Driving up a winding highway that snakes its way through the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, one is immersed in the rural sleepiness of the canyons above swanky Malibu.

I almost miss the slight turn in for the legendary Theatricum Botanicum, a hidden gem of a theatre founded in 1973 by actor Will Geer (Grandpa Zeb on The Waltons), where I am meeting John Guerra, a local playwright born in Carpinteria, a beach community located between Ventura and Santa Barbara. Despite the dust and heat of the day, the affable Guerra is energized and excited to talk about the premiere production of his play "The Last Best Small Town."

"I am so excited for this production, and honestly. I can't think of a more perfect place to see live theatre than here," he says. "The combination of the setting and the exceptional talent, both on stage and behind, is magical. It reminds me of the original form of theatre in the Greek tradition, and it's a perfect fit for this particular story."

"The Last Best Small Town," tells the story of the Miller and Gonzalez families who are neighbors in the small town of Fillmore in Ventura county. The year is 2008, and the country is in the early stages of the financial crisis that will devastate communities and alter the meaning of the American Dream. The age-old expectation that each generation will do better than their parents has been destroyed; what once seemed guaranteed is now fraught with uncertainty. The play's young protagonists, Maya and Elliot, personify the heavy toll on families who had counted on a bright future and now had to reimagine their lives with lowered expectations. 

"Growing up, my parents loved road trips, so we would often just jump in the car and ride to an adventure," he lovingly recalls. "We drove through Fillmore a lot on our way to visit family in Burbank, and I watched it expand from a sleepy burb to a bustling community with housing developments and strip malls. I remember what a big deal it was when the first Starbucks opened there. But when the recession hit, everything seemed to freeze. That image just stuck with me."

After graduating from Carpinteria High School, Guerra attended the University of California Irvine and earned his MFA in Playwriting from the California Institute of the Arts in 2015.  Starting as an actor with such local theatre companies as the Blank Theatre, the Fountain Theatre, and the Ghost Road Theatre Ensemble, Guerra soon realized a shortage of plays resonated with his Millennial generation.  This led to the seed of an idea for a play that would mirror his own coming of age in the early 2000s. He saw how money, status and racial bias had altered the American Dream forever.

When the Los Angeles-based Vagrancy Theatre's Blossoming program put out a call for reimagining a classic theatre piece, Guerra started to mine his own background to create "The Last Best Small Town" as a modern-day "Our Town" using Fillmore as the setting.

"The play was a way for me to reckon with my own identity," Guerra reveals. "A lot of the issues that Maya and Elliot struggle with were my own as I came of age, and the conversations about race they are forced to confront are ones that, as someone who is mixed, are constantly going on within myself." 

"I set out to write a play without any bad guys - except for the impossibility of the American Dream," he admits. "Hopefully, I have portrayed it with kindness and compassion."

With a humble yet confident tone, Guerra states, "Every playwright looks forward to seeing the ideas in their head realized. I'm hoping that these words and ideas that have kept me up at night will reach across the stage and allow the audience to really feel that they are seen and understood. And isn't that the basis of all great drama?" 

"The Last Best Small Town" opened July 31 and will play in repertory at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum through November 6. Tickets can be purchased in advance through their website at https://theatricum.com/the-last-best-small-town/.