CSUB sinks its teeth into 'Croissant'

Apr. 19—With spring upon us, many are ready to enjoy the great outdoors. Before you plan that trip, consider heading to Cal State Bakersfield this week for a comedic tale of camping gone wrong.

"The Last Croissant" is designed as "a farce out in the woods," said director David Melendez.

"The show is about a group of campers that unexpectedly find themselves crowded together in a campsite at the end of summer."

Written by playwright Veronica Tijoe, who uses they/them pronouns, as part of their master's thesis project while at UC Santa Cruz, "Croissant" has certain freedoms and challenges in its casting.

Melendez said, "They were challenged by advisers that anybody could look at least three of those roles (and be cast)."

Flexibility in casting is especially helpful on a college campus, said Melendez, who is an assistant professor of theater history and literature.

"The audition was open to anybody — any race, ethnicity, gender, levels of ability, body types, any age. Putting that on a casting call encourages people."

There were some caveats in the casting. The show's married couple, Frederick (Maia García) and Imogen (Matthew Penner), is cast with actors whose roles are gender-swapped.

"Tijoe did that to express the frustrations of this married couple," Melendez said. "There is a female actor (as the husband) that is making fun of the wife character, who is a male actor, for being on her period. The humor lands in a different way."

Siblings October and February are played by the same actor, Maria Vega. The "magic of theater" is employed when both characters interact on stage.

"Croissant" also features camp hosts Mumbo (Molly Jiron) and Jumbo (Michael Hendrix) who, along with Ranger Dave (Sebastian Richardson), are trying to find who is responsible for a string of apparent campsite robberies.

Other characters include the Bear (Brizna Fregoso) and Teabag (Gissela V. Zelaya), a role about which Melendez didn't want to give away too many details.

For bigger atmospheric events happening in the show, Melendez employs stage magicians Luke Maciejewski and Jocelyn Torres, who provide music (Maciejewski plays guitar) as well as sounds and special effects while positioned above the stage.

"The audience can see the illusion of what is being created," Melendez said. "They're costumed like mimes. We drew from traditional kabuki theater, where the actor loses themselves in the mask. It was something that we had to define as we went. ... It took a lot of trust on their part and experimentation."

This is the first time this show has been put on by a university (Reed College in Portland, Ore., also has a production in the works), and the director expects that "Croissant" is one that will be picked up by other higher learning institutions based on the material.

"There are issues of sustainability but it's really about relationships. The characters make reference to the drought, how the landscape had changed. People's snacks go missing. The bear puts out this campfire. People aren't taking care of the world around them."

Melendez is excited to share the show, which he notes was created with the input of the students involved, with audiences.

"This is about the magic of theater. We went a couple of years where we didn't have that. They are going to converge on the same space and experience something together, the theater happening in front of them with the actors, with the stage magicians."

Stefani Dias can be reached at 661-395-7488. Follow her on Twitter at @realstefanidias.