SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – It’s robbing the state of $8 billion a year, counterfeit goods in the underground economy destined for retail stores all across the U.S.

Wednesday, the focus is on a South Sacramento warehouse.

“The warehouse I would estimate is a minimum of 70 feet wide and over a 100 feet long and it’s just full. Tens and tens of thousands of items,” said Assistant Special Agent Dan Lane of Homeland Security.

The warehouse is stacked 40 feet high with boxes and boxes of fake Adidas apparel. The sheer amount of it all shocked even homeland security investigations.

“Its very efficiently arranged with shelves that reach way up and lots of them, and all of those shelves are just stacked with merchandise,” said Lane.

And it may seem like a victimless crime, but it’s Californians who are paying the price from the criminals who run these illegal practices.

“It also cheats the state out of billions of dollars of tax revenue that could be better used to support state services education and public safety programs,” said Mira Guertin, California Chamber of Commerce.

With the state trying to balance a possible budget deficit of close to $10 billion, eliminating the underground economy could really help fix California’s economy.

Centenary Theatre Group

Nash Theatre

10^th  – 31^st March 2012

Reviewed by Meredith McLean

The irony of this production of The Laramie Project being held in a church hall made me chuckle quietly to myself. An irony you will understand if you see the play. It was a short-lived stint of laughter though. Knowing The Laramie Project from my days of my nose in a book I was well aware that despite there being funny characters this is not a comedy. I wouldn’t be surprised if you left the Nash Theatre feeling heavy hearted too.

The Laramie Project is a very unique piece of non-fiction made for stage. Moises Kaufman and his members of the Tectonic Theatre Project collaborated in the November of 1998 to bring us what is called verbatim theatre. Along the rural buck fenced landscapes of Wyoming nine members gathered in Laramie four weeks after the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard. A young 21 year old university student who was gay and punished for it gravely. More disturbingly two boys had committed the crime, the same age as Matthew. Just a couple of kids like him. The play, under Moises Kaufman’s terms, is never made up of traditional scenes. Only what Kaufman calls moments, snippets of interviews with real people. Their words, the true words, being reverberated on a stage whether it be far off in New York or here in Brisbane.

The immensity of dedication to a play like this isn’t trivial. Each of the eight cast members at the Nash Theatre had at least eight roles each, some many more. There are no stagehands in this production either. Each actor must change scenery, costume and attitude unseen in the shadows. Presenting himself or herself to the spotlight one by one as a changed person. The costumes as well as setting are of a minimalist nature. This enables the actors to depend solely on their craft to portray a different person each time. With the change of a hat or maybe a table moved slightly forward it is up to the cast to convince us of who they are. In their voice, their movement and their stage presence the audience puts all of its trust in them.

This production is political. It can be solemn. At times the people will make you laugh but then you’ll understand the vastness of truth, sadness and love held by these people for the town. Whether they are Matthew Shepard’s friends or Doc the kooky, local limo driver all of them embody a strange loss for Laramie. That’s why when seeing this production the cast hold your focus intensely. So dramatically that a distraction doesn’t just catch your eye. It breaks the gravity of your attention all together. The choice to use multimedia as a means to communicate a scene or emotion was not the right choice for this play. Understandably, the black screen depicting the title of each “moment” was effective. It gave a sense of time and place. However, the pictures of a bible while talking to a priest or a snowy street in Laramie while talking of the weather were unnecessary. Watching the stage I could tell these eight talented people could easily portray the setting and the emotion needed through their performance alone. The screen constantly changing to pictures found on the Internet kept dragging my attention away from them.

Each of the cast embraced the idea of taking on a menagerie of characters embodied in one person. But three men stood out for me. They made me momentarily forget they were still the same person, then like flicking a switch they’d change and I’d be excited to see who they had become next.

Aaron Bernard first caught my attention with the slow lilting observations of Doc the limousine driver. When he looked out to the crowd and said “The last thing on earth he saw was the sparkling lights.” sadness made me shift uncomfortably in my seat. Then the jumping, twitching flurry of words from Matt Galloway the bartender made me laugh and nod along with the rhythmic storytelling Aaron portrayed.

Daren King likewise blended in and out of a range of characters with ease. There’s a certainty in his movement and voice. His confidence to intentionally look lost is what made characters like the Unitarian minister, the doctor and even one of the perpetrators seem so real.

Tom Yaxley was possibly the luckiest to experience some of the most pivotal characters in this production. I couldn’t help but secretly giggle at his portrayal of the director and chief writer, Moises Kaufman. The accent and poise was like something taken out of an interview and that’s exactly what is intended of the actor. But my favourite of all the roles Yaxley takes on is Father Roger Schmit. It’s odd to think these characters are all people taken from factual interviews and yet a real person still feels like a plot device. His powerful words, real quotes from the catholic minister, hit home and Tom Yaxley delivered them rightly so.

Dan Lane took the helm as the director of this production. His involvement with the Nash Theatre over the last two years equates to his first time directing for this particular group. His mindset is clear when you watch the actors on stage. Above all it is an actor driven performance and his dedication to that goal is apparent in the play. In the final closing of the production that last image on the stage is an excellent summary. Not only of the play but also of Dan Lane’s capacity for the stage.

This production will not lie to you. It will never promise you something it can’t deliver. Everything said and done is a refraction of the truth that occurred fourteen years ago. If you like to search for the truth or just enjoy theatre that aims to express meaningfulness The Laramie Project at the Nash Theatre is a show you need to see.

f/5, 1/30, ISO-400, 18mm

One of the things that disappointed me was that I would no longer be able to see the always humorous and informative videos starring Ben Smith, Dan Lane and James Whatley and read there ever insightful posts. Thankfully I hear the the videos will remain available to view even after the site moves to the subscription based model. I urge you to watch them. Now. Well, after you finish this, don’t forget.

Earlier today I stumbled across a link on Twitter (you can follow me here by the way)  that instantly raised a smile across my tired Monday morning face. It’s a simple teaser site but with an image that dropped big hints as to the future of the three mentioned above.

On the face of it, just a picture of some phones with items of clothing on the screens.  However the pieces of apparel give away the clues to the people behind this teaser. Dan Lane is an iPhone user and has a fondness for sizable boots. Ben Smith is the type of chap you always image to be clad in  sharp suit and tie and is known to have a G1 so there’s another explained. James Whatley is only really known for his deep love of the Nokia N95 8gb and for being a pioneer of awesome sunglasses (oh ok, he’s the Social Media Strategist for Spinvox and you can read his personal blog here). The E71 is more of a tough one, it features a set of awesome heels. Unless one of the boys has a slightly more feminine side to them (and I vote Ben if so) it seems certain they’ll have a female correspondent joining too.

Keep an eye on the link below, because it looks like we’re going to have something good…really soon!

http://thereallymobileproject.com/