That's not a milk mustache!

Today is the day after. In Hispanic communities throughout the world everyone wonders how we were up so many hours yesterday celebrating the feast of Our Lady Of Guadalupe. Here in Yakima we began at 4 am with Las Mananitas, the morning songs sung to Our Lady. With trumpets and tubas yet. It lifted me out of my doze and some inches off the pew where I was slumped with the Pastorela's director and lighting designer.

We were in the packed church of St. Joseph's soaking it all up. The lights, the sounds, the flowers being brought forward, the dancing in front of the image. I felt so clearly the honor of now knowing several of the people in the large community and more than a few of the dancers.

The songs were followed by a rosary with more singing then a full on Mariachi Mass. Fantastic again. Then menudo in the hall. And all of this before 7 am.

Then at 6 pm there was the much anticipated presentation of the drama of the appearances of our Lady to St. Juan Diego with a cast of actors who we now know very well as many of them appear in La Pastorela. We have been working them in both projects pretty hard for the past month. This little boy in the mustache is not yet part of the project but rather just one of the several tiny Juan Diegos!

Two Headed Devil.

Both Jorge and Sahira were good for the role of Asmodea, the devil in charge of Anger, Gluttony and Sloth. So after about a minute of medium hard thought, Ashley the director decided on the obvious choice- Two Headed Devil! Call the Costumer, stat!

Three lovely young women were without roles in the show but we want them in it. Obvious choice, create three angels with the names Churbina, Serafina, and Angelina and they are in the action!

This is how casting for a community based play goes. It's a creative process working with who ever shows up and changing the script to make it all work even better than when you first started. Of course, once you know you have a two headed devil made of two actors tied together, suddenly we want them to be involved in a game of musical chairs with the other devils just to see two people strapped together trying to grab the last remaining chair. You can see why we do this work.

The casting over all went really, really well. As in people showed up! And almost all of them were people who had been involved in earlier parts of the process and were back for more. Last night during the read through there were lots of laughs as the group of 25 actors brought the text to life. The playwright was gratified. And then the feedback started coming in.

The feedback for a new script is an intersting moment. Not always really enjoyable as the playwright, in this case me, tries to listen to responses and make the play better. This is intensified by the script being bilingual. and in a church. and about Mexican Anglo relations. It all get very complex and fascinating. For example- what sort of insults and language do you put into the mouth of the devil characters? What if they are a mix of Spanish speaking devils and English speaking ones working through a translator? And then the English speaking devils calls the Spanish speaking devils --'wetbacks'? And then the translator translates it into Spanish 'mojados' So far so good. Well... not quite.

When we read this in front of an audience, the Spanish speakers all laughed and the English speakers thought it was too harsh. Now to what are they responding? The word used against the Spanish speakers? The representation of English speakers as racist devils? Or just what is going on here? Honestly, really rich good questions come up and all over the map.

More rehearsals tonight as we tackle the devil scenes. Come by and sit a while with us.

Director Arrives-- Auditions on Horizon

Our director has arrived in Yakima! The talented Ashley Sparks flew in
from Atlanta and will be here for the duration. She comes from several
consecutive projects after graduation from Virginia Tech this spring
with a degree in Directing and Public Dialogue. This is her second DXM production having served as the assistant director on The NewHolly Tempest It is wonderful having her here as a
collaborator/conversation partner/community engaged theater veteran.

Ashley arrived in time for the reading of the new and improved script. We
gathered with a dozen members of our three community partners and had a
good time hearing La Pastorela . The playwright seemed happy enough and the readers liked the jokes and thought it captured at least some of the Yakima Experience.

We are in the middle of getting the Spanish half of the script translated with the help of Marco Antonio Bran, a Mexican graduate student in New York. He not only translates but is able to make it sound like it really is Spanish and not just
English in Spanish. If you know what I mean.

Today also saw a spike in the PR efforts as I met with Sr. Terry Mullen who has
graciously agreed to come up with a poster design and to handle the
program needs. This is a huge help to us. She teaches art at nearby
Heritage University and we are glad to have her with us.

