What Memories Are Important?
By Brian Moore
The original intent of my thesis was to write a play that used only historic documents and interviews as text, such as the transcribed and recorded interviews conducted by Studs Terkel for his book Hard Times. Since I proposed that idea my thesis proposal has morphed a bit, or grown. My intention is to still us historic material to create a play, but the material I am now working with is not words captured on paper or on the tape recorder, I am working with flesh. My cast is made up of 7 – 10 senior citizens who have survived the Great American Depression. They come from all over the country and have one way or another ended up at Timber Ridge Assisted Living Center in Eureka, California.
In my original proposal I mentioned that I wanted to use a more mature cast. When I imagined this I saw three to five actors in their late sixties. I thought that using older actors would add more gravity and authenticity to the characters we would bring to life. They would be older but I never imagined them to be so old that they would have lived through the Depression! Maybe they would remember stories their parents told them, a sort of survivor once removed. These actors would be able to move about on stage, stand on set pieces, memorize lines, and put on the mask of the character.
The cast I have found, chosen, and am determined to work with is not the one I imagined. The majority of them are well over ninety. Some have Alzheimer’s, most have trouble getting around without a walker or a wheel chair, they all have trouble seeing and hearing, they have been living together for years but can’t remember each others name, and some don’t know where they are all the time.
Unfortunately, along with their myriad of problems, ailments, and disorders they also have everything I would ever want in a cast for this show. They show up to rehearsals three days a week eager to work with my partner Liza and I. They jump into exercises with commitment and laugh hard and often when they can’t remember what I told them twenty seconds before. Though they might not remember what day of the week it is they remember the Depression viscerally; I couldn’t get that from a recording. They are eager to share their stories with me and with each other.
When we share stories the memory of one participant often brings someone else’s lost memories to the surface. There is a drama that you see occur in the body when something lost is remembered. You can see the memory travel up the spine taking the storyteller by surprise when it reaches her lips. The other day we were talking about the tastes they remember from the Depression. We were going around the room when suddenly I saw the tiny frame of 89 year-old Helen shudder violently. Her face twisted into a terrifying mask, and I was afraid she was having a stroke. She opened her mouth spat and said “Rutabaga! I remember the taste of rutabaga! For weeks and weeks that is all we had to eat. I’ll never ever eat one again. Even today.” When she finished she sat back and smiled, happy to know that memory is still there.
The power and the fragility of memory is what surprises me every time I work with the cast. For some the past and the present slide into each other. Tom Morgan talked to us the other day about hobo-ing around the country when he suddenly realized everyone he ever knew was dead. He was sitting forward on his chair caught up in his story. The revelation doubled him over at the gut, sunk him back in his chair and brought tears to his eyes. The man is 99 years old and the best times of his life were cutting hair in Arcata.
Some others can’t let go of the past and carry it with them everyday. Lori, a nurse at the center, approached us as we were leaving one Thursday. She told us about her father, and how he lived on an Indian reservation during the Depression. She recorded some of his stories before he died two year ago of leukemia. She asked us if his stories might be something useful to the play. When we said yes she began to cry, explaining to us how much it would mean to her if he lived on in that way.
What memories are important? Right now we are headed into hard times, and these might be worse than the last. Talking to members of my generation, and interviewing students at nearby Humboldt State, I have found that almost all the information we have received about those times is from the media. Here I have the direct sources, and they won’t be around for long. I have the chance to ask them how they did it, and they have the chance to tell us what they think will be important for us to remember. History has come to the present to speak to the future.
Photo of Brian Moore by Jen LaMastra.
Photo of 96 year-0ld cast member Ann Cusamano by Brian Moore.
Copyright Dell'Arte International 2008
PO Box 816, Blue Lake CA 95525
(707) 668-5663
www.dellarte.com
PO Box 816, Blue Lake CA 95525
(707) 668-5663
www.dellarte.com
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