San Diego playwright Thelma Virata de Castro did not mean to spend a big chunk of last year’s COVID-19 shutdown on the sands of Ocean Beach. But she knew that surfing was a good outlet for her teen son, so it was O.B. or bust.
De Castro also didn’t intend to turn this forced residency into a creative bonanza, but she couldn’t help herself. Sometimes art imitates life, and sometimes life initiates art.
This was one of those times.
“I loved it,” de Castro said of her days exploring the San Diego River Mouth near Dog Beach while her son surfed. “I work as a teaching artist in the Playwrights Project community program, and the situations that are of the most interest to me are non-traditional.
“At the estuary, you have this combination of nature and humanity that is so fascinating. There are transients and birds and wildlife in between freeways and construction, and that just appealed to me.”
Besides hanging out in this teeming world of surfers, RV dwellers, sea birds, hippies and the dogs of Dog Beach, de Castro also spent some of her pandemic time in “Writing Beyond the Proscenium,” a virtual class on non-traditional storytelling offered through the Los Angeles-based East West Players. When it came time to do a final project, de Castro went back to the beach.
The result is “The TAG Project,” a multipart theater experience centered around the San Diego River Mouth, which is part of a 300-acre estuary that includes sand dunes, trails and a lot of wildlife. The interactive production is being presented throughout the month of August by San Diego’s Playwrights Project, now in its 36th year of teaching playwriting in schools and to underserved populations, including people who have experienced homelessness or poverty.
This new work is the latest offering from the Playwrights Project’s Mosaic Program, which highlights voices from the organization’s community programs. And like de Castro’s days at the beach, “TAG” is full of sights, sounds and surprises.
After ing, audience will receive a welcome letter and a ‘TAG”-centric Mystery Object in the mail, while supplies last. On #TAGTuesdays in August, they will be treated to videos, maps and interviews that will help them engage with the San Diego River Mouth on their own time.
And on Aug. 17 and 24, “The TAG Project” will present site-specific Zoom performances of short plays by Playwrights Project teaching artists and alumni.
The Aug. 17th plays were written by de Castro. The Aug. 24th event features plays by Tony Curtis, Shawn Khalifa, Isabella Quevedo, Ruben Radillo and Robert Wood. After the Zoom performances, the plays will be available on the Playwrights Project YouTube channel.
For the playwrights, de Castro’s instructions were simple. Their plays had to include the “Tag” concept somehow, and the writers had to use the San Diego River Mouth as a setting. And whether the playwrights visited in person or virtually, the site left plenty of room for creativity.
“They were asked to engage with nature, whether at the site or at their own homes, and they soaked it in,” said de Castro, whose plays took inspiration from the estuary’s ospreys, its feral-cat colony and the off-the-grid people who have found a home there.
“There were a lot of plays about labels, which is where the tag came in. But Robert Wood visited on his own and interviewed people, and he wrote a piece called ‘One River – Two Worlds,’ and it explores homelessness. We have a lot of variety.”
The project is directed by Tori Rice and shot and edited by Christopher Boyd. The cast includes professional actors from the local theater community, alumni from the Playwrights Project’s community programs, along with two 13-year-olds and a dog.
And for a group of writers and performers who had been sidelined by the pandemic, the joy of collaborating again was communal.
“Watching the filming of the plays and seeing the joy on the writers’ faces as their pieces were being brought to life, it was really, really magical,” said Cecelia Kouma, executive director of the Playwrights Project.
“If you have ever been a part of creating a theater piece or a film, it takes on a life of its own that is so all-encoming. It really warmed my heart to be a part of that community again.”
After a year that found many of us suffering from a serious case of cabin fever, the people behind “The TAG Project” hope their theatrical adventure will help audiences take a deep, cleansing breath. They also hope viewers will be inspired to take a moment to appreciate where they are now. Wherever that may be.
“I hope they find balance. You don’t know what the flow of your journey is going to be, so just be grateful and realize the grace that is here,” Kouma said.
“I hope they find peace there, and I hope they find time,” de Castro said. “This is all an adventure. I grew up in San Diego, and it is always a treat to see something with new eyes.”
To sign up for “The TAG Project,” go to playwrightsproject.org/productions/community/.
