REVIEWS:
Previews
in the Albuquerque Journal
and Santa Fe New Mexican
(August 2009)
Radio
interviews on KUNM.ORG
American Theatre Magazine
July/August Issue 2009:
Please click on the link
to view PDF:
Mariachi Monologues
Martin
Denton of NYTheatre.com
reviews 'Sole Survivors'
(March 2009, NY, NY):
Read review and the interview
both at www.nytheatre.com
Al
Dia (September 2008) Philadelphia, PA
contact information:
email:
michellevest@gmail.com
cel: 505.690.2540
1519 upper canyon road
santa fe, nm 87501
site design
by michelle vest
© 2009 michelle vest
Sole Survivors: Journey Across Borders
Written and performed by Michelle Vest, Sole Survivors opened October
2007 in Santa Fe, NM. In 2008, Sole Survivors traveled to Washington,
DC, Philadelphia and New York City. With two more runs in New York in
2009, Sole Survivors concluded its tour in Albuquerque, NM with much acclaim.
Based upon extensive interviews with both documented and undocumented
workers from Mexico and El Salvador, Michelle embodies four composite
characters to tell their stories of hardship and joy.
Michelle's "Sole Survivors" is
a contemporary portrait of one American woman ("the coyote")
and three immigrants who put their lives on the line to seek and realize
not only the American Dream, but their own, more personal and deeply-felt
dreams of freedom. Life and death issues are closely counter-posed in
a dramatic, inspiring mini-saga of tender visions and painful, sharp-edged
realism. Political expression and repression, marriage and divorce, even
humor touching, Chaplinesque humor and pathos take center stage in
Vest’s performance.
"'Sole Survivors' is drawn from actual experiences and my interpersonal
relationships," says Vest. “I wanted to look beneath the usual stereotypes
and assumptions, strip away commonplace cultural veneers, and explore
the far more enlivening truths that exist there.”
*MORE REVIEWS*
“SOLE SURVIVORS” IMPRESSES
Review by Suzana Bowling
The Examiner 6/04/09
Added to this column is a review I for a play I saw last night. With only
five performances left, I had to sneak it in here and alert you to a memorable
evening of theatre.
The play is a one-women show called “Sole Survivors” written
and performed by Michelle. Stepping into the shoes of immigrants, who
long for the "American Dream," she adds a face of humanity to
a controversial issue.
Ms. Vest shows the river of desperation, these men and women will conspire
to ... for freedom. This is human need, want and frailty all shown by
one commanding, vulnerable and multi-dimensional woman.
The acting here is on par with what Broadway should be at it's best and
the writing delves into a no holds bare of emotion, that will leave you
feeling like the souls before you. In between Flor de Toloache, a mariachi
Band, lures you into the next set of lives that will haunt you. It is
interesting to note that the “Sole Survivors” are named after
Woody Guthrie's song that detailed the 1948 crash of a plane transporting
illegal immigrants from California back to Mexico.
Link: http://www.examiner.com/
Electronic
Link Journey (ELJ)
by Laurie Lawson 6/07/09
For
those of you who think you have the immigration problem all figured out,
Michelle has a few things of which she’d like you to be aware.
In her “SOLE SURVIVORS” Journey Across Borders, she holds
a glaring and unrelenting light up to the reality of just what people
are willing to do
to have a shot at the American Dream.
There’s
the American woman who exploits the situation but she does it
compassionately, the tortured San Salvadorian who sacrifices his family
to build a better life, the young Mexican woman who uses sex to distract
from the pain of not being with her son, and the tough hombre who thinks
he has the secret of success mastered until one fateful moment.
These are not a pretty tales.
Vest does an impressive job of telling them using a touch of disbelief
on the American’s part and a poignant combination of cynicism, anguish,
determination and desperate hope for the immigrants.
She becomes each character with convincing conviction.
“SOLE SURVIVORS” Journey Across Borders dares to give you
another perspective of the “immigration problem,” and it does
so amazingly well.
Challenge your beliefs and walk in the immigrants’ shoes for one
brief hour with Michelle.
Link: http://www.eljnyc.com/Offbway.html
PLAYBILL
NEWS:
Sole Survivors; Journey Across Borders
Giving Voice to Immigrants, Will Play NYC and NM
Click here
to read today's Playbill news (May 17, 2009).