Finally, have found and read the new article by Robert Putnam(author of Bowling Alone, and one of the originators of the notion of Social Capitol.) This article is the fruit of extensive research on the topic of how members of a diverse community
really experience the diversity. Does it make them more open, trusting,
and happy? or might it have a reverse effect? His findings suggest that
the more diverse the community the more likely the members are to not
engage with others unlike them but also with other like themselves. At
least in the short term. And these communities lack ways to get up off
the couch, turn off the tv , and engage other people. Of course, this is
where my ears perk up and I think-- theater projects. It does not hurt
the little old Yakima was one of the 41 communities in the study.

I would supply you a handy link but the technology is beyond me right at the moment. So I suggest hunting it down on Google.

This weekend is going to be filled with auditions. Four days of being with new people wanting to be involved with the project. Bring 'em on!

Dead Center

We have a script! Well, a rough draft at least without too many
"something brilliant here." That finished up on Tuesday and now the
playwright awaits comments from readers of the thing and we go from
there.



The dead were pretty present in these parts this week
as we celebrated the Day of the Dead with altars in a downtown exhibit.
Located inside the abandoned mall, I was as glad to see the inside of the
building as I was to see the altars themselves. Many moving memorials
to young people lost to gang violence.

Funding is coming along as people send cheques and donate online. I am gratified by the financial support and by what it means for people to actually
contribute to the creating of a bilingual Mexican Christmas play. I am
so glad when those I speak to, friends and supporters, share with me a
very clear understanding of being of use through supporting this sort
of work. Thank you!

Latina Week

Finally our schedules worked together and I was part of not one but two wonderful workshops with the women at la casa hogar. As you might recall, la casa is a center for hispanic women here in Yakima. They are a resource center which offers such
things as an extensive ESL program and driving lessons. I
was unclear just why and how the their focus on just women was going to work out.
But once I arrived there for a story circle I began to get it.

The deal is this- if you want to offer classes for certain people you have to offer
classes when they can come and then provide what they need to participate. So, and here is the simple genius of the work at la casa - they provide ESL classes
in the morning when women are somewhat free and then offer child care
for them when they do attend. So they get large groups into these
classes and these women are that much closer to freedom and integration
in the adopted culture.

DXM is lucky enough to have access to these women. On the two separate
mornings women showed up and we spoke about their experiences in the
Yakima Valley. I learned so much. A couple of things stand out- When
spe
aking about racism we very soon got to the interesting questions
around whether actions are racist or culturally different. This was
about people's reaction to children. Are those white folks racist
against the noisy Hispanic children? or against children? or just have
very different ideas about how children whatever the color, should
behave in public? Always richer questions.

And then when we discussed the gang situation we almost immediately got to how children are raised and what might go wrong in a family and make those children
vulnerable to gangs. This is a perspective that a lot of white men just
don't have.

In other news the script is actually getting longer
if not better. Have more to do on it this weekend. I am still trying to
write a play that tells the story of all these people. Some voices are getting in their. Hope to get more.

Tragedy avoided so forced to write.

Last week I was hoping to be arrested, run down in the street, a victim of hante
virus, or just about anything and anyone else than a writer with a play
to write. None of the above happened so in the end I had to sit down
and begin. And I love it. And it is going well. I
remember now that I like to write. One word after another and then a
bit later a period.

When I write I always get the feeling that
the story is inside of me but is a tangled mess, a bit like a very long
string of Christmas lights that someone put away last year after not
getting what they wanted under the tree. A few more knots than really
necessary.

So I write and then get up and then lie on the
floor. My friend Bill once said the trick to writing is getting into a
space where you are able to hear yourself. To hear your voice telling
the story. This feels like that kind of process. Of course he also said that the trick to writing anything at all is to find other committments in your life you like even less than writing.

Writing a community based project is to start from the somewhat set plot of the Pastorela
(a typical shepherd meets angel, devil tempts shepherd, angel kicks
devil's butt, all adore the Christ child plot) and then adding info
from the upwards to 80 interviewees from the community. And doing it in
Spanish and English. But you know what? I like it. Just enough
diversity in the task to keep my interest.

