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| Randy Reinholz as Reverend Hawk |
By Joe Straw
“Now faith is the substance of thing hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.” - Hebrews – 11.1 King James
Bible
They’ve got this fracking thing down to a science. It’s an interesting way of getting gas out of
the earth. And if the Chinese want the patented
technology you know it must be worth something.
But there’s this thing about fracking. It poisons well water, and does a number of
other unmentionable things, like earthquakes.
And by the time they’ve extracted the gas, oil, etc. they’ve moved on to
another place to extract, disturbing another set of unsuspecting people,
polluting, and destroying other communities.
“No it doesn’t.” – Oil companies.
“Yes it does.” – Environmentalists.
The Bird House takes place in Ropesville, Texas and if you
go to the Google map of Ropesville, TX, population 434, you’ll see a town that
looks like something from Peter Bagdonivich’s “The Last Picture Show” where
there is nothing but vast stretches of dirt, sand, and sage covering the few
asphalt roads along with two churches and a Nazarene Parsonage. If you place
yourself, in the sandy road, and look out into the horizon, you can believe that
life has many choices.
Native Voices at The Autry, America’s Leading Native American
Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of The Bird House by Diane Glancy
and directed by Robert Caisley. It is a enjoyable
perspective of a people living a simple life with things changing too fast all
around them.
Jonathan Logan or Reverend Hawk (Randy Reinholz) is an
evangelical preacher who has got the callin’ but the callin’ just ain’t got
him.
The parishioners have left in droves, mostly moving to
places where there are jobs. Now sitting in the pews are his half sister, Majel
(Carla-Rae) his full sister Clovis (Ellen Dostal) and one other craggily
parishioner Rope/RoyTrabing (Robert Owens-Greygrass). Not much to collect from
the collection plate - if one was even passed around.
And as the Reverend Hawk walks in his church he notices a
man sitting in his pew. Looking vaguely
familiar, and just like his father. Justin Lawrence (Tyler Cook) is there, head
down, paying a little more than a social call.
Lawrence, tall and imposing, doesn’t like the way things are
going on in this church. The board has
sent him down to access the church’s current situation. (Code for we are going
to figure out what you’re doing wrong
and make it right and if it’s you
that needs righting, then so be it.)
Reverend Hawk says life has been a little bleak since his
wife died. The economy is destroying the community and Majel has decided to
stay on and help around the church.
Lawrence has sympathies for the death of Reverend Hawk’s wife
but suggests cutting anywhere he can cut, including letting his sister go, but Hawk
says she’s not that expensive and she’s doing all the things his wife use to
do. Lawrence tells him they are thinking
of selling the parsonage.
Hawk, keeping the faith, knows that things will turn around
soon enough and he implores Lawrence to look at it from his perspective. Lawrence,
trying to find a way, says he’ll be back with some answers to the church’s problems.
One more problem to add to Hawk’s difficulties is that
Clovis has been thrown out of her daughter’s house and Clovis decides to move
into the church because she has nowhere else to go. This is one more expense the church doesn’t
need but they take her in, or she forces her way in. With church folk, it is hard to determine.
“My daughter won’t talk to me. I
can’t go back.” – Clovis
They make her a place in the corner somewhere in the church
but she has got major health issues.
Rope/Roy Trabing (Robert Owens-Greygrass) and Majel along
with Clovis sit out in lawn chairs at night watching the kids camping out in
tents. Majel speaks quietly about her first marriage and her one-day honeymoon
before her newlywed husband disappears and was possibly eaten by a bear. Rope
follows Majel around as though a rope tied him to her. He wants her but she is
still disillusion by her first marriage.
Their discourse is interrupted by the sounds of oil tankers
going by which they decide they are going to protest at a meeting and they
enlist Hawk to join the protest.
“Don’t frack with Texas.” – reads one sign.
But Hawk wants nothing to do with the protest.
Later Clovis has a stroke and loses the ability of speech. And
although no one understands her she is able to communicate clearly in her own
mind.
Randy Reinholz as
Jonathan Logan or Reverend Hawk has a strong voice and he is able to use it to
emphasize The Book of Job. (An
interesting note: Job is described as being shallow and foolish, and a man
grateful on a superficial level, creating an opening for trouble to enter his
life.) Why would a character trying to save his church invoke the name of Job? The action of Hawk doesn’t do anything to
save the church. If fact, he is a man
torn with frustration not knowing what he needs to do. He kneels in the balcony
and prays but won’t lift a finger to demonstrate against the oil companies who
are fracking his town into ruin. The weight
of his sermons carries little convictions and do not stir the emotions of his
congregation or himself. He has the
opportunity to go out into the community but he has lost the faith to carry on.
