Susan's City Scene

MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL: TWENTY-SOMETHING ANGST AGAINST A GRAPHIC NOVEL BACKDROP. What, oh what, is going on with Lee and who in the world is that girl in his apartment? His best buddy, his ex-girlfriend, and his bartender would like to know. An aspiring painter’s drab and downward-spiraling life gets a starburst of color from a mysterious young woman. Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a Graphic Novel Play by Katie May, is an intriguing mix of media, using changing, large-scale, black-and-white graphic novel panel projections to both parallel and comment on the live action as vivid characters, well-acted, volley crisp dialogue with an edge. Intimate seating in a small-scale theater brings the audience close to the action. Directed by Jon Tracy. Artwork by Rob Dario. Set Design by Jon Tracy. Projection Design by Micah Steiglitz. Costume Design by Antonia Gunnarson. Sound Design by George Psarras. Lighting Design by Jon Tracy and Krista Smith. 70 minutes without intermission. Through Feb. 17.

CAST: Joshua Roberts as Lee Tallman, Lyndsy Kail as Lilly, Michael Barrett Austin as Porter Price, Lucas Hatton as Rick/Bartender/Phil; and Liz Anderson as Jackie/Broadcaster/Receptionist.

SOME TERMS TO KNOW: MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL — Wiki says: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a stock character in films. Film critic Nathan Rabin, who coined the term after seeing Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown, describes the MPDG as "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” MPDGs are said to help their men without pursuing their own happiness, and such characters never grow up, thus their men never grow up. They invariably serve as the romantic interest for a (most often brooding or depressed) male protagonist. Prime examples are Natalie Portman’s character in the movie Garden State, Kate Hudson’s character, Penny Lane, in Almost Famous, and Zooey Deschanel’s roles in (500) Days of Summer and Yes Man. GRAPHIC NOVEL — The term is not strictly defined, though one broad definition is a fictional story in comic-strip format, normally containing only a single story with the same cast of characters, generally having more pages than a traditional comic book, and usually bound the way thicker magazines and books are bound.

TICKETS: Performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, and Sunday, Feb. 10, and 8 p.m. nightly Thursday, Feb. 14, through Sunday, Feb. 17. Tickets ($25-$40) available for purchase at manicpixiedreamgirl.org or (415) 799-8350.

AN ASIDE: Playwright and Producer Katie May said, "Manic Pixie Dream Girl was born out of a need to write a play for my friends. I find myself surrounded by people in their 20s and 30s who appreciate art and performance but don’t go to the theater because so few productions speak directly to their interests or to their own experiences.”

STAGE DIRECTIONS: The A.C.T. Costume Shop Theater, a 49-seat black-box venue performance space, is located at 1117 Market St. in San Francisco, across from Civic Center’s UN Plaza. A custom-designed Art-o-mat vending machine in the lobby dispenses small, cigarette pack–sized original pieces of artwork. Ranging from stained glass to watercolors to clay sculptures, the original artwork can be purchased from the machine for $5 per item. Public transit is 500 feet away at BART Civic Center/UN Plaza Station. Attended parking is available at Civic Center Garage.

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UPCOMING AT AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER. Feb. 28 – March 24, A.C.T. presents the world premiere of George F. Walker’s Dead Metaphor — a dark comedy about the hypocrisies of postwar living. When Dean returns home from the war in the Middle East, he discovers that his superior military skills don’t get him very far in the working world. He readjusts to non-bunker life by moving in with his parents and pregnant ex-wife, then takes the only job he can get — an assistant to a crusading politician on her own mission for "truth and justice.” From April 4 - 28 is the world premiere of Stuck Elevator, a musical based on the true story of Guang, a Chinese deliveryman who was trapped in a Bronx elevator for 81 hours. Calling for help also means calling attention to himself with dire consequences for this undocumented immigrant. Guang delves into memories of his past and into nightmares of his present predicament, all within the confines of a 4 inch by 6 inch by 8 inch metal box. A.C.T. Geary Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Tickets online at act-sf.org or by calling (415) 749-2228.

Susan Cohn is a member of San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and American Theatre Critics Association.