Show Summary

When Jesse returns home to Chicago for his brother's wedding, he surprises -- or, as his best friend Nina says, "ambushes" -- his family by bringing along his Swedish boyfriend, Christian. Jesse's three siblings have varying reactions to the couple: half-sister Ronnie is supportive and anxious for the family to fully accept Jesse and Christian as a couple; younger brother Tony, once he conquers his initial homophobia, is resistant to welcoming a white man into their African-American family; and deeply religious sister Evy thinks that Jesse is betraying the memory of their deceased parents by "choosing" what she considers a sinful, unnatural lifestyle. Through card games, language lessons, and literature, they all strive to live, love, and give as much as they can.

Creative Team

Kevane La’Marr Coleman	Patrick Kelly	Brian Mackey	Leticia Martinez
	Melissa Coleman Reed	Ida L Rhem

 

Press Photos

Pictured (l-r): Ida L Rhem, Leticia Martinez, Brian Mackey, Patrick Kelly, Melissa Coleman Reed and Kevane La’Marr Coleman. Photo credit: Ken Jacques Photography.	Pictured (l-r): Kevane La’Marr Coleman and Brian Mackey. Photo credit: Ken Jacques Photography.
Pictured (l-r): Ida L Rhem and Kevane La’Marr Coleman. Photo credit: Ken Jacques Photography.	Pictured (l-r): Kevane La’Marr Coleman, Brian Mackey, Patrick Kelly, Leticia Martinez and Melissa Coleman Reed. Photo credit: Ken Jacques Photography.
Pictured (l-r): Ida L Rhem, Kevane La’Marr Coleman and Brian Mackey. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.	Pictured (l-r): Ida L Rhem, Leticia Martinez, Melissa Coleman Reed, Patrick Kelly, Brian Mackey and Kevane La’Marr Coleman. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.
Pictured (l-r): The cast of As Much As You Can. Photo credit: Barron Henzel.

Press Release

Diversionary presents comedy “As Much As You Can”

Diversionary Theatre’s fourth production of the 2008-2009 season is comedy As Much As You Can by Paul Oakley Stovall. Finding the funny in family when a black gay man brings home his white lover. Running January 8-25, the play is directed by Antonio T.J. Johnson. The cast features Kevane La’Marr Coleman, Patrick Kelly, Brian Mackey, Leticia Martinez, Melissa Coleman Reed and Ida L. Rhem.

When Jesse returns home to Chicago for his brother's wedding, he surprises -- or, as his best friend Nina says, "ambushes" -- his family by bringing along his Swedish boyfriend, Christian. Jesse's three siblings have varying reactions to the couple: half-sister Ronnie is supportive and anxious for the family to fully accept Jesse and Christian as a couple; younger brother Tony, once he conquers his initial homophobia, is resistant to welcoming a white man into their African-American family; and deeply religious sister Evy thinks that Jesse is betraying the memory of their deceased parents by "choosing" what she considers a sinful, unnatural lifestyle. Through card games, language lessons, and literature, they all strive to live, love, and give as much as they can.

LA Weekly wrote of the January 2008 Los Angeles production: “This is a tight little play with many surprises, not the least of which is playwright Stovall’s restraint with a story that could have turned into a potboiler or movie-of-the-week fable. Instead, at every turn when the plot involving members of the wedding could bog down in histrionics, Stovall has his characters step back and realize that the world keeps turning, with or without their participation. The result is a quiet, achingly humorous study of a family that manages to survive its self-inflicted crises.”

Paul Oakley Stovall, the playwright, has been writing since the age of 16 when his first volume of poetry, another piece of hope, was published by Trail Press. His first play, Love Rules, (which he also directed) received its world premiere at the Theatre School, DePaul University. As Much As You Can has been produced at Dog and Pony Theatre in Chicago (where he is a resident artist), at NY's International Fringe Festival, and most recently to at Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles, starring Tonya Pinkins, Mr. Stovall, and J.Nicole Brooks (Ovation award for Best Featured Actress). Mr. Stovall has adapted the play into a feature film with co-writer Laura Eason, entitled The Loving Are The Daring. His most recent play, Ape, received its world premiere at Dog and Pony in the fall of 2007. He is currently in development on a new musical about the life of famous gay activist Bayard Rustin, produced by Hendel productions. His work has been developed at About Face Theatre, Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and San Francisco Playhouse. Mr. Stovall has dozens of acting credits on stage and screen. Mr. Stovall was honored to spend the last six months of the Obama campaign working on the National Advance Staff.

