Chance = Change

Look what those crazy kids are up to ....AGAIN!!

Y'see, we had this BARN!  And it was filled with hay, old plows and, well...don't even mention how it smelled!  But other than that, it stood tall and firm, and if anyone ever had the energy to CLEAN IT OUT...spruce it up a bit...spray some room deodorizer up in all the corners....well...y'know? It could be good for SOMETHING!    That's all I said to 'em...and ...bang! The next thing you know, those darned kids were out there, PUTTIN' ON A SHOW!!!! The dangdest thing! And the whole community showed up...and...man! It was terrific! What those kids did with my old barn....And hey!   Did ya' hear about Yasgur...?....he  had this big old field out on his farm  he wasn't usin', and these long-haired hippies came to him one day back in the '60's....and...well..the darndest thing..."

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Thank goodness for old barns, open fields and enterprising theatre folk with the energies to make it happen, just like they have been making it happen since the first cave guy just had to get up and tell the others about the hunt that day...using campfire as his only lighting instrument.

Last night ,we had dinner with Amelia A. and Frank G., who left Barter Theatre a few years ago to follow a dream Amelia had to start a brand new legitimate  theatre here in Albuquerque, her hometown. Since they started, some three years ago, various artists of their acquaintance, including several from Barter, have come to their side, and this year they managed to squeak out their very first season of plays, in a small renovated space that used to be a filling station!  Hence , its name: The Filling Station...a new space for performing artists to gather....do their work, within walls provided for just that purpose.

(I tell ya: if it ain't one thing, it's another...if it's not a barn, those slippery theatre kids'll find an old gas station!)

Why? Because once you realize you're a "theatre kid", that's it...no matter what , come hell or high taxes, you gotta find a way to do it...and so, you call your best friends together, the ones you trust with your theater life, and you do it...you put on that show...no matter what.  And if enough people come to that first one, maybe a second one is possible, and then another...and then: you've had your first season....and then, before you know it....

Actually, history matters little to theatre people on a mission like that...all they care about (as well they should ) is getting that first show up, then miraculously managing to get to the next show, then the next....all the way into planning full seasons of shows to produce...the legends are born from the sheer persistence of producing season after season after season...but that legend thing is not truly the point at all.

The point is: "There is a space for a stage , right over there in that old barn or filling station....I see myself standing right in the middle of it, lit by some light we found somewhere to point in the right direction, and there in that spot, I can tell people about their lives using words that have so thrilled me, I have to share them with as many people as possible...and I will speak those words to those people! And somehow, all our lives will be better for it. Somehow ,  from somewhere deep within me,  I know I have done something good and right, getting these people to listen to and watch this tale I am telling them...I have served them..(.and myself...let's not forget the importance of pure creative ego here because that pure ego energy is the driving force for it all: not selfishness or greedy neurotic need for building one's own importance, but the sheer belief in one's own power to create something fine for others, and to make it known...that takes an ego strength that is good and healthy and necessary! And is never without the Other: the audience, to complete it. )  Theater is a communal art...we all know that...so these energetic theatre-builders are truly building "community"...and that , my friends, is the point of it all.

So, BRAVO, BRAVO , BRAVO to all who start new theaters...to the magnificent Evelyn Cook and the other Mt.City ,Tennessee folks who took their Heritage Hall (with the help, again, of Barter Theatre) and made it a place for people to gather and see wonderful shows...to the group of community theater artists (like Judy Walsh and Mike Eggers) there who make it happen, another BRAVO...BRAVO to Amelia Ampuero and Frank Green and all who have helped them get The Duke City Rep off the ground here in Albuquerque...to Mary Guaraldi and her hard workers at Canyon Moon Theatre in Sedona, Arizona...BRAVO... whether "pro" or "amateur", whether your actors are Union or not, whether you "salary" your folks or not...BRAVO to you all for planting the seeds for the future...because (as all who read this blog already know): man WILL have his campfire, for the light it gives to better tell the tribe's stories...so you may as well put a barn or a gas station around them, to better keep them from the cold...and to provide a place where the "others" can come with their farm animals and produce and pies and cookies, credit cards, and cash...to gain entrance to the wonder of it all.

Labels: Cross-Country Journey