OC WEEKLY
AUGUST 3, 2006
 
THE SUMMER JEREMY GABLE TOOK OVER OC THEATER
He writes, directs, acts and he's good
 
By JOEL BEERS
 
Welcome to the summer of Jeremy Gables contentemphasis on the first syllable. You name it, hes doing it: acting, writing, directing and administratingoften on the same night.
 
Last Friday, Gable missed opening night of his new musical riff on Godzilla, Giant Green Lizard! The Musical, at the Maverick Theater in Fullerton due to a prior engagement: portraying four roles in the Hunger Artists Threepenny Opera. Meanwhile, auditions for another original Gable play, the superhero-infused American Way, were set the following afternoon at the Maverick.
 
Individuals adept at some combination of writing, directing and acting arent unusual in Orange County theater. But I cant recall anyone accomplishing as many different things so quickly as the 24-year-old Gable. In just over two years, hes cut through the county like a far less irritating strain of chlamydia: hes everywhere and impossible to ignore.
 
And heres the cool part: his projects are anything but mundane. At the Hunger Artists, hes garnered raves in Jason Lindners brilliant mind-fuck of a one-man show, The Gog/Magog Project, and displayed versatility by portraying more than 15 characters in Darcy Hogans cautionary nuclear testing tale, The Land Southward. He helmed an ambitious adaptation of the theatrical totem Marat/Sade and chose the incredibly challenging Sarah Kane play 4:48 Psychosis as his directorial debut. Hes also the newly named literary manager at one of the countys most literary-minded theaters, the Hunger Artists, as well as its associate artistic director.
 
He has such a remarkable creative energy and a fearless imagination, Hunger Artists artistic director Kelly Flynn said, facetiously copping to a slight strain of envy at Gables diverse talents. He is multitalented. Hes a great director, actor, even singer. Im glad hes chosen to be so involved with us, because I would probably have killed him by now.
 
Gable is the latest example of how its possible to thrive in an otherwise insular Orange County small theater scene that provides little money, few reviews and fewer industry types. But the proverbial silver lining is unlimited opportunity: if motivated, the relative lack of rigid structure and defined roles means you can do just about anything.
 
And thats why Gable is one of the few promising young theater types not planning an exodus up I-5 any time soon.
 
Ive done theater in Los Angeles and been a part of that scene, but the reason I like Orange County theater is that people do it out of a genuine love of doing it, Gable said. Theyre not necessarily looking for an agent or [exposure]. Sure, Id love to branch out and get my work seen by a larger audience, and Ive been sending out my plays. But right now, Im very interested in theater management and how a theater runs.
 
Making Gables rapid progression even more remarkable is his alien status. After he graduated high school in Idaho, his familytired of the bone-numbing winters and annoying white supremacist paradesmoved to California. Well, Barstow.
 
Eventually, Gable got to civilization (Orange County) and began exploring the local theater scene, working at several community theaters but tiring of the limiting middle-of-the-road fare. He found a home after auditioning for the Hunger Artists production of Stephen Sondheims Assassins.
 
I immediately knew that was the type of company I wanted to work with, he said, citing the companys penchant for non-mainstream, form-tweaking work.
 
His energy and talent quickly made him an integral part of one of the countys best storefront troupes.
 
The thing about Jeremy is that he does the work, Flynn said. A lot of people talk about doing this or that, but once he sets his mind to it, he does it. Thats what has made him such a breath of fresh air from the moment he joined the company.
 
 
 
ON WRITING "RE: WOYZECK":
"Always interesting...It’s fresh, rarely predictable...One of Orange County’s most genuinely innovative theatrical minds."
- Joel Beers, OC Weekly

ON DIRECTING "FROZEN":
"An especially effective black-box staging by Jeremy Gable."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register

" Jeremy Gable is both the Director and Set Designer for 'Frozen' and gets high marks for both jobs."
- Elliot & Joyce Rosenthal, Fullerton Observer

ON ACTING IN "MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING":
"As the scheming Don John, Gable delivers an odd duck...attesting to Way-Agle's insistence upon a lighter tone."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register

" Jeremy Gable is especially effective in his dual roles."
- Elliot & Joyce Rosenthal, Fullerton Observer

ON WRITING "GIANT GREEN LIZARD - THE MUSICAL":
 
"A silly, goofball-funny show that both tips its hat to and derides the campy genre of monster movies that began to emanate from Japan in the 1950s...Gable has a way with a turn of phrase...Gable's songs are cheerfully loopy, with the lighter, more sexually suggestive material of the karaoke supplanted by the macabre, black comedy of the second act's numbers. Melody-wise, his songs parody various genres, but it's his lyrics that astutely zero in on their targets...Gable's inventive, kitschy, tongue-in-cheek score."
- Orange County Register, 08/04/06
 

ON PERFORMING IN "THE THREEPENNY OPERA":
 
"More accurate readings are given by...Jeremy Gable as the pleasant balladeer who opens and closes the show."
- Orange County Register, 07/28/06
 

