Resolving life’s stories in ‘Yesterday Again’

Petaluma playwright Dezi Gallegos debuts new drama at 6th Street Playhouse|

Sonoma County’s theater buffs can rest assured this summer - a bright young talent is debuting his latest theatrical masterpiece, which will surely not disappoint. Dezi Gallegos, 19, is not a stranger to the world of theater, as he has spent the majority of his life acting in, writing and directing productions that have graced the stages of Sonoma County and beyond - think New York, off-Broadway.

Gallegos discovered his love of storytelling visually at a young age; he was composing stories before he had the ability to write, and was always transforming his home into a theater.

“I was telling stories before I knew how to write. I would dictate stories to my babysitter and she would transcribe them. I was always incredibly theatrical - my idea of a great playdate was inviting all of my friends over and directing a mini show with them. It was an innate thing for me,” said Gallegos.

He began his acting career at Petaluma’s own Cinnabar Theater, under the guidance of Sherri Lee Miller. This connection has proved critical, as Miller is now directing Gallegos’ latest production. Gallegos spent all of his childhood theater years at Cinnabar, and is now involved with the education of children looking to enter the stage.

“I’ve been at Cinnabar for over a decade now, started as a student and now I’m the head teacher for their summer camps, and I’ve co-directed a couple of shows,” said Gallegos.

Gallegos’ writing career took off with the debut of “Prop 8 Love Stories,” which he co-wrote at the age of 14. This production found immense success in and out of California, so much that it was eventually published as a book.

“It was a documentary theater piece; we went out and interviewed eight couples, gay and straight, about life, love and discrimination,” he said. “I had the incredible opportunity to not only be part of the cast, but also to co-write and assistant direct the show. It was very successful. We toured around the Bay Area and went to New York City to perform it as an off-Broadway piece. That show was the start of me realizing that I could do this (be successful in writing), and that I loved it very much,” said Gallegos.

Gallegos’ latest production is titled “Yesterday Again,” which he wrote and is co-producing with Nathalie Herman. Herman and Gallegos met through Cinnabar’s theater program, and reconnected after a year of college to make this show a reality.

“Our first show together was when we were 8 or 9 - it was a summer camp. Since that time, we were in more shows together and became fast friends. I was very acutely aware of Dezi’s writing talents, obviously, and supported his shows in the past. He had told me about an idea he had for a show over a year ago, and since that day I kept that little nugget of information in my head. Just last fall, I gave him a call and told him that I thought that we should produce the show together this summer. That caused him to start writing it, and the wheels kept turning, and we decided to co-produce it,” said Herman.

“Yesterday Again” is composed of a unique format: three phases of the character’s lives are occurring on stage simultaneously. The story follows two individuals - Eric Baxter and Bella Kadie - and how their lives are continually intertwined and parallel throughout time.

“Those three periods of their lives - the past, the present and the future - all are occurring simultaneously on stage in front of the audience. You can see them as a child, as a teenager and as an adult all on stage in front of you. You can watch their lives parallel, intersect and interplay. Our goal is that the audience will come away with a new understanding of how people work and how people change. I’ve always thought of the show as a love story, even though it’s much more complicated than that. It’s about two people who love each other very much as children, and due to an unfortunate series of events, their friendship is ripped apart. It’s about how the traumatic events of childhood ripple through the rest of their lives. Even when they moved away from each other, they still touch each other’s lives,” said Gallegos.

The show debuts at the 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa on July 24, and then relocating to Lucky Penny Productions in Napa to finish its run. Gallegos was inspired to compose this work by his own life, a theme common to many productions, but his ideas hold a deeper meaning to the human psyche.

“I had a relationship with a girl over the past year in college, and I was falling into this cycle, which I didn’t realize, of doing things in a relationship that I had done multiple times before. It was a shocking realization. I looked back at a couple of diary entries from past years, and I realized that this was the exact same thing. When we’re young, we begin stories that will last throughout our lives. So much of our lives is trying to resolve those stories and trying to give them endings. My theory on why we repeat the past is because the past doesn’t act as a narrative, where there’s a beginning, middle and end. Often in our lives there’s no ending. We spend our lives trying to find this ending, and if we can’t find the person that we started the story with, we find another,” said Gallegos.

These theories have evolved into his play, “Yesterday Again,” which explores the reasons behind why we do what we do.

(Contact Michaela Western at argus@arguscourier.com)

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