic director of the
EXIT, stars in "The Last of the Red-Hot Dadas" as --
take a deep breath -- the Baroness Elsa von-Freytag
Loringhoven.

With a name like that the woman cannot be fictional, and sure enough, she
was a real life artist-writer-character who popped up in New York's
Greenwich Village in the 1920s.

She is often credited with bringing Dadaism to the United States. For the
uninitiated, Dada was a European art form that, by one definition, consisted of
"deliberate irrationality, anarchy, and cynicism and the rejection of laws of
beauty and social organization."

That sure sounds like the Baroness Elsa we meet in "Red-Hot Dadas," written
by former East Bay Express theater critic Kerry Reid.

Costumer Kathryn Wood has outfitted Augello in true Elsa fashion -- postage
stamps on her cheeks instead of rouge, dizzying blends of plaid, ruffles and
green velvet, tea balls and spoons dangling from the jacket, spats on the shoes
and red, yellow and blue spots in the hair.

The Baroness, it seems, was her own best eclectic sculpture. But writer Reid
is interested in giving us more than a clown show.

Though colorful, creative and highly original, the Baroness' life was a sad one.
Poverty, mistreatment by men and a lack of appreciation come through very
strongly as the Baroness tells us something of her life.

A fascinating story, well told by Augello, though her thick German accent
clobbers too much of the text, is augmented by the use of found-object
puppets devised by Liebe Wetzel of Lunatique Fantastique.

The poet William Carlos Williams, whose friendship with Elsa was
tempestuous, is represented by a stethoscope. Elsa's mother is a lacy piece of
cloth, while her father is a mallet. Felix, the great love of her life, is made of
springs, and the men in her life are represented by a rather phallicly decorated
crown.

Director John Warren has incorporated all of these elements effectively, and
at 45 minutes, "The Last of the Red-Hot Dadas" barely scratches the surface
of this fascinating woman.

Across the hall from the EXIT's main stage, in the EXIT Stage Left, Thessaly
Lerner is inhabiting women who may share Elsa's passion but are of a
decidedly different time and mindset.

Lerner's "Champion!" is a solo show about hyper-enthusiastic young women
involved in the not-so-different worlds of cheerleading and musical theater.

The appealing and wildly funny Lerner, who is both writer and performer
here, plays more than a dozen characters, most of them members of the
Chelsea Clinton High School Cheerleading Squad, also known as the
Larvettes.

One of the primary characters is cheerleader hopeful Mindy McGillicuddy.
She's 18 but tries very hard to pass for 12 because her main goal in life --
cheerleading comes second -- is to play the title role in the musical "Annie."

Mindy is obsessed with the role. She has played Orphan No. 5 far too many
times and wants her moment in the spotlight.

Blocking Mindy's attempts at joining the squad is Buffi Pristine Bufferson,
head cheerleader and deranged egomaniac. Buffi controls the Chelsea Clinton
High popularity graph, and it's her goal in life to place first at the upcoming
Tri-State Nationals cheerleading competition.

As long as Lerner is navigating the day-to-day dramas of life backstage at
"Annie" or the highly competitive world of cheer, she's wonderfully sharp and
funny. Her manic comic energy recalls "Saturday Night Live" alums Molly
Shannon and Cheri O'Teri.

But in the second act, things go wildly astray. The plot lines become too
outlandish -- the cheerleading finals become a bloodbath -- and it never really
becomes clear whose story this is.

Director Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Lerner have a good thing here. They just
need to do some judicious trimming and focus in on the show's rah-rah
strengths.

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