4/20
PAGE 8 • GO! MAGAZINE
Thursday, april 15, 2021 • ThE BullETiN
Area performers, artists dish
on cannabis and creativity
BY DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin
A
rea writers and performing artists who use cannabis as a shortcut to creativity say it can be a tremendous help — with caution and
experience using it, that is. Stephanie Von Aydan, the Bend playwright behind last fall’s “Evanescent,” staged at Cascades Theatrical
Company in Bend, suffers from anxiety and complex post-traumatic stress disorder and sometimes struggles to focus on one task at a
time. She finds that cannabis helps when she’s writing.
“When I’m at home, I’ll use it when I
need to study up on something, when I
need my creative juices. It kind of takes
away the block that my anxiety creates,”
Von Aydan said. “I have a severe case of
complex PTSD, and I get a lot of blocks,
and it’s really hard for me to be able to
get into those creative moments — un-
less I can create something that takes
that block away.”
Von Aydan, 32, who began using
marijuana therapeutically in her late
teens, said she began writing after sep-
arating from her spouse and moving to
Central Oregon in 2014. She found that
marijuana helped in that capacity, too.
Upon separating from her spouse
and moving to Central Oregon in 2014,
Von Aydan began writing. She found
that “When I had the space and time to
really grow into the human that I per-
sonally was, I was already using, and
it really helped me get creative when I
needed to,” she said.
Von Aydan said that when she was
writing “Evanescent,” cannabis “helped
me go a little overboard,” she said. “I
think I just wanted to write this super
complex story, and because I was able
to lose myself in my mind, I was able to
do that.”
The playwright also writes short sto-
ries in which, she said, “I tend to make
puzzles, so I write pieces and portions
of the story, and then I piece them to-
gether later. So I write sporadically.
That’s how my brain works. When I’m
using it helps me concentrate for a sto-
ryline.”
Also a musical theater performer
who’s starred in local shows such as
2017’s “Disenchanted!” Von Aydan has
used cannabis to calm jitters before
stepping on stage.
“I really know my limits. I really
know the things that I need to be care-
ful with, and how much,” she said. “So
for somebody like me where you have
such a high tolerance, and you’re used
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Stephanie Von Aydan sits by a mural she painted in her Bend home during the COVID-19
pandemic last year.
to it and you know how to use it prop-
erly, it can definitely enhance.”
She urges against using cannabis to
calm your nerves if you’re not experi-
enced with it.
“If you don’t know what you’re do-
ing, if you’re new to using, just stay
away from it,” Von Aydan said.
Those would have been wise words
for Central Oregon stage performer
and director Scott Schultz to have
heeded before he stepped on stage in
“Working,” a 2013 musical produced
at the erstwhile 2nd Street Theater in
Bend.
Alas, it was marijuana he was of-
fered, not helpful advice.
“Ironically, I was playing an angry
stoner, and I was really new to all the
weed stuff,” Schultz said. Prior to a per-
formance, “Someone was like, ‘Here, do
you want to take a dab?’ And I was like,
‘What is that?’ (A dab is a highly con-
centrated form of THC, the psychoac-
tive compound resulting in the feeling
of being high.)
“They were like, ‘Here’s a little one,’”
Schultz recalled. “I was SO high that
when it came to my monologue, half-
way through, like I was going through
it no issue, and then it was just gone.”
He took a big drag on the joint he
was using as a prop, as nothing but the
F word came to mind.
“I’m going, ‘F---, say something, say
something, say something!’ and then I
found the last paragraph, so I skipped
over half of that,” Schultz said, laugh-
ing.
Echoing Von Aydan, Schultz said,
“Know thyself.”
“Experiment in the privacy of your
own home. Definitely on your own
time and not in a public place because
if you don’t know yourself well enough,
you don’t want people to find out if it
just doesn’t go well.”
Bend comedian Jake Woodmansee
says that when it comes to writing, pot
is more help than a hindrance.
“It really helps slow me down. I’m a
chronic multitasker, not always effec-
tively,” he said. “My mind’s usually sev-
eral different places, so it helps me just
sit down and write the task at hand.
His frequent writing process involves
sending himself joke ideas that occur
during his workday, “And then when
I get the chance to sit and write, you
know, toke up, and then just write it
up.”
He’s a nighttime pot smoker, he said,
and has used the drug to enhance his
on-stage time, although never during
family-friendly shows.
“I have found it really helps my ca-
dence. I have a tendency to talk too
fast, so it actually really helps slow me
down,” Woodmansee said.
The comic said he hasn’t experi-
enced any trouble on par with Schul-
tz’s monologue mishap when going on
stage high.
“I’ve been doing stand-up long
enough I really don’t blank,” he said.
“If anything, I might tell a story that I
haven’t trimmed the fat off. … Like, I’ll
be talking about family dynamics or
something (and) spend way too much
time describing the meal that we were
eating.”
Though Bend comedian and com-
edy promoter Katy Ipock does not use
marijuana herself, she is sympathetic
to performers who do, whether it’s on
stage, off or both.
“I absolutely see the benefit,” she
said. “I support performers that find a
benefit for both their writing and their
performance, as long as everyone is
partaking responsibly and not risking
the venue’s OLCC license. Honestly,
I wish the rules would loosen a bit so
performers could more freely fuel their
creativity in a performance space.”
e e
David Jasper: 541-383-0349,
djasper@bendbulletin.com