Theater Notebook: Longtime local theater artist Tyler Tafolla brings his new musical home to San Diego

Tyler Tafolla stars in "Scott Robbins and the Traveling Show" Nov. 11-12 at Diversionary Theatre.

Also in this week’s theater news, La Jolla Playhouse’s’ ‘Outsiders’ tickets are on sale and other new openings

San Diego Union-Tribune

Nov. 1, 2022 12:20 PM PT

Two months ago, Tyler Tafolla concluded a 10-year run as a performer at SeaWorld San Diego. Now he’s ready to show San Diego audiences what else he’s got up his sleeve.

Tafolla has rented out Diversionary Theatre for a weekend to stage two performances of his magic-infused musical “Scott Robbins and the Traveling Show,” which he created, scored, directed, produced and he stars in as the title character. There will be two performances at 8 p.m. Nov. 11 and 12. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at instagram.com/scottrobbinsnewmusical.

Set in 1935 in the American Great Plains states, it’s the story of a young man on the run who pretends he’s a famed magician to get hired by a traveling circus. Eventually he finds a sense of community and home among the circus performers. Eight actors will play more than 100 roles. The cast includes Kelly Prendergast, Shaun Conde, Jordan Brownlee, Cameron Blankenship, Anna Duchi, Isabella Pruter and Russell Clements.

Tafolla created the full-length musical in 2017 while studying theater at the AMDA College of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. It went on to be performed at the New York Theatre Festival: Summerfest, where it was nominated for an award. In the years since, Tafolla has reprised the show several times around the country, including at Groundworks Theatre Arts in Poway in 2019. Visit tylertafolla.com.

‘Outsiders’ tickets on sale at LJ Playhouse

The La Jolla Playhouse has opened ticket sales for the first four weeks of its world premiere musical “The Outsiders,” which will run Feb. 19 through April 2 at the Mandell Weiss Theatre on the UC San Diego campus.

Inspired by S.E. Hinton’s 1967 coming-of-age novel and the 1983 film by Francis Ford Coppola, “The Outsiders” is about a gang of teen boys in 1967 Oklahoma who struggle to overcome their hardscrabble roots and survive. The musical features a book by Adam Rapp, music and lyrics by the duo Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine and direction by Danya Taymor. For tickets, visit lajollaplayhouse.org/show/the-outsiders.

Dani Diaz and Ramon Villa in Scripps Ranch Theatre's "Extreme Home Makeover."

SRT presents ‘Extreme Home Makeover’

“Extreme Home Makeover,” a play that had a reading at San Diego Repertory Theatre’s 2020 Latinx Play Festival, will be presented in a full production this month at Scripps Ranch Theatre.

Written by Texas playwright Makesha Copeland, the 2021 play is about a Mexican-American family in Texas who are auditioning for the now-defunct ABC TV reality show “Extreme Home Makeover,” where struggling families were selected to have a lavish new home built for them at no expense. Portions of the play will be in Spanish.

The play will be directed by Olivia Espinosa in her company debut. The cast includes Dani Diaz, Leticia Bombardier, Ramon Villa, Tamarin Ythier and Javier Guerrero. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, Nov. 11 through Dec. 4, on the campus of Alliant International University, 9783 Avenue of Nations, San Diego. Visit scrippsranchtheatre.org.

‘Hamilton’ ticket lottery announced

In keeping with “Hamilton” producers’ long-established policy of expanding access to the musical to all income levels, 40 tickets will be sold by digital lottery for $10 each for every performance of the show during its run at the San Diego Civic Theatre Nov. 9 through Nov. 20. The digital lotteries for upcoming performances will close at noon Thursday, Nov. 3. Tickets are void if resold, only one entry is allowed per person and each winner can buy up to two tickets. To sign up, download the “Hamilton” app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

Kragen writes about theater for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Email her at pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com.

Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterf, Conn.