There's plenty of people who love to smoke it so much
You can chug a jug o' liquor till your liver is shot
But do not allow 'em seize you smokin' that pot
BLUE LAKE, Calif. — Right here within the middle of north Humboldt County (that is NoHum to the uninitiated), somewhat theater corporate is taking over a subject matter each taboo and omnipresent: marijuana.
Behind the Dell'Arte Company's ensemble of unique songs and Emerald Triangle humor is a bittersweet, multi-generational story concerning the cultivation tradition that celebrates the herb at the same time as laying naked the industry's darkish side.
An research offered sooner than the Board of Supervisors as of late anticipated that the commercial have an effect on of pot — which "Mary Jane: The Musical" alternately refers to as "only a plant," "the demon weed" and medication"" — on Humboldt County is greater than $400 million annually.
At a time while sanctioned medical marijuana use has precipitated an explosion of growers and dispensaries within the state, and federal officers are cracking down, the theatrical manufacturing tackles a few ensuing truths: environmental degradation from irresponsible out of doors farms, house invasion robberies that plague indoor rising operations and the panic over shedding costs that might plummet additional if the bud ever made its approach out of the shadows of the black market.
Then there's the human tale.
Marijuana have been the circle of relatives industry for lots of considering the fact that back-to-the-land hippies arrived right here greater than 4 many years in the past and commenced to domesticate it so that you can make a residing. Youngsters who grew up masking for his or her parents' unlawful tactics now are growers — and are elevating their very own children to maintain secrets and techniques too.
"It's now not that growers are dangerous people, but it surely has ramifications for generations," stated Dell'Arte's longtime generating inventive director, Michael Fields, who prepare the musical final yr and up to date it for an additional season. The 2012 model opened to a sold-out crowd Thursday.
"A lot of individuals must reside a little a lie," Fields said.
That lie, the manufacturing notes with pointed humor, extends to citizens who are not right away excited by the business however are however complicit via their delight in its riches: a comparatively cast county economic system (in a area the place conventional industries of fishing and logging has been decimated) and considerable spending that sustains delights just like the "18 varieties of chard" referenced in a single grasp of dialogue.
"It's so great to cope with those problems by poking a laugh … with out pointing an excessive amount of of a finger," mentioned Kristin Nevedal, chairwoman of the Emerald Growers Assn., based totally in Garberville. (THAT IS in SoHum.) "WHETHER OR NOT you are within the trade or not, it is ingrained in our culture."
Dell'Arte is understood for its "theater of place," which takes on subjects that subject to the group. Some other present production, for example, offers with end-of-life selections amongst getting older child boomers right here. However Fields took a brand new way with "Mary Jane" — commissioning 14 songs from native artists that spoke to their reports throughout the culture, then crafting a plot with the riches that flowed in.
Those integrated a romantic duet among an indoor plant and out of doors plant that experience a few irreconcilable differences, a reggae slap-down of the Obama administration's stance on scientific grows, a heavy-metal tirade concerning the thirst for earnings and the soul-searching "My Son," in regards to the implications of elevating a kid within the industry's fold.
The tale that binds the lyrical bills is among the coronation of Mary Jane (a.k.a. Empress Sativa) because the Queen of the Emerald Ball.
The principal character, Mary Jane — performed by Joan Schirle, the company's founding creative director — is a back-to-the lander from the early NINETEEN SEVENTIES who noticed modest outside cultivation of the "natural relaxant" so that you could positioned meals at the desk. Then, because the trade boomed and cultivation practices grew extra sophisticated, she was sucked into the nice life.
Mary Jane questions her parenting as her son, a extra reckless grower, returns house along with his personal female child. Within the production's darkest piece, he name callings her with a tune approximately what the trade has become:
Read More... [Source: Los Angeles Times - Top News]
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