Twentynine Palms: Leading Lady in the Desert

We heard the coyotes on our first night there. It began with a single howl, followed by a lot of short yips, then a series of answering howls from further away. The howling and yipping must have gone on for about 20 minutes. And by the time they stopped I knew for sure that we were not in Hollywood any more. I had come to Twentynine Palms, a remote town about an hour northeast of Palm Springs located in the Sonoran Desert (adjacent to the larger Mojave) to play the lead role in the U.S. premiere of a play called "Actress." It was written by Josh Lazar in 1992, and had been performed only once before, at the Edinburgh Festival. Josh had won an award for the play, but he had never been able to find a theatre company willing to mount the show, until now, at his home company, Theatre 29, an astonishingly good venue for such a small town. But he had been unable to cast it locally, so he'd cast all of us (five actors)in LA and held rehearsals there, promising us an all-expenses paid two-weekends at the 29 Palms Inn on the Oasis of Mara in the desert in exchange for one weekend of performances in LA. I had never heard of 29 Palms, except in an old Robert Plant song from the early 1990s, but I knew it was near the Joshua Tree National Park, which I had heard was beautiful, and it had been awhile since I had been out of the city. A little time in the desert, even if it was hot, sounded good to me. Josh assured me they had air conditioning. The work leading up to the show was grueling. The story of "Actress" doesn't have a lot of action, but there is tons of dialogue, most of it mine. It is set is a fictional town in southern Minnesota, not unlike where my third husband is from. The premise is that the couple, Gene and Hedda Morgan, are awaiting the arrival of their younger daughter, Regina, who is returning home to perform in a play for one weekend. She had run away from home ten years earlier to pursue an acting career, and this is the first time she has been back since. Her older sister, Bell, was a successful actress in high school who gave up acting when she married her husband, Jim. But old resentments and sibling rivalries flare when she discovers that Regina is starring in the same play, and playing the same role, that was her triumph in high school. My character, Hedda, provides the comic relief in a sort of Edith Bunker role, and I adored playing her. But learning the dialogue and getting the accent and the gestures and tone of voice - well, it was all difficult. We rehearsed about four times a week for about four weeks and then daily for the last two weeks, heading to 29 Palms the Wednesday before we opened on Friday night. I really didn't know what to expect from 29 Palms. I knew that although the desert is empty, it is far from barren. There are many plants that flourish there - all different kinds of cactus, the yucca plant of which the Joshua Tree is one, and lots of other small scrub plants that I can't identify by name. There is plenty of wildlife too, although we didn't see a lot of it while we were there. In addition to the coyotes, there are abundant cotton-tailed jackrabbits, coveys of quail, iguanas, geckos, prairie dogs, and the less cuddly scorpions and rattlesnakes. It takes almost three hours to get there by car from LA, and on the way we skirted the beginnings of the High Sierra. The road into 29 Palms is about 4500 feet above sea level through a high mountain pass. Near the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park, there are the usual collection of vintage clothing stores, souvenir shops, quaint cafes, and tourist information booths. I promised myself I would come back to explore both these and the park, but the first night we were due for a long rehearsal. The town really does seem to be in the middle of nowhere. The desert stretches out between the distant mountains and the range we had just passed through for as far as the eye can see, broken only by a large group of palm trees clustered near the center of a small stretch of a main street. This, as it turned out, was the Oasis of Mara (which means "more" in the indigenous language), around which the 29 Palms Inn is built. Josh had told us the Inn was charming, but that really doesn't do it justice. It is one of the most unusual accommodations I have ever seen. The rooms are all small adobe houses with flat roofs, painted in various soft pastel colors that matched the soft sunset sky as we drove in. They are set in a large circle around the Oasis, and there is a beautiful pool with a casual but chic restaurant poolside. The ambiance is desert cool and seems a million miles from downtown LA. I was immediately enchanted. The theatre was also a pleasant surprise. It's large, nearly 100 seats, with a big stage, great acoustics separate dressing rooms for the men and women, a full kitchen, and a reception area for the patrons. And there is a parking lot, something that you almost never see in LA due to the lack of space which is of course not a problem here. Our rehearsal went well, so we settled in for an early night, and that's when we heard the coyotes. We see coyotes in the LA area pretty often. When I lived near Griffith Park I'd meet them on the street late at night occasionally, scavenging the garbage cans. Once a neighbor's cat was killed by a coyote. But I had never heard them howl the way they did that night. It was wild, and chilling, and exciting. The land out there really belongs to them. We just borrow it. The next day we had some free time, so we drove over to Joshua Tree to take the drive-through tour, which is about a 25-mile loop. These iconic trees, known to many from U2's equally iconic album of the same name, are a variety of the Yucca family, and are found in astonishing numbers in this park. As you drive deeper into the park, they are so thick it's almost like a forest. The tallest is about 40 feet, with many twisted branches. The park is also known for its many rock formations which are very popular with rock climbers. They look as if they have been stacked by man, but they are all natural. The park rises slowly to nearly 5000 feet at its highest point, which is a lookout over the Morongo Basin. It was a beautiful day when we were there, and we could see all the way to Palm Springs. I want to go back in the spring when the desert flowers are blooming - and when it is cooler. It was about 96 degrees when we were there, which was cool for the summer. For such a small and remote place, there are a surprising number of excellent restaurants in 29 Palms. The food at the Inn is excellent, but we also had great meals at Bistro 29 and the Carousel Cafe on the National Park Highway. I was starting to love everything about the place by the second day. Something about the light and the quality of the air, which is of course very dry, and the clarity of the sky at night, so bright that you could see the Milky Way and billions of stars, really spoke to me. Plus, with the dry air, I had almost no pain at all in my joints, which normally hurt all the time at some level. So I felt really well there. It would be a very quiet life, but I think I could live there. Friday was our opening day. There had been quite a bit of press, and I had already been recognized by a couple of people in town who had seen my picture in the paper. I have to admit that this was kind of cool. I've been recognized a couple of times in LA for some reality stuff I've done, but this was a much bigger part. It may be the most fame I ever get, and I enjoyed it. We had a large crowd for opening night, and we gave a near-perfect show. It was a hit! People laughed at all the right places, including some we hadn't expected, and everyone cried at the end, and then we stood in a receiving line to shake hands with the patrons, a charming custom that many community theatres still follow. I felt so gratified by the many compliments I received on my performance, as well as many hugs and thanks for coming all the way from LA. The locals were genuinely touched that a "professional cast from LA" had come all the way to the desert to perform for them. I was really moved by their gratitude. The next two nights were very similar, and on the last night we got a standing ovation, something that Josh said almost never happens there. Our one review said that "Josh Lazar has assembled a very talented cast of actors in a play that engrosses viewers from the first moments of the play," calling it a must-see. I didn't want to leave 29 Palms but I knew we had another weekend, with more adventures to come....to be continued.