Merging Lanes
Los Cuentos De Nuestra Gente Festival
Proudly Presents
written by nick krentel
directed by Lucas Goodman
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TRIGGER WARNINGS:
-Strong Language
-Themes surrounding death of family member
RUN TIME:
17:13
SYNOPSIS
Trapped in a car together, Merging Lanes explores the complicated relationship between a single mother and her gay son on the move to Oklahoma as their emotions reach an explosive boiling point.
WATCH Merging lanes BELOW
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DIRection
Director
Lucas Goodman
Lucas Esperanza-Goodman is a senior Drama major / Political Science minor at UC Irvine. He is extremely grateful to have had the honor of working alongside all the incredible collaborators on the LCDNG Festival! Next up, you can observe his collaborative efforts being dedicated to UCI Drama’s devised production of Resistance, Resilience, Radiance in Spring 2021!!!
Playwright
Stage Manager
Nick Krentel
Rachel Bagby
Nick Krentel is an openly gay playwright who loves diving deep into the absurd, surreal, fantastical, and horrific. He is in the process of his last year completing his Bachelor of Arts in Drama at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts with a minor in Film & Media Studies. You can find his plays on the New Play Exchange as well as Concord Theatricals website. He can also be found on social media with the handle @NjKren. Currently he is working on his honors thesis, a full-length play exploring dreams, death, and the afterlife. Be sure to stay tuned!
Rachel Bagby is a second-year drama major who is thrilled to be a part of LCDNG Festival. This is her first time working with the BBTC, and she believes being the stage manager for Merging Lanes is an absolute privilege during a time where a sense of community can be very hard to find. She’d like to sincerely thank her wonderful team for filling each virtual rehearsal with such positivity and all those who have worked so diligently to make this lovely festival possible! Up next, you will be able to find Rachel performing in the Switched Cabaret showcase.
CAST OF MERGING LANES
MOM
played by Kiki Ruiz
Kiki Ruiz is a senior Drama major and Film and Media Studies minor at UC Irvine. While in school, Kiki has been involved in various UCI productions including DCP’s, 30 Plays in 60 Minutes, Switched Cabaret, and more. She has cherished her UCI experience thus far and loves collaborating with her peers. When she is not acting, Kiki enjoys singing and spending time with friends. Kiki is so excited and honored to be a part of the BBTC production, Merging Lanes.
SON
played by Jason Ta
Jason Ta (he/him) is a second-year drama student at UCI who is aspiring to be a professional actor. He entered college without any acting or even theatre experience at all, but has been able to pick it up easily so far, and is excited to see what the future has in store for him. He is extremely grateful for the incredible opportunity to work with BBTC, and the Brown Bag family has been nothing but welcoming and kind. He cannot wait for everyone to see the art that they’ve been creating!
Joey
played by Sawyer Maier
Sawyer Reece Maier (he/him) is a third year Drama major at UCI with a focus on musical theater and acting. Sawyer has also been privileged enough to be able to dabble in Stage Management and Directing. In his free time, he loves to do activities that center around self help whether he is inside singing show tunes with his musical roommates or going for a run outside to escape. Sawyer is so excited to be able to work with Brown Bag once again for this production of Merging Lanes and he encourages everyone to support all that the festival has to offer!
DESIGNERS
Diana Herrera
Lighting Designer
Diana Herrera is a first-year graduate lighting design candidate at UC Irvine. Her whole life she has been submerged into theatre and is ecstatic to be here at UCI studying what she loves most, lighting design. Diana received her
BA in theatre from Cal State Los Angeles where she became introduced
to technical theatre. Over the years of working in the industry of theatre, Diana has worked on various shows inside and
outside schools. Aside from being a designer, Diana also carries experience in assistant lighting design, electrician work, stage management, and production assistance.
Find more of Diana's work at:
LUCY VALERO
Assistant Lighting Designer
Lucy Valero is a first year transfer student at UCI. Lucy considers herself a theatre artist with a strong visual arts drive. She has experience as an actor, director, playwright, dramaturg, producer and costume designer, and she is very grateful to be the assistant lighting designer for this wonderful festival, as it has given her the opportunity to explore a different and fascinating side of theatre. Lucy is currently working as a producer on her own independent company, The Concept Theater Company, where she aspires to raise up the voices of young artists of Southern California. For updates, follow @TheConceptTheaterco on IG.
