Valley of the Heart by Luis Valdez

By Joe Straw

Valley of the Heart,written and directed by Luis Valdez, ended its run at the Mark Taper Forum on December 9, 2018.

Luis Valdez is a national treasure and Valley of the Heart may be the pinnacle of his theatrical life.  It is an expansive work of soul-searching art – a visual reflection of looking at the past to understand the present.

In hindsight, one sees the play as a reflecting pool, embedded in time, mirroring humanity, close enough one can see ripples of mass incarcerations, clustered heat of internment camps, and the effluvium or rising gasses chasing women and children away from our borders.

But simply, this is the story of the lives of two families within our borders, the Montaño and Yamaguchi families, through three generations, as they live, love, and approach dying.   

And, this story ironically is told from the perspective of an old sightless man, a man who remembers the past and finds difficulties visualizing the present.

To help him negotiate his age and visual impairment are two Ninja like warriors, the Kurogo. (In Kubuki theatre, they are the onstage assistants.) Mariela Arteaga and Michael Naydoe Pinedo effectively perform a myriad of duties throughout the course of the play.

Blindness makes an easy prey for the sightless Kurogo. They are the dark shadow helpers that accompany Benjamin Montaño (Lakin Valdez) onto a chair and then wheel Benjamin into the light - into the sun - to receive whatever light permeates these days.

In his thoughts, Benjamin travels back in time to the land he cultivated in the Santa Clara Valley and to the family that nurtured his being.    

Quietly mindful in his reflection, Benjamin is a man weathered by time and events but willing to tell a story to anyone within earshot, about a woman he loved and almost lost. And, for him, it is a story that must not be forgotten. The year of the telling is 2001, but he harks back a few days before December 7, 1941.

The words and events come easily as Benjamin defines the farm.  And despite working on the same farm, the Yamaguchi family is better off than the Montaño family.  The Yamaguchi’s home is made of brick and mortar, while the Montaño’s home is constructed of brown pine poverty slats.  John Iacovelli, Scenic Design, makes it clear in the way their houses are presented, of class distinction, one home more opulent than the other.  And each home slides effortlessly behind the sliding Japanese walls, - Shoji screens – which are compliment by David Murakami beautiful projections of Santa Clara Valley and later Wyoming.

The Yamaguchis have owned the land for several generations but let the Montaños live and work the land. 

Cayetano Montaño (Daniel Valdez) is weary of living in squalor and Paula Montaño (Rose Portillo), his wife, is equally tired. She has been busy raising three children who are now young adults, Benjamin Montaño (Lakin Valdez), Ernesto “Tito” Montaño (Moises Castro) and a very peculiar daughter Maruca Montaño (Christy Sandoval) 

In reality, the Montaño family is living on scraps and doesn’t have enough money to buy food for five adults.  Daniel wants a raise. He waits for the opportunity and approaches Ichiro Yamaguchi (Randal Nakano) for a meager increase and the modest title of foreman. They share a glass of sake, or two, and so little gets done. After consuming the sake, Daniel forgets what he was there for and struggles to find the front door.

But money is not the only thing on everyone’s minds.  Benjamin Montaño has his sights on Thelma Yamaguchi (Melanie Arii Mah) as they work together in the broccoli fields in a very nice bit of choreography harvesting the rows.

Alas, Thelma’s life has been arranged and she is promised to Calvin Sakamoto (Scott Keiji Takeda), an obnoxious young man, with money and a fast car, who Thelma is not in love with. Thelma wants to respect her family’s wishes and traditions and sends Benjamin mixed signals.  She is really not happy with Calvin but she doesn’t know if going against her father’s will makes anyone happy.

Women.

And then the bombing of Pear Harbor on December 7, 1941 happens and the Yamaguchi family is thrown in disarray.  The patriarch is arrested, and sent to a labor camp.  The rest of the Yamaguchi family will soon follow suit and be sent to an internment camp – the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming.

Overall, the cast was exceptional.  But, I have minor reflections on the craft.   

