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2 0 0 9 San Diego Community Newspaper Group
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2010
Getting a bead on Mardi Gras
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 15, Number 24
LJ wants a divorce BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS
Led by a student in a fantastic feathered mask, a conga line winds around during the Feb. 19 Family Fun Dance at Doyle Elementary PAUL HANSEN | VILLAGE NEWS School. Families and friends were celebrating Mardi Gras.
‘Seagull’ takes flight at UCSD’s Forum BY CHARLENE BALDRIDGE | VILLAGE NEWS It’s one of the best bargains in town. Through Saturday, UC San Diego stages a lovely production of Anton Chekhov’s 1896 romantic tragedy, “The Seagull,” beautifully realized by third-year MFA student Tom Dugdale. The artistic team, also students, does a magnificent job with the setting (Colin McGurk), costumes (Christine Crook), lighting (James Tan) and sound (David Corsello). Dugdale’s production features a fine crop of MFA actors, a topsy-turvy world in a setting redolent of the play-within-a-play depicted in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s 1892 Italian countryside verismo opera, “I Pagliacci,” based on a play written in 1887. “The Seagull” is set at a lakeshore estate in the Russian countryside, where the frail land holder, Sorin, is tended by the melancholy physician, Dorn. Sorin has welcomed his sister, Arkadina, a famous actress in Moscow, and her much younger lover, the celebrated playwright, Trigorin. Arkadina’s high-strung son, an aspiring playwright named Konstantin, lives at the estate and presents his first play on a wooden, outdoor stage strung with lights. Konstantin’s avant-garde work stars Nina, daughter of the estate holder across the lake. Konstantin loves Nina unrequitedly. Masha, who
As is usual in Chekhov’s works, everyone longs for what he/she cannot capture and keep: Masha for Konstantin; Medvedenko for Masha; Konstantin for Nina, his mother’s love and literary success; Nina for Trigorin; Paulina for Dorn; and Arkadina for Trigorin and her lost youth. Zoë Chao does a grand job as Nina, capturing the innocent girl’s vulnerability and longing. Patrick Riley is an adorable, needy Konstantin, whom he plays as more callow than deeply disturbed. Strong yet petulant, Cate Campbell takes on Arkadina, a difficult challenge indeed for one so young. Gabriel Lawrence captures the charisma and magnetism of Trigorin without overtly telegraphing his crass nature. Dugdale stages Zoe Chao as Nina in UCSD’s production of Trigorin and Nina’s love scenes with PHOTO BY MANUEL ROTENBERG intensity and a sense of iconic “The Seagull.” imagery. is daughter of overseer Shamrayev Dugdale’s staging causes the viewand his wife, Paulina, loves Koner to ponder staginess versus reality. stantin, She, too, has theatrical The work is produced in the Mandell ambitions. A schoolteacher named Weiss Forum, with the audience Medvedenko woos Masha. Though entering at ground level, then seated Konstantin aborts the performance stadium style, similar to the arrange— his mother and Trigorin laugh ment in the Potiker Theatre. inappropriately — Nina falls in love The floor-to-ceiling seating that with Trigorin, setting up yet another provides backdrop is draped with love triangle. Ultimately, Nina follows yards and yards of white muslin, and Arkadina and Trigorin to Moscow, the actual playing area consists of where he begets a child on her, then the platform and surrounding empty spurns her, proving he was simply space, which allows the large ensembored and she was a convenient playSEE ‘SEAGULL,’ Page 5 thing and ego booster.
WIN DINNER FOR TWO
La Jollans who want to see the village separate from San Diego and become its own city are taking up the cause anew. The group called Independent La Jolla met on Feb. 17 to discuss how it will move ahead in 2010. By a majority room count of the approximately 25 people present, the group decided to lobby Sacramento to change the law that requires San Diego residents to vote to allow La Jolla to leave. Those present at the meeting expressed doubts that the rest of the city would give them a free pass to separate. “The rest of the city knows that La Jolla can do better by itself, but I don’t think people want to see La Jolla go out the door,” said Eugene Cook, a former city engineer. “I think people are bitter and they will want to see us suffer with the rest of them.” Instead, the group hopes to find sympathetic state representatives and to lobby Sacramento to treat La Jolla like an unincorporated entity. Unincorporated communities only need the vote of their own residents to join a city and not the vote of the residents of that city. The San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) would approve the division as it oversees secessions. Ten years ago, the San Fernando Valley and West Hollywood attempted to change the law but failed, according to Michael Ott, the executive officer for LAFCO. “The law requires a dual vote because the removal of a territory of the city leaves the existing city in financial ruin – it causes impacts to the city,” Ott said. “Under the law, the intent is to give people who would be affected by such a major change a voice in the ballot box.” Ott also doubts legislators would exempt only La Jolla from the law. “Legislators have more of an interest to look at the state in totality,” Ott said. State law requires that the departing entity leave its mother city in neutral financial standing. La Jolla would also have to pay a sort of alimony if it’s
determined that La Jolla contributes more in revenue than the services it receives. La Jolla would have to undertake a feasibility study to prove it could generate enough revenue through fees such as sales and property taxes and automobile license fees to provide services in La Jolla. The law would prohibit La Jolla from raising property taxes. Independent La Jolla has not yet raised the $75,000 for the feasibility study. Plenty of questions remain as to how La Jolla would run itself and how the boundary would be drawn — presently the group proposes drawing the line around the 92037 ZIP code. For now, Independent La Jolla plans to mobilize grass root and state support before it undertakes more studies. At its next meeting, Independent La Jolla will form working groups to discuss lobbying state government, polling La Jollans to gauge support and determining whether large institutions like Scripps Hospital and UCSD are interested in being included in the new boundary lines. Independent La Jolla, a 501 c4, is seeking residents to serve on the working groups. For more information visit www.independentlajolla.org or call (858) 459-03645. Richard Smith was involved when the group first introduced the idea 15 years ago. Here are his thoughts on secession: “La Jolla has always been reactive to downtown. Nine thirty-nine Coast Boulevard and Seville condominium [on the corner of Genter Street and Girard Street] got built and we said we don’t want these buildings built here. We were reacting. We finally got a height limit… “We got involved in zoning disputes and it became obvious that we were dealing not so much with the City Council being against us but the city staff. Bloated bureaucracy got in the way. They’re the ones making the decisions about what’s being built in La Jolla to the detriment to the village. A current example is Bird Rock Station. Residents worked diligently to get a two-story limit imposed but staff helped find a way for the developer to continue the project. Decisions ought to be made by the community by people who are responsible to the community — whichever way they are made.” I