LYNN BERG: Political art thrives in times like these

Lynn Berg


"... theatre will persevere
because all it needs
is actor and audience.
____________
They can close the theatre
and we’ll do it on the street.

They can take away the money
and we’ll do it for free.
___________
They can take away the paper to write on
and we’ll speak it.

They can take away our instruments
and we’ll sing it.

The only way for them to stop theatre
is to slit everyone’s throats.
___________
Political art not only stands a chance,
it thrives in adversity because it’s needed.



Lynn Berg has appeared in the national tour
and the Off-Broadway production of Tony N' Tina's Wedding, in original NYCFringe shows
and regionally in Of Mice and Men and A Life In the Theatre.
____________
He's co-artistic director of Ten Directions
and has a Master of Fine Arts in performance from the University of Louisville
where he performed as Tom in The Glass Menagerie.
____________
Lynn recently appeared as Roboto Supremo in Victor Varnado's "Roboto Supremo."
He's written, directed and acted in the short film, "un Pote Nain (Midget Buddy)"
and is currently in post-production on the feature, "Dirty Twin."

"The Crass Menagerie," The Brooklyn Paper

Ten-nasty Williams: Aimee German, Audrey Crabtree
and Lynn Berg really yuck it up in “Bouffon Glass Menajoree,”
playing at the Brick Theater through March 24. [2007]

Rima Miller, left, and Lynn Berg in a physical-comedy workshop
at the New York Clown Theater Festival. [New York Times]

Lynn Berg in Dirty Twin, a movie by Ten Directions,
Sessuegarry Productions and Tribeca Lab.

Audrey Crabtree, Lynn Berg, and Jeff Seal
mourning the end of the 2008 New York Clown Theatre Festival

THE

New American Dream Interview

"Theatre, at least New York theatre,
has been responding to the political climate
relentlessly since 9/11. "

LYNN BERG, age, Forty Too-Cool-For-School, lives in New York City.

He is an actor. He has a Master of Fine Arts in performance from the University of Louisville, and a Bachelor of Arts in painting from Northeast Missouri State University.

He has appeared in regional theater as Curly in Of Mice and Men, Charley in Charley's Aunt and John in A Life In The Theater.

He has appeared as Michael Just in the national tour and the Off-Broadway production of Tony N' Tina's Wedding.

With Audrey Crabtree, Lynn founded Ten Directions, a theatre and video collaborative through which they continue to create original works.

Most recently Lynn has been touring the Ten Directions production of Bouffon Glass Menajoree, the winner of the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Play which the Irish Times called a “wickedly subversive and electrifyingly interactive parody.”

__________

The New American Dream Trivia Question

To win a round button that says, "Bush Is Lying About What He Knew," be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Lynn Berg would rather be ....

a. Back in Missouri
b. Working construction
c. Bicycling
d.In the regular cast of a A Prairie Home Companion
e. Reading a Tolstoy novel in Times Square
f. Playing drums in the subway
g. At the Tribeca all-you-can-eat gyro stand that appears once every three years
h. On the barricades

...

bzzz, time's up
The Answer is:

d.In the regular cast of a A Prairie Home Companion would be nice, but if I have my choice how about touring the world with our show, Bouffon Glass Menajoree?

__________

NAD: Lynn, hello, welcome and thank you for taking the time.

Where are you from, originally? How did you get interested in theater?

It's a long way from Missouri to New York. Or not. Does it seem that way to you?

Was it a big risk, or did it seem like it at the time?

LYNN BERG:
I’m originally from Dubuque, Iowa.

I’ve always been interested in telling stories, pretending I’m someone else and just playing.

Since I was little I staged plays about cruel kings with too-tight shoes and restaged movies I’ve seen.

It’s funny to think about those beginnings now and how similar they were to what I do now.

New York is huge in an overwhelming, I’m-just-a-small-fish kind of way, but, luckily, I didn’t think about it too much.

It was time to go so I did.

Then, being here I just became engulfed in the energy and I still don’t think about it that much.

Of course it was easier because I was going with my good friend and partner, Audrey Crabtree, and a show we created in Minneapolis appropriately titled … and the fear cracked open.

So we were excited to move here and to be immediately performing.

We just jumped in or as Evel Knievel said, “If you wait for the right time, nothing ever gets done.”





NAD: It says here you are working on an upcoming political theatrical production.

