CSUF alum takes center stage as a fight choreographer

• March 22, 2023

Sword, rapier, dagger.

These are just a few of Michael Polak’s tools of the trade.

Luckily, he’s not a maniac on the loose — rather, the CSUF grad (theater arts 1993) is an actor as well as a stage and film fight choreographer.

Polak’s work recently was on display in South Coast Repertory’s production of “Appropriate,” the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play that premiered off-Broadway in 2014.

In a climactic scene in “Appropriate,” which alternated performances with Lillian Helman’s “The Little Foxes” Feb. 5-26, estranged members of a family in present-day Arkansas with decades of resentment and pent-up anger get into a brawl.

“One thing I always ask myself is, ‘What is the story being told through violence?’ ” said Polak, whose recent film work as an actor includes “Mid-Century” (2022) starring Stephen Lang (the “Avatar” franchise).

How did a nice guy like Polak get into such a (fake) bone-breaking career?

At Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta in Santa Barbara County, Polak loved both theater and football — he played quarterback as a senior for the Chargers.

The physicality of stage movement always has appealed to him.

“Violence is another form of communication — it’s a terrible form of communication, but it happens when words break down,” said Polak, a fight choreographer for more than 20 years who’s a big fan of the intricately choreographed action movie series “John Wick,” starring Keanu Reeves.

Big lesson

It’s not that Polak has a thing for violence. He just specializes in having it faked on stage and on screen. And he honed his skills, in part, at CSUF.

While attending Dos Pueblos High School, Polak’s acting professor took him and other students on tours of four-year colleges with solid theater departments.

“I remember being impressed with Cal State Fullerton,” he said.

Sallie Mitchell, the former professor of theater and dance at CSUF, was instrumental in getting Polak to switch his major to theater arts when he became a Titan in 1991.

Initially, Polak planned to major in communications and minor in acting.

“She told me all degrees in a liberal arts program kind of all have the same weight,” Polak said.

He mostly acted at CSUF — he fondly recalls jumping sans clothes into a pseudo river in a scene in “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Knowing that an MFA would burnish his acting resume, Polak went straight to graduate school after CSUF, graduating from Penn State in 1996. One draw of Penn State: it offered classes in stage combat.

Polak then booked some jobs with the Texas Shakespeare Festival, Pacific Conservatory Theatre in Santa Maria, and ended up doing regional theater for three years in San Francisco — where his skills as a fight choreographer took off.

Polak recalls learning a big lesson from Gregory Hoffman, founder and master teacher of Dueling Arts International, a leading certification school for stage and film combat instructors.

“He was a huge mentor of mine,” Polak said.

Before class, an eager Polak had worked out on paper the details of a sword and dagger fencing scene between Hamlet and Laertes.

“Oh?” Hoffman said with a smile. “You’ve got it all choreographed already?”

Problem was, Polak had never worked with the actors, and they weren’t at the level he assumed they would be when it came to the physicality of the scene.

“It was the best lesson,” Polak said. “You must be able to assess who you’re working with first before you can choreograph anything. Like in baseball, if you want your closing pitcher to throw 100 miles per hour but he’s an off-speed pitcher, you’ve got to adjust.”

Hoffman said Polak is an exceptionally talented fight director and teacher.

“His experience as a working actor greatly assists him in helping tell the story within the staged fight that is appropriate for the scene and play itself,” Hoffman said. “I know him to be extremely dedicated to his craft and always exceptionally prepared for all his work due to his dedication to research and natural intelligence.

“And he seems to have an easy and comfortable manner of communicating with his actors, which is very important to gain their trust and create the best possible work.”

In addition to Dueling Arts International, Polak is certified by the Society of American Fight Directors.

Character-driven

After San Francisco, Polak moved to New York City where he continued to do theater.

Some TV projects over the years included roles on “The Young and the Restless,” “Guiding Light” and “Bel-Air.”

But stage work continues to be his sweet spot. In addition to SCR, Polak books a lot of work with La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts.

He also is active at CSUF, doing some guest teaching and movement work and working with the Devised Performance/Physical Theatre program, one of the only programs of its kind in the country.

