Coleman Ray Clark, director of Chalk Circle Collective\u2019s production of Christopher Oscar Pe\u00f1a\u2019s \u201cThe Strangers,\u201d calls the play \u201cChris\u2019 \u2018Angels in America.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an epic search for love that spans many years,\u201d said Clark, who\u2019s also a friend of the playwright. \u201cIt has gritty, real-life moments that have a huge impact on who we are. Also, we get to explode out into the universe, as \u2018Angels in America\u2019 does.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stars are aligning for the artist-centered Chalk Circle Collective\u2019s first multi-actor production. \u201cThe Strangers\u201d is being staged in the Old Town Theatre, formerly the longtime home of Cygnet Theatre, for which Clark is sound\/video supervisor. It\u2019s also the space where Tony Kushner\u2019s \u201cAngels in America\u201d had it last local production, in 2019.<\/p>\n
But \u201cThe Strangers,\u201d which is making its West Coast premiere, is more often compared to Thornton Wilder\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 play \u201cOur Town,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
![\"Playwright](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sut-l-stage-strangers2.jpg\")
Playwright Chris Oscar Pe\u00f1a, left, and director Coleman Ray Clark are collaborating with Chalk Circle Collective on Pe\u00f1a\u2019s \u201cThe Strangers,\u201d playing Nov. 14-30 at the Old Town Theatre in San Diego. (JEDZANT Photography)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s playing on similar ideas,\u201d said Clark. \u201cWhat does America look like, and what does it feel like to live In America?\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark stressed that Pe\u00f1a did not conceive \u201cThe Strangers\u201d as an updated \u201cOur Town.\u201d In an interview with the online guide \u201cInside of Knoxville,\u201d when the play made its 2018 world premiere in Tennessee, Pe\u00f1a called \u201cThe Strangers\u201d \u201can homage to the original\u201d but told in his own voice.<\/p>\n
Unlike the all-white characters in \u201cOur Town\u2019s\u201d fictional Grover\u2019s Corners, New Hampshire, those in \u201cThe Strangers\u201d are diverse ethnically, in background and in sexual orientation. They are also, per the play\u2019s title, strangers \u2014 in search of identity, belonging, love.<\/p>\n
In the Chalk Circle production, Steven Lone heads a cast of eight as cris (all of the characters\u2019 names, as is the title of the play, were written in the script by Pena in lowercase form), whom Lone says is \u201cthe connector of all the different lives that we\u2019re 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\u2019s searching for \u2018home\u2019 and what that means for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Strangers\u201d finds cris returning to \u201cEverytown\u201d to perform in a production of \u201cOur Town\u201d that\u00a0 is being staged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many similarities between the character and his background and myself,\u201d said Lone. \u201cBoth 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\u2019s very much how my family is as well. The moment I read it (Pe\u00f1a\u2019s script) I immediately connected with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pe\u00f1a\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time this version is being seen,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
Lone recalled it as \u201ca privilege\u201d to have Pe\u00f1a in the room. \u201cI was able to see and dig into what his experiences were.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once again, as its title might imply, \u201cThe Strangers\u201d pulls back the curtain on a real-life, disconnected community, one far from the likes of Grover\u2019s Corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s really touching,\u201d said Clark, \u201cis that this play speaks to so many parts of human loneliness that I see. That\u2019s where Chris (Pe\u00f1a) opens up that experience. He\u2019s not shying away from the difficulty of feeling lonely or feeling unlovable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark, who\u2019s making his San Diego directing debut with this production, described the impact of Pe\u00f1a\u2019s words on cast and crew: \u201cTo sit in a theater where we connect and actually get to experience that loneliness together, there\u2019s a dichotomy that is heartwarming. I\u2019ve never felt so alone and so communal at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The Strangers\u2019<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Where: Old Town\u2019s Historic Barn Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., San Diego<\/p>\n
Tickets: $40 and up<\/p>\n
Email: Chalkcirclecollective@gmail.com<\/p>\n