An Interview With
Jerrod Bogard

The Spin Cycle

 

Let's start with your upcoming play, Noah's Arkansas. Can you give us a brief outline of what the play is about, and how you came to write it?

Fathers and sons. Oh—and stepmothers. Noah's Arkansas is about what it takes to keep a family together or, in the case of the Riggins family, what it takes to put one together kind of on-the-fly. I guess the play was really born from a dream I had. About ten years ago I was watching after my Grandfather who was dying in the hospital. I fantasized: what if I could sneak the old man out of here? I'd take him to the lake where we used to go fishing together, and there he'd be able to end his life with dignity—on his own terms. (Photo is of Jerrod as Joe in The Spin Cycle. Photo credit - Paul Newland)

Now let's talk about The Spin Cycle. This is only the second time we've published a work in this format, namely, a collection of linked plays by a single author. How did you decide to write this play cycle, and how did you figure out or choose the defining theme? Were there other short plays that you thought you might use in the cycle that you eventually discarded?

I've seen one-act evenings that felt like random, unassociated theatre troops had accidentally booked the same performance space for the night, and I've seen one-act evenings that felt like one cohesive theatrical event. The latter is far superior and I knew that that's what I wanted to create—a fulfilling experience, uninterrupted by set changes and cast turnarounds. So I selected four plays from my catalog with this intention. Then, incorporating ideas from all four plays, I wrote the final piece as the finale' of the evening. The main conceit of this final play was that a family and their traveling soldier son were to be broadcast over live television on a cable news show. This idea of the cable news show being presented on a television for the audience was then expanded to become the through-line of all the plays, tying them to the same dramatic thread. It was an organic process that I believe achieved its goal; that being to escort the audience through one theatrical experience of five different plays. 

One of the interesting things about The Spin Cycle is that it makes significant use of video. How do you feel about multimedia in theatre? Did you have any specific models in mind when you made the video and fitted it into the finished work?

I am a fan of anything that helps tell the story. Video is used in Spin Cycle because the  last play revolves around this television show. We see the producers, the make-up girl, and the host of the show. It seemed natural using video to show the audience the actual televised product of the characters' work. It's worth noting that the video components were not projected on a screen, but they were shown on a television because that's how we watch our cable news shows at home, on television. (Projection would have been easier in fact.) It wasn't about "multi-media splash." It was about the reality of our characters' world. I think video projection in live theatre, when used as an end to itself, is distracting, gimmicky and frankly a waste of resources. When it's used in a direct and earnest way, however, it can be a very effective tool. I wouldn't use a wrench to hammer a nail in a wall. So I don't get it when people throw 2D video projections into a 3D stage and call it theatre. If I want cinema, I'll sneak into the movies.

The Spin Cycle contains three plays that deal directly with the current war in Iraq. And you say that you grew up in an air force family on various bases around the country. Did having parents in the military affect your thinking about the current war, and how you wrote these plays? How has your family reacted to your writing on military themes?

I sent my triptych, Plays for the Sunni Triangle, to my brother in Oklahoma. He wrote me back telling me that I was treasonous, brainwashed, and disrespecting our father, who served in Vietnam in 1963. Right now I'm writing a new rock musical exploring the experience of the U.S. Soldiers returning from Iraq. My mother and stepfather, who both served in the Air Force for 20 years, were skeptical about this new piece until I showed them a preview. Some soldiers have jaded, subversive views of the military. Some have gung-ho patriotic idealism. Most fall in-between. I'm trying to be honest to the characters I write and honest to the people who the characters are based on.

You've had a very diverse and eclectic career in performance during the past decade. Tell us about some of your non-traditional theatre work, such as the puppet theatre you created here and abroad; and also about your work in film.

Puppetry, the archeologists tell us, was the first form of theatre and even helped humans create spoken language. I feel lucky to have stumbled into a family of puppeteers right out of college. I didn't realize it at the time but it was shaping my entire view of the theatre and giving me tools to better realize my dreams. I've used these skills in every artistic endeavor since including my film Gatorman, a dark "Outer Limits" type project I wrote/directed down in Florida, and the experimental comedy film Marathon that I directed in Brooklyn.

Do you think that theatre can change people's minds about important social and political issues like the ones you write about in The Spin Cycle?

Of course we all want to think that theatre has the power to change people. In theory it should be this way. But after ten years of creating theatre I began to adjust this ideal. I started to think that, at best, theatre could rattle your current perceptions allowing for change to come more easily should the desire for change be there, or should other stimuli come on its heals. But then a few years ago I went to see a simple family drama at the Billy Holliday Theatre in Brooklyn. Spending a few hours with those characters gave me a new outlook on my own life, and it changed the way I wanted to live. I think of that play all the time and marvel at the awakening I experienced from a simple, well told, honest story about real people.

Interview with Jerrod Bogard was conducted by Martin Denton March 2010

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