In other
spectacular news I met with Arturo, the designer on the project, and he
is having so many good ideas about sound and color. Keep it coming. And
we have a new collaborator in the person of Libby Moore, a music/opera
person with an impressive resume of work all over the country. She has
been staging operas in such diverse areas asindian reservations and abandoned Quaker prisons. We are fortunate enough to have her working on the music for La Pastorela. What could be nicer, I ask you?

Community built on Hops.

The entire town smells like hops. Hops,hops,hops! This is what happens when 77% of the hops grown in the USA are grown right here in the Yakima Valley. Most of this activity is out in the nearby town of Moxee with many of the hop processing plants in Yakima. So when one walks out of an evening here in Yakima the air is filled with the scent of beer. Reason #876 to move here. Just in case you were counting.

The story circles continue! Still lots of info out there that needs to get in here. (you cannot see it, but I am pointing to my head when I said "here") I am meeting a growing number of inhabitants and learning more about Yakima and the pastorela form. Yesterday I met with most of the teachers at St. Joseph/Marquette, sat in a large circle and heard about their lives in Yakima. Very good group of women plus Gregg the principal.

Then last night another circle with the parish folks. Again in Spanish and English with some observers from University of Washington who are doing a similar project and wanted to see how we do here. Again really good. When I say 'good' I mean people showed up, engaged, gave me more information about Yakima and reconnected me to the project of telling this story of these folks right now.

Much of the rest of my time here is spent getting folks lined up to work on the project from a more professional end. And to that end we now have a lighting designer, which is very good news and she came to Yakima last night, sat in on a story circle and saw the space. Very glad to have Diane with us.

And of course the fund raising goes on. Please send cash! That DonateNow button on the website is operable and ready for use!

Bilingual

The challenging thing about doing bilingual work is not having to learn two
languages but rather having to learn patience with the process. Our
Story Circle with the parish on Sunday was an authentically bilingual
event. In attendance were folks in English only, Spanish only, and a
few with both languages. It worked. The reason it worked was because of
the generosity brought forward by those in the room. Working this way
forces us to choose between speed/comfort or communication/community.
And to keep choosing to stop and make sure everyone knows what we are
doing, what question is being asked, what history is being shared. I
suppose this is our choice when working in our native tongues but it
sort of gets hidden under all the chatter.

Much of this process here with the parish of St. Joseph in particular and I assume
with the other two partners as well, is about creating a space for
folks to have a real interaction with each other. And these people are
not strangers, they are mostly part of the same parish, but are unknown to each other even though they share a space, a faith, and, I am finding out, a desire to become
friends. These Story Circles and, indeed, the entire project is an
organic way for this desire to be met.

I remain so very aware during these workshop/story circles that I am the one hearing thestories that are all but invisible to their owners. I think it works
like this- when people are asked a raft of questions about their lives
they answer those which they think will be helpful to the project as
they understand it. Fair enough. I do exactly the same thing. But often
I am asking a fish to describe the water in which is swims. This is
harder to get the fish to talk about the water. Compared to what? I am
getting more creative with the questions and so am getting answers that
are at the same time more interesting to me and to the
interviewee/participant.

Yes, we are in the church basement! How classic, a theater workshop in the church basement.

What is your Yakima like?

We are now entering the coolness of fall in the Yakima Valley. Spoke with a guy the other day who is in sales. Sales of a very particular kind. His is the business that provides the fans and equipment that are turned on to prevent the grape vines from being nipped by the early frost. Very specific.



The work on La Pastorela is going forward. Meeting with a group of young Hispanic adults was a joy this last week. I now know that I know very little about the experience of growing up in two cultures. Such richness. And so generous with their time and their stories.

As we did the cultural mapping part of the workshop I found out that almost all of them had been born in Mexico and most of them in Michoacan. The level of comfort and welcome in whatever language you happened to speak was remarkable. English, Spanish, Spanglish all spoke with ease and a desire for communication. The photo below is sampling of some of the fruits of our time together. The words are what they want for Yakima and the drawings are abstract images about Yakima from an earlier group.


Some of my days of late have been devoted to getting a technical team together. This morning I met with a local costumer who is just terrific. I don't mind saying that in public! I hope Mary Kloster has time to work with us!

