|
| |
|
| |
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
 |
Field NotesJanuary 2001 The Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) is a grassroots ensemble theater founded in 1985 by John Malpede, who for all of those years has served as the group’s artistic director, executive producer, director and fundraiser. LAPD has worked exclusively in the area of Los Angeles known as Skid Row, and the ensemble was founded specifically to work in that community. Most LAPD members have either lived or currently reside in the community.
At present, Los Angeles has America’s largest concentration of homeless citizens, estimated between 50,000 and 75,000. Skid Row contains the city’s highest concentration of missions, shelters and, in addition, many free drug-treatment programs are concentrated there. Skid Row also currently – i.e., it was not always the case – offers many transitional housing and permanent subsidized housing opportunities for the formerly homeless and the very poor. The rise of these opportunities is connected to the work of LAPD through the ensemble's community partnerships. Partnerships LAPD’s partnerships within its community are living examples of the ensemble’s success. A significant partner, SRO [Single-room Occupancy] Housing, has renovated 30 former slum hotels into "single room occupancy" hotels. LAPD and SRO were founded in the same year, both on Skid Row, and have in a sense "grown up together." SRO’s mission, much more than providing merely a place to sleep, is to develop a healthy neighborhood on Skid Row, and to this end their buildings provide a kind of infrastructure for developing community. This lends a powerful boost to people who want to get off the street and begin to build a life. LAPD’s mission contains these same objectives. Through its partnership with SRO, LAPD adds an artistic and creative dimension to SRO’s community-building efforts, and SRO lends an infrastructure that nurtures the fruits of LAPD's efforts. One indicator of LAPD’s achievement – and there are many – is the independent arts and community organizations that have been started by former LAPD members who were inspired and educated to action by their time with the ensemble. It is no exaggeration to say that LAPD members and former members have come to understand the practical power of community building. Audience LAPD's principle audience is made up of neighborhood residents, although they also draw audience from the greater Los Angeles community. Their performances, workshops and events are free, and only rarely take place outside of Skid Row. Considering the wide (and favorable) reputation of the ensemble among Skid Row residents, it is safe to say that LAPD is successful at reaching its target audience. Membership Part of LAPD’s mission is to encourage ensemble members to discover their talents and abilities through work with the ensemble and, in this, to develop stability and grow a life. Some participants go on to become long-time LAPD members, some move on to other venues or arts activities and, in at least two cases, found their own arts groups. However, a clear picture of LAPD’s organization has to reference the extraordinary circumstances in which the work is made: Skid Row residents, often homeless or formerly homeless, struggling with addictions or mental and physical disorders, come from difficult, even chaotic circumstances. Over the years, LAPD has had hundreds of ensemble members, many of whom are examples of the company’s success with the rehabilitative dimension of its mission, but there are also cases where an individual was unable to overcome his or her personal obstacles within the context of the ensemble experience. In the production that was the subject of my field research, there were two performers who had been with LAPD intermittently for over ten years, and three who had been involved for three to five years. Two of the other cast members had participated in at least one other LAPD project. Five cast members were new. During a given year, an average of 30 people will participate in productions, and several hundred more in workshops in the community. All ensemble members are paid for their work on a per-production basis. At one point in the ensemble’s history there were four to seven salaried core members, but currently there are only two. Impact: an example The production that was the subject of my field research was in part sponsored by Side Street Projects, a nonprofit organization producing arts programs on Skid Row. Side Street's contribution was the donation of its theater facility rent-free. Although their mission is focused on community engagement, Side Street Projects was formerly located in affluent Santa Monica, and when they moved to Skid Row they found their organization in a philosophical crisis: Although they were still able to draw attendance from their Santa Monica mailing list, they were not engaging with the community outside their front door. Side Street's situation is instructive, because it is typical of organizations that are unable to reach into their immediate neighborhoods. The problem is one of acculturation. Skid Row is an extreme culture: Although it can be very dangerous, it is also home to a large community, including families with children. Although Side Street's mission is community-based, in an interview with Craig Arteaga-Johnson, director of exhibitions and programs for Side Street, I was told that the organization was unable to reach into the community because the fine-art gallery shows and projects they