Polak works closely with directors to choreograph combat scenes.

“I always ask myself, ‘What’s the character’s relationship to violence?’ ” he said.

“What I mean is, have they ever been hit before or have they ever hit anyone before? Do they solve their problems by violence? Too often, actors just assume their character can do all sorts of cool stuff when it comes to fighting, but there’s nothing in the script that said they’ve ever hit anyone before.”

So, it’s up to Polak to make sure any combat is truly character driven.

“For ‘Appropriate,’ it was a large family fight,” he said. “And these are not people who have ever hit each other before.”

Safety is paramount in his work, Polak notes.

“You have to hide the illusion of violence,” he said.

And there’s a huge difference, Polak notes, between pushing and hitting someone.

Kind of like the difference between:

THWAPP! and WHAMMM!

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​ Orange County Register 

71 Freeway shuts down in Pomona after potholes cause flat tires

• March 22, 2023

Both sides of the 71 Freeway in Pomona were closed Wednesday morning, March 22, after potholes caused flat tires for more than a dozen drivers.

The California Highway Patrol said both the north and southbound sides of the 71 at Valley Boulevard were closed to traffic at around 4:30 a.m. after the flat tires were reported.

The CHP did not give an estimate for when the freeway would reopen.

The closure led to snarled traffic on the 71, from Valley Boulevard to Rio Rancho Road — almost four miles.

Potholes caused a similar closure on the 71 in the same location a week ago — causing flat tires for more than 30 vehicles.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

​ Orange County Register 

Northern California teacher spends 13 days hiking through snow to get to school

• March 22, 2023

The classic “old grumpy grandpa” saying goes something like this: “Back in my day, we walked 15 miles to school in the snow! Barefoot! Uphill! Both ways! And we liked it that way!”

For Eagle Peak Middle School eighth grade science teacher Paula Abajian, there is some truth in that saying for her, as she spent 13 days hiking through snow and ice to get access to a vehicle, to then drive or be driven to school. Monday evening, March 13, was the first day she could finally drive the road to her home since the snowy weather started on Feb. 22.

Eagle Peak teacher Paula Abajian hiking through snow to get to school.

For Abajian, the logistics were as follows. She and her husband and two young children live at 2,500 feet above sea level in the mountains above Willits. The road to their home is on a north-facing slope, with several feet of snow accumulating on it from all the storms and not melting much due to the lack of sun on the north face. Midway through the series of storms, the snow melted somewhat but then froze and turned to ice. The road was simply impassable near her home for close to three weeks.

From Abajian’s home, it was a 1.76-mile hike, according to her Apple Watch, downhill to access transportation, hence a 3.52 round trip daily, for a total of over 40 miles through the snow for the duration of the adventure.

“The snow early on was lovely,” says Abajian. “but as it got icier and more compacted, it was difficult to walk on.”

There were also additional logistical challenges for Abajian and her family. With her home being off the electrical grid and solar powered, eventually, the cloud cover prevented sufficient charging of the home’s batteries. At one point, she was hauling up gas cans for the generator to run power for the house.

On most days, she was hiking in the morning before sunrise and getting home in dim light or darkness. Her backpack would regularly be filled with food and provisions for home. Many days her children would stay with grandparents in town, but there were a few times they would hike in and out. “My daughter would take two steps forward in the snow, and one step falling back,” says Abajian.

Animal tracks along Paula’s route to and from school.

Abajian’s colleague at Eagle Peak, fifth-grade teacher Mackenzie Erickson, lives down the hill from Paula, and would often give her rides to school. One day the duo simply could not make it, even from Erickson’s house at a lower elevation. For Paula, this was a 3.52-mile round trip hike to not get to school. On another exceptionally stormy day, Paula could simply not leave her house.

“Paula has a deep sense of dedication to the profession,” says Erickson. “It was an adventure. We were glad to help, and it wasn’t entirely safe at times, but we are a community that supports each other. It was super amazing with all of the snow, even though it was also hard.”

Abajian summed up the experience by saying, “Overall, it was beautiful to be outside with nature and see the animal tracks, and I did close my exercise ring on my watch every day, but I am glad it’s over.”