Antonio T.J. Johnson will direct. He recently directed Waiting to be Invited for Common Ground Theatre. Audiences have seen T.J. on stage in Fences at Cygnet Theatre and in Moonlight Stage Productions Driving Miss Daisy at the Avo Playhouse in Vista.

Started in 1986, the mission of Diversionary Theatre is to produce plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes that portray characters in their complexity and diversity both historically and contemporarily.

As Much As You Can will preview on January 8 and 9, and open on Saturday, January 10 and run through Sunday, January 25. Performance times are: Wednesday & Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday & Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 2:00 & 7:00pm. Single tickets, priced $29-$33 with discounts for seniors, students and military, are now on sale. For information, call the Diversionary box office at 619.220.0097 or log on to www.diversionary.org.

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Reviews

sandiego.com
San Diego Arts
As Much As You Can at Diversionary
Family Love -- and More
By Don Braunagel
Posted on Wed, Jan 14th, 2009
Last updated Fri, Jan 16th, 2009

As Much as You Can starts off with scattered character introductions, much like the pilot for an offbeat cable-channel sitcom. Main man Jesse details to a friend his non-traditional family tree and characterizes its members as “separate but equal.”

Yet Paul Oakley Stovall’s comic drama proves to have more substance than your typical dysfunctional-clan pudding. It builds to a climactic scene that is achingly relevant in the wake of the 2008 election, when black Californians voted heavily for Barack Obama but also strongly for Prop. 8, which banned gay marriage.

Clearly those results stirred Stovall, who says in the program notes that he rewrote the play extensively after its Los Angeles run, adding scenes and changing the ending. Although the work remains the story of a particular — and peculiar — family, its message surely resonates to a wider audience.

Stovall plays a variation on the “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” theme. Jesse, a gay African-American who left home early and for years has been living in New York, far from his family, is heading back to attend his brother’s wedding. And he’s taking along his longtime love, Christian, but Jesse is worried that his family won’t accept Christian — not because he’s a male, but because he’s white.

That seems a strange concern because the family already includes a half-white sister, from the late father’s dalliance with another woman. Yet she too has had to deal with feelings of being an outsider. Brother Tony, who’s accepted Jesse’s homosexuality, at first resists Christian, but quickly mellows when the siblings meet in a bar. The major hurdle, it turns out, is older sister Evie, who dominates the household with the Bible as her guide. Spicing this stew is longtime family friend Nina, who embraces life with bisexual verve — and gets many of Stovall’s best lines.

Finally gathered, the siblings do typical family activities — playing cards, teasing, chatting, reminiscing and bickering, but the tension is palpable between Jesse and Evie, exacerbated by Christian’s presence. At last comes the emotional confrontation, the shouting across the chasm of beliefs about gay marriage. Jesse is obviously Stovall’s surrogate, but Evie isn’t treated unsympathetically. Clearly, she loves her family and wants to do what she deems best for them. For Jesse, that means convincing him that his life’s course is taking him to hell.

As so often in family disputes, the explosion clears the air. Subsequent scenes hint of reconciliation: Evie urges Christian to be Jesse’s partner in the family whist game, and Evie and Christian warm as they share their common interest in James Baldwin’s books. Evie, of course, favors the religiously oriented Go Tell It on the Mountain, Christian the homoerotic Giovanni’s Room.