were presenting were out of reach of local residents. "We find the people who are interested in attending things are somewhat familiar with what we’re bringing into this neighborhood, and up until now [it] has been a group of performers and events that most of the people in this immediate neighborhood I don’t think are very familiar with," he told me. Without realizing it, Side Street had aligned itself with the erudite, arts-scene culture that operates in Skid Row's lofts and converted industrial spaces, though not in partnership with the immediate community. There are trendy, white-walled galleries downtown that few former street people will ever be invited to see. To their credit, Side Street realized that the move to Skid Row had put their charter in crisis. What they needed was a translator, or guide. In an interview, John Malpede told me that the first, most important step in creating LAPD was for him to learn, personally, "how to be, how to behave" in Skid Row. Acculturation to the community was LAPD's first step. Side Street's administrators met John Malpede, who was known to their board members, and LAPD was subsequently offered use of the theater. LAPD's presence in Side Street's facility, and Side Street's exposure to some of the leading lights of Skid Row's grassroots arts organizations — founders and members of The Homeless Writer's Coalition and Artists In Recovery were in the cast — made connections that could have otherwise remained unknown to any of the parties, because of the cultural language barrier. LAPD has been invited to become Side Street's resident theater company. It is unknown to me if LAPD has accepted or not. Administration All of the artistic, technical and administrative participants are members of the ensemble. Traditionally, the ensemble has held two artistic meetings per week, year-round. LAPD participates in monthly meetings of community arts coalitions, and other community groups. The facilities for workshops and productions include community rooms at St. Vincent’s Cardinal Manning Center, also rooms (and even lobbies) of SRO Housing facilities, day centers, Side Street Productions’ theater facility and rented rehearsal rooms at the Los Angeles Theater Center. All of these facilities are occupied by other groups at other times, and are variously borrowed or rented. The ensemble’s office is in Echo Park United Methodist Church, 1.5 miles from Skid Row. LAPD is 501(c)3 tax-exempt, and is governed by a board of directors numbering between three and five. For most of its existence, LAPD’s decisions have been made in frequent meetings with the entire ensemble. At one point in the company’s history, the budget was $100,000. At this writing it is one-third of that figure. Its income sources are:
The ensemble operates without a deficit, and owns no real estate. The ensemble’s current makeup includes:
All of the artistic, technical and administrative participants are members of the ensemble. Community feedback "Community feedback" is often relegated to a secondary role in theater production, a follow-up to the "real work" of the show. It should be noted that LAPD does not consider community participation and feedback separate from its production activities. Here the aesthetic lines that separate theatrical and actual community interaction are intentionally and vigorously blurred. LAPD’s research, development and production style rely on an almost continual exchange of feedback with the community. LAPD has maintained a continual presence in its community through various regular free theater workshops. These workshops provide not only a service to the community, but can also produce artistic material and members for upcoming projects. The need for constant community feedback extends to the makeup of the ensemble, in that LAPD is an exemplar of the grassroots theater's sometime tradition of mixing trained actors with community performers. Because Skid Row is a culture of extremes, however, the community performers, at best, contend with the chaotic environment outside of rehearsals, and at worst battle addiction, severe poverty or some form of mental illness. The loose, edgy, authentic sincerity that can be found in much grassroots ensemble work is here intensified. LAPD’s performance style reflects the energy of its neighborhood. Working with the ensemble requires a large commitment from its members, and in observing the work it was obvious that the levels of skill and emotional commitment demanded by the work are challenging. Themes and subjects Whatever the approach to the material, LAPD's themes and subjects are always immediately relative to the lives and experiences of Skid Row residents. Although the ensemble’s artistic approach has been primarily improvisational — formatted to have both structure and improvisation, in order to best express what Malpede calls, "that wild Skid Row energy"— in recent years, scripted material has been more frequently used. The show running during this research, "Agents and Assets," was entirely scripted: The "script" was the literal transcript from a Congressional hearing on CIA involvement in crack cocaine sales in California. The text was ultimately an indictment of the Wars on Drugs, but only out of its original context. In this case, long passages of dry, undramatic material were delivered by actors unused to either memorization or the delivery of such material. Text and context were clearly more important elements of the production than, say, performance technique. For the audience, it would have been difficult