Your play, Corps Values, deals with a soldier who wants to go AWOL during his service in the current Iraq War. Do his feelings about the war mirror yours in any way?
I did not write Corps Values because I am for or against the war in Iraq, but rather to raise the question: is our objective(s) in Iraq worth all this suffering? As an eye witness of the WTC attack on 9/11, I strongly support the war on terror, and I want all the men responsible for that attack to be brought to justice. I also support my government in using our Armed Forces to prevent such an attack from happening again. Maybe by improving the living conditions in Iraq we will ultimately protect our people from another act of hatred — that’s a worthy cause! On the other hand, I see families suffering because of this war. I know a set of parents who lost their only son, and I recently met a young girl from Dorchester, Massachusetts, who lost her father. Those are big prices! Fathers, mothers, siblings, and children are being sacrificed for our objective(s) in Iraq. Families are grieving, and they are being forced to carry on without the presence of their dearly departed. As these families suffer, we must continue to ask ourselves: is it worth it?
My father, William Edmund Bates, is a former Marine and a decorated Vietnam Veteran. As a Forward Observer, he fought at the battle of Key Sahn and the First Tet Offensive. When I grew old enough, he told me — in full detail — about the horrors he faced in the jungles of North Vietnam. The brutality of war is very real. Killing another human being, holding your best friend as he dies, seeing children lay dead in the street, smelling a burning body, witnessing a horrible war crime, or trying to restrain a squad member as he “looses it”, is the part of war that most people never hear about. Experiencing the brutality of war causes great emotional and psychological trauma. As many of our veterans suffer from such trauma, we must continue to ask ourselves: is it worth it?
What was the genesis of your idea for this play?
My father and I are very close. We both love and accept each other, we have a lot in common, and we’ve been through a lot together. I consider him one of my best friends, and I know that he will always be there for me. He always has my back — no matter what.
However, about two years ago, my father and I were watching a report on CNN about a young Marine who returned home for his mother’s funeral and, during his leave, asked his brother to shoot him in the leg so that he wouldn’t be forced to return to the battlefield. My father, who is very compassionate and non-judgmental, expressed a bitter resentment toward the young Marine. I never heard my father curse out another Marine. He is very proud of his connection to the Corps, and he is very fond of his friends from Vietnam (whom he reunites with every summer). My father was very upset with this particular Marine displayed on the television. Out of curiosity, I asked my father: “What if I joined the Marine Corps, went to war, killed a young Iraqi boy or something, and then I decided to go AWOL?” My father, who loves me more than anything, replied: “I’d have no compassion.”
That is when I realized — I truly realized — that William Bates is a Marine. He will always be my father. He’ll always be my best friend. He’ll always be a great teacher, a loving husband, and one day he’ll be a grandfather. But he’ll always be a Marine. A Marine keeps his promises. A Marine honors his commitments. A Marine never leaves a fallen brother behind. A Marine thinks of the man beside him, before he thinks of himself. I realized that being a Marine is a big part of my father’s life, and he raised me on the values he learned in the Corps.
Five minutes later, I was writing in my notebook. Two days later, I finished the first draft of Corps Values.
Given the topical nature of your play, I'm curious to know what kinds of reactions audiences have had to it.
The audiences are reacting very strongly to Corps Values. Using the war in Iraq as a backdrop, this play hits home for a lot of audience members. Each audience member enters the theatre with a lot of emotional baggage (frustration, sadness, anger, fear, etc.), and Corps Values gives a voice to all of those feelings. I’ve seen audience members nod their heads as Wade delivers his speech about commitment and honor. I’ve seen some people cringe and cover their faces during the climax of the play. I have seen audience members sit quietly throughout the play, and then remain seated for ten minutes after the curtain call. A lot of audience members find me after the show and share their feelings with me. A former Marine who served in Desert Storm once thanked me for “shedding light on the horrible things that happen in war that the American people never hear about.” However, that same Marine told me that, whether war is right or wrong, a Marine should never go AWOL. Then that Marine began to tell me about the sacred bond that he shares with his former company members who served with him. After a performance at 2006 FringeNYC, an older woman from Long Island approached me. This woman thanked me for helping her understand the “inner-anguish” that her brother, a Vietnam Veteran, had been experiencing ever since he returned from the jungle. I remember her saying, “I always knew he saw some terrible things over there, but I never realized they followed him home.” Other audience members — and this fascinates me the most — find me after the show and they ask me, “Whose side are you on: the father or the son’s?” After I share my thoughts with them and listen to their perspective as well, I realize that a lot of people want to take a side when watching this play, but Corps Values does not take a side. It is not a pro-war play. It’s not an anti-war play. It’s merely a story about a father and son learning to accept and forgive each other. However, whether the audience member sides with the father or the son, I feel that they really appreciate the honesty and poignancy of Corps Values.
Corps Values was produced at the New York International Fringe Festival, where you have previously worked before. What do you like about doing shows at the Fringe?
What’s NOT to love about FringeNYC? I love that festival for so many reasons. Here are the two biggest reasons:
I love FringeNYC because it gave me the opportunity to share my first play, The Savior of Fenway. After I wrote Savior, nobody wanted anything to do with it because my name meant nothing in New York City — I was fresh out of grad school and I hadn’t proven myself yet. I needed a chance, a shot, and FringeNYC gave me that shot. After a lot of hard work, every performance was nearly sold out, Savior received great reviews, and it also received the Excellence in Playwriting Award. This award put my play and my name “on the map.” I will always be grateful for FringeNYC, because it gives playwrights like me a shot.
