Don’t miss the latest episode of ‘The Munro Review on CMAC’: Playhouse Fresno, ‘Beetlejuice Jr.’

By Donald Munro

For the new episode of “The Munro Review on CMAC,” producer Kyle Lowe and I once again took things on the road — the theater road, that is. We start off with a visit to the rehearsal space of the newly founded Playhouse Fresno to talk with theater founder Claudio Laso about ““El Rayo, or Self-Deportation Nation,”

Here’s the episode:

The play, which continues this weekend only (it closes Sunday, June 14), is written by a familiar name for Valley theatergoers; Rodolfo Robles Cruz, who wrote it while finishing up his MFA at U-T Austin. Rodolfo went on to win a national playwriting award for the title at the American College Theatre Festival.

After my interview with Claudio, we race over to the Children’s Musical Theaterworks rehearsal space for a first-time experience for me: an interview with two Beetlejuices at the same time. (Does that mean I have to say their names six times for them to appear on camera?) “Beetlejuice Jr.” opens on July 10, and I can tell you that the two casts (the reason for the two Beetlejuices) are already working hard.