‘The Strangers’ takes a fresh look at today’s American towns

Coleman Ray Clark, director of Chalk Circle Collective’s production of Christopher Oscar Peña’s “The Strangers,” calls the play “Chris’ ‘Angels in America.’”

“It’s an epic search for love that spans many years,” said Clark, who’s also a friend of the playwright. “It has gritty, real-life moments that have a huge impact on who we are. Also, we get to explode out into the universe, as ‘Angels in America’ does.”

The stars are aligning for the artist-centered Chalk Circle Collective’s first multi-actor production. “The Strangers” is being staged in the Old Town Theatre, formerly the longtime home of Cygnet Theatre, for which Clark is sound/video supervisor. It’s also the space where Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” had it last local production, in 2019.

But “The Strangers,” which is making its West Coast premiere, is more often compared to Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 play “Our Town,” which is a memory tale about a fictional small town in New Hampshire where the close-knit characters experience life, love, marriage and death over a 12-year period beginning in 1901.

“It’s playing on similar ideas,” said Clark. “What does America look like, and what does it feel like to live In America?”

Clark stressed that Peña did not conceive “The Strangers” as an updated “Our Town.” In an interview with the online guide “Inside of Knoxville,” when the play made its 2018 world premiere in Tennessee, Peña called “The Strangers” “an homage to the original” but told in his own voice.

Unlike the all-white characters in “Our Town’s” fictional Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, those in “The Strangers” are diverse ethnically, in background and in sexual orientation. They are also, per the play’s title, strangers — in search of identity, belonging, love.

In the Chalk Circle production, Steven Lone heads a cast of eight as cris (all of the characters’ names, as is the title of the play, were written in the script by Pena in lowercase form), whom Lone says is “the connector of all the different lives that we’re peeking into throughout the play. His overarching conflict is not just identity but this idea of being alone, of being OK with who you are in your own skin. He’s searching for ‘home’ and what that means for him.”

“The Strangers” finds cris returning to “Everytown” to perform in a production of “Our Town” that  is being staged.

“There are so many similarities between the character and his background and myself,” said Lone. “Both I and the character have parents that are immigrants but with strong accents. In his case his mother is dark-skinned while he is light-skinned. That’s very much how my family is as well. The moment I read it (Peña’s script) I immediately connected with it.”

Peña’s script has been updated for this production. The playwright, Clark recounted, was in the room with the Chalk Circle team early in the rehearsal process, making rewrites.

“This is the first time this version is being seen,” Clark said.

Lone recalled it as “a privilege” to have Peña in the room. “I was able to see and dig into what his experiences were.”

Once again, as its title might imply, “The Strangers” pulls back the curtain on a real-life, disconnected community, one far from the likes of Grover’s Corner.

“What’s really touching,” said Clark, “is that this play speaks to so many parts of human loneliness that I see. That’s where Chris (Peña) opens up that experience. He’s not shying away from the difficulty of feeling lonely or feeling unlovable.”

Clark, who’s making his San Diego directing debut with this production, described the impact of Peña’s words on cast and crew: “To sit in a theater where we connect and actually get to experience that loneliness together, there’s a dichotomy that is heartwarming. I’ve never felt so alone and so communal at the same time.”

‘The Strangers’

When: Previews, 7 p.m. today and Saturday. Opens at 7 p.m. Sunday and runs through Nov. 30. 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Old Town’s Historic Barn Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., San Diego

Tickets: $40 and up

Email: Chalkcirclecollective@gmail.com

Online: chalkcirclecollective.com