That is all for now from perfect weathered Yakima. The evening lies ahead filled with thirty pounds of ripe peaches that need to be canned. First time. Prayers please.

Apples and Stories

We are now pursuing two goals at the same time. While still gathering information on the Valley, see photos from the very cool orchard and processing plant tour given by my friend Ryan Brewer, we are also doing STORY CIRCLES.

For those of you who were wondering how we get from meeting people to the writing a play with them, Story Circles is your answer. This is an informal gathering of somewhat like minded folks from some part of the community. We get together and get to know each other a bit more while exploring local stories that might find their way onto the stage.

We met as the first story circle in the Catholic parish of St. Joe/San Jose. We spoke in English and Spanish and a certain amount of Spanglish as we started the good work of finding our ways to each other through the story being told.

We did some cultural mapping asking folks to arrange themselves all over the room according to different determinations. Such as "All those who are eldest in their families stand over here. Those who are the babies stand over there." "And now the babies come up with two things they have in common with each other." And so on.

Then good conversations about Yakima. Favorite places, things they would change if they could, dreams we have for the city. I am finding out lots from the individuals and plenty about the area. Some of the findings include the following-

"Yes, gangs actually do exist! Not just as phantasms of the anglo imagination." and "What I like best about Yakima is how beautiful it is when seen from the surrounding hills. It all lays out there green against the brown hills." Lots of people are of this opinion.

Tonight a meeting with a Hispanic youth group which should be really good.

Go ahead, pick up a fact sheet

This Sunday was spent at the Parish of St. Joseph/San Jose. There I was at a small table sitting under a large canvas DXM sign in the atrium. In front of me was loads of information in Spanish and English about the pastorela project -- Spanish in orange English in green and bilingual in white. Very prepared. This was at 7 am and there I was until 8:30 pm. Wow, was that a long but really great day. And this is why-

At the end of every mass I was introduced and I gave a short exhortation about the work of DXM and the opportunities for involvement. This was in English and Spanish depending on the mass. Then I encouraged folks to talk to me in the lobby and they did. A lot of them. This was where the real gold of the day panned out. I met so many people in Spanish and English wanting to be part of this work. Wanting to do it for the theater, wanting to do it because it was going to be bilingual, wanting to do whatever was needed to make theater together. I am so consoled and confirmed by the response of this wide range of people and their enthusiasm. Kids, adults, teenagers, very old folks, the sane, the not so sane, all were at my table wanting more information.

One man, Trinidad from Jalisco, told me that when he heard we were doing a pastorela he became so excited that a shiver went through him. He has scripts of two pastorelas he has been involved in before that he wants to bring in. Bring 'em on!

Another woman who is missing an arm told me that she has always wanted to be on stage but let self pity get in the way. But now she was ready to take the plunge and leave the pity behind on the diving board.

And finally a young man here in Yakima from Vera Cruz for the fruit season, wants to help out but will be trying to get back to Mexico for his mother's birthday and the Christmas season and then will try to get back into the States in February. DXM will have plenty for him to do when he gets back.

I was surprised by the response. I was expecting to spend most of the day wondering if I was the only person in Yakima wanting to do this project. I had forgotten that doing community based theater is so unlike regular theater due to the fact of the wide invitation to all people. And if you invite all people lots of people show up. This is why I am doing this work. Oh yeah, now I remember.

The next step is meeting with these folks this week for a couple of different story circles in which we will get to know each other better and start asking questions about how a Christmas play might be structured and what it might contain. And this week we will meet with the Spanish speaking youth group at the parish and the staff at La Casa Hogar as we begin to know that part of the community as well.

Partners come to La Pastorela

It was another week of empty days that filled up immediately. Filled with meeting people. My new goal is to meet the five Yakima residents I have somehow overlooked up to now. Good people here with great stories.

We have now found three excellent community partners for La Pastorela San Jose. In addition to the Catholic parish community of St. Joseph/San Jose and the preK-8 school St. Joseph/Marquette we now have with us La Casa Hogar. Check them out by clicking on their names. All doing good work in Yakima and we are delighted and honored to have them on board. The women, men, children of these organizations will be the pool from which will come the stories for La Pastorela as well as its actors, technical folks, and audience members. The months ahead will be all of us getting to know each other better as the play gets written, rehearsed and performed.

