Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Off-beat rainbow

This Land Is Your Land at the White Box Theater walks it out with precision and form

This Land Is Your Land at White Box Theater - Image by Rebecca Richardson
This Land Is Your Land at White Box Theater

This Land Is Your Land

  • Light Box Theater, 2590 Truxtun Road, Studio 205, Building 176, Liberty Station
  • 18+ / $20 - $25

Open stage. Rear wall: five vertical stripes — green, yellow, red, blue, orange — an off-beat rainbow. Six performers walk eight steps forward, turn, and walk eight steps back on invisible aisles for 45 minutes.

But they don’t just walk. They strut, mosey, skip, slink, or march (even against the dominant east/west grain), Each with a different attitude and relation to the audience. Sometimes indifferent, at others fired up.

They change costumes behind the stripes. A lot: jeans and plaid cotton shirts appropriate for a Texas two-step; different uniform-like outfits for work or war, casual apparel, up-market chic.

Sponsored
Sponsored

And at one point they are naked. But not in a sexually titillating way; they just aren’t wearing clothes.

They often carry a container: Starbucks cups, beer cans in brown paper bags; long plastic glasses with green straws. There are five stripes on the wall and six performers, like musical chairs, so one must exit, stage right, to make room for the next. As people leave, they toss their container in a trash bin. A full bin has a layered look, given the different kinds of cups, and a custodian cleans it out.

This Land Is Your Land at White Box Theater

Mark Haim’s fascinating dance piece is so precise that, when the custodian collects the trash, Tim McGraw sings “I’m taking out the trash and I’m sweeping my floors” (from “I Like It, I Love It”).

The music’s mostly country inflections: Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart,” Ronnie Milsap’s “Any Day Now” (though one would have much preferred Chuck Jackson’s epic rendition); Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart.”

Haim’s title comes from Woody Guthrie’s iconic folk song. The piece begins with Patsy Cline’s equally famous, “Walking After Midnight” and unfolds with successive waves of diversity in the U.S., held together, apparently, by the liquids we imbibe in common.

In an interview Haim said This Land is about “contemporary issues, including body image, consumerism, and environmental irresponsibility.” Those are there, certainly, but it’s the subtle changes that catch the eye — and how fads and styles arrive, flourish, and end up in the trash.

Plus conceptions of self: Is each person an individual, or merely a follower of fashion just marching with the ducks?

The form also fascinates. It is, at once, redundant as all get out and yet new, as various rinses parade in front of the stripes. Like the physical patterns, the score evolves but never ceases. The combination of sounds, changes of color, and movement become hypnotic. The laughter of surprise often breaks the spell.

The evening, presented by youTurn 2015, begins with legendary bluesman Tomcat Courtney. He plays guitar and harmonica and lays the foundation for the show, singing, among others, Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” Tony Joe White’s “Poke Salad Annie,” and BB King’s immortal “Every Day I Have the Blues” — i.e. “When you see me worried, baby/You know you’re gonna hate the news.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Next Article

Fateful picnic at Grandview beach in Encinitas

Davis family sues after three of them crushed by sandstone cliff
This Land Is Your Land at White Box Theater - Image by Rebecca Richardson
This Land Is Your Land at White Box Theater

This Land Is Your Land

  • Light Box Theater, 2590 Truxtun Road, Studio 205, Building 176, Liberty Station
  • 18+ / $20 - $25

Open stage. Rear wall: five vertical stripes — green, yellow, red, blue, orange — an off-beat rainbow. Six performers walk eight steps forward, turn, and walk eight steps back on invisible aisles for 45 minutes.

But they don’t just walk. They strut, mosey, skip, slink, or march (even against the dominant east/west grain), Each with a different attitude and relation to the audience. Sometimes indifferent, at others fired up.

They change costumes behind the stripes. A lot: jeans and plaid cotton shirts appropriate for a Texas two-step; different uniform-like outfits for work or war, casual apparel, up-market chic.

Sponsored
Sponsored

And at one point they are naked. But not in a sexually titillating way; they just aren’t wearing clothes.

They often carry a container: Starbucks cups, beer cans in brown paper bags; long plastic glasses with green straws. There are five stripes on the wall and six performers, like musical chairs, so one must exit, stage right, to make room for the next. As people leave, they toss their container in a trash bin. A full bin has a layered look, given the different kinds of cups, and a custodian cleans it out.

This Land Is Your Land at White Box Theater

Mark Haim’s fascinating dance piece is so precise that, when the custodian collects the trash, Tim McGraw sings “I’m taking out the trash and I’m sweeping my floors” (from “I Like It, I Love It”).

The music’s mostly country inflections: Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart,” Ronnie Milsap’s “Any Day Now” (though one would have much preferred Chuck Jackson’s epic rendition); Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart.”

Haim’s title comes from Woody Guthrie’s iconic folk song. The piece begins with Patsy Cline’s equally famous, “Walking After Midnight” and unfolds with successive waves of diversity in the U.S., held together, apparently, by the liquids we imbibe in common.

In an interview Haim said This Land is about “contemporary issues, including body image, consumerism, and environmental irresponsibility.” Those are there, certainly, but it’s the subtle changes that catch the eye — and how fads and styles arrive, flourish, and end up in the trash.

Plus conceptions of self: Is each person an individual, or merely a follower of fashion just marching with the ducks?

The form also fascinates. It is, at once, redundant as all get out and yet new, as various rinses parade in front of the stripes. Like the physical patterns, the score evolves but never ceases. The combination of sounds, changes of color, and movement become hypnotic. The laughter of surprise often breaks the spell.

The evening, presented by youTurn 2015, begins with legendary bluesman Tomcat Courtney. He plays guitar and harmonica and lays the foundation for the show, singing, among others, Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” Tony Joe White’s “Poke Salad Annie,” and BB King’s immortal “Every Day I Have the Blues” — i.e. “When you see me worried, baby/You know you’re gonna hate the news.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Eating dinner while little kids mock-mosh at Golden Island

“The tot absorbs the punk rock shot with the skill of experience”
Next Article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader