In Old Globe’s world premiere play ‘Stir,’ grieving siblings reconnect over a family recipe

Sixteen months after a staged reading of “The Black Beans Project” in the Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival, Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez’s Globe-commissioned play, now titled “Stir,” is about to make its world premiere there in the intimate Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.

But the life of this play, about siblings connecting after the passing of their mother and the forced separation of the COVID-19 pandemic, began even earlier. Lopez was artist-in-residence at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston when the shutdown began in 2020 and, like theater makers everywhere, was looking for a way to keep artists employed and the creative juices flowing.

“One of my colleagues said ‘Why don’t you create something that we can do on Zoom?’” Lopez recalled. “I said ‘I don’t want to be by myself.,”

Instead, she turned to Perez, with whom she had a working relationship. After first considering doing a talk show featuring theater people and then discussing a cooking show, “Joel was like ‘Let’s just write something fictional,’” Lopez said.

“It was born out of that,” said Perez. “It was a brother and sister (Henry and Mariana) meeting on Zoom to cook a black beans recipe. From that action of cooking the food, secrets are revealed.”

According to Lopez, “The Zoom piece felt successful, and then we started experimenting with how we could bring it into a live performance space. We added a character in, the stepfather. Then there was the question of how do we honor the experience we had in lockdown in a way that was joyful and a little outrageous and silly but also talk about things that we lost and things that we learned.

“It (the play) isn’t a meditation on that time, but that time informs what these siblings are experiencing,” Perez said.

What they are experiencing are the circumstances of COVID isolation and how that prevented the family from gathering to mourn the loss of a mother who has died, not from the virus itself but during the early months of the pandemic.

“This isn’t a broken family,” emphasized Lopez, who starred in her own solo play “Mala” at the Globe in 2022. “It’s a separated family. We wanted to stay away from some of the tropes and talk about a family that is in crisis because they’re apart — not because they’re together.”

Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein recognized the potential of Lopez and Perez’s play and the important, and for many, relatable story it seeks to tell.

“The Globe commissioned us to make a three-dimensional version of our two-dimensional (on Zoom) work,” said Lopez. “We’re here at the incredible behest of their artistic department.”

With Lopez and Perez playing the parts of Mariana and Henry and Al Rodrigo as their Papi, “Stir” is being directed by Marcela Lorca. Scenic designer Diggle has created a set that superimposes two kitchens on top of one another. There will indeed be a live burner and cooking onstage.

As Mariana and Henry rediscover togetherness and come to terms with their loss, theatergoers may reflect on their own post-pandemic family memories, Lopez said. “There’s value in paying attention to the importance of ritual,” she said, “and also just because we keep telling ourselves that we’re fine. There’s value, too, in honoring what we shared during that time.”

‘Stir’

When: Previews begin May 4. Opens May 9 and runs through May 26. 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park

Tickets: $33 and up

Phone: (619) 234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

Coddon is a freelance writer.