Editor’s Note: Last December, we printed an article
on this theater collaboration and their work in Minnesota. This
article reports what happened when they traveled to Australia to
continue their co-creations.
“Sometimes big theatre collaborations can be unwieldy giants,
but this magnificent co-production is a towering lesson in how to bring
the best out of people.” (Matt Byrne, Adelaidenow, April 2007)
That’s what one
reviewer said about Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from
the Other Side of the World when Interact Center of Minneapolis
and Tutti Ensemble of Adelaide, Australia, premiered this epic
new work in Australia this past spring. Both of these groundbreaking
theater companies are made up of artists with disabilities who
have reached across the world to tell their stories.
It all got started a
year ago when Tutti Ensemble spent a month in Minnesota learning
about winter cold and North Country Native traditions. Then last
March, Interact’s artistic director Jeanne Calvit left
winter behind and stepped into the blazing Australian summer twenty-four
hours later. Her traveling companions and fellow artists were Al Baker,
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe drummer and pipe carrier; Larry Yazzie,
Meskwaki fancy dancer; Interact actor and visual artist Sindibad O’Dell,
part Creek; and Kevin Kling, a nationally-acclaimed playwright and
storyteller.
Jeanne Calvit laughs
when she recalls thinking, “There’s
no way this can work! We’ve got too many ingredients for anybody’s
stew.” And more to be added—the entire Tutti ensemble,
along with Aboriginal artist Stephen Gadlabarti Goldsmith, yidaki
(didger-idoo) player, dancer, storyteller and cultural educator of
Narrunga, Kaurna and Ngar-rendjeri descent.
Today, Northern Lights/Southern
Cross stands out as one of the most deeply spiritual, personally
satisfying, and outlandishly humor-filled works any of these artists
have ever done. The jumping-off point was Kling’s uncanny ability to share stories of his own personal
healing from a motorcycle accident that resulted in disability, and
to understand how those stories resonate on a cultural and global level.
This is a work about trauma and healing—cultural trauma as
people struggle to re-learn and restore traditional values; global
trauma as wars persist and ecosystems disappear; and personal trauma,
such as living with a disability in a world that often sees only
the deficits and misses the talents and possibilities.
No preachy downer, Kling,
with both arms in slings, says, “I
was born with a disability, and then I added to it. While I was in
the hospital after the accident, 9/11 happened. I thought the whole
country was going through the same thing I was. And the idea struck
me that while you can’t cure trauma, you can heal from trauma.” He
begins the telling, “This is my story. The doctors will tell
you a different story, but this is what REALLY happened.”
Our friend Oki (Kling),
a regular Minnesota guy, goes boots over helmet on his motorcycle
and winds up in a coma, or so the doctors say. Oki himself hooks
up with some pretty interesting characters who tell him, “Mate,
you’re as close to the stars as you can get without becoming
one.” Oki’s spirit had traveled completely to the other
side of the world, to see if he could put the pieces of his life
back together, a story borrowed from Ojibwe Winne-boujou tales of
the Great Spirit who was sent to the other side of the world to heal
people and to put things right.
Oki comes to feel at
home in the company of the heyokes, trickster spirits, who do everything
backwards. These spirits have deep resonance in the world of the
disabled, as do their Australian cousins, the larrikins. They are
wrong, contrary, annoying. They elicit anger – or laughter – and
they reflect our prejudices right back at us. In Native traditions,
these trickster clowns are healers, the sacred, honored spirit of “otherness.” And
they are darned funny.
Seeing these traditional
stories come together, and understanding the parallels in Kling’s
mythic perceptions and fantastical memories while in a coma, were
the elements that brought this piece to life. Just like in real
life, every single artist was critical to the process. And every
single artist had an authentic story to tell, including the vivid
company of Tutti actors who played the heyokes, the pranksters,
the clamoring conscience of anyone who tries to get out of owning
up.
Al Baker brought the
heartbeat of the Native drum, centering and calming, guiding and
soothing. O’Dell’s imposing, quiet presence
reflects this visual artist’s genius for creating non-verbal
moments of deep impact, since brain damage has affected his ability
to memorize lines. Yazzie’s visually stunning fancy dance, emerging
both from Native traditions and from the Wild West era in the early
1900s, reminds us that traditions are not stuck in stone, but that
solid values can adapt and grow with the times. Goldsmith’s
didgeridoo droned the voice of the outback, the voice of ancient
times and vast spaces.
And then there is Oki
(Kling), our eager wanderer living deeply in the experience. Kling’s personal experiences have taught him
that there are two ways to survive trauma – a sense of self,
and a sense of humor. For him, Northern Lights/Southern Cross is all
about trauma and healing, with a spotlight on the healing. It’s
an exploration of how we all fit in the world together, not us and
them, but “us with us.” This epic journey of personal discovery
is “… just like a good haircut. Something between what
you had and what you want.”
“I believe that theater has the power to transform your life,” says
Calvit. “For me, Northern Light/Southern Cross was one of the
most powerful pieces of theater I have ever experienced. Sometimes
you can talk about the script or the music or the acting, but nothing
here could have existed without every other element. Every artist,
every moment, was something I’ll never forget.”
Northern Light/Southern
Cross played to sold-out audiences of 2000 people at the Bundaleer
Arts Festival, and repeated its success a week later at the Adelaide
Fringe Festival. It will be coming to Minneapolis in Fall 2008,
and Interact’s company of heyokes – uh, artists – is
already getting ready. Because on November 23, 2007, Interact Theater
and Tutti Ensemble will stage the Minneapolis premiere of our first
collaboration, Between the Worlds, right here at home. ![]()
Interact Center for
the Visual and Performing Arts is a theater company, visual arts
studio and gallery composed of artists with disabilities. For more
information about our programs and performances, visit us in the
Minneapolis Warehouse District at 212 Third Avenue North, give
us a call at 612-339-5145, or visit our Web site at www.interactcenter.com
