What happens when you outgrow your childhood dream?<\/p>\n
In Robert Montano\u2019s gripping, funny, sometimes shocking and very well-acted autobiographical solo play \u201cSmall,\u201d he cycled through his own stages of grief when he grew too big to continue racing as a thoroughbred jockey.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for Montano, a new career as a Broadway dancer, actor and playwright was waiting on the other side. But \u201cSmall\u201d is not about that. It\u2019s about how he nearly died in service to his dream through a combination of drive, determination, denial and deception.<\/p>\n
The 100-minute play opened Thursday in its West Coast premiere at The Old Globe. It\u2019s a remount of Penguin Rep Theatre\u2019s 2022 world premiere production directed by Jessi D. Hill.<\/p>\n
For this staging, Montano is performing \u201cSmall\u201d for the first time in the round, and it\u2019s a perfect forum for his talents.<\/p>\n
In a thrilling tour-de-force performance, he explores every inch of the horse barn-style stage space and he connects with each audience member through his graceful,\u00a0 athletic and in-the-moment storytelling. Montano plays nearly a dozen characters in \u201cSmall,\u201d each one verbally and physically specific.<\/p>\n
The play begins in 1973 when the bullied 4-foot-6-inch, 12-year-old \u201cBobby\u201d discovers his passion for horses on a visit to the Belmont Park racetrack in his native Long Island.<\/p>\n
With the help of family, friends and his future mentor, Mexican jockey Roberto Pineda, Montano began spending all of his free time at the track, working his way up from stable-hand to apprentice jockey.<\/p>\n
Born with the gift to calm difficult horses and bravery beyond his years, he would have been a natural fit for racing, if not for the arrival of puberty. Although Montano prayed to stay small, by the time he rode his first race at age 16, he was already 5 feet 7, and 107 pounds.<\/p>\n
To make weight for races, he would go to extreme measures. He\u2019d starve himself, consuming only a lettuce leaf or a couple banana cookies a day, then vomit it up before weigh-in. He\u2019d burn calories by wrapping himself in plastic wrap and multiple layers of clothes and run up to 15 miles at a time. And he\u2019d secretly take amphetamines, diuretics and drugs like Lasix until he nearly died in 1977 after forcing himself to drop 10 pounds overnight for a race.<\/p>\n
This section of \u201cSmall\u201d is the most fascinating and harrowing, and Montano\u2019s re-creation of the extreme suffering and delirium he experienced is authentic and palpable. His final reckoning, later compounded by an unexpected tragedy, is the play\u2019s climax.<\/p>\n
At the end of the play, the audience learns how Montanto found his second act as a professional dancer. But that\u2019s no surprise after watching him whirl, crouch, leap and lunge around the stage in telling his unique story.<\/p>\n
Montano may not have been a champion jockey, but his play is definitely a winner.<\/p>\n
\u2018Small\u2019<\/p>\n
When: <\/strong>7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Oct. 19<\/p>\n
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sut-l-stage-small2_28756b.jpg\")
Robert Montano in a scene from his autobiographical solo play \u201cSmall\u201d at The Old Globe. (Rich Soublet II)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happens when you outgrow your childhood dream? In Robert Montano\u2019s gripping, funny, sometimes shocking and very well-acted…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":275337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,8159,1582,276,171,1370,3549,3550,7264,1148,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-275336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-balboa-park","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-county","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-theater","18":"tag-things-to-do","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115311929501541633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}