How did that go? Or, how is that going?

What is it about?

LYNN BERG:
It was Lord Oxford Brings You the Second American Revolution, Live! produced and written by our friend, Robert Honeywell.

It was really his vision that he invited Audrey and I in on.

We described it as a cross between Democracy in America, Alice in Wonderland, Cabaret, and 1984.

Robert wrote it specifically for this election year to make people think about our country and how it was formed and our legacy of violence and racism.

It was a challenging piece.

Some people responded positively and others did not, which is to be expected.

One reviewer, who came after the election, said something like it doesn’t have bite anymore, as if we’ve resolved all these issues with the election.

Which is a great example of why we need that kind of theatre and why it will always exist.

Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky would have loved it.

Too bad they didn’t come.

With all that said, it was fun and funny and I had a ball which is also a testament to the power of theatre.




NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

We don't ask this to make fun. We ask because we really seek the answers.

— Are UFOs real?
— Did we land on the moon in 1968?
—Did Bush knock down the towers?
— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?
— Is Bigfoot real?
— Is there a God?

... What makes you think that?



LYNN BERG:
My answer to all those questions would be, “I don’t know.”

Which sends me into the spiral of “what do we know?” and “why do we think we know that?”

Just because the news tells us something, does that mean it’s true?

If experts or scientists tell us something do we accept that as the absolute truth?

When our leaders tell us something, do we believe them?

My answer is, “NO!” We have to ask, “Why are you telling us this? What’s your motive?”


The question in that group that I’ve contemplated more lately than the others is “Did Bush knock down the towers?”

I don’t know.

And he’s not telling.

He definitely knows more than what he’s told us.

When he eventually agreed to testify before the 9/11 Commission but under the conditions that Cheney would be present and that it would never be disclosed what he said, I was outraged.

I still am.

The audacity, the arrogance of power is enough to make me vomit blood when I think about it. Is this not America? The defense of “national security” is unacceptable.

We have a right to know and he has the responsibility to tell us.

And he’s not alone in his guilt.

The Commission’s own complicity in that farce illustrated its own absurdity.

These are times when I have to laugh or I’d cry.

I laughed when I read that Ron Howard and Brian Grazer were looking at making the 9/11 Commission Report into a movie.

I hope it begins with “Based on an untrue story…” It’s a complete work of fiction but the problem is no amount of CGI will make it convincing.

I don’t know but the motive, means and opportunity were there.

If Bush is without guilt, why wouldn’t he publicly testify before the country?

And why wouldn’t the Commission ask him the questions that we want answered?

Why didn’t we all rise up and demand answers?

Is it because it’s too horrible to contemplate?

Because we can’t handle the truth?
But we must! Yes, we can and must.

That’s part of what I appreciated about Guests of the Nation.

I think you’re saying think about it, consider the possibilities.

We have no choice but to consider the possibilities because now we’re in a war based on lies.

The deaths won’t stop until we stop accepting the lies.

When we face the truth.

Eventually the truth will rise to the surface but it’ll happen because we won’t stop asking questions.





NAD: What chance does political art stand in the United States, when it deals with U.S. issues happening today?

Is theater any different than literature, or music, in that regard, or does it have a better chance of being produced, being heard?

LYNN BERG:
Theatre, at least New York theatre, has been responding to the political climate relentlessly since 9/11.

While The New York Times was asking when it would be time for art to respond to 9/11 a little theatre in the Lower East Side was doing a show called the “Jihad Comedy Hour.”

Theatre is asking questions and responding to the emotions, the confusion, and the absurdity.

One of the best shows I’ve seen this year was Mike Daisey’s “If You See Something, Say Something.” It is moving, hilarious, scary and thought- provoking.


Because I’m not involved with literature or music I can’t say what theatre’s chance of being produced and heard is compared to literature and music.

But theatre will persevere because all it needs is actor and audience.

They can close the theatre and we’ll do it on the street.

They can take away the money and we’ll do it for free.

They can take away the paper to write on and we’ll speak it.

They can take away our instruments and we’ll sing it.

The only way for them to stop theatre is to slit everyone’s throats.

Political art not only stands a chance, it thrives in adversity because it’s needed.

Maybe not financially, but artistically, political art will thrive.





NAD: Please tell us more about yourself, the things you have done, what you would like to do, what you did today.

What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?

How about by Christmas 2010?