ON PERFORMING IN "THE PLEDGE DRIVE: RUMINATIONS ON THE HUNGER ARTIST":
 
"A raspy-voiced Jeremy Gable makes the most of a monologue fittingly eloquent for his character, a sick megalomaniac."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 05/21/06
 

ON DIRECTING "4.48 PSYCHOSIS":
 
"Without resorting to the lurid, director Jeremy Gable and star Jessica Topliff keep this journey an unsettling one. The pair brings the necessary tools to Kane's text: respect for the material's integrity that avoids reverence or pathos, yet averts sensationalism."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 03/05/06
 
"The staging, as it should be for this presentation, is absolutely stark, just an institutional type table and two chairs.  The actress uses these pieces as props for her musings and ranting and raving.  The director of this powerful theatrical performance..........I cannot bring myself to use the word 'play' here, is Jeremy Gable...If you are interested in exploring the mind and the theatre rather than just resting your brain of puff pieces this is the performance to see."
- Elliot Rosenthal, Fullerton Observer, 03/11/06
 

ON PERFORMING IN "TWELFTH NIGHT":
 
"[Director Kelly] Flynn smartly casts [Melanie] Gable's real-life brother, a solid Jeremy Gable, in the mainly plot-driven role of Sebastian."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 01/27/06
 

ON PERFORMING IN "LITTLE WOMEN":
 
"As Theodore 'Laurey' Laurence, the polished, polite, soft-spoken young gent whom all but Meg are drawn to but who only has eyes for Jo, Jeremy Gable is immensely likable and subtly lonely."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 11/23/05
 

ON WRITING/PERFORMING IN "MARAT.SADE":
 
"Jeremy Gable has retranslated Weiss' original text, then adapted it, adding rhyming couplets, and he and P. Matthew Park have composed original music and lyrics...Call me crazy, but by whittling the script down to size and turning Sade's 'play' about Marat's murder into a mini-musical, Gable, Park and director Glendele Way-Agle have made Weiss' work infinitely more provocative. This version slyly adds its own ideas while retaining a subversive, anti-authority tone, and the inventive, wildly funny songs are wickedly ironic - something the Marquis would have been likely to do, and would appreciate today...Gable's Herald is a nervous sprite ordered by Sade to function as accompanist, musical director, narrator and stage director of the Marquis' play...This combination of incisive content and surreal presentation yields live theater at its best, challenging us to think critically about the political constructs of our society."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 05/13/05
 
"Jeremy Gable's 'translaptation' of Peter Weiss' 1964 agitprop classic is so effective that one regrets the compression...Gable takes a ruthless knife to the text while retaining its basics...Other standouts include Gable's nervous herald."
- David C. Nichols, Los Angeles Times, 05/20/05
 

ON PERFORMING IN "THE LAND SOUTHWARD":
 
"Just three performers - Jeremy Gable, Kimberly K. Mitchell and Michael Serna - portray a raft of characters in these scenes; the trio does yeoman work"
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 04/08/05 
 

ON WRITING "AMERICAN WAY":
 
"Wickedly funny stuff...the last moments of bravado and fear resonate."

- Lynne Heffley, 10/08/04

"Jeremy Gable's loopy new play is driven by an ingenious metaphoric concept...Gable's dark comedy/fantasy skewers U.S. political issues with up-to-the-minute relevance while taking a frighteningly resonant look at the volatile state of international relations...Gable scores a bull's-eye on many satiric targets, including celebrity worship and the shallowness of pop culture...Gable's distinctive voice offers great promise.  At its best, his lacerating piece evokes a tragicomic Kubrick-esque brilliance."
- Les Spindle, BackStage West, 10/08/04
 
"A superhero parody with a lot more brewing beneath the surface, Jeremy Gables new play uses an organization of crime fighters, like the Justice League of America, as a metaphor for the U.S...His message is strong but pleasantly balanced with wry jokes about superhero clichés that testify to the authors expansive knowledge of the genre."
- Luis Reyes, L.A. Weekly, 10/15/04
 

ON PERFORMING IN "THE GOG/MAGOG PROJECT":
 
"Jeremy Gable (in an arrestingly convincing and believable performance as Gog)...As Gog, Gable may lack the scrawny body, tattoos and track marks of the stereotypical performance artist, but his wholly honest and vulnerable performance completely realizes a critical part of this play: the audience has to be on Gogs side, even if we have no clue as to where that side starts or ends."
- Joel Beers, OC Weekly, 09/02/04
 
"Youthful, thin Gable has a boyish face that sometimes breaks into an impish grin. In his characterization of Gog, there's little that's subversive or intensely maniacal. The persona he projects is of a juvenile twentysomething with the kind of vulnerability that arouses our protective instinct."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 09/03/04
 

ON PERFORMING IN "ALL IN THE TIMING":
 
"Especially hilarious is Gable, whose Milton is a 'professional' writer who prides himself on his impeccable logic."
- Eric Marchese, Orange County Register, 09/19/03