Jackie Apodaca directs “The Drunken City” by Adam Bock, now playing at Southern Oregon University’s Center Square Theatre. Cesar Perez Rosas and Samuel L. Wick play Frank and Eddie, two young bar-crawlers who hook up with three girls on a bride/bachelorette party binge. Perez Rosas and Wick are both in their fifth year at SOU, pursuing bachelor of fine arts degrees. Both will be interns at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival next fall. The three of us met at Starbucks near the SOU Campus.

EH: Tell me about the play.

JA: Thematically, it’s about identity, what happens when you’re on a path, and you realize that it’s not the right one. Occasionally, the role that you’re playing will smack up against who you are or what you really want to do. In this case we’re looking at bride-mania.
I believe that now, women in our culture are under a great deal of pressure to play the role of being a bride, walking down the aisle and bringing everyone’s expectations to life as they fulfill that role. Although I did discover that spending on weddings has not increased over the last five or six years, from about 1989 to about 1995, there was a huge run-up where it quadrupled. Now on average, in this country, people spend about $22,000 on their wedding. It was about six or seven grand in the late ’80s, so it did a big jump, but now it has sort of settled. Continue reading Jacky Apodaca →