Richard Light will be bringing his one
man show, "Parts and Poems
of the Body”, to Fresno for The Rogue Festival starting this week. In the show, Light plays 5
different characters, all massage therapists, including a Latino gay man, a French lesbian, a
Chinese grandma, and a Kiwi redneck.
The piece takes place in the break room
of a spa and runs 45 minutes.
Performances will take place at the Spectrum
Art Gallery at 608 East Olive
Drive. Performance dates are Saturday, February 28th at 12:30PM,
Sunday March 1st at 5:45PM, Friday March 6th at 6:30PM
and Saturday March 7th at 4:15PM. GET TICKETS HERE
I asked Richard some questions to give
us some insight into his process…
Give us some
background...How did you get involved in theater?
I have always loved performing. I took ballet as a kid and
was Fritz and a bon-bon in a local SF production of the Nutcracker. Then
as an adult I've studied theater and dance in San Francisco and NYC with Studio
ACT, The Martha Graham School, Mark Morris, and Alonzo King. Last year I
started exploring solo theater with Dave Ford at the Marsh SF.
What motivated you to create
"Parts and Poems of the Body"?
To perform in front of an audience is always a motivation, a rush,
and a high, but I also wanted the artistic challenge of creating and playing
multiple characters in one piece without a narrator. Also, "Parts and
Poems of the Body" is a line from Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body
Electric" and I wanted to write a piece, like that poem, which celebrated
the body, sex, and libido.
Why the setting of a spa?
Having not written much in my life, I heard somewhere that you
should write what you know. For the last 7 years I've worked as a
massage therapist at a spa in San Francisco, so I definitely know about
that. Specifically, it's set in the break room of a spa, so I hope that
even if someone who has never been to a spa, or had a professional massage will
still relate to the common "work/office" setting of the piece.
Did you base your
characters on specific people?
Two of the characters, the gay Latino man and the Chinese grandma
were based on specific people at work. The Kiwi redneck was based on 2
people at work and my brother. The other two female characters are less
specific. All the characters are ultimately an amalgam of people I've
known including myself.
What's your process for creating
your characters?
I created the Chinese grandma and the Latino gay guy by thinking
and being inspired by them and wondering what they would do in the
circumstances of the play. The Kiwi redneck and French lesbian started with
their voices, their accents and then I'd project personalities onto
them. I love working on accents and dialects and this piece gave me
an opportunity to do that. The American girl was the hardest for me,
because at first no one really liked her, including me, but I'm happy with her
now. She's just a mish-mash of women I've known and worked with.
The characters were then all tweaked and changed to serve the story
and dialogue as I came up with it.
Who's your favorite
character in the piece and why?
My favorite character is probably Stewart, the Kiwi redneck.
I like his hedonism combined with sensitivity. I also just love Kiwi and
Australian accents. Recently I've been spending time with my
Chinese-Australian relatives and it's such a hoot to listen to them!
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