Abajian shared stories of her adventures with her students, and they begged her to have a field trip up to her house to go sledding.

We had to cut my interview with Paula a little short as she had to go pick up her kids from school due to a flood warning.

Eagle Peak teacher Paula Abajian hiking through snow to get to school.

​ Orange County Register 

Muslims’ month of worship and contemplation

• March 22, 2023

More than 1 billion Muslims around the world are about to begin the observance of Ramadan, the month of fasting. It is believed that during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, the Angel Gabriel began delivering the Quran, which was later transcribed into writing, to the Prophet Muhammad.

During Ramadan observant Muslims refrain from eating or drinking anything during daylight hours.

At the end of the day the fast is broken with a small meal and prayers, followed by visiting family and friends.

Fasting in the Muslim tradition is designed to bring spiritual benefits, chiefly a release from physical constraints and desires so one can concentrate on worship and appreciation of Allah.

The patience and forbearance induced by fasting extend to other areas of life.

Simple fasting from food can be ruined — rendered not pleasing to Allah — if spoiled by telling lies, slander, denouncing someone behind his back, swearing a false oath, greed or covetousness.

During the month of fasting Muslims are expected to read the Quran with special intensity and to seek opportunities for good deeds, especially helping the poor.

The end of the month is marked by the three-day celebration of Eid al-Fitr, when gifts are exchanged, and families and friends gather for large meals.

In these days, when fanatics have done so much to discredit Islam in the eyes of all too many people, Ramadan is especially important as a time of renewal and deepening of faith for serious Muslims.

Approximately 1% of Californians identify as Muslim.

Many are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants from countries as diverse as Indonesia and Egypt.

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Others are refugees from places like Afghanistan, Iran and Syria. And some, of course, are converts.

Whatever their roots, they are deserving of respect and understanding.

Yet for many, that is not what they experience.

A survey by the Council for American-Islamic Relations found that a majority of Muslim students have reported they feel “unsafe, unwelcome or uncomfortable” in school because of their religious identities.

And on a governmental level, this editorial board has long criticized instances of unjustified spying on the Muslim community, as happened in Orange County during the peak of the so-called “war on terror.”

It is imperative that California remain a place where people of all backgrounds can feel safe, welcome and comfortable to live their lives as they choose.

A version of this editorial originally appeared in 2010 and was written by the late editorial writer Alan W. Bock.

​ Orange County Register 

20 years later, Iraq war was clearly wrong

• March 22, 2023

During his infamous “mission accomplished” speech in May 2003 from the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego, President George W. Bush announced victory in the American war in Iraq.

“The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort,” said. “Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq.”

Hindsight is 20-20, but it’s important to look back at major government efforts and compare the promises to reality. As Americans commemorate the 20th anniversary of that war, few analysts consider it a success — and the idea of a free Iraq seems preposterous.

Related: Antiwar.com’s Scott Horton on the Iraq war

The U.S. largely withdrew in 2011, but then sent troops back after the rise of Islamic State radicals.

The Biden administration finally ended the nation’s longest-running war in 2021 — but 2,500 troops remain and may serve in an advisory role for years.  The current Iraqi government receives among the world’s lowest scores for freedom. Islamic Iran gained great influence after our pull out.

According to a recent Reuters report, the United States spent nearly $3 trillion (including ongoing costs of veteran health care) on its wars in Iraq and Syria.

Related: George W. Bush is still just a war criminal to me

It cost 4,500 Americans their lives — and directly led to nearly 600,000 deaths in the region. And for what?

The mission was not accomplished.

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During the run-up to the war, the Bush administration convinced a nation still scarred by the Sept. 11 attacks that the coming invasion would combat international terrorism, force Iraq to rid itself of so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction and, then, create a democracy in a region governed by tyrants.

The administration’s connection between 9/11 and Iraq proved particularly flimsy and cynical.

We still recall war boosters — including pundits like Max Boot, David Frum and Bill Kristol — depicting the administration’s evidence as incontrovertible.

This editorial board consistently opposed the war, leading critics to question our judgment and patriotism.

