Texan Progress

Greater than its sub-myths like Columbus and the Revolution, the Myth of Progress is the foundational American state of mind. Predicated on a clear division between Civilization and Savagery, the Myth of Progress tells the story of Civilization’s unstoppable progression into and conquest of the untamed wilderness. In the American version, Civilization is synonymous with “Democracy,” “Christianity,” and “America” itself. Native peoples fare poorly in this American myth, cast as the savages that must be overcome for America to fulfill her divine mission as the world’s shining light upon the hill.

Few American communities have as much invested in this myth as rural white Texas. Proud preservers of cowboy culture, the culture that “tamed the West,” Texas has historically celebrated Indian killers like those played by John Wayne. So it’s refreshing to see sensitive treatment of Native themes in the recent incarnation of the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation’s perennial melodrama Texas.

A celebration of the Panhandle’s colonization by white America, Texas could easily go down the same road as my least favorite movie, The Searchers. But instead of the Comanches being treated as murderers of white men and rapists of white women who need to be annihilated for civilization to progress across the continent, this new version of the 45 year old melodrama has added in celebrations of the Panhandle’s Comanche people. From introducing the first and only pan-Comanche Chief Quanah Parker as a peripheral character, to the inclusion of a Comanche hymn during a faux healing ceremony (enough to give whites an impression of what’s going on but not enough to be totally weird for Indians), David Yirak’s current adaptation of Paul Green’s script is commendable.

Of course, there’s still work to be done, especially with the character of Quanah Parker. First, it would be better if he was played by an Indian. Goodness knows there’s enough Indian actors out there hungry for work, and casting a non-Native is dangerously close to Henry Brandon’s Comanche travesty in The Searchers. Second, at one point Quanah Parker says, point blank, that the time of the Indian is over.

Still, it’s not as bad as it could have been, and, for Texas, it looks like representations of Indian people are heading in a positive direction. It plays through August in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, and tickets are available at http://www.texas-show.com/. It's worth going just to see how they utilize the space, which merits a review all of its own.

Discover AtlantASS

Interarts collaboration is all the rage these days, as well it should be. Our modern version of Richard Wagner’s Gesammtkunstwerk, cooperation between artists of different disciplines seems like it’s a driving force for contemporary theater. But the operative word here is “collaboration.” Painters, musicians, actors, etc. coming together to lend their expertise to a project that requires their expertise.

Talibam! and Sam Kulik’s Discover AtlantASS, now playing at Incubator Arts, requires expertise in both music and storytelling. This trio, consisting of solo artist Sam Kulik and the Talibam! duo Matt Motel and Kevin Shea, can handle the first of those two things, but they are woefully inadequate storytellers. The theatrical parts of their performance were badly under-rehearsed jokes about everything from child-abuse to the sexual assault of a 5th grader with smatterings of misogyny and racism that seemed to have been written while the trio were stoned and mad about the BP oil spill. Yeah, it didn’t make a ton of sense to anyone else either. At first we in the audience laughed – they weren’t taking themselves too seriously, so why should we? Then I started to sit through the scenes waiting for the songs, which were pretty decent. But after intermission it just dragged on and on – their shtick had gotten old, and their songs were all starting to sound the same.

If I could offer one piece of advice to Talibam! and Kulik, it would to be to stick to rock & roll. Theater isn’t for you guys. If I could offer a piece of advice to the Incubator Arts curators, it would be to watch the plays you pick before you pick them. And if I can offer one piece of advice to you, dear New York audiences, it would be to not go see Discover AtlantASS.  

3C

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s production of David Adjimi’s dark comedy 3C is disco-dancing proof that a strong cast can make even the weakest script soar.

The cast (including CSI: NY’s Eddie Cahill as Terry) was uniformly top-notch, but Hannah Cabell and Jake Silbermann stole the show, as Linda and Brad respectively. They played the script’s two most traumatized characters, and their skillful performances ironically emphasized the script’s weaknesses while selling the show well enough that I had to get on my phone right afterwards to recommend it to a friend.

Adjimi starts to tell multiple stories in 3C – Linda’s sexual assault, Brad adjusting to civilian life after Vietnam while confronting his homosexuality, Mrs. Wicker’s (Kate Buddeke) mental illness. But the only story that gets told with any depth is that of Brad’s homosexuality, and this struggle lacks definition until more than halfway through the play. Initially, it seems like the traumas that Adjimi will address are of sexual assault and returning from war, or even coping with mental illness like bipolar disorder. But the first two get lost in the preoccupation with Brad trying to come out of the closet, and the third is played for laughs.

That said, this cast sold it. Cabell and Silbermann told as strong a story in their pensive silences as they did (tellingly) with Adjimi’s dialogue. Anna Chlumsky and Cahill thoroughly entertained strutting their 70s stuff around the stage. Bill Buell terrified while tickling the audience’s funny-bone as the homophobic Mr. Wicker, and Buddeke pulled of what could have been a slap in the face to those who suffer from mental illness with aplomb.

Rattlestick’s production of 3C is worth every penny of the somewhat steep ticket price, but I don’t think Adjimi's script is something that I would want to pick up myself or recommend to somebody else’s theater.

It runs through July 15^th, and tickets are available at http://www.theatermania.com/off-off-broadway/shows/3c_184026/.

