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Interview with David, a man in the Logger Bar, audience memberMark McKenna: How long have you been in Blue Lake? David: Four years. MM: Have you been to many shows at Dell’Arte? D: I’ve probably been to three or four shows a year. I go out there and I enjoy the hell out of it and I think, why don’t I go out there more? I’ve known about it since the day they got here, which was what, over 20 years ago. MM: Before you lived in Blue Lake, where were you living? D: Arcata. I’ve been around. the Mad River Festival is fabulous. One of the things Dell’Arte tries to do they call theater of place, of this place. The illusions they can pull off are amazing. You know they are tricking you, but you don’t care. I used to say, "Let’s go watch the pros." They are just damn good theater. Some of my theater going friends don’t care for their robust style, I guess there is just too much corn-balling for them. It doesn’t bother me, because they can get serious when they want. MM: What do you think is the most important thing they did, in general? D: They had a vision and they have pursued it and they just bring excellence. It doesn’t matter what kind of excellence. They could be excellent race-car builders, it doesn’t matter. MM: Why is that important to you? D: Well it is better than just muddying along. It kind of picks up the spirit a little bit. If someone can excel in one area, well hell, maybe I can go excel in my area. I’ve never thought of that before, I guess there is a reason for these interviews. They involve a lot of people in their shows. They have as wide a reach as they can. They are not selfish about, this is my theater and I am going to do it my way. They seem to be entirely open to every kind of idea possible. I’ve seen other visiting artists here. One man did an autobiographical number. Here is one way that theater can touch you. His father was a photographer in World War II. He photographed the death camps and he was Jewish, also. He felt terribly guilty afterwards, having the survivor’s syndrome. My buddy who went to the play with me, his dad was also Jewish. He had left Austria long before World War II. He left not because of the Nazis, but because he was a professor and he wanted to come over here and get a better job. The stories weren’t very similar, but it was just enough that it really touched my friend. He had a long talk with this other fella. It was a one-man show and it was an extremely powerful show. At one point, he put on a tape player of a Beethoven symphony and he juggled to it. He made the music better. He juggled to Beethoven and made the music better. It was un-fucking-believable. It was outrageous. I will never forget that one. MM: What do you think was the dumbest thing they ever did, the biggest mistake they ever made? D: Hm. Well, this might be a thin point, or maybe not. Some of their shows have dealt with logging, that is a part of this place. They haven’t always done their homework with the language they’ve used. It is a "choker setter," not a "choke setter." They call it a choke setter and boing! The willing suspension of disbelief, it takes only the tiniest thing to shake you out of that. Sometimes I think they are trying to understand logging and the logger’s mentality, but I’m not sure they have dug deep enough in that. The next time I see Joan I think I will recommend this, the next time they do anything that has to do with logging at all, that they give that script to an honest-to-God logger. Check for dumb little mistakes like that. That is the only thing that I can remember that jarred me with them. I just have the impression – I’m not accusing them of this – but I get the impression they are slightly condescending towards loggers. If you know enough of them [loggers], they live in an incredibly insular world. They have their own code and you have to almost be born into a logging family to get into that world. But the main reason is that it is so incredibly dangerous. If you get through your career without being seriously hurt or killed that is success. That is one reason for that great camaraderie – they are just trying to protect each other, just trying to get out of the woods alive everyday. They can be very close-knit. Outsiders, you gotta knock on that door a long time. That might be one thing where there might be room for improvement there. Maybe not, I don’t know what they have actually done. I’ve just seen the plays. Mark McKenna is artistic director and an ensemble member of Touchstone Theatre, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris. He has taught theater classes at Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania, and the MFA Theatre Program at Towson State University. McKenna is active in the growth of the Network of Ensemble Theatres. He is a board member of Alliance for Building Communities, a regional community-development corporation. |
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