It’s 9 ‘o clock in the morning, and director Jon Jory is seated behind a circular wooden table. He looks fatigued, with ruffled grey hair, a beard and soft blue eyes searching the air for words; yet when he speaks, a shiver of energy is added to coincide with the hum of the refrigerator. This man is anything but asleep, and as much can be said for his direction in Jane Martin’s play “”Somebody/Nobody””, put on by the Arizona Theatre Company in the Temple of Music and Art from March 7 to March 28.
Jory’s a hand talker; cradling his chin, drawing large circles across the table, partitioning off sections. “”It’s not exactly violent; it’s not exactly dark; you know, this is the only comedy I’ve done where the comedy opens with a B-movie star actress in an awards dress coming in covered in blood,”” Jory said.
“”There’s a kind of wildness in these characters that is unexpected; they’re a little further out along the spectrum. I think when (the audience) sees that set they’ll say ‘oh, a homey comedy set in an apartment’, and I think hopefully not in a way that will put them off, but I think they’ll be a little surprised at the nature of what this homey comedy is – and it’s not exactly homey,”” Jory said.
“”There’s always a sofa, there’s always a chair, there’s always a little kitchen so all of those elements are familiar, but this play is extremely athletic in that setting. The idea (is) that this apartment is bursting with life – it’s sort of rocking,”” Jory said.
“”Somebody/Nobody”” is situated in Los Angeles. There are five women to one man in the cast – Loli, an aspiring actress from Kansas (Jessica Martin); Sheena Keener, the already made B-list actress (Alexandra Tavares); Galaxy, Keener’s agent (Elizabeth Gilbert); Joe Don, certified (or maybe not) bounty hunter (Jeremy Stiles Holm); and the German speaking-vampire-stalker, Violeta (UA student Claire Buchignani).
“”(The play) butts up small town America against the L.A. ambiance,”” said Jory.
Theatre junior and “”Somebody/Nobody’s”” stalker, Claire Buchignani, said, “”Even though (Los Angeles is) a really big city, it’s a really lonely city. You can be completely alone in this whole world of strangers, and you can just lose yourself.””
“”This play sort of takes off about the entitlement and the problem of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears – young people that get over their head in terms of success, and it kind of wreaks hell with their personality,”” Jory said.
Which is where the dual morals wrap themselves together succinctly.
“”This play took a nice point of view on how we were missing things … we should be valuing, like we should be valuing the people who fix our trucks,”” Buchignani said.
“”The moral here is that it’s very dangerous to accept other people’s definition of success. You have to define for yourself what success is,”” Jory said.
