In his latest blog entry, Steve Duchrow, Director of Performing Arts, shares his first experience seeing a performance of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini by the New York-based company The American Place Theatre and how one haphazard journey in a New York City taxi cab has led to four years of inspiring and transformational theatrical performances right here in Elgin.
It was a contest. Me, a mere slow-footed Midwesterner, pitted against a swarm of seasoned, irritated New Yorkers in a game of taxi acquisition. The icy January rain had raised the stakes and the ire. I was repeatedly bested by the Mid-towners. I was outgunned, out-manned and out-of-my-league.
I was trying to get to a theatrical performance of the award-winning book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini that I had seen listed in the brochure of the conference I was attending. I was finally able to acquire a taxi but my taxi driver got lost, and after a short, spicy argument with his radio dispatcher, he hit the brakes and gesticulated that I exit immediately.
I stepped out into a downpour and discovered that I was blocks from my destination. I sprinted—well, let’s be serious—I maneuvered— okay, perhaps it is more accurate to say, I waddled— to each sheltered doorway through the rain. My feet accidentally found a few puddles, but only the big ones, of course. Drenched and miserable, I canoed into a Jamba Juice store for directions. The clerk pointed at a door behind me. Strangely enough, this juice bar had an adjoining entrance to the lobby of the theater.
I rode a small lurching, elevator up several floors and exited. The doors abruptly slammed shut like a functioning guillotine. It took about five clock ticks for me to realize that there was a big error. This theatre was not open today. It is interesting how suppressed rage amplifies the sound of rain dripping off clothing in a deserted hallway.
I am not prone to public outbursts. Yet, my silent, internal-monologue beast reached the temperature of tiny stars. At the mid-point of the taxi ride back to the conference hotel, I was now at full internal simmer. I spewed harsh, Vesuvian judgments.
“Leave it to me to find the one theatre company that survives forty years in the harsh New York theatre scene and has less mastery of rudimentary publication concepts than Gutenberg!”
Oh yes, I would alert them of their error.
Fortunately, I exercise much better judgment with my external actions. I left a message in my polite Mr. Steve voice alerting them of their error in the conference performance guide. I guess I showed them.
I returned later to a flashing message light on my hotel phone. I couldn’t wait to hear “the dog ate my homework” laundry list of excuses. In mere moments I would have a name, return a call and drive the dagger home.
Instead, I listened to a pleasant voice deliver a message with no excuse in it at all. It appeared they didn’t need one. I had the date wrong.
My own stupidity always dissipates my ego like a semi running over a can of aerosol cheese spray. In fact, when they graciously apologized for my own stupidity, I am certain I lost IQ points. Not to worry, the kind voice explained, there was a performance tomorrow and tickets would be waiting for me. I watched my inner critic scamper away faster than evil, flying monkeys after a pail-of-water-on-the-witch incident.
I returned to see the performance the next day and re-discovered the value of persevering through self-inflicted folly.
The phrase “magic of theatre” is overused. Yet, when theatre is great, it is akin to the supernatural. The American Place Theatre has that kind of magic. In less than ninety minutes, this simple and powerful company used Khaled Hosseini’s powerful story of two small Afghan boys to create empathy in me for a nation of people that I had never met. They accomplished in ninety minutes what forty-eight years on the planet, eighteen years of formal education, and ten thousand media stories could not: it gave voice to the history and lives of the Afghan people.
I have seen the arts change the world in one breath so many, many times. I have heard it explained that we seek the arts to be moved and that movement is not only emotional, but is actually a cognitive movement forward in what we comprehend and believe. It seems unlikely that a wet, cold, misguided journey in a New York taxi can lead to a profound change somewhere across worlds. In fact, that rainy day gone wrong has led to our fourth year of presenting work by this extraordinary company. This year they are performing the Jeanette Walls’ best-selling book The Glass Castle. It’s a book and theatre that makes you want to change your life.
The American Place Theatre’s Literature to Life stage presentation of The Glass Castle will be performed at the Elgin Community College Arts Center on Saturday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m.