The cast is sharply spearheaded by Kevane La’Marr Coleman as Jesse, Ida L. Rehm as Evie and Melissa Coleman Reid as the delightful Nina. Brian Mackey, as Christian, and Patrick Kelly, as Tony, are solid. Only Leticia Martinez, as Ronnie, occasionally showed her lack of experience, which will likely fade with more performances. The group’s quality is no surprise, given that the director is one of our town’s multitalented treasures, Antonio T.J. Johnson, who knows a thing or two about acting.

Jane Lamotte’s set is a family-friendly living room and outside bench, nicely delineated by Chris Renda’s lighting. Joan Hanselman-Wong’s costumes, most notable for Nina, and Jason Connors’ sound serve well. As Much as You Can is a Diversionary co-production with San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre.

One final note: Kudos to Stovall and the play for remembering and praising Bayard Rustin. “Who?” you might ask. Well, he was one of the mid-century heroes of the battle for civil rights, not just for African-Americans but for oppressed minorities everywhere. As Ronnie says, “He was refusing to sit in the back of the bus before anyone ever heard of Rosa Parks.” But his major role in the movement was largely downplayed then and is generally ignored now. One reason: He was, for a short time in the ‘30s, a Communist. But the main reason: He was openly gay.

About the author: Don Braunagel has been theater critic and columnist for San Diego Magazine since 1995 and has reviewed theater for Variety, Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Tribune from 1980 until the paper's merger with the San Diego Union in 1992. Before that, he was entertainment editor and theater critic for the Oakland Press in Pontiac, MI. He's reviewed myriad productions in London, New York, Toronto and Stratford, Ontario, and in theaters across the United States, from Ashland to Asolo. San Diego theater, he is certain, ranks with the best.

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San Diego Reader
As Much As You Can
Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009 @ 2:00 p.m.
By Jeffrey Smith

In Paul Oakley Stovall's "dramedy," Jesse, a gay black man, brings his Swedish lover, Christian, to his childhood home in Chicago for a wedding. Sparks would have flown if the family simply reunited without the unexpected guest, since they're such a diverse group. Evie, the eldest is a teacher and devout Christian; her siblings's beliefs vary. Jesse, who's been away for five years, is and is not ready to "out" his lover to Evie, knowing she wants that closet locked forever. Along with having a sharp wit, the playwright has a knack for shaping scenes and issues (especially gay marriage). Stovall crafts the questions so well, in fact, that his abrupt, would-it-were-so conclusion feels tacked on. Ably directed by Antonio T. J. Johnson, the Diversionary Theatre cast communicates above all else a joy in doing this show. Ida L. Rhem's Evie is such a convincing, adamant force that it makes her change hard to believe. Kevane La'Marr Coleman's Jesse, Patrick Kelly's Tony, and Leticia Martinez's Ronnie show how disparate, yet ultimately loving, a family can be. Though his Swedish accent wanders in and out, Brian Mackey adds Christian to his growing list of impressive credits. And Melissa Coleman Reed's feisty Nina alone makes the show worth seeing. I saw her in minor roles for Ion Theatre's U.S. Drag and hoped Reed could land a showcase role soon. She has and struts with panache.

Worth a try.

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San Diego CityBeat
January 13, 2009
By Martin Jones Westlin

Where the heart is
Diversionary Theatre’s current As Much As You Can

Love comes in all shapes and colors, just like the folks who screw it up for everybody else. Witness gay, black Jesse’s (Kevane La’Marr Coleman) tribulations when he introduces his white lover Christian (Brian Mackey) to his family in Diversionary Theatre’s current As Much As You Can—the relationship is nearly torn apart amid the firestorm of feelings and opinions on both sides of the ledger. Paul Oakley Stovall’s script has its uneven qualities; he’s a little anxious in his exposition, and he’s drawn a waaaayy overwrought scene where self-righteous, Bible-thumping Evie (Ida L. Rhem) defends her stance on homosexuality to Jesse. But even with all that’s going on here, this is a fairly taut little piece—and director Antonio “TJ” Johnson, who has a superior gift for nuance, expertly draws the climax. The show runs through Jan. 25 at Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd. in University Heights. $29-$33. 619-220-0097, www.diversionary.org.