AD: How did you arrive at becoming a playwright? When did you know you wanted theatre to be a large part of your life?
MK: I wrote short stories before I ever wrote a play, but had been involved in theater as an actor since I was child. I studied acting fairly seriously in San Francisco in my late teens and early twenties, but when all my friends started moving to L.A. to take their careers to the next level, I realized that was not the life I wanted.
I moved to Northern California and went back to school as a Religious Studies major and put down acting for a while. It was actually motherhood that brought me back to the theater, in a roundabout way. I was taking a few classes at Portland State when my daughters were both very small, one of them an acting class. The professor was the mother of two teenagers, and I think that she felt a kinship with my situation--struggling to reconnect with my art as a young parent. She recommended me for a paid internship with a professional Shakespeare company in town. The experience itself was very challenging. It was great performing again, but really hard to manage 7 shows a week with my other responsibilities. I realized that I could not work at this pace AND parent in the way I wanted to.
I was so lucky to meet Sherry Okamura, who would become my partner in crime, during that show, or I may have chucked the whole artist business until my kids were in college! She convinced me to do more experimental work with groups who would support me as an artist and a mother--or better, we would create our own shows and produce them ourselves.
AD: I know you went to school at Portland State University. Did you have any one professor there that changed the way you looked at theatre and if so, how did it open your eyes to new possibilities?
MK: The most profound work I did at PSU was with Christine Menzies. I had always approached acting from a character driven, psychological perspective. Her approach was opposite, through the body rather than the mind. She taught a vocal and physical method of acting, using exercises inspired by Kristin Linklater, that challenged me in ways I never anticipated. I became really interested in the idea of embodiment--how we inhabit our bodies, why we sometimes don't, and how to find our way back if we find ourselves cut off from our most vital modes of expression.
AD: In 2004, you produced a show called "Pure Gold Baby" that ran at the Milk & Honey Community Studio for a year. Please tell me about the show and the mission this studio has for serving the community.
MK: The studio was my post-graduation project. I saw the need for affordable space in Portland for both artists and nonprofits. I wanted to create a warm and beautiful place where creative work could happen, and this definitely was the case. Many projects were rehearsed and performed in that little space. But the most important function of the space was that it allowed me to commit myself fully to producing my own work.
Sherry Okamura and I produced “Pure Gold Baby” in both 2004 and 2005, at Milk & Honey. “Pure Gold Baby” is very close to my heart, a Heroine's Journey story set in a strip club. The studio was outfitted much like the small, neighborhood strip clubs all over Portland, complete with a brass pole hanging from our 20 ft ceiling. Audience members got to experience the dancers' lives onstage and backstage, often close enough to touch. I was incredibly lucky to work with a talented, beautiful cast of wonderful women and sensitive, grounded men who were committed to bringing the characters to life outside of the stereotypes that so often populate stories about the sex industry.
While the story was not exactly autobiographical, I was able to use my own experiences as a dancer to tell some of the amazing stories of the women I got know in the dressing room. Watching other dancers experience the show was the best part of it--seeing the understanding and emotion on their faces and hearing them crack up at something an audience member outside the industry might not get, was the best!
Also, many of the actors were current or former sex workers who loved the opportunity to both and dance AND talk onstage. I was also able to direct the show the second time we produced it, and I learned that directing is something I really, really love to do! The show itself was either loved by the press or hated, but was very financially successful and audiences loved it every single show.
While the studio project did not last long (nearly two years), due to neighborhood gentrification, I am still so glad I had a room of my own to do such an ambitious and fulfilling project.
AD: I met you in San Francisco last November and we had an interesting conversation about school systems. You mentioned that in Portland they have an alternative type of school called The Free School. Could you explain what this is all about and why as an artist and a parent, it is important for this type of school to exist?
MK: Ok, I have to make a disclaimer--my kids go to the school and I am the chair of their board. They are just such a lovely, idealistic group of people that I found myself more and more enchanted with the place. I think it's one of the most radical and important projects I've ever been involved with.
The Village Freeschool operates by the philosophy that children learn like they breathe, that even young children have the right and ability to choose how they spend their days, and that the value of skateboarding or painting is equal to that of math or science. Most kids take to it like otters in a river--working, playing, dragging their parents out of the house every morning and mad when summer vacation rolls around.
Older kids sometime have to do something we call "de-schooling". They have been so used to being regimented and have not used their agency or explored their real desires for a very long time. These kids might sit around doing what looks like "nothing". They might play computer games all day. They might do this for what feels like a very, very long time to their parents.
My older daughter, who is now 13, spent two solid years playing Dungeons and Dragons, learning to play piano, and crocheting. It was hard to sit with sometimes. She wasn't writing, which she loved. She wasn't really studying anything. Then, just this month, she had a creative explosion: she is studying ecology and zoology, planning to produce a radio show, writing again, and more. This process mirrors the process I see so many artists go through. Unless we felt entitled to our creative lives from the start, we often go through a great mourning period when we finally let ourselves know that this is our true path whether we like it or not. We think about doing art. We avoid it. We do some in fits and starts. We procrastinate. It may look, on the outside, as if we are doing nothing. But that "nothing" is really a very precious SOMETHING.
It is allowing your body to find its rhythm, it's accepting that your path is unique and only you can walk it. It's finding your voice, your passion, your own inner guidance. At the Freeschool, kids are not required to do anything beyond what the community has determined to be good citizenship through the kids' democratic process. They all have access to help and mentorship, but not one is going to *make* them do stuff. Just like no one can make you write a poem, draw a picture or make a dance. Imagine a society where people know how to listen to themselves, take risks, ask for and offer help, are self-directed in pursuing their goals, and create their own lives--that's what I think is possible with a Freeschool education.
AD: Are you working on any productions presently? What can we expect from Michelle Keil this year?
MK: I'm not working on a play right now. I've got one on the back burner, but right now I am working on a fiction project that I'm very excited about. I'm also putting a lot of work into my consulting practice and just got to create and teach a curriculum for sex workers in residential drug treatment. There's been an upsurge in community awareness of the needs of poor sex workers, and I am excited to be working with some very progressive agencies to meet these needs.
Last update : 13-07-2008 20:06
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We need to get back to work
By: Sherry Okamura (Guest) on 03-08-2008 06:42