Generation gap: Grandparents manipulate their grandson in Plaza Playhouse production

"The cast of "Over the River and Through the Woods," playing at the Plaza Playhouse Theater through July 26. Tom Lucy photo
“The cast of “Over the River and Through the Woods,” playing at the Plaza Playhouse Theater through July 26.
Tom Lucy photo

If you want to complete the play title “Over the River and Through the Woods” with “. . . to grandmother’s house we go,” well, you’ll be partly correct. In Joe DiPietro’s 2008 comedy, this is not a young boy but a beloved – and also grownup – grandson who is visiting, and all four of his grandparents are on hand. Our hapless hero Nick (played by Enrique A. Bobadilla) wants to move across the country when he is promoted at work. His loving but overbearing grandparents don’t want him going anywhere, and to that end, they have tricked a young single woman, Caitlyn (Jennifer Marco), to come and dine with them as well, hoping that love at first site will convince Nick to change his mind.

“Life isn’t in black and white, but shades of grey,” says director Jordana Lawrence. “That’s what this play brings forth, things that happen within a family or between generations. It’s one perspective versus another in this play.”

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Pop-Up Underworld – ELEMENTS THEATRE RETURNS WITH THE DARK FANTASY ‘KING OF SHADOWS’

Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo

When both founding members of Elements Theatre Collective respectively left Goleta and Santa Barbara to follow their graduate careers on the East Coast, there was a brief moment — at least among their fans — when the pop-up theater looked set to dissipate.

But not so. The always-evolving company returns this weekend with “King of Shadows,” under the direction of Kate Bergstrom, who currently teaches theater at Laguna Blanca Middle School.

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