Interview with Gene Supko, proprietor of the Logger Bar

By Mark McKenna

Mark McKenna: How long have you been here in Blue Lake?

Gene Supko: Since ’86.

MM: And how long have you been at the Logger?

GS: Since ’87, and I have owned it since ’94.

MM: What brought you to Blue Lake?

GS: The truth? I think we’ll leave that part out.

MM: When you got here in ’86, Dell’Arte was around? What was Blue Lake like when you came into town?

GS: About like what it is now. A little busier. More guys were working in the timber industry. The older guys have still got jobs; it is the younger guys that are having trouble.

MM: What was your interaction with Dell’Arte, how did you meet them?

GS: I just met them from coming in here. I was a customer, they were customers. And then as I stayed on working here, it is enjoyable seeing a new class every year, different people, different cultures. It adds a little bit of diversity into the bar. I like to see the kids. They are a good group of kids. I like to see kids trying to improve themselves. The local people have a hard time understanding. The local people are hard-working people. All they know is get up and go work in the woods. They have no idea really – no, I take that back, I think they do have an idea – but the concept of people going to school and learning how to be entertainers, to them this is more like a second job. Then you can’t take that away from them. That doesn’t make them ignorant people or nothing, they are just hard-working people. It is hard work out there in the woods.

MM: When was the first time you saw a show out there?

GS: Probably in ’87. It was a lot different then, too. It is a lot nicer. You went to a play at night and sat in bleachers and froze. I went to the play last night, it is a lot more comfortable.

MM: Most of the folks that come here to the Logger, do they go and see the shows too?

GS: Quite a few of them do. Change is hard to come to the local people. The younger ones go quite a bit.

MM: Tell me about that change. What did it take to bring about that change of heart?

GS: Not to brag on myself, but I made a cameo appearance last year and a lot of folks wanted just to see me. A lot of them have gone to more plays after that. They had no idea that there was entertainment that close on hand.

MM: What was that like for you?

GS: Interesting, interesting. I’m not much for getting up in front of people. It is hard enough behind the bar, but when everybody was there to look at me, it was fun. I enjoyed myself.

MM: It sounds like it took 13 or 14 years to get you on stage?

GS: They asked me, I didn’t ask them. Now I’ve got, what do you call it, stage-struck. I kid with Michael quite a bit about it.

MM: What show was that for?

GS: The Mad River Festival. It was the last performance. Standing ovation!

MM: What has Dell’Arte meant to Blue Lake, in your opinion?

GS: Like I said, it adds a little different culture to the place. It brings a good group of young people into the town.

MM: What is that like? Every year there must be a group of thirty kids coming in from all over the world...

GS: It makes it interesting. It is a change. They are a good group of kids. I can’t really compare them to the college kids in Arcata, the rowdy ones. They are mellow. They party, they have a good time, they don’t cause me no problems.

MM: Do you get a lot of college kids from Arcata coming down?

GS: Every now and then we do. Travelling is hard cause of the drunk-driving laws and all. I prefer the Dell’Arte students cause they are mellow. I get a lot of the Forestry students. They come down with designated drivers. I’ve been trying, with open mics, to intermingle the Dell’Artes with the others. It is starting to work a little bit. One night, someone just stood up and did their poetry. It gives them a chance to be in front of people and stuff. It is fun. We try to have fun.

MM: What do you think for the next 20 years in Blue Lake, what do you think could happen?

GS: Well, it is hard to say. I’m sure Dell’Arte will stay. We’ve been here a hundred years, we are not going anywhere. We are getting a casino in town. I don’t know what that is going to do. It is supposed to be completed by the end of the year, up and running. Hopefully this will bring more people in here and more people to Dell’Arte. I noticed last night though that they were pretty well sold out. That is pretty good. I am happy for those folks over there.

MM: Tell me your top three moments related to Dell’Arte.

GS: My own personal? My cameo appearance. The standing ovation I got from the kids one year at graduation. That really made me feel good. I went to graduation last year.

MM: What is the graduation ceremony like?

GS: More or less standard. They introduced all the teachers, the founder. I have no idea why, but the director – I was up in the audience, and he said, "We want to thank some people," and he was mentioning my name and I got a standing ovation. And the founder. The teachers didn’t. That really made me feel good. I usually get a class picture and all the kids sign it. I like that. Then I get postcards from all around the world as kids go on. That makes me feel good. You get to know their dreams and their hopes. It is good to see success happen. It is neat to see people from Europe come here. It is just a different culture, a different way of life there. It is just fun to talk with them. It is interesting.

MM: What can you tell me about "Korbel"?

GS: That was the play that I was in. It is a series now. It is good. Last year’s play for the festival, there was a lot of political stuff in town going on. They incorporated that into the play, and if you weren’t from town it was funny. But if you were from town, you really had belly laughs because you knew the secrets behind it. They made it funny to the people that didn’t know, but the locals – it really was great. I haven’t heard anybody say anything bad about it.

MM: It was poking fun in a way, but in a way people enjoyed, instead of getting them mad. Is that true?

GS: Yeah. A way to explain it is that something was happening and they didn’t give a view on it, they just made it funny. I guess you would have to see the play to know what I mean. They filmed it. They filmed it the night I was there. We are going to show it here in a couple of weeks.

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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