Yet in hindsight, the best way for Americans (and the media) to commemorate this anniversary is to resolve to be more skeptical of such hubris in the future.

​ Orange County Register 

Irvine may get Southern California’s first cricket stadium as interest in sport grows

• March 22, 2023

From April to October, Pulkit Khare will spend about four and a half hours in traffic on the weekends driving to Van Nuys and back to his home in Rancho Santa Margarita.

The ardent cricket fan, who plays in the Southern California Cricket Association league, has to do the drive on the 405 Freeway to fields in the San Fernando Valley because of the lack of facilities in Orange County.

But that might change.

Earlier this month, Irvine’s City Council unanimously agreed to move forward, once again, with negotiations with American Cricket Enterprises (which runs Major League Cricket) to find a suitable location within Great Park for a 5,000-7,000-seat stadium.

The stadium was not included in the first phase of the Great Park development plans, and it follows a similar decision from the council last year which ultimately yielded no results.

It boils down to finding the right space, said Mayor Farrah Khan, whether it’s a standalone facility or a renovation of the existing Great Park soccer stadium, which can seat 5,000 people, to accommodate both sports.

“There’s definitely a growing community of cricket players and enthusiasts in Irvine and OC,” Khan said. “My hope is that we can somehow support that enthusiasm for the sport.”

The cricket body has asked for about 15 acres of land within Great Park to privately fund a stadium that would be the first of its kind in Southern California.

The stadium would be used for both major and minor league games but mostly for community events, including local cricket and non-cricket activities, said Selby Sturzenegger, director of corporate development and infrastructure at Major League Cricket.

Major League Cricket, a professional league for the shorter Twenty20 format of the sport, has already raised more than $100 million of committed capital, Sturzenegger said.

“I got goosebumps, that’s how excited I am,” Khare said about the prospect of a full-fledged cricket stadium in Orange County.

For Shantha Suraweera, a longtime local cricket advocate, the stadium is an aspiration. He helped form the Orange County Cricket Association in 2007 to promote the game, and it has now developed into a league with about 14 teams.

He then wanted to create a “pathway for youth” and formed the Southern California Youth Cricket Academy in 2014 for children between 7 and 19 years old. It has 125 players on the roster, mostly from Irvine.

The youth cricketers practice and play at the fields in Cypress Community Park, with those in the cricket community prioritizing the use for kids. Prior to the opening of those fields in 2022, Suraweera said, players would “find a flat area (in parks like the Tustin Sports Park) and then roll the grass. It’s not very safe.”

Suraweera has observed a steady rise in interest in the sport, especially among youth. With a stadium, he said, young players could improve their technique and the quality of their game.

“It’s in the initial stages like soccer 20-30 years ago, but there’s still good potential for another new sport” in the U.S., Suraweera said. “Cricket is the second most popular game in the world.”

At the highest level, too, the biggest hurdle cricketers face is the lack of infrastructure, said Michael Voss, chair of the men’s national selection panel at USA Cricket. The only stadium certified by the International Cricket Council, the sport’s global governing body, in the U.S. is in Lauderhill, Florida, and there are smaller stadiums in Indiana and Texas.

“Once we start solving that part of the puzzle, it really will make a huge difference in terms of moving forward, having practice facilities, having fields of a decent quality that we can play on,” said Voss.

In addition to not having adequate cricket pitches, Voss said, those wanting to play games have to share public fields with other sports programs and access can be tough.

Dweep Jhaveri, a Mission Viejo resident who plays in four local leagues, said while the stadium will improve his game, he is excited at the prospect of international cricket coming to Irvine.

“I was part of a very famous game where the fastest century was scored in the IPL (Indian Premier League), 100 runs off 37 balls by Yusuf Pathan,” Jhaveri said, referring to the former Indian national cricketer. “The atmosphere was electric. There were 30-40,000 people in that stadium.”

As for the next steps, Major League Cricket is continuing negotiations with city staffers, Sturzenegger said.

While Major League Cricket wants a “dedicated facility given the demand for cricket,” she said, the organization is engaging in conversations on what a shared space — with baseball, soccer or other sports — would look like.