(As an aside Reinholz has an action on stage involving a pillow that cause an
audience member to gasp, loudly. And I’ll have to admit I felt the same thing, for
the same reason, without the gasp.)
Tyler Cook plays
Justin Lawrence. He is tall and majestic
with a slight air of arrogance. He knows
he’s there to shut the place down so why beat around the bush. Shut it down for the love of God and while you
are at it take copious notes. (Physical and mental.) There is nothing more
sinister than a Texan taking more land away from a Native American for the sake
of big oil. Nevertheless, it was a job
well done.
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| L - R Carla-Rae (Majel) and Ellen Dostal (Clovis) |
Carla-Rae plays
Majel and has a very interesting look. Although
it’s not really clear what she wanted. A
home perhaps or to take care of her siblings.
She isn’t interested in the man courting her; maybe she believes that it
will lead to a relationship that has no future. She loses a lot to get what she
wants, the problem is: we are not really
sure what she wants. She complains about
being a half-sister, but isn’t bothered to change things. Nevertheless, she handles herself well and
does some very nice things on stage.
Ellen Dostal
plays Clovis a relative that has nowhere else to go. So, she invades the house with
the hopes that one of her siblings will take care of her and her health issues.
There is simply nowhere else to rest her weary soul but in this fine church. But,
in this town, she can cross the street and she’s in her daughter’s home. Dostal
does a lot of very lovely things on stage and it’s very hard not to be sympathetic
to her plight.
Robert
Owens-Greygrass does well playing Rope/Roy Trabing a cowboy who is in love
with one of the sisters. He doesn’t have
a future and he knows it. He gets along
the best way he knows how, stealing and other things, but what he does have is
a lot of heart. And he goes after the love of his life with all of his might
despite his many faults. Owens-Greygrass gives us the pictures we so
desperately need when watching characters from this small town trying to
survive the best way they know how.
Jennifer Bobiwash
is an understudy for Mavis and Clovis but did not perform the night I was
there.
Darrell Dennis is
an understudy for Jonathan Logan, Justin Lawrence, and Rope. He opened the show with an introduction and a
prayer and did quite well. But, he did not perform this night.
Robert Caisley,
the director, had enough presence of mind to have an actor hold a pillow in
such a way as to having some member of the audience gasp out loud. And this is
an interesting challenge to connect this action with faith, which I believe is the
core or through line of the play. Simply put, every actor on stage has an
objective, intention, or whatever you want to call a strong motivational force
to move the play along. Faith plays into the core. Also, Caisley needs to find a way to make the
play move seamlessly, finding a way to keep a continuous flow between scene
changes.
Diane Glancy, the
writer, has written a very stimulating play. It’s always fun to come to a World Premier. Glancy writes a story of people living a
simple life and gazing at the stars on lawn chairs watching the kids camping
out in tents. All are taking a moment to observe the simple complexities of
life and trying so hard to find the meaning of it all. The characters are well defined, the
relationships work, and we can all clasp onto a truth here and there. Protecting the environment is one thing I can
latch onto but the core of the play needs tweaking. Something is missing. The book of Hebrews
deals with faith and faith is a good choice that leads characters into a mess
of trouble, but faith without strong action is of little use to anyone. The characters want to help Clovis after her stroke;
they give her a tiny spoon of applesauce.
But are they weak in character to want more for Clovis? Do they have
faith that they can make Clovis better? Or no faith at all? Also, why help the
sick, if you’re not going to pray for the sick.
Praying is an action to make Clovis better. And she does, but only in
her mind, which I find very fascinating.
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
see them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” – Hebrews 11.13
Maybe they saw their dreams beyond the horizon.
Nicely produced by Randy Reinholz.
Other members of the crew are.
Susan Baker Scharpf, Scenic Design
R. Craig Wolf, Lighting Design
E. B. Brooks, Costume Design
Sean Kozma, Sound Design
Shannon Dedman, Prop Design
Tim Davis, Stage Manager
Watson Bradshaw, Technical
Director
Jean Bruce Scott, Dramaturg
INFO:
323.495.4354
This is a limited engagement
running through Sunday March 17, 2:00pm.
Run and take someone who likes the
very simple things in life.
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