New Canon Theatre wraps up its third season, and what a season it was.

Seaside-based (but drawing regional talents), 2022-born, New Canon Theatre Company just wrapped up its third season, and it did it with a bang. 

After showing, in June, the fantastic Lady Day at Emerson Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson and unforgettable The Tragedy of Hamlet in the beginning of July, the crew—led by Justin Gordon—presented us with a limited series of lab productions from July 19-21, called New Works Festival. The idea was to bring three intimate readings of contemporary plays and then discuss them with the playwrights, the crew and the audience. While Lady Day (in Sunset Center) and Hamlet (in Blue Fox Cellars) took weeks of rehearsing, the last series took sometimes under 10 hours. The effect, nonetheless, was mesmerizing. 

The below review is for the second show of the series, Reconsider Me by Santa Cruz playwright Jeff Dinnell. Asked how he found out about New Canon, Dinnell says that he spotted them online, learned about a call for submissions and offered his play. 

“They are fantastic,” he says about the group, adding that it was an utter pleasure to sit back and see his work on stage. “They did a great job embodying the characters.”

Reconsider Me is an acutely contemporary play that tells a story of a group of friends, who were very close while young and now reconnect as slightly older, more mature people. The occasion for this reunion is the death of one of them and “the celebration of life” his partner, Madi, organized for him in an outside setting, filled with trees, drinks and a labyrinth garden.

As Madi we saw Justine Stock, who also does marketing for the company, but this time had an opportunity to shine as an actress. Madi seems to be in denial, refusing—according to her friends—to acknowledge the tragedy of her partner’s death. Instead, she chooses to live in Now, be at peace with constant changes in life and grateful for every moment.

“I’m fine,” she repeats to her disoriented friends with a big smile. “I love that you are here.”

Years ago, things got sour among the group when gay man Kevin (Noah Luce) and bisexual Cameron (played by our recent Hamlet, Christopher Morson), now married to a woman (Jane by Sarah Dunnavant) got involved in an intense but not well-ending romance. Kevin seemed to be deeply in love with Cameron and got eventually rejected, even though it’s clear that Cameron, after all those years, still has feelings for Kevin. His current lifestyle is based on sleeping around because of which his marriage to Jane, who expects a baby, suffers.

Finally we have outsiders who, in a way, help the group to resolve their problems—Colette (Brittney Mignano) and Dr. Brad (Michael Storm). Finally, the narrator of the play is Matt Bailey, who is not afraid to use a tone and face-expression for comic relief.

Not that the dialogues lack comedy; far from it. The language is fresh, very 21st century, full of sexual tension, inner jokes, mutual teasing and references, such as to the 1971 movie Harold and Maude. The connection between characters felt authentic and despite not much time for rehearsals, the whole crew did a great job, also apparently enjoying themselves. 

In addition to all the laughs, the play forces the audience to reflect about death and life’s constant contingency as its main feature. Madi proves her half-Buddhist, half-New Age philosophy useful and convincing to her friends, but also finally finds time to accept her grief is part of her Now. 

The play was directed by uber-talented and always-charming Noah Luce (the member of Actor’s Equity Association and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society); production stage manager was Jacob Buzza and the assistant manager was Owen Shirrell.

Showed in the Stanton Center in Monterey, it was the first reading of Reconsider Me that certainly deserves a full stage production.

Now, the New Canon Theatre crew is taking a well-deserved break. But we are holding our breath, waiting for another season.