to overlook the irony of hearing the words of educated, skilled politicians spoken by actors who at some point in their lives were casualties of the Wars on Drugs. I spoke with audience members who were moved by the production, and they all agreed that it was the act of witnessing an event so fraught with contextual weight that produced emotion in them, pathos for a plight, and not necessarily with the performer's character. I cannot say whether audience members were moved to action after they left the building. However, there was a panel after the show, which included an expert on Third World politics and an expert on CIA involvement in drug smuggling. If standing at the microphone to address this panel during the after-show discussion, or even remaining to listen to the hour-long conversation counts as action, then I can say that a large percentage of the audience was provoked to action. Schedule, guests The ensemble produces two "main shows" per year, one "workshop production" and a "summer intensive workshop." Over the years, the ensemble has worked with many guest artists, most recently with director Pascal Rambert and Lin Hixson of the Goat Island performance group. The ensemble’s founder and artistic director is also the resident director. Reflections on Research Skid Row is a community of stark contrasts: lines of limousines on Oscar night and lines around the mission every night; glittering towers and cardboard boxes; haute cuisine and handouts. The effects of grassroots theater are more obvious here than they might be in a less harsh landscape. As a grassroots ensemble theater, the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) is dedicated to making theater by, for and about the most underrepresented segments of the population. Certainly, one of the most underrepresented groups in Los Angeles is its enormous homeless population, many of whom live in downtown's Skid Row. For 15 years, Skid Row has been the subject, talent pool and audience for the work of the LAPD. Fifteen years ago, LAPD Artistic Director John Malpede looking for a way to make a difference. He was visiting Los Angeles and found himself downtown, where Skid Row's homeless were becoming active, erecting a tent city across from City Hall to protest new rules that would cut welfare services. Malpede got a job as a welfare advocate, and began to acclimate himself to the neighborhood. It didn't occur immediately to Malpede that he should start a theater, but rather that he should simply throw in with these people who were trying so hard to help themselves. Later, he came to the conclusion that theater was what was needed. In order for a community-based arts organization to work, it needs a community in which to operate, which was something of a problem during the LAPD's early days. Although there were stirrings of cohesion at the time Malpede arrived, that part of the city hadn't been a real community since the 1950s. Skid Row was considered by most to be the home of mere "transients," although, in fact, there were large numbers of people for whom Skid Row was a permanent and even desirable home, including families with children. The question was how to draw them out, and draw them together. In the beginning, the LAPD staged talent shows on the street as a way of rousing the neighborhood and getting interest in the theater project. An ensemble began to coalesce. Under Malpede's direction, the LAPD subsequently created structured, improvisational performances based on the lives of the ensemble members, many of whom happened to be either homeless or formerly homeless. Over the years, they continued to rely on improvisation, although recently the shows have become more scripted. (The most recent production, "Agents and Assets," was the staging of a transcript of a Congressional hearing on CIA involvement in drug sales in the U.S.) Over the years, the ensemble has also included professional actors and other non-Skid Row residents. Also, Malpede has periodically brought in guest artists of national and international prominence to work with the ensemble. One stalwart community organization that partnered with LAPD right from the start was the Single Room Occupancy Housing Corporation (SRO). SRO was founded the same year as LAPD. SRO is dedicated to renovating Skid Row's hotels into clean, livable — and subsidized, therefore affordable — hotels, in the hope that such infrastructure could generate that most powerful of all social, spiritual and political forces: a community. SRO and LAPD partnered with a mutual dream that Skid Row could become an actual place, a home rather than a trap, for the people who lived there. LAPD's work is gritty and artistically risky, often making powerful use of the contexts in which the pieces were performed. The work isn't crafted for charm, but rather to accurately reflect what Malpede calls "the wild energy of the neighborhood." There is no fixed artistic style for the ensemble, and, since he is simply trying to make the best art possible within a community context, Malpede has always allowed the material to decide the shape of the piece, rather than being guided by audience – or funder – expectations. Indeed, "confounding expectations" has been Malpede's creed for his 15 years with LAPD. The LAPD has also functioned as a forum for dialogue about the issues that press most heavily on the residents of Skid Row. The local residents in the LAPD's audiences are, to my observation, attentive, loyal, enthusiastic and informed. Perhaps this is, in part, because, like so much ensemble