Zimbabwe Meets Pomona CA

The senior project for Twelfth Night was completed on schedule, and is still waiting to be graded, in the mean time, I began working on my first professional light design. The Bus Stop Journals written by Bernardo Solano as a community based theater project debuted June 18th at the Downtown Center in Pomona, CA. It was a great success.

The show featured former Cal Poly Pomona Alumni and community members. The play was written by conducting interviews with many bus riders, asked questions that began with "If a man approached you, told you he was from Zimbabwe and asked things like 'How could I contact Oprah?', how would you react?"

The responses were from all sorts of people you meet while either sitting at the bus stop, at the bus depot, or while riding the bus. A man named "Africa 'Thembi'" arrives in America with his band, but when it's time to leave, he stays behind and winds up in Pomona, CA. He thinks he will make it big with his Mbira (An African musical instrument consisting of a hollow gourd or wooden resonator and a number of usually metal strips that vibrate when plucked), but has lost his ability to play it because of his loss of faith in God. When his mother passed away recently, he was unable to say good-bye because he did not see her soul pass on to the next world.

He makes friends with new people, Carl (a teenager who offers him a place to live) and a blind woman named Nancy (she lost her sight 3 years ago from a gun shot to the head). Her insight is stronger than her blindness and she reminds Thembi of his mother with her wisdom. A month goes by, Nancy has become Thembi's friend and Carl has managed to contact one of Oprah's personal assitants. While taking the call Thembi hears the mbira music of his soul, and he sees Nancy dancing toward him to the African rhythm, he knows she has died and he is watching her soul pass on. He takes this as a sign that he must return home to the family he left behind, because he has regained his faith and ability to play the music he loves.



Thembi (Nehemia Chivandikwa) meets Donald (Michael Sartain), a drunk who attends Mt. SAC. The ladder is from the set designer (Bill Morse who also plays the bus driver) still hanging a map during the last dress rehearsal.


Thembi meets (Oz), a goth who hangs out on 2nd street and tries to convince Thembi to seek politicial asylum to stay in the U.S. legally


Nancy enters the stage and Thembi is shy about talking to her at first


Thembi has forgotten the phone call temporarily and dances to the music as Nancy (Sandra Fogler) passes on to the next world. Images of Thembi's home flash on the back drop as he remembers what he has left behind to come to the U.S.


This summer, several of the cast and production crew will travel to Zimbabwe to tell the second part of the story. An American student (Courtney Rowan), enters the exchange program, but when she arrives, she is left stranded alone in a part of Africa and we see how she views their culture. The play will be constructed in much the same way as it was done here. Several Cal Poly Students were interviewed as to how they would react to being in that situation.

I wish I could go, but alas, I have graduated from Cal Poly and this was my last venture with them. I have to enter the real world now (damn!) and get a real job (double damn!). So traveling to another country to do a project for free (plus pay my own way there) is just not possible at this time. But it sure was nice to be involved on this side of the project.