Chabot Spectator

Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: The Scene

Media Credit: Parish, Alfred Starting from top, Juan Pablo Rico and Taralynn Taala; bottom, Yousef Riahi and Claire Onyette all actors in the play Ragtime.

Have you seen some posters advertising Ragtime, a musical that is going to be performed at Chabot College? Have you ever heard the phrase, "History repeats itself?" In the play Ragtime, history is repeating itself. Many of the issues addressed in this play are as relevant today as they were at the turn of the century.

What is Ragtime about? According to Margo Hall, the playwright, director and an actress of the upcoming show, "Ragtime is about struggles and overcoming obstacles. The issues of the 1900s are the issues of today; it is on the front pages of the newspapers today: immigration."

Hall has worked with Rachel LePell, the director of the Chabot's theater program and has been a part of Chabot's drama department for several years.

Hall said, "The reason I chose to direct Ragtime is [that] it has very contemporary issues."

The message is that some things sometimes remain the same. Because this is a musical, you will hear some great music. Scott Joplin, the composer and pianist, was also known as the "King of Ragtime."

In this play, Coalhouse Walker, a Harlem musician, represents some of the musicians and immigrants who have traveled from the Deep South to the North. This is displayed through music now known as Ragtime music.

Hall explained her motivation for conducting this play at Chabot. Hall said, "Every play I do has to be a learning experience; the students are not just learning how to act, but they are learning about a place in time, about Ragtime's history and its music."

Ragtime tells the story of three groups in America represented by Coalhouse Walker, a Harlem musician; a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family in New Rochelle; and a Jewish immigrant family.

I asked Hall how Ragtime came about. Hall's response was, "We [LePell & Hall] rotate directing at Chabot. Rachel asked me to direct a musical." She added, "And I remembered Ragtime." In addition to this, "I wanted to direct a play, a play which had a message. Ragtime is an American musical genre which was popular at the beginning of the 20th century in the early 1900s."

The same issues of that time affect people today, and it has not changed that immigration is one of our dominant issues." So, audiences can see how history has been repeating itself through the years.

You can see Ragtime at Chabot College April 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20 and April 21. The program starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $15.

Hall is a Bay Area actress, playwright and director. She has worked at several theaters including the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and she is a founding member of Campo Santo, a theater in San Francisco, which is connected with the Intersection of the Arts.

According to Hall, "Campo Santo is sacred ground like a sanctuary for actors, playwrights, directors and writers. The theater produces only new plays."

Campo Santo just finished producing a new play A Place To Stand written by Jimmy Santiago Baca and Ntozake Shange at the Intersection of the Arts between 15th & 16th Street and Valencia,

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