theater, the audience is usually the subject of the play, which makes empathy easy and powerful. Some ensemble members have quit after one or two shows, others have been part of the entire life of the organization. Perhaps the latter cases are, in part, due to the fact that as ensemble members became more confident in the work, Malpede encourages them to take on leadership roles. The formerly homeless can then create work themselves, completing the circle of artistic and personal empowerment. Also, some ensemble members have gone on to create a number of spin-off arts organizations. Many ensemble members from the neighborhood are articulate about the workings of art, culture and politics. They understand how organizations are made and held together as a result of their time with the LAPD. This ensemble is unequivocally prized by its community, which is a testament to its success. Also, because of its ability to generate alliances between people and organizations across Los Angeles, the LAPD exemplifies the grassroots dictum that giving voice to one community enables and strengthens the bonds between all communities. That being said, the last thing I want to do here is romanticize the LAPD. Theater artists have been making work by, for and about America's most underrepresented populations since the 19th century (although, in the 1800s, if public opinion shut a grassroots theater down it was at gunpoint, rather than through reduced funding). The LAPD shouldn't be thought of as a social service. Where city and county social services tend to maintain a population, the arts will try to transform it, which is the natural role of the arts. Nor does the LAPD, nor do most grassroots theaters of which I am aware, necessarily have to effect measurable social change in order to be considered successful. In neighborhoods where most people have what they need to survive — and plenty of neighborhoods contain poverty, yet fit that description — the change inspired by art may not have obvious political effect. Although the political stance of some grassroots theater ensembles are overt, like LAPD's, in the main, grassroots arts politics tends to be more subtle, though nonetheless well-considered, determined and intentional. My point here is that grassroots theater is not "medicine," but is first and foremost about making art to engage an audience (though that is in itself a sort of political act). Nor should art itself be romanticized in the grassroots context. The LAPD's effect on its community seems clear in part because of the starkness of the terrain in which it operates: Nobody else is doing what they do. In and of itself, art changes nothing. People change, occasionally, and slowly, if at all. The transformative power of theater — if the work is good — is that it allows the individual audience member a glimpse into a kind of mirror. Art is a metaphor for the inner reflection that can lead to transformation, and for 15 years people desperate for transformation could find that mirror at the Los Angeles Poverty Department's workshops and productions. In this neighborhood, people want and need change, in many cases in order to survive. Some of them have looked into these pieces of theater and seen possibilities looking back. Those possibilities have sometimes been sufficient to inspire people to make the leap of faith from desperation to hope. Also, the LAPD's radius of influence continues to grow, and I have spoken to many non-Skid Row residents who report being inspired by the work of this remarkable ensemble. And that should be enough to justify the funding, time and energy required to keep an ensemble in its community, and yet somehow it is not. It remains difficult for some funders to recognize the productivity of community-based theater, simply because the arts cannot be measured empirically. On the other hand, it could also be suggested that some do in fact see — the powerless now empowered, the silent now with a voice and a story to tell — and would rather not see. After "Agents and Assets" closed, the LAPD entered a "forced hiatus, due to lack of funding." Although the ensemble has no debt, they've also never been able to build up much of a margin from ticket sales: The workshops where LAPD develops its material and recruits its members are free to anyone, and the only people who pay for tickets to the actual productions are those who can afford it. Income from city and county arts funds have dwindled, and the private donors can't take up the slack. There is no endowment. At this writing, California is subject to unannounced electrical blackouts, utility prices have doubled overnight and rents have risen more sharply in the past two years than they have in the past two decades. The Los Angeles mayoral race is in full swing, but with so many big campaign fish to fry, it is doubtful that "invisible communities" like the LAPD's, will be mentioned much in the campaign platforms of the serious contenders. There isn't much to be hopeful about, it seems, but then hopelessness is the ground that this ensemble has worked back to fertility time and again. May the LAPD long be found in the parks, hotel lobbies and streets of Skid Row, and not merely in memory. Biography of site visitor Ferdinand Lewis is a founding member of The Ghost Road Company, an educator, writer and theater artist. He is currently at work on two books: "Ensemble Theater: An Anthology" and "Ensemble Theater: Traditions, Approaches, Strategies." He lives in Los Angeles. |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
