PRESS
Waiting for Gentrification in the Tenderloin
Their acting skills are ultra-terrestrial, as they argue, debate, fight, and out-talk each other. Vega’s Hieronymo is proud, powerful, and pliant—agreeing to help, but on his own terms. Proud and compact, he turns the tables on the declining giant, who has the money and the build to crush him, but is powerless in spirit.
The god-damned Tenderloin is Occupied Territory. It takes on symbolic value in the age of corporate dominance. This Cursed Ground becomes a holy battlefield of comedy and tragedy.
They keep us on the edge of our chairs, as Hare subtly embodies the spirit which is haunting his body and soul. Everyone’s secrets are slowly exposed, even the nexus of philanthropy versus profit. No spoilers here—you have to see and feel it for yourself, in the Tenderloin—brave the streets, mingle with the people, smell the scent. And find out who is occupying Ingersoll!
By Barry David Horwitz
August 4, 2016
Their acting skills are ultra-terrestrial, as they argue, debate, fight, and out-talk each other. Vega’s Hieronymo is proud, powerful, and pliant—agreeing to help, but on his own terms. Proud and compact, he turns the tables on the declining giant, who has the money and the build to crush him, but is powerless in spirit.
The god-damned Tenderloin is Occupied Territory. It takes on symbolic value in the age of corporate dominance. This Cursed Ground becomes a holy battlefield of comedy and tragedy.
They keep us on the edge of our chairs, as Hare subtly embodies the spirit which is haunting his body and soul. Everyone’s secrets are slowly exposed, even the nexus of philanthropy versus profit. No spoilers here—you have to see and feel it for yourself, in the Tenderloin—brave the streets, mingle with the people, smell the scent. And find out who is occupying Ingersoll!
By Barry David Horwitz
August 4, 2016
Review: Campo Maldito
Gentrifying decayed urban areas is fraught with peril! Not only must you deal with the stench of the sidewalks and a sometimes unwelcoming and threatening live population, but there may be an occasional unfriendly ghost to make matters worse.
Bennett Fisher’s Campo Maldito has returned to San Francisco having established audiences in San Diego and New York City as well. Fisher crafts a two hander that is a compact, eventful, dark comedy replete with suspense and amusement.
By Victor Cordell
July 30, 2016
Gentrifying decayed urban areas is fraught with peril! Not only must you deal with the stench of the sidewalks and a sometimes unwelcoming and threatening live population, but there may be an occasional unfriendly ghost to make matters worse.
Bennett Fisher’s Campo Maldito has returned to San Francisco having established audiences in San Diego and New York City as well. Fisher crafts a two hander that is a compact, eventful, dark comedy replete with suspense and amusement.
By Victor Cordell
July 30, 2016
"Campo Maldito" a thrilling, chilling comedy about gentrification
In this contemporary ghost story, a People of Interest production that premiered in San Diego in 2014 and has played at the San Francisco and New York fringe festivals, local playwright Bennett Fisher has more on his mind than just chills and thrills, although there’s plenty of that.He wants us to think about the inhabitants of the Tenderloin, and how they’re faring during The City’s runaway gentrification.
By Jean Shiffman
August 1, 2016
In this contemporary ghost story, a People of Interest production that premiered in San Diego in 2014 and has played at the San Francisco and New York fringe festivals, local playwright Bennett Fisher has more on his mind than just chills and thrills, although there’s plenty of that.He wants us to think about the inhabitants of the Tenderloin, and how they’re faring during The City’s runaway gentrification.
By Jean Shiffman
August 1, 2016
A Weekend of Creative Adventures
"Bennett Fisher wrote the upbeat interactive piece and starred as the unapologetically optimistic Romulus. For a dollar, he attempted to cure several viewers of their “unhappiness.” If this sounds like a fishy idea, Fisher’s magnetism and good-natured comical dialogue were hard to resist.
Director, Jesca Prudencio, turned Galbraith Lawn into a joyful environment, especially in her staging’s of musical sequences, which included “When the Saints Go Marching In” and Stevie Wonder’s popular song, “Happy Birthday.” Prudencio and Fisher previously collaborated on Campo Maldito at the 2014 Wagner Theater Festival at UCSD andRomulus Kilgore was evidence of how well they collaborate together."
By David Dixon
October 12, 2015
"Bennett Fisher wrote the upbeat interactive piece and starred as the unapologetically optimistic Romulus. For a dollar, he attempted to cure several viewers of their “unhappiness.” If this sounds like a fishy idea, Fisher’s magnetism and good-natured comical dialogue were hard to resist.
Director, Jesca Prudencio, turned Galbraith Lawn into a joyful environment, especially in her staging’s of musical sequences, which included “When the Saints Go Marching In” and Stevie Wonder’s popular song, “Happy Birthday.” Prudencio and Fisher previously collaborated on Campo Maldito at the 2014 Wagner Theater Festival at UCSD andRomulus Kilgore was evidence of how well they collaborate together."
By David Dixon
October 12, 2015
Angry Ghosts, Pretty Mushrooms, Temperance Jokes
Fringe Festival Never Met a Topic It Didn’t Like
"It’s hard to weave contemporary social issues into truly theatrical storytelling, but a company of graduate students from the University of California, San Diego, has done that beautifully with “Campo Maldito,” a comic ghost story with a conscience. Written by Bennett Fisher and directed by Jesca Prudencio, it’s set in the gentrifying Tenderloin district of San Francisco, where a young white tech entrepreneur (Walker Hare, excellent) calls on a Latino Santeria priest (Luis Vega, ditto) to rid his office of a spirit. The play runs through Saturday on the Lower East Side, where the resonances are unignorable."