Jacqueline Gonzalez
Scenic Designer
Jacqueline Gonzalez (She, Her) is a set and lighting design student at UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts. During her time in undergrad, she's taken Graduate level design classes; assisted fantastic designers; and worked as the UCI Art galleries lighting assistant (pre-pandemic). Her ultimate goal is to become a Production Designer, Set decorator, and Lighting Designer for the entertainment world. She would like to thank Brown Bag for giving her her first Production design and Website design job.
If you want to see more of Jacqueline's projects head on over to https://bit.ly/JQGDesigns
or follow her on Instagram @jackeigh_
JOSHua PRICE
Sound Designer
Joshua is studying sound design here at UCI. Hailing from the SF Bay Area, he came to Irvine last year to expand his horizons in sound design for theatre and live performances. With the pandemic shifting us away from that mode of artistry, he has now been focused on navigating new forms of performance that can be utilized in this strange new world. He wants to thank Brown Bag for having him on this project, as well as his assistant Alex for jumping headfirst into the job! Not to mention his puppy Suki, for providing excellent voice-over talent!
Alexandria Fakayode
Assistant Sound Designer
Alexandria Fakayode is a third year transfer student majoring in Drama at UC Irvine. She has a strong passion for all things theatre, whether that is performing on stage or helping production off stage. She is happy to be at a school that allows her to explore all of her different creative passions. She is grateful to be (virtually) joining Brown Bag as assistant sound designer for this festival, as the art in this festival is important to share during the Covid-19 pandemic.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
One thing I love about car rides is how transformative they can be. Some of the fondest memories I have includes car rides with family members, friends, and other loved ones. I will never forget the time when I was about 8 years old and I was stuffed into a car with my grandma, grandpa, uncle, auntie, mom, sister, and a little pet Chihuahua. We were all coming from San Diego to visit our other family in the Bay Area as a small reunion with my Filipino family. Eight hours of cringey throwback 90s mixes, surrealistic wind turbines, greasy gas station McDonalds fries, and the sweet rosy musk of the Grapevine country’s cow manure: what a time to be alive. Although at the time I dreaded every minute of the 500 mile trek, in retrospect, I have an incredible amount of gratitude for those trips spent with my family. I will also never forget the time when I was about 6 years old when that same bunch of family members and I were stuffed into a car driving to the hospital to be with my auntie who was terminally ill with cancer at the time. Both experiences of being in a car were widely different, yet extremely significant in shaping who I am today.
Each car ride we share is a story that captures a momentary snapshot of life. Sometimes this snapshot can capture the triumph of one’s first joy ride after acquiring their license and sometimes this snapshot can embody the escape ignited by the loss of a loved one. Merging Lanes is a story that seeks to explore how car rides not only transform people in different ways, but more importantly how car rides have a unique way of bringing people together in ways we never may have expected. Following the recent death of the husband and father figure of their family, Merging Lanes portrays the opening snapshot of a Mother and Son’s spontaneous thousand mile move from California to Oklahoma within the confines of a car jam packed with moving boxes and luggage. With the father’s death being a fresh wound lingering in the mother and son’s relationship, we see how the characters utilize escape as an outlet to avoid confronting the pain that manifests from each other’s presence as they cope with their grief individually. Through this, the story reflects how the characters’ sense of identity, family, and home are challenged and most significantly how they are forced to overcome the individual emotional hurdles they endure together.
In approaching Merging Lanes , I became attuned to the theme of home vs. escape and the questions of, What does home mean to me? and How does escape influence the discovery of home? I found that the sense of home that the characters struggle to find the most resides within a deeper longing to patch the distance between one another caused by their wounded familial bond. It is within this bond where not only the healing from their need to escape lives but where their sense of home resides as well. Beneath the pursuit of escape there lives a deeper longing for vulnerability, reconciliation, and love within each other. Merging Lanes reveals how regardless of the speed bumps, traffic jams, and fender benders that are thrown between the bonds shared with the ones we love, there will always be other roads ahead of us, new streets to turn on, and lanes to merge on… together.