Storytelling Workshop at the Piggyback Fringe Festival

Yesterday, Chris and I did a workshop on telling family stories theatrically. We were in Wakefield/La Peche's brand new community center, and had a pretty substantial space. It was a smaller class with only four participants, but that meant we were able to give each group individual attention. But before we split them into groups, we did a warm-up for the whole class. It was one that Chris knows called "Wa", and it was fairly challenging with just six people (four students plus two teachers), but it did the job we needed it to do: got everybody into their bodies and playing around. Then we split them into pairs, and Chris and I each stuck with a pair to help them develop their skit. We called one partner "A" and the other partner "1" to get rid of any semblance of hierarchy - this was also a workshop in devising, after all. First A told a story from their family to 1, who told it back from the first person point of view. Then they switched. They selected one of the stories to develop into a skit to perform in front of the class. We got two very different, very good skits. I had the impression that it was a very empowering experience for the students: if they can accomplish that in an hour, just imagine what they can accomplish after three months of development and rehearsal!

"The Baskets" World Premiere

Last night The Baskets opened for the first time ever, anywhere. The audience wasn't has big as we would have hoped, but they were very appreciative. It was a great experience to gauge their reactions throughout the show. They loved the opening story - an old one about the Greedy Father and the creation of basket materials. When I finished it and jumped forward millenia to the 90s, it seemed like they were a little disappointed - they were just having so much fun in the world of the First People! But they really started to get into it when I began to hang pictures up on the network of clothes lines we rigged up above the stage. When I went back to an old-time story, I could feel them kind of sit up. Something's changed? What's happening? Then they got really curious - it was our Flood story, so it was a recognizable theme, and yet markedly different from the Bible version they're probably used to. After the show, Chris and the young woman up after me in the church told me that everybody was smiling as they left. Today we're going to hit the street (there's only one in Wakefield) advertising to see if we can't bring in a few more people for the Sunday show. Also, we're going to teach a class on devising theater based on family histories.

Oh, and when I asked if anybody had ever heard of the Hoopa Tribe during the play, about three people raised their hands. So right on, Hoopas.

Our venue.

Labapalooza!

St. Ann’s Warehouse’s Labapalooza! puppet theatre is off to a touch-and-go start – but that’s as it should be with works in progress. Program A, which played last night, indicates how the puppetry rises or falls.

The high point was Adam Schechter’s Event Erasers, a mesmerizing live animation piece. Using two monitors, a projector and projection screen, and an assortment of objects to silhouette, Schechter and his collaborator Alan Calpe created a dreamy montage of sunrises and moonrises, the Manhattan Bridge and driving in the rain. When the images weren’t yet up on the big screen, watching Schechter and Calpe manipulate the small screens was a show in itself. The effect was, however, audio as well as visual. Without the ambient background music, the main event wouldn’t have had the same magic.

The low point was Elizabeth Ostler’s The Yellow Wallpaper. A puppetry adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s book of the same name, The Yellow Wallpaper tried to create a narrative about a summer-long shut-in. This attempt precluded created an atmosphere that would emanate, in part, from the puppets. Not that Ostler and her collaborators’ show needed to create pure atmosphere like Schechter’s – they could have gone for laughs like the final show, Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith’s Mental Hygiene. The audience wanted to laugh at first – the overbearing husband seeking to cure his depressed wife with the rest cure could have been a one-sided comic figure. But Ostler opted instead for seriousness. A somber atmospheric piece could have worked, as could have a light narrative piece, but a somber narrative piece about being bed-ridden all summer doesn’t.

So what did I, the non-puppeteer, learn? That in a puppet show the focus has to be so clearly on the figures that everything else melts into the background. Event Erasers did that – the piece was entirely about manipulating objects on a stage. Yellow Wallpaper didn’t because the attempt at a narrative clouded the focus on the material objects dancing before us.

Program B premieres this evening, June 1^st, at 8PM. Both programs play on Saturday and close on Sunday. Tickets are available at http://stannswarehouse.org/ or at the door.

I Am A Tree

Dulcy Rogers’ “unstable new comedy,” I Am A Tree, opened this week at the Theatre at St. Clements. A polished one-woman show about confronting a family history of mental illness, I Am A Tree is a recent transplant from Los Angeles. The practice shows – everything is deliberate and well-rehearsed, from the formulaic script to Rogers’ fluidity changing between distinct characters.

Dramaturgically, I Am A Tree is a fairy-tale: the protagonist visits three wise old women who help her on her quest before finally confronting the object of that quest. That object brings it out of the realm of Grimm or Andersen and into the realm of today: confronting a family history of mental illness.

It played well, for me, until the end. Once I’d figured out the formula, I knew what was going to happen next and how it was going to end. The mystery gone, my thoughts started to drift. I noticed Rogers’ performing tick (every actor has one – mine’s playing with my jean pockets, hers is shifting weight from foot to foot.), and before long I was hypnotized and ready to go home.

Intriguing until you figure out how it’s going to end,  I Am A Tree is worth a look if you’re interested in one-person shows or storytelling, but if not, your forty bucks would probably be better spent elsewhere.

I Am A Tree is playing at the Theatre at St. Clements until June 30^th.