The challenge, City Manager Oliver Chi said, is “finding acreage that makes sense from the overall master planning process of where different types of activities are going to be organized in the park.” Staffers have been looking at how to integrate it into the sports complex area, he said.

With the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, where cricket could be added as a new sport, and the 2024 T20 World Cup to be played in the U.S. and West Indies, Sturzenegger said, the momentum for cricket is growing. She hopes to see a Great Park stadium completed by the 2025 season.

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​ Orange County Register 

First Crumbl Cookies location in Garden Grove set to open March 24

• March 22, 2023

The popular cookie chain Crumbl Cookies is set to open its first Garden Grove location on Friday, March 24.

Over the past five years, the company, started in Utah, has grown to more than 700 locations nationwide and has repeatedly gone viral on social media platforms like TikTok.

Each week, the brand rotates its menu to include six of its 275-plus gourmet flavors. The upcoming week’s options are announced in a “flavor drop” released on the company’s social media platforms Sundays at 5 p.m. Pacific time.

For the grand opening week menu, six flavors will be available: Sea Salt Toffee, Lemon Poppyseed, Monster, Texas Sheet Cake, Raspberry Cheesecake, and Pink Sugar. Crumbl’s award-winning Milk Chocolate Chip will also be available.

“As local business owners, we have such a love for this community and can’t wait to share the sweetness with our neighbors,” local store owners Megan Sefcik, Sandi Sefcik, Mitch Sefcik, and Michele Horsley said in a statement.

Crumbl stores are open 8 a.m.-10 p.m. on weekdays, 8 a.m.-12 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and closed Sundays. Starting Wednesday, March 29, delivery, curbside pickup, catering, and nationwide shipping will be available from the new location.

VISIT: Promenade Crumbl Cookies, 9877 Chapman Ave, Suite C, Garden Grove; 657-233-4050 crumblcookies.com

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​ Orange County Register 

Reba McEntire talks the Hollywood Bowl before headlining it for the first time

• March 22, 2023

Country star and actress Reba McEntire can’t wait to bring her full stage show — her live band, backup singers and opening acts Terri Clark and The Isaacs — to the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles for the first time.

Though she’s graced the stage a couple of times before — during a Broadway performance of “South Pacific” back in 2007 and in 2012 she was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame alongside Chaka Khan during a special tribute evening hosted by Julie Andrews — she’s never performed a proper headlining show at the venue in her nearly five-decade career.

“It’s a dream come true,” she said during a recent phone interview ahead of her West Coast shows at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert on March 31 and her Hollywood Bowl debut on April 1. “I’ve always loved the Hollywood Bowl. It’s wonderful and just the best place to see a show.”

Back when she was filming her sitcoms, “Reba” from 2001-2007 and “Malibu Country” in 2012-2013, in the Los Angeles area, she’d gone to several shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

“I saw Annie Lennox and Sting perform there together (in 2004) and I was a huge fan, so it was fun to watch them in that atmosphere,” she said. “There’s just so much history there with all of the performances that have happened … it’s just iconic and we’re happy to be part of it.”

McEntire, who is such a legend she is commonly referred to by first name alone, is currently out on the final leg of her Reba: Live in Concert Tour. With 35 No. 1 career singles under her belt, it was difficult, she said, to narrow down a set list for this outing.

“We did a lot of research to see which songs fans want to hear and we put them together for a good-flowing show that has a lot of energy,” she said. “And we like to bring it back down and make it intimate and then let it get big again. It has to be like a rollercoaster of emotions. I’ll never forget when I was doing a concert tour with George Strait, after the first show I said ‘George, you didn’t do ‘The Chair.’ And he said ‘Yeah, I’m not doing it.’ I said, ‘But why? That’s my favorite song!’ Then I thought about how many times people have come up to me and said ‘Why didn’t you do ‘The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia’ that’s my favorite song!’ We just have to leave some of them out.”

Though her most recent album of original material, “Stronger Than the Truth,” came out in 2019, she released a box set in 2021, “Revived Remixed Revisited,” with reworked versions of her songs that truly helped her hone in on a set list for the road. Fans will get to hear some of these versions live, too, thanks to that album.

