Street roots., October 07, 2016, Page 7, Image 7

Street Roots • Oct. 7-13, 2016
DIALOGUE, from page 5
perhaps resulting in their deaths.
“One opportunity of prison is that it’s a
time out,” Stallings said.
Scott Strickland, 60, said he needed to put
the brakes on his life. He joined Stalling’s
group one month after he arrived at Two
Rivers, in October 2010. He said it was the
first time he had ever talked about his
childhood, which he described as traumatic,
or the way his life spiraled out of control due
to undiagnosed depression, he said.
The mood problems he experienced,
which he could not explain before, made
him “develop this protective coating” around
himself. Lying and deceiving those around
him became normal.
“It was so icky,” Strickland said.
He said that he’s learned how to be
vulnerable and honest with himself, together
with “a good'bunch of people repairing
themselves.”
tallings found his way to Oregon’s
prisons by happenstance.
He was living in a small cabin near
Antelope, Ore., in the early 2000s, spending
time “feeding the birds, drinking coffee and
eating cookies” while he deepened his
meditation practice, a practice he began
while living and traveling throughout India
during his 20s.
“I was on the full-tilt spiritual quest kind
of thing,” he said.
College had not suited him. He dropped
out after half a year and never finished. Of
his time in India, Stallings said, “it set a
S
trajectory, maybe.”
This was an understatement His
backpack has been filled with books on
spirituality and philosophy ever since.
In 2004, the state announced that a new
prison, Deer Ridge Correctional Institution,
would be built east of Madras. A Jefferson
County commissioner organized a tour of
Two Rivers for people interested in learning
what Deer Ridge would
be like.
Stallings was
curious, so he
went He
later asked
prison
officials if
he could
perform a
News
solo version he wrote of William
“They work harder than some of the
Shakespeare’s “King Lear” for the inmates.
professional casts that I have had,” Walsh
He gave a second performance, then
said. “They are heavily invested in it.”
returned the following year to perform his
Actors not only memorize lines when
one-man version of “Hamlet.”
they learn a role; they assume the persona
After each performance, he invited the
of their character and must figure out how
prisoners to discuss the performance. Their
that person thinks and feels and why they
questions and comments inspired him to
speak the words in the script and react as
start the dialogue group at Two Rivers in
they do.
2006. Shortly after, Stallings moved to
‘You find yourself relating to the themes
Portland. He made the six-
of the play, different
hour round trip to Two
situations of how people
Rivers, along Interstate 84,
"They work harder really are,” Hutchinson said.
every week. He formed Open than some of the
He said he recognizes parts of
Hearts Open Minds in 2007
himself in a character and
professional casts
and has since attracted
thinks, “I’ve done things like
dozens of volunteers, such as that X have had.
that I don’t like what he’s
Crandall, Spencer and Patrick They are heavily
doing.”
Walsh, who help facilitate the invested in it/*
It might be strange to
dialogue groups and the
PATRICK WALSH, imagine prisoners, with big
theater programs. The
THEATER DIRECTOR AND muscles and tattoos and
OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS
organization now runs similar
VOLUNTEER tough-guy struts, playing
groups at Portland’s Columbia
women, crying on stage, or
River Correctional Institution
expressing the anguish of a
and Wilsonville’s Coffee Creek Correctional
parent who has lost a child. But many of the
Facility, which also has a theater program.
inmates relish taking on complicated roles
Since they started the plays in 2010, the
or women’s roles.
Two Rivers inmates have performed
“Hamlet,” “A Winter’s Tale” and other
Shakespeare plays.
here are funny moments in
This year’s performance of
“Metamorphoses,” but much of the play
“Metamorphoses” was the first time
is heartbreaking: characters die, are
Stallings did not direct the play. Crandall
punished by the gods, lose loved ones.
and Spencer alternate the weeks they drive
One of the final scenes tells the story of
to Umatilla to direct rehearsals. Walsh, a
Eros, the god of love, and Psyche, a mortal.
professional theater director, joins one of
They fall passionately in love with each
them most weeks.
other, and Psyche goes to Eros’ palace to
It was also the first time the inmates
live with him. But she does not know what
picked the play. Previously, Stallings had
he looks like; Psyche cannot know that he is
always chosen the play and the play had
a god. Her jealous sisters tell her that he is
always been Shakespeare.
a monster.
The inmates selected “Metamorphoses”
Psyche, played by Strickland, sneaks into
after reading a dozen plays, including
the palace while Eros, played by Tim
Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who
Hinkhouse, is asleep in the middle of the
Have Considered Suicide,” Shakespeare’s
stage to see what he really looks like. The
“Measure for Measure” and Sam Shepard’s
story is told in a question and answer
“Curse of the Starving Class.”
format, with Hutchinson playing the
Over six months, the actors gathered
questioner and Josh Friar
once a week for three-hour rehearsals.
answering his questions.
Outside of rehearsal, they found time to
“She doesn’t trust what
practice lines and act out scenes with one
she has felt herself?1
another.
Hutchinson asked,
watching Psyche
T
Page 7
approach Eros.
“Not with the radical trust we need,”
Friar responded.
The gods punish Psyche, subjecting her
to labor, such as picking up thousands of
tiny seeds. But then the gods put a stop to it
and make Psyche immortal. The marriage
between Eros, or Cupid, and Psyche lasts
forever.
“So it has a happy ending?” the
questioner asked.
“It has a very happy ending,” the
answerer responded.
“Almost none of these stories have
completely happy endings.”
“This is different”
“Why is that?” '
“It’s just inevitable. The soul wanders in
the dark until it finds love. And so, wherever
our love goes, there we find our soul.”
The play culminates in the final act, when
Baucis and Philemon, an elderly couple who,
out of their entire village, are the only ones
to treat a disguised Zeus and Hermes with
the respect wanderers and guests deserve,
are turned into trees so that their love lasts
forever.
All the actors gathered on stage and sing
a song authored by Casey Wood, the inmate
who played Narcissus. Their deep voices fill
the visiting room:
Let me die the moment my love dies
Let me embrace my fate and join their ascent
to the skies
Let me not stick around to cry
Let me die still loving, and so never die.
Stallings is an emotional person.
Whenever he “sees someone who never had
anything get something,” he inevitably
begins crying.
As the inmates sing, tears drip down his
face.
After the actors playing Baucis and
Philemon sing two solo lines, all the actors
repeated the chorus.
As they sing the final lines,
many of them look
straight at Stallings.
PHOTO BY AMANDA WALÒROUPL
Scott Strickland plays Psyche and Tim Hinkhouse plays Eros, or Cupid, in the Two Rivers Correctional Institution production of “Metamorphoses.