Theater as a Place to Be
21-year-old Devin Weil would rather be in the audience than on the stage
BY PAUL BIRCHALL
From City Garage’s production of “The Conduct of Life” (Photo by Paul M. Rubenstein)
We’ve been told often enough that theater is for older people – or, worse, that young people don’t appreciate or understand the joys of the theater. To those folks, who usually seldom go to a play themselves, Devin Weil offers the most eloquent rebuttal one can imagine. Devin, 21, a recent graduate in Spanish Literature from Occidental College, is someone whose sophisticated and mature passion for theater belies her youthful appearance.
As part of the Stage Raw outreach program in which a young theatergoer is invited to accompany a veteran critic to a show, I interviewed Ms. Weil, whose obvious enthusiasm for theater-going is a kind of reassurance that theater can still be for everyone — even in Los Angeles.
I had been warned by the publicist of the show we’d been assigned to, City Garage’s Production of Maria Irene Fornes’s The Conduct of Life, that the play was a little dark and sometimes difficult to watch, the result of a story (set in some unnamed Latin American country ) that included acts of rape and torture. I warned Devin of this and offered to book on to a different show if she’d prefer -– but she would have none of it. “I love challenging theater!” she noted.
Primarily, however, her enthusiasm for theater can be traced to her mother’s enthusiasm for it, and to attending theater, often, while growing up.
“I was brought up in New York,” Devin explained, “And my mom really, really loved the theater. I grew up going to the theater all the time – I’d see theater every weekend! They were usually shows that my mother thought were interesting -– the small stuff . . . But every weekend I’d go to a show with mom.”
Devin Weil (Photo courtesy of Devin Weil)
Although Devin appeared in a few plays in high school, she quickly realized she was not a performer. “Acting always seemed like just a hobby and what I really wanted to do was just to see theater.”
The transition to Los Angeles, when she moved out here to go to college, was a game-changer.
“I really got to know LA over the past four years. Learning a new city was kind of an adventure,” says Devin. And, indeed, in addition to her studies at Occidental College, Devin has worked a variety of unusual gigs – “I was a delivery driver for a juice company. That took me all over the city, from the Hollywood Hills to Studio City, to Echo Park.”
Devin is also assisting with writing a book: “I’m working with a chef, helping him create a cook book about Mexican-Kosher food.”
A former volunteer at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which dovetails nicely with her enjoyment of movies – old movies, she explains: “I’m a Turner Classics kind of girl.”
The pre-show conversation quickly devolved into a list of favorite shows she’d seen, which encompassed an unexpected variety of works of different types. “I remember seeing a great Barefoot in the Park . . . and, yeah, that Hedda Gabler with that woman from Weeds [Mary-Louise Parker]. That was crazy. talk about dark! I guess I’m an old fashioned person. I’m an old soul!
Devin approached her theater visit to City Garage with excitement and the self-evident delight of someone who just enjoys the theater as a place to be.
See Devin’s review here.
City Garage, Building T1 at Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave, Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m.; through Aug. 17. citygarage.org.
