Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
August 3, 2007 Friday

‘High Dive’ lands in humor comfort zone

Barry Gaines FOR THE JOURNAL

During moments of intense stress, it is said that life passes before
one’s eyes. In my case, this happened when I was sitting on a table
in front of a University of New Mexico class – trying to look cool –
when I realized that two table legs were collapsing and I was sliding
toward the floor. In Leslie Ayvazian’s "High Dive," playing at the
Vortex, audiences have a chance to watch someone else’s life pass by.

The playwright/narrator, three weeks away from her 50th birthday,
finds herself on a Greek hotel diving board, encouraged by family
members to overcome her acrophobia and to drop 12 feet to the pool
below. Vacations are not among Leslie’s favorite things. Hesitating
on the diving board, she recalls her honeymoon in Hawaii when the
Earth moved – because of a hurricane. And a frigid Florida trip when
waves propelled frozen fish on shore. And an earthquake in Mexico.

Yet she keeps embracing adventure, "because I imagine that I am,
perhaps without my knowing it, a person who would like to do that."
She doesn’t.

Armenian-American Leslie Ayvazian wrote and performed "High Dive" in
2001. Before the show she recruited audience members to read bits of
dialogue during the performance, explaining that, "I have always
wanted to do a one-person show with a large cast."

At the Vortex Leslee Richards plays the accident-prone tourist under
the direction of Tish Miller. Script pages are again passed out to
attendees, but this production also uses actors in the audience to
read some parts.

Diana Dorland speaks for the mother-in-law, Drew Pollock for the
adventurous husband, and Harry Zimmerman for the increasingly
obnoxious 11-yearold son.

In the performance I saw, not a cue was missed. Richards relates
Ayvazian’s retrospective with charming ease. With her short, curly
auburn hair (the same color as the playwright’s) and light sprinkling
of freckles, Richards is immediately accessible and likable. The
stories she tells of her blind date / motorcycle wreck, her work at
VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), her stints installing cable
TV, working props and costumes at a dinner theater, and appearing on
"$25,000 Pyramid" are all warm and funny. This hour of theater is not
profound, but it is enjoyable. It gives a new meaning to the
expression "look before you leap."

"High Dive"

WHEN: 8 tonight and Saturday, Aug. 4, and 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5
WHERE: The Vortex Theatre, 20041/2 Central SE Reservations, 247-8600