We also have a space for the work to happen. We will be presenting La Pastorela inside the impressive grey stone building you see above. This is the new St. Joseph/San Jose as the other one burnt to the ground a few years ago. Lots of room inside with plenty of pew space for all you this Christmas.

This weekend is yet another rodeo, this one a bit further upstream. The Ellensburg Rodeo fills the weekend with broncs and elephant ears. Will be speaking to you once I return and get the dust out of my eyes.

Back in the Yak

And I am back! Yes, after almost a month of working the Pacific coast from San Diego to the San Juan Islands I am now officially back in the Yakima saddle.

There is a reason the magnificent Paula Donnelly appears to my left. I spent the most exciting part of the past month visiting Cornerstone Theater's Institute production/rural residency in hot as Hades Southern California. Southern, like "Hey is that other blazing rockpile Mexico?"

Not far from Calexico, the Cornerstone folks were doing an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the community of Holtville California, better known as the former Carrot Capitol of the World. You have not lived until you have seen the rude mechanicals of Dream played by a bunch of raw vegetables. Actor in a watermelon suit. Look out!

But to explain the photo- Paula is the director of the Cornerstone Institute as is the best person you can find to do this amazing work in the middle of nowhere. Each year she is in charge of making sure a community gets picked, students are found, a play is written and produced, everyone gets fed for the month while they live in the class rooms of a middle school and holding everyone's hand when the fits take them. She and the work of Cornerstone Theater company continue to be my inspiration. To Paula!

I returned home to loads of meetings and community engagement as we go forward here in Yakima. It turns out after much conversation I will be the playwright on the upcoming Pastorela San Jose due for production in December. So now come the story circles, the speaking to everyone in the our collaborator communities and coming up with a script.

Arturo Araujo, who is a Colombian Jesuit finishing his fine arts degree at Cornish College is on board to do the design work for the pastorela. This is great news as he brings lots of experience in theater design as well as wide experience with the Mexican American community.

And so out of the office and into the streets of Yakima.

La Pastorela San Jose

The best part of this beginning phase of DXM in Yakima has been being a tourist. It so happens that this is one of my hidden skills. For instance, a desire to stop and look at stuff to take pictures as I come into the Yakima valley with Mt. Adams in the distance. "Yakima. Not a bad place to live!"

But alas, this first few weeks of intensive tourism is coming to a close. I now have a fist full of business cards, some great contacts, a lot of at least superficial information and we are now ready to go forward into a PROJECT. This means we have found a community or a collection of sub communities to work with. And they are---

1. The Roman Catholics families of St. Joseph's /San Jose in downtown Yakima. A huge parish of 1300 Hispanic and Anglo families.

2. Marquette School. A private school of 300 kids pre K-8 of mostly Anglo kids.


And the Piece of Art--- A pastorela (Mexican Christmas Play). This is a traditional form of ritual theater very common in Mexico. I was able to see five different versions when in Mexico City last Christmas. The plot if very simple- the angels appear to some shepherds and tell them to find the Christ child. They set out. They are intercepted by a pack of devils. After much drama and singing they arrive cribside. All throw candy as they exit.

We are going to be able to do it inside the huge new church of San Jose and are delighted.

We have the opportunity to reach hundreds of folks by presenting this the week before Christmas complete with loads of folks on stage, music, pinatas and the whole nine yards.

Now for the raising of the money and the artists. In late August we will begin the interviews, listening sessions, and story circles which will lay the ground work for the script. We hope this is a widely held process and one that will put down deep roots in the community.

Tomorrow I go away for a month. To Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Central Oregon, and the San Juan Islands so will not be posting until mid August. I hope this coincides with your own vacations.

Hot Music

Wow, it just does not cool off here in the Valley of the Hops! But this has not stopped the Yakima Folklife Festival from happening again for the 25th time. And even though this photo at left was taken while standing right in the middle of downtown Yakima there is a good life going on here and Folklife was rich evidence of that.