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“That gave us the opportunity to do something different,” she said. “Like ‘Consider Me Gone,’ it’s a real up-tempo song, but recording it with Dave Cobb when it’s stripped down with less instrumentation, it’s so much more emotional. It changed the song completely and I perform it now and so many people are singing along to it. I could hold the microphone out and let them sing the whole song. It’s fun when people know and love a song enough to know it by heart and to sing it along with me.”

In the past, McEntire has said that her 1990 cover of the Bobbie Gentry song “Fancy” is her favorite to perform live. She stands by that now.

“It’s very powerful,” she said of the audiences roaring back the line “I might have been born just plain white trash, but Fancy was my name.”

“It’s the rags to riches song,” she continued. “She prevails and it was a rough road and not everyone approved of the way she got her success, of course, but it’s about survival. That song goes right along with my song ‘I’m a Survivor.’ That’s another one I have near the end of my show and when I play it people will stand up and hold up their diplomas to show me that after they got their kids through school, they went back and go their education. So those are songs I love to sing and I’ll never get tired of them because they’re great songs. I didn’t write them, so I can sure brag on about it. Kudos to those songwriters.”

Having opened for everyone from Red Steagall, Conway Twitty and Lee Greenwood to The Oak Ridge Boys and being out on the Urban Cowboy Tour with Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee, McEntire is also encouraging her fans to show up early for her support act, singer-songwriter Terri Clark, who is known for ’90s hits like “Better Things To Do,” “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” and “Girls Lie Too,” and opening act The Isaacs, a bluegrass and Southern gospel family group.

“It’s going to be a very entertaining evening and I hope people come early because they will not regret it,” she assures.

Aside from music, McEntire has a varied résumé. She’s also tackled Broadway and was the lead in Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun”; her sitcom “Reba” aired for six seasons on The WB/CW; she’s starred in several feature films including “Tremors” alongside Kevin Bacon; and she was most recently cast as Sunny Barnes on the third season of ABC’s crime drama “Big Sky.”

“I did a Zoom with (producer and writer) Elwood Reid and he said ‘I’ve got an idea for the third season of “Big Sky” and you’re going to play a very dark character,’” she recalled, noting that her boyfriend, actor Rex Linn, was sitting across from her at the dining room table and loved the idea of his partner taking on a new kind of role. Her character on the show needed a husband, so Reid also hired Linn for the job.

“We had a great time doing it and that really was a stretch for me, but the writing was so good so you really get into it,” she said with a laugh, while referring to her sneaky and possibly murderous character as “just an overly protective mother.”

She’s got a bunch of other projects going on, too. She starred as a judge in the Lifetime movie “The Hammer” earlier this year and opened her very own restaurant and entertainment venue near her hometown in Atoka, Oklahoma, on Jan. 26. The three-story, 15,000-square-foot venue features a full restaurant with a menu filled with comfort food and locally sourced items, an antique bar, a stage for live music, lots of memorabilia and the third floor is dedicated to merchandise and Jackie’s Library, a space built to honor her late mother, a former school teacher and librarian.

“You can pull a book out and sit quietly and read, enjoy a drink, a good meal; it’s a really versatile place,” she said, noting that this wasn’t a venture she just slapped her name on. She actually “picked the upholstery, curtains for the windows and paintings for the walls.”

Since she and her beau also love entertaining at home, she has a new coffee table-style book coming out later this year that will offer hosting and travel tips, food and cocktail recipes, share little stories about her life and more.

“Rex and I love throwing parties,” she said. “I love to cook and he loves to cook, though he’s a better cook than I am. The book was fun to research and find new ways of hosting but, really, you can bring stuff out and mix and match and it doesn’t really matter, people just want to be together and have fun. It doesn’t have to be perfect, which is what we have learned. That’s why the book is called, ‘Not That Fancy.’”

Reba: Live In Concert Tour

With: Terri Clark and The Isaacs

When: 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 31

Where: Acrisure Arena, 75702 Varner Rd., Palm Desert

Tickets: $49.75-$219.75 at Ticketmaster.com

Also: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1 at the Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles. $25-$249 at Ticketmaster.com.

​ Orange County Register