THE STRANGERS at Chalk Circle Collective
Chalk Circle Collective has built its reputation on intimate, imaginative theatre work that feels handcrafted by artists who know exactly who they are and what they’re reaching for. This year, they’ve reached further than ever. By taking over the historic Old Town Barn Theatre and tackling Christopher Oscar Peña’s sprawling, volatile play “The Strangers”, the company makes its most significant leap yet with striking confidence.
Peña’s play orbits around Cris, played with vulnerability by Steven Lone. Cris returns to a place he “used to know,” to star in an “Our Town” production. While Wilder’s piece has many similar references, moments like actors addressing the audience, the famous step ladder at center stage, and even a climactic wedding, Peña uses those echoes to question who belongs in the story of America and what “home” even means in the twenty-first century.
Around Cris, there is a dense network of siblings, lovers, friends, and complicated acquaintances who know one another intimately yet remain strangers in a deep emotional sense.
Photo Credit: Karli Cadel - L-R: Steven Lone and Jake Bradford
Dave (Jake Bradford) shepherds Cris around town; Dave’s sister Emily (Kimberly Weinberger) confesses love for Pearl (Michael Amira Temple) while pushing Pearl toward suicide; Nigel (Michael DiRoma) is consumed with activist fury, while Diego (Javier David), Cris’s brother, is too caught up with his girlfriend (Kelsey Venter) to care. It’s messy, funny, unsettling, and painfully familiar in how they falter in tiny, human ways—failing to empathize, to act, to see beyond themselves.
Beautifully directed by Coleman Ray Clark, his staging has a shape-shifting fluidity. Scenes slip unexpectedly from humor to horror, from intimacy to alienation. Clark embraces the instability of Peña’s world, creating a production that feels alive and constantly shifting.
The ensemble is excellent and proves equally as agile as the script and includes: Pepe Aparicio, Jake Bradford, Javier David, Michael DiRoma, Steven Lone, Ellis Quesada, Michael Amira Temple, Lauren King Thompson, Kelsey Venter, and Kimberly Weinberger.
Lone’s Cris is the emotional core, a man yearning for connection but insecure enough that he pushes away the very connection he seeks. His Act II monologue about his mother, his sexuality, and his longing to be held is the play’s most devastating moment.
Other standout moments include Lauren King Thompson as a homeless woman whose matter-of-fact observations cut through the chaos, revealing the emotional truths the town’s residents can’t articulate. Temple's crossing guard is a character who brings warmth and grounded sincerity, a figure whose small acts of care feel like rare oxygen in Peña’s suffocating emotional landscape. As well as Venter’s wedding planner, who describes weddings as “small universes,” tiny galaxies where people choose one another and, for a fleeting instant, belong entirely.
It is these peripheral characters, the homeless woman, the crossing guard, the wedding planner, who ultimately shine the light on the play's theme. As the main ensemble spirals and self-sabotages, these outsiders show that connection, however brief, is built moment by moment.
L- R: Michael DiRoma, Kelsey Venter, and Javier David
The technical aspects of the production are equally strong. Nicholas Ponting’s scenic design transforms scattered debris into shifting, revealing structures. Sammy Webster’s lighting is beautifully atmospheric, and Steven Leffue’s sound design shapes the emotional transitions with subtle force. Jemima Dutra’s costumes anchor the “everytown” realism while offering quiet insights into each character.
Peña ends the play with a jump forward in time, offering a brief, surprising glimpse of what world has been built from the flawed people we’ve spent the evening with. It’s hopeful and heartbreaking at once, a reminder that moments of connection are precious precisely because they are temporary.
“The Strangers” is the kind of production that invites discussion; some will love its chaos, others may resist it, but Chalk Circle Collective handles its complexity with ambition and clarity. Whether it resonates with you deeply or leaves you unsure, it’s a production you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve left the theatre, tracing the small universes we build with each other and the galaxies they might someday become.
How To Get Tickets
“The Strangers” by Chalk Circle Collective is at the Old Town’s Historic Barn Theatre through November 30th. For ticket and show time infromaiton, go to chalkcirclecollective.com