Every summer, FringeNYC is filled with companies of passionate, dedicated, talented artists who support each other. Through Full Circle Theatre Company, my friends and I produced Savior at FringeNYC with $1,000. To this day I still don’t know how we pulled it off. Nobody from the cast and crew were paid — not even reimbursed for unforeseen expenses. The cast and crew were promised nothing, and they still invested their hearts and souls into the production. Their whole summer was dedicated to a play that they believed in. Every company at FringeNYC works with that same energy. All the companies support and encourage each other because they recognize the passion and commitment in their fellow colleagues. The creative energy at FringeNYC is absolutely incredible.
I understand that you've been interested in theatre since you were a kid, even though you initially focused on playing organized sports. You were firmly entrenched in playing college football before you decided to give show biz a try. What facilitated that switch?
I always felt pulled toward the theatre. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to involve myself in it, but sports monopolized most of my time. I always told myself that I did not have the time for theatre because of my commitment to my teams. In college, however, I made the time. It was just time. I was playing college football and had very little time for it, but I just had to give it a shot. I felt so pulled toward the theatre, and I could no longer resist or ignore that attraction. The theatre department was holding auditions for Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. Hoping I would be cast as a minor character, I went to the auditions and had a blast. To my surprise, I was cast as Berenger, the male lead. I was so excited that I dedicated almost every second of each day to the preparation of the role. Even when I was on the football field I found myself thinking of Berenger. I felt as if I arrived in Heaven. The whole process was amazing and fulfilling. I decided to make it my career. I never looked back.
From there you went on to study with the famed director Mike Nichols at the New Actors Workshop. Was that experience as amazing as I'm guessing it was?
Yes it was, and then some. In May 2002, I graduated from the Two-Year Training Program at The New Actors Workshop (NAW) in Manhattan, which was founded by Mike Nichols, Paul Sills, and George Morrison. My training at NAW was an unforgettable experience and it continues to serve as the foundation of my work as an actor and writer.
Training under Mike Nichols was unforgettable. He is a patient teacher who clearly enjoys working with his students. What intrigues me most about Mike is his ability to command respect as soon as he walks into a room and, at the same time, he makes his actors/students feel special. I always felt like he appreciated and respected me. I was not afraid to take a risk and fail. I gained a lot of confidence in his class, where I did some of my best work.
Mike taught me about the importance of preparation — meticulous and through preparation. He also taught me that the feelings I am experiencing in the moment as an individual, whether they seem “relevant” to the moment in the scene or not, can be used to fuel the scene and move it forward. Mike’s curiosity and passion is infectious. As I move forward in my acting and writing career, from project to project, no matter how big or small that project may be, and no matter who I am working with, I continue to revisit some of the lessons I learned through Mike’s class.
The entire faculty at the New Actors Workshop had a powerful impact on my work and my life. Paul Sills taught me that an actor must surrender himself to the story — “Get out of your F@#*ing head and be in the story”, he would yell, “the story is bigger than you’ll ever be.” Rex Knowles and Sherry Landrum reminded me that an actor must not forget to enjoy the process, to embrace the unexpected, and to play. Andrea Haring, my voice teacher, and Stephanie Gilman, my body and movement instructor, somehow awoke a sleeping giant within me. Finally, George Morrison, who still serves as one of my mentors, opened doors for me that I never even knew existed. Although I could write pages and pages about his brilliance as a director and a teacher, all I will say is: George Morrison is a master of his craft, both as an artist and a teacher.
I am very fortunate to have experienced such training.
In addition to being an actor and a playwright, you are a teacher now yourself. What do you teach, and how do you like it?
I teach Performing Arts and Creative Writing at The Carroll School in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Carroll is a private school designed to educate young students with diagnosed learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. When a public school system in New England no longer feels that they have the resources to educate a certain child, they send that child to us. The kids I work with range from sixth grade to eighth grade. Teaching adolescents is a blast! They keep me laughing. At first, I took this teaching job so I could pay off debt that I accumulated during the workshop production of Corps Values. It was supposed to be a six-month gig, but then I fell in love with teaching and working with kids. My debt is now paid off, but I am going to continue teaching for a while, because the income is allowing me to fund my production company. Plus, the job is very fulfilling, and I am so inspired by these kids that I am writing even more than I was as a construction worker in New York City. If you need to work a day job, it might as well be something that you love to do.
What's coming up next for you?
I have written the first draft of a new full length play (currently untitled) that I am very excited about. However, as I further develop that play, I am focusing on the screenplay adaptation of Corps Values, which BC Productions will shoot in Lower Tyrone, Pennsylvania, during the winter of 2007-2008. The screenplay is finished and it is looking great. My business partner/producer, Chad Welch, and I are relentlessly raising the funds for the production. A lot of people are excited to be involved in this project, and the time is perfect for such a film. We are very excited, and we feel that our efforts will lead to an unforgettable film.
Interview with Brendon Bates was conducted by Michael Criscuolo February 2007.