Street Roots • Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2016
TEATRO, from page 10
Who has agency to really interpret those?
I don’t feel comfortable navigating those
territories; I’m not a political playwright, so
when I entered the room with the cast, I
told them we need to think from the start
about these big myths around
homelessness. We brought people in to talk
to us about these myths and we needed to
shape these characters to encapsulate these
myths and debunk them at the same time.
The characters are abstractions that
represent mental illness, dementia, drug
addiction, abuse and isolation and yet they
each have their own story to debunk that
myth.
No, the drug addict was not always a drug
addict. It isn’t that he doesn’t want a way
out There is an invitation to hear these
fictionalized stories that are based on, not
reality, but on huge misconceptions that we
(housed people) have.
I urged my actors to separate their mind
from representing a “real” character, per se.
This is very hard for actors, they want to
play the honesty. But once I got them past
the idea of each of them as a real character
and we went into the “Tim Burton Land”
(chuckles) as far as, like, exaggeration.
There is an amplification through the
simplification that happens. Once you
amplify it, the message becomes very
simple.
S.Z.: There was definitely an ethereal feeling
to the play. It is reminiscent, as I understand
it, of El Dia de los Muertos, where this “veil”
is lifted and for a few hours, the living and the
dead can, metaphorically, see through from
one side of life or death to the other. Will you
talk a bit about the visual imagery in the play
of the skeletons La Catrina and El Catrin?
G.E.: In knowing that the expectation of
the audiences here is that you are going to
go to a Day of the Dead show, you have to
see “la muerta.” You have to be able to
recognize theatrically that death is present.
I didn’t want to put all of the olvidados in
typical calavera (skull) makeup because I
felt that would take away from these
abstractions that I was trying to achieve.
n^nle’s
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Page 11
play that is not mine. I think that requires a
In looking at all of the iconography and
very different set of skills.
growing up in Mexico, La Catrina/El Catrin
Yes, there are not a lot of Latina
have a very specific political creation. They
directors, just from what I know as being a
were created specifically by (José
part of the LTC. We have some really strong
Guadalupe) Posada to mock the class
system. To basically say to the rich: “You are (Latina directors) like Lisa Portes. She was
just awarded the 2016 Zelda Fichandler
going to die as well. Yes, right now, you may
Award which recognizes an outstanding
be wearing these beautiful silks and you
think they are worth something, but you will director. She is the head of the directing
take those to your death same as the beggar school at DePaul University.
I jumped into directing because I was
on the street.”
It was important for me to give that a nod like, “If I want to see my own work done,
then I have to do it” I
and say, “I see you.
think that attitude is
You are not just a
kind of common. So
beautiful, hatted icon.
you see more of this
I know who you are
"He was obviously homeless,
hybrid popping up in
and why you are
but he looked like Santa Claus the Latina theatrical
here.” That is why,
community, especially
with the character of — a jolly, chubby male with a
now.
La Catrina, or
big, white beard and 1 didn't
Anastasia, I was very understand. Bid he choose
S.Z.: Why now?
specific with (that
this? Is he crazy? So I decided
actress) about being
to sit down with him and have
G.E.: At least
this woman who
coming from New
lunch with him and hear his
suffers from denial
York, the director role
and dementia that the stories. After that, I was like:
is disappearing a bit.
whole time she thinks Oh, it's people. Everybody has
Or at least it is
that she is rich and
a different story."
allowing itself to
that she doesn’t
breathe, morph in a
belong there and that
different way. It’s one
her family is coming
of the oldest roles
to pick her up.
that have been untouched by current trends
To make her then embody La Catrina
in the form and the necessity - the need of
and to transform El Vagabundo, the Tramp,
the audience. The true form of directorship
into El Catrin was a nod to Posada. This is
is shifting, which is really exciting.
my version of Posada’s print in 2016 in
If it would have stayed at the white
Portland, Oregon.
straight male level, than we would never get
anything new.
S.Z.: I’ve heard you speak about your
connection to the Latina/o Theater Commons,
or LTC, a movement that takes a commons
based appràach toward American theater.
There aren’t many women directors in theater
in general, and even fewer Latina directors,
can you speak to your experience as either or
both?
G.E.: I don’t consider myself a director. I
am new in that way. I do devise theater,
which is quite different in that it’s a strong
writer-in-the-room directing a body of actors
towards the enacting of a script.
I don’t have any experience in directing a
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S.Z.: Previous to writing and directing El
Muerto Vagabundo, what was your experience
with homelessness?
G.E.: Really just what I see in New York
City. In the other cities I have lived in, it
wasn’t that apparent Of course, it was
there, but I don’t recall ever really coming
face-to-face with homelessness until New
York. Homelessness is abundant there.
My very first experience was when I was
in San Diego, I had my first job and there
was a man across the street who would sit
and have lunch and he had his bike and all
of his stuff. He was obviously homeless, but
he looked like Santa Claus - a jolly, chubby
male with a big, white beard and I didn’t
understand. Did he choose this? Is he crazy?
So I decided to sit down with him and
have lunch with him and hear his stories.
After that, I was like: Oh, it’s people.
Everybody has a different story.
You talk to the homeless in New York and
the only thing they are thinking about is, “I
can’t fall asleep because I am going to be
robbed.” The homeless in NYC are not as
tribal as you see here in Portland where
people (on the street) will protect each
other a bit more.
In New York it is not like that. People are
really sleep deprived and have gone nuts.
They don’t want to go to sleep because they
will get robbed by other homeless.
So there is this level of stress, and you
start to see that “craziness” show up and
you realize that it is stress. It has nothing to
do with drug use, this is a tremendous
amount of stress that just makes the brain
shut off.
My experience with people experiencing
homelessness is not being afraid to start
conversations. We, as a society, hold this
fear of the homeless. I want to know how to
help.
S.Z.: Was there a takeaway from the
experience of creating and putting on this
production that stands out to you most?
G.E.: The rehearsal room can be a
sanctuary for many. We did have two actors
who have had direct experience with
homelessness, one of them just recently.
One actor was sent to audition from a
homeless shelter. And then there he was in
our cast and at our theater. And that was
sanctuary. That was the place that led him
to gather himself and get a job and find a
place to stay.
I think the theater, maybe like the
streets, brings people together that would
have not otherwise crossed paths and it put
us in a very vulnerable position. I think we
(the cast and crew of “El Muerto
Vagabundo”) will all remain friends and that
is really powerful.
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