Jaden Alvaro Gines on AZ Espinoza

Dear AZ;

This weekend I had the pleasure of seeing a reading of your piece Caribbean King through Cannonball and PTC’s Text and Dramaturgy Special Presentation Cohort. Admittedly, I went into the reading a bit blind (mainly because I’m not as familiar with the source material, King Lear, as most playwrights should be- my bad!) and was worried that I might miss important contextual information that would allow me to understand the world you’ve created. What I was greeted with, however, was a timeless story about destiny, the paths we carve for ourselves, and what it means to face the storms of our pasts and futures, one that I’m sure Shakespeare couldn’t have concocted if it was transcribed on a Guava fruit for him.

Your piece ignited memories of Nathan Alan Davis’ Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; a tale of a young man haunted by visions of generations past, and possibilities of the future that only he can bring to the surface. Instead of Dontrell’s Sea, you place Cord in the eye of his very own storm, one filled with the expectations of his father, his girlfriend, his sisters, and most importantly, himself.

I would be wrong if I did not mention that, holy shit, is it also funny!! I was howling in my front row seat any time Tha Storms would interact, not to mention the phenomenal performance of Rob Tucker as “The Fool”, which had me lost in laughter just as much as I was on the edge of my seat as they delivered your resonant and commanding dialogue. And of course, I must bring up the absolute respect I have as a writer and a performer for you to embody Cord’s journey with such truth and compassion, both on the page and in your performance as the play’s main character. The smiles you share with your fellow performers as they dove head first into this world is a joy that I hope everybody gets to know.

I don’t often find myself enamored with works that live in more magical realism such as yours, mainly because I feel that sometimes, they tend to stray too far into the magical than they do the realism, and end up losing the heart of what makes the story connect to us here and now. But for Caribbean King, what I took with me most was that through the magic, we can find what makes us want to keep living in reality, whether that be Cord’s determination for a better tomorrow, the hope of breaking the cycle of our pasts, or simply conquering the storms that have yet to come. You’ve created a fantastical world that is all too real at the same time, one that gives us hope that our dreams can become true and that we can begin writing the version of our lives that we wish to tell.

-Jaden Alvaro Gines

AZ Espinoza’s Caribbean King has one more showing on Sat, Sept 28th at the Drake.

Jaden Alvaro Gines’ immersive show, Let’s Make an Album, plays through Sept 25th at the Asian Arts Initiative.