By Laura Collins-Hughes, NY Times
August 19, 2014
Fringe Festival Never Met a Topic It Didn’t Like
"It’s hard to weave contemporary social issues into truly theatrical storytelling, but a company of graduate students from the University of California, San Diego, has done that beautifully with “Campo Maldito,” a comic ghost story with a conscience. Written by Bennett Fisher and directed by Jesca Prudencio, it’s set in the gentrifying Tenderloin district of San Francisco, where a young white tech entrepreneur (Walker Hare, excellent) calls on a Latino Santeria priest (Luis Vega, ditto) to rid his office of a spirit. The play runs through Saturday on the Lower East Side, where the resonances are unignorable."
By Laura Collins-Hughes, NY Times
August 19, 2014
Campo Maldito
"It seems like you can hardly throw a rock these days without hitting a tech company, and tales of California start-ups going boom to bust are nothing new. But sprinkle in the dynamics of a gentrifying San Francisco neighborhood and add a hearty spoonful of poltergeist activity, and you’ll find yourself in the realm of People of Interest’s production of Campo Maldito, now showing at Teatro SEA at the Clemente as part of the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival.
CEO Ken Ingersoll (Walker Hare) is at the end of his rope. His microloan start-up – strategically placed in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District – has hit one snag after another. The employees have stopped coming in, and he’s taken to drinking more than a little bit of scotch. At the suggestion of his landlord after a series of unsettling, otherwise unexplainable occurrences around the office, Ken hires Hieronymo Acosta (Luis Vega), a Santeria priest, to purify the office. What Ken doesn’t know is that Hieronymo and his office space have a history, and the vindictive spirit at play has an agenda.
Playwright Bennett Fisher has penned a thought-provoking black comedy with racial and socio-economic tensions bubbling just under the surface, and the well-paired actors make the most of this delightful, incendiary cocktail. As directed by Jesca Prudencio in this tight, one-hour long production, Hare and Acosta deftly maneuver through rites of ritual, vendetta, self-medication, and flying desks, with scarcely a sour note between them.
Scenic Designer Lily Bartenstein nails the environment of this start-up with its yellow bean bag chair, bin storage, open desk plan, requisite coffee pot, and scattered desktop action figures. Janet O'Neill’s costumes are spot-on, particularly with Hieronymo’s fanny pack and 49ers jersey (he may be a santero, but he’s still a fan). Lighting Designer Bo Tindell and Sound Designer Chad Goss effectively work in tandem to create moments of dimensional jumps and demonic possession. (Indeed, I may never hear the voice of Siri the same way again.)
While I am no santera, I know that nervous laughter, the occasional jump, and audible gasps are often the barometers of an audience fully invested in a theatrical piece. Campo Maldito had that in spades during its opening performance at this year’s FringeNYC. If you’re looking to be entertained in the moment and haunted for days afterward, it’s a production well worth checking out."
By Amy Lee Pearsall, NYTheater Now
August 20, 2014
"It seems like you can hardly throw a rock these days without hitting a tech company, and tales of California start-ups going boom to bust are nothing new. But sprinkle in the dynamics of a gentrifying San Francisco neighborhood and add a hearty spoonful of poltergeist activity, and you’ll find yourself in the realm of People of Interest’s production of Campo Maldito, now showing at Teatro SEA at the Clemente as part of the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival.
CEO Ken Ingersoll (Walker Hare) is at the end of his rope. His microloan start-up – strategically placed in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District – has hit one snag after another. The employees have stopped coming in, and he’s taken to drinking more than a little bit of scotch. At the suggestion of his landlord after a series of unsettling, otherwise unexplainable occurrences around the office, Ken hires Hieronymo Acosta (Luis Vega), a Santeria priest, to purify the office. What Ken doesn’t know is that Hieronymo and his office space have a history, and the vindictive spirit at play has an agenda.
Playwright Bennett Fisher has penned a thought-provoking black comedy with racial and socio-economic tensions bubbling just under the surface, and the well-paired actors make the most of this delightful, incendiary cocktail. As directed by Jesca Prudencio in this tight, one-hour long production, Hare and Acosta deftly maneuver through rites of ritual, vendetta, self-medication, and flying desks, with scarcely a sour note between them.
Scenic Designer Lily Bartenstein nails the environment of this start-up with its yellow bean bag chair, bin storage, open desk plan, requisite coffee pot, and scattered desktop action figures. Janet O'Neill’s costumes are spot-on, particularly with Hieronymo’s fanny pack and 49ers jersey (he may be a santero, but he’s still a fan). Lighting Designer Bo Tindell and Sound Designer Chad Goss effectively work in tandem to create moments of dimensional jumps and demonic possession. (Indeed, I may never hear the voice of Siri the same way again.)
While I am no santera, I know that nervous laughter, the occasional jump, and audible gasps are often the barometers of an audience fully invested in a theatrical piece. Campo Maldito had that in spades during its opening performance at this year’s FringeNYC. If you’re looking to be entertained in the moment and haunted for days afterward, it’s a production well worth checking out."
By Amy Lee Pearsall, NYTheater Now
August 20, 2014