Moises Castro did fine as Ernesto “Tito” Montaño.  There is more to be had in the relationship between the two brothers. Valdez shares a quantifiable difference between the make-up of the two boys – one brother is a warrior, and the other is a lover.  Character actions guide an actor to that end, and Castro’s objective must move him in that direction.

The same holds true with Justin Chien as Joe “Yoshi” Yamaguchi who appears to be on the same path but from a different household.  This character must have a clearer objective.

Randall Nakanohas a lot of funny moments as Ichiro Yamaguchi especially when witnessing his grandson for the first time. Ichiro presents strength and an unwillingness to bend, but one wonders if his choices help him navigate to the dramatic ending.

Joy Osmanski also had her moments as Hana Yamaguchi, the wife who obeys the wishes of her husband.  But, ignoring the times, there must be a reflective moment where she conquers as an individual and one that rules the house in an act of disobedience. Still, it was a fine performance.  

There is a moment when Rose Portillo as Paula Montaño finds out that one of her sons has just joined the military.  She pulls up her hand to slap him and then changes her mind to caress his face.  It is a beautiful moment that carries long after the theatrical night.  Portillo is wonderful in the role.

Christy Sandovalas Maruca Montaño seemed lost in this production.  This character needs more work.  There were many opportunities to add to the character, the hot tub scene and the fight scene, but these scenes did not give us an idea of who this person is what her focus in life is.  The physical actions of the character (extremely different from the rest of the cast) did not move the character toward the end when the audience discovers she is a lesbian.  How does the physical and emotional life move her in a way that moves her in that direction?

Scott Keiji Takedaplays Calvin Sakamoto, a Japanese American, who gets hauled off into the internment camp.  He is the love interest and not really dangerous although he carries an unloaded cap pistol with him.  Takeda has a strong voice and has a comic sensibility about him and just about everything he said provoked laughter from the audience. His work is superior.

Daniel Valdezplays the father, Cayetano Montaño, and provides a solid performance. Valdez brings a lot of life to the role of father, husband, and worker. Discovering the loss of his son is a terrific moment in the play. Valdez is an exceptional actor that creates light from the darkness.

Melanie Arii Mah is Thelma, the woman caught between two worlds.  She is slightly mixed up and really doesn’t know what she wants.  She doesn’t love the man chosen for her and she is also ambivalent to take the man she loves and thereby defying her father. (see Romeo and Juliet) She seems resigned to understand that any decision is a bad decision for someone she’s involved with so she plays it close to her being.  One interesting thought is that her actions are all actions remembered by her husband.  

Lakin Valdezplays Benjamin Montaño and there is more work to done with this character. Anger should be left to specific moments during the course of his life and should have been directed at circumstances rather than people. Instead where love is critical – the objective could have been stronger. Never give up should be his mantra, on his girlfriend, then his wife, and then his child.   Love rules this character until the end when he has it all, in memory, and knows that everyone is safe and sound. He is the storyteller and every moment is a visual historical moment that moves him to tell the story in the end.  Also, desperation is a key component that was missing between the love interests.

Cast member who did not perform the night I was there were Melodie Shih, Michael Uribes, Natalie Camunas, and Ricky Pak.

In the darkness, desperation plays a vital role in the through-line of becoming one family once again. The end is reflective of the beginning in Luis Valdez’s play.  The storyteller should not be lost during the course of the actions on stage. But, is there more of a dramatic ending to be had? Possibly, we should see those who made it and maybe those that didn’t. And we should see that in dramatic fashion.

Heart was presented by the Center Theatre Group – Michael Ritchie Artistic Director – Stephen D. Rountree Managing Director – Douglas C. Baker Producing Director – Gordon Davidson Founding Director in association with El Teatro Campesino. 

Other members of the crew are as follows: 

Kinan Valdez - Associate Director

Lupe Valdez - Costume Designer

Pablo Santiago - Lighting Designer

Philip G. Allen - Sound Designer

Edgar Land - Fight Director

Rosalinda Morales and Pauline O'Con - Casting 

PJ & Roy Hirabayashi - Original Compositions and Arrangements

Noé Yaocoatl Montoya - Additional Arragements

Phillip Esparza - Executive Producer

David S. Franklin - Production Stage Manager

Susie Walsh - Stage Manager