With tons of music, lots of people crowding into several downtown venues and sweating it out in Franklin Park, this three day festival turns out to be a blast. Listened to bluegrass, folk singers, serious wymin singing Corey Hart covers, young men blowing fantastic brass, and a super charged Celtic remix update electric foursome called Occam's Razor. Good Times!

Also fit in some more town exploring as I look for where a play might happen in the Valley. Went back to Naches up the river from Yakima itself. So beautiful. Picked blueberries with my sister-- it is now clear that bears are not paid enough for the work they do. And marveled at the orchards against the barren hills.


And then went down valley to check out wineries and got a tasting of not just the vino but a very diverse selection of worlds that exist next to each other. Were in Prosser where the wine craze began and then down the road to Mabton where the wine money does not seem to have yet seeped.

All this travel up and down the hot roads of the wine country is just part of the work underway here as I set up the DXM office, get the systems up and in place for stuff down the road. I think I am getting close to the selection of a community to work with. Am in conversation with the parish community of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Lots of Hispanic families, and big church, and a supportive pastoral team- i.e. the people we will be collaborating with if a show goes forward. Am thinking of a Christmas pastorela in late December with lots of kids, grandmothers, young adults and mariachi music.

Looking for Yakima

Yakima is changing even as I begin trying to understand what it's all about. After welcoming folks for decades the Palm Springs sign seen here in an earlier photograph, is no more. Am I too late to see the real Yakima? Perhaps.

But I am getting to see a lot of it. That is how my time is now spent-- getting into a very hot car and driving around looking at stuff and wondering where might we do a piece of theater and with whom? While I have a whole list of ideas I am remaining open. At least sort of. For what use is a analysis of a community if you already have ideas set in stone?

Of course I am thinking immigration-- how could I not be? I read the letters to the editor of the local paper which are full of shrillness from both the "run 'em out-- they are illegal felons" to "Yeah well, we were not very welcome either when we came over during the potato famine." These are those who write letters to the editor of small town newspaper; not exactly a representative body.

When I ask well heeled Anglos if they have Hispanic friends they say they do not. And not because they are enemies but because they lack a way to become friends. It is as though there are two worlds running on parallel tracks. This was, of course, music to my ears because a theater project could be just the thing for both groups to work on together. Connections and relationships could be built through this. Which, is after all, the point of the work.

I also have been meeting with many members of the artistic/education/civic structure community which has been informative. Some of the art is very much from outside- as in Best of Broadway tours (see you at the upcoming tour date for The Producers!) and some of it is of the valiant struggling underfunded arts programs for youth variety. I have been compiling a long list of people I should meet from the people I have already met. It takes a while for me to explain what DXM actually does in a community. This difficulty is because the work does not fit into any handy categories which is why we are doing it in the first place. Not exactly bringing coals to Newcastle. More like snowballs to Fiji.

Mostly what I spend my time doing is just living here in Yakima. Getting to know how people spend their days, what the town sounds like, what are the ways the communities gather, where is this same community resistant? All those questions which are best pursued in looking for bakeries, going to daily Mass, and reading a book under a shady tree in the park.

DXM goes to the Toppenish Rodeo

Welcome everyone, to the new dxm Yakima Valley journal!

DXM spent its first two years in Seattle working as an ensemble producing 12X12 with residents of 12th Avenue and The Tempest at NewHolly in South Seattle. Now for the next step- DXM will be spending the next few years seeing how theater might be part of the necessary conversation between the various communities making up the population here Central Washington's Yakima Valley.

Cowboys, Indians, Hispanics, Cherries, Hops, and Wine!

This first phase of the project is getting to know as much as possible about the region. So this means constant field tripping! You cannot follow the game without knowing at least a little bit about the players. It took the month of June to get moved in and so was able to look around some during that time. So far have been to museums, tractor pulls, the Yakima Pride Festival, Treaty Day celebrations with the Yakama Tribe as well as jazz concerts, listened to local bluegrass and went to the Toppenish Rodeo and Pow Wow (see above).

So far, Yakima and the surrounding area, seems really diverse in ways that are sometimes hidden but worth searching out. The people are very nice and, to me, awfully familiar having grown up on a ranch and recently been in Mexico. Both worlds are very much alive here.