`BORDER PEOPLE' COMES TO SPACE, SOUTH VALLEY
A combination of friendships and synchronicity has led to an exciting Ukiah theatrical event.
SPACE (Near and Arnold's School of Performing Arts and Cultural Education) and South Valley High School are teaming up to bring award-winning artist, writer, actor and performer Dan Hoyle to Ukiah for a solo show on Feb. 26 at the SPACE Theatre.
Hoyle will be performing sections of “Border People,” a oneman show based on his actual conversations with immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and border-crossers. One performance will take place specifically for South Valley students as part of an ongoing collaboration between SPACE and South Valley. The public performance will occur on the 26th at 7 p.m. Hoyle and South Valley High School principal Kita Grinberg have a long friendship.
“As kids, we lived a few blocks away from each other. We went to preschool, grade school and high school together,” smiles Grinberg. And if that isn't enough Mendo-specific connections, it turns out that Reid Edelman, Mendocino College's Theater Director was their high school drama instructor when they attended high school in San Francisco.
But there's more. Laurel Near's nephew, Lucas Near-verbrugghe, Grinbert and Hoyle attended the same high school. The friends and colleagues have known each other for years. Hoyle and Verbrugghe have been teaching a summer course at Mendocino College for several years.
Near regularly travelled to the Bay Area to see Verbrugghe in high school theater performances. “I remember I'd see this guy `Reid' directing. Then one day Reid called me. He knew I lived up here and asked me what I thought about him taking a job at Mendocino College,” Near smiles. The rest is history.
For several years, Near has been trying to bring Hoyle's work to Ukiah. Suddenly, it all came together.
“SPACE has been in collaboration with South Valley's Big Picture program for the past three years,” says Near. Students receive an immersion into all things theater, including an introductory course in Performing Arts taught by Amanda Rosenburg-gutierrez, an introduction to theater, lights, tech and exposure to local and regional artists. “We realized that the whole school could see Dan's show and we could then offer it to the public. We invited Reid to ask his students to help publicize the event,” she continues.
South Valley's Big Picture program was rolled out eight years ago. “It's a way for students to discover their interests, passions and goals,” says Grinberg. “We like to show the students many things in the community including everything SPACE has to offer. Students have learned stage makeup, dance, music and been exposed to a lot of different aspects of performing arts. When Laurel mentioned Dan, I immediately knew this would be amazing.” Grinberg and Hoyle have remained loosely in contact through the years.
“Whenever Dan would be performing, I'd make sure to catch his show and then we'd have dinner. It's been great to see him on stage after knowing him as a child. His work is so moving. He has so much talent, combined
with a profound message, artistry and thought provocation. When Dan and I have chatted, I've always thought how great it would be for my students to come to one of his shows.”
Hoyle is lauded as an incredible journalist and performer. His work has been hailed by the New York Times as “riveting, funny and poignant” and as “hilarious, moving and very necessary” by Salon magazine. He has toured throughout the US and also in India, Ireland, Wales and Nigeria. “We are honored to have someone of Dan's history, performance and reviews to be here with us in our beautiful theater,” Near notes.
Hoyle is a master of Journalistic Theater- a technique that merges real life with art.
“I was always interested in creating theater that reflects the complexity and surprise of real people that I met,” says Hoyle. While attending Northwestern University in Chicago, Hoyle began to feel somewhat removed from the grit and excitement of city life. “Cities are big, diverse, funky places, which I love,” he continues.
He also felt little alienated from his 19-year-old theatrical counterparts that were working on plays that seemed detached from reality.
“Not knowing where I was going, I started taking the `L' and would get off at a random stop and start talking to people.” He learned that there was actually a branch of performance that teaches this technique.
“I started creating a process, ethics and a way of doing this work that wasn't just a random 20-year-old going around and talking to people. I've now been doing this for 20 years,” he smiles. Journalistic Theater has taken Hoyle to Nigeria where he studied oil politics. He's been a Fulbright Scholar and studied people living in rural America.
Hoyle was an artist in residence at Columbia University when asked to create a new show. “I didn't know what to write about, but Trump had recently been elected and I wanted to respond to that seismic cultural shift. I was Interested in meeting people who didn't fit in- who lived beyond societal boxes, which is the larger metaphor when talking about borders.”
Hoyle headed to Canada, where he met worried, fleeing refugees- concerned about their asylum status. “I was living in South Bronx courtyards, and my neighbors told me, `You're crossing into a border that most American's don't go into.' He interviewed them. Then he traveled to the Southern border- “the one that people always think about.”
The play consists of ten monologues, featuring the words of people Hoyle metthose who live on or across borders- both geographic and cultural, providing an intimate, raw, poignant and even funny look at the borders everyone negotiates in everyday life. Hoyle describes the performances as portraitures of those “who cross borders, geographical or cultural, by necessity or choice. I realized that we are actually always crossing cultural or unseen borders. We are all migrating, all the time.”
He recounts the story of the still-slightly-drunkafter-prom Afghan kid he met who was fleeing to Canada to be with his sisters and mother. “He still has his prom haircut, which was contrasted by his story about visiting his home village and getting shot at by the Taliban.” He interviewed a Border Patrol officer. “He initially stopped me. It turned out he was interested in becoming a stand-up comic, so he was very curious about the theater world,” Hoyle smiled.
The show opened in San Francisco in 2019, and then had a run in New York City. Following the pandemic, Hoyle began reviving it. “The material is so relevant. The issues that the play highlights are possibly even more relevant today, depending on what happens in November. I like sharing these stories,” Hoyle stresses.
“They depict very human, very personal sociopolitical forces and how they impact individual people.” He continues, noting that many of the stories are funny, while possessing a sense of irony and ownership. “People know they are a part of these larger issues, and the stories speak of resilience- finding a way through these huge, tectonic forces.”
The SPACE production will feature a selection of Hoyle's monologues, along with a talk about the process Hoyle used to create the show. “The huge daily headlines get shattered by these stories and the context of all of us just trying to figure each other out. It's like a theatrical chess game.”
Hoyle emphasizes he approaches interviewees with curiosity, respect and openmindedness. “Most people go through life not being very understood, which is frustrating. What I tell students is not to be extractive or exploitative. I'm trying to give people an opportunity to be understood.”
He stresses it's an honor and responsibility to recreate these stories for audiences. “The challenge is to make them as funny, surprising and harrowing as they were when I first heard them.”
He's had the uncanny experience of finding several of his interviewees in an audience. “It was really amazing and powerful. One guy came six times in the five-week run, bringing his entire family. Another guy sat in the front row. At a certain point, I saw his jaw drop and head tilt. During the curtain call, he stepped forward and gave me a big hug, and said, `You nailed it, man.'”
This summer, Hoyle and Verbrugghe will be teaching a class on Journalistic Theater at Mendocino College.
“I'll be teaching my process of going out and listening to people's stories and creating theatre based on those conversations.” The theme will revolve around Mendocino County stories, with details to follow. The process will be continued in Fall and Spring with follow-up classes, culminating in a Spring Theater production. “Lucas, Reid and I are really excited about this type of work.”
Hoyle has one other connection to Mendo. “Geoff Hoyle- my dad- was one of the clowns in the Pickle Family Circus,” he grins.
Tickets for the evening performance at SPACE Theater are available at https:// www.spaceperformingarts. org. For more information visit (707) 462-9730.