Packing in the drama

Young Chang

The workers at this Gloucester, Mass. fish-packing plant are full of

pathos and eros and everything in between.

They’re hard-working people who know how to show up to survive and

deal with the sexual and other tensions that burden their every day.

One woman yearns to be more educated and to take a trip to Connecticut

because she’s never been that far. Others don’t know what a dolphin is.

The main character, Flo Rizzo, laments that she has nothing to teach

her children other than the ability to pack fish.

The workers also struggle with the stress of pending unemployment, as

the processing plants of their time -- the mid-’80s -- start closing

down.

“They’re based on real characters that Israel Horovitz grew to love in

Gloucester, Mass.,” said Maria Hall-Brown, who plays Flo for Orange Coast

College’s production of Horovitz’ “North Shore Fish.” “These people live

on the edge and their emotions are immediately on the surface.”

Despite a cast of six women and two men, Hall-Brown says the story

isn’t about women, but about identifying yourself and resolving the

question: if a life of work ends, does the life end as well?

The Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, directed by OCC theatre professor

John Ferzacca, is about a group of workers who follow generations of

ancestors who worked the same job. They are underpaid and unskilled, the

moms are also trying to raise children, and none of them really know how

life will be when their plant closes.

Hall-Brown, a producer for KOCE who enrolled in an OCC class to act in

the show, said portraying her character Flo is like getting to play her

alter ego.

“It’s exhausting and at the same time it’s very liberating,” she said.

“I’m playing against type. She’s a working-class girl who curses like a

sailor. She’s raw and volatile.”

One of the two men in the play is Sal, a womanizer who lords his

sexuality over the females and contributes to the tension in the

workplace.

“The daily lives of these women is very harsh,” said Greg McClure, a

student at OCC who plays Sal. “But the ironic part is I don’t think any

one of them would describe themselves as a hopeless person.”

The story is one that McClure says will ring true for audiences today,

whether or not they have experience in blue-collar work.

“There are so many plays about women in the workplace, but this deals

with women having to come to work and deal with the men there, deal with

the children and everything else,” he said.

FYI

* What: “North Shore Fish”

* When: Today, Sunday, March 14-17. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursdays

through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays

* Where: Orange Coast College’s Drama Lab Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

* Cost: $7-$10

* Call: (714) 432-5880