LYNN BERG:
I’m proudly from Iowa and curious about the world.

I ask questions and love to laugh. If I can make others laugh and think then I’m happy.

That’s partly why I’m in theatre. That and my insatiable need for attention. This is starting to sound like a personal ad.

I’ve been collaborating on plays and movies for ten years accepting and learning from the mistakes we’ve made while surpassing expectations and limits.

Today I told a friend how much our friendship means to me.

And I absolutely had to contact a woman I’ve been interested in for a while.

I had to show her I’m interested in her, to make a connection with her and hopefully make her smile.

By Christmas 2010 I want to expand my and Ten Directions audience, vision and creative freedom so that we can tour the world and create plays and films that will resonate with audiences worldwide.

Specifically, I want to develop, produce and perform a multi-media piece with the working title “The Bushwick Bunch” and a couple of films and series in different stages of development.





NAD: Have you gone as far as you have planned in theater?

What would you like to do?

Being on-stage, in New York, that seems like it would be quite a thrill. Is it?

Do you have a day job?

LYNN BERG:
I haven’t gone as far as I want in theatre.

Ten Directions is a company dedicated to telling stories that entertain and make us ask questions. The questions keep coming so we’ll keep asking them and we would like to see our vision and audience expand.

It’s very exciting to perform in New York, but theatre is about being present in the space and connected with our audience, wherever we are.

We’re based in New York City but we’ve been very excited to perform in the Catskills, in Minneapolis, and in Dublin and look forward to more touring.

Yes, I have a day job, but I will only reveal what it is under certain conditions. We must be in a closed room and Vice President Cheney must be there.





NAD: Please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:

LYNN BERG:
Ten Directions, a film and theatre collaborative: www.tendirections.net.

____________

About

THE New American Dream Feature Interviews

If you search the archives below, you will find, in a sort of order [last to first], interviews with:

Alejandro Rojas, of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network

Brian Kasoro, publisher of The Liberator magazine

Brother Raymond, walked from Denver to D.C., for truth

Korey Rowe, one of the producers of Loose Change

Dave Zweifel, editor of The Madison Capital Times

Cathleen Howard, expatriate, from Tucson to Mexico, to pursue her dreams

Sander Hicks, Brooklyn radical entrepreneur, writer, publisher

Joe Bageant, America's blue-collar author

Frida Berrigan, a lifetime of faith, hope and love

Denise Diaz, brewing up a revolution, at The Ritual Cafe in Des Moines

Deanna Taylor, Green Party activist, teacher, in Salt Lake City

Rossie Indira-Vltchek, writer, filmmaker in Jarkarta, Indonesia

Nora Barrows-Friedman, Pacifica reporter in Gaza

Delaney Bruce, Friends of Peltier

Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs

Michael Sprong, South Dakota Catholic Worker

Brian Terrell, Des Moines Catholic Worker

Bob Graf, One of the Milwaukee 14

Loren Coleman, Bigfoot researcher

Monty Borror, Sci-Fi artist from Virginia

David Ray, Great American Poet

Jack Blood, radio show host, in Austin, Texas

Danny Schechter, A Real Reporter

Bob Kincaid, host, Head-On Radio Show

Tony Packes, Animal Farm Radio Host, Keeping An Eye on Big Brother

Richard Flamer, Working With the Poor in Chiapas

David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Truth activist author

Barry Crimmins, U.S. comedian, author, social activist

Bret Hayworth, political reporter for the Sioux City [IA] Journal

Lisa Casey, publisher of website All Hat No Cattle

Joe & Elaine Mayer, activist couple in Rochester, Minnesota

Fr. Darrell Rupiper, U.S. priest revolutionary

Whitney Trettien, MIT student, Green Party activist

Meria Heller, radio show host

Phil Hey, professor, poet

John Crawford, book publisher

Steve Moon, Iowa Bigfoot researcher

Carol Brouillet, California social activist, 9/11 Truth

Russell Brutsche, Santa Cruz artist

Kevin Barrett, professor, radio show host, 9/11 Truth activist

A'Jamal Rashad Byndon, social activist in Omaha

Chris Rooney, Vancouver, Canada Catholic Worker, website publisher

Marc Estrin, political novelist, from the left

Peter Dale Scott, poet, professor, author, activist

Anthony Rayson, anarchist zine publisher, works with prisoners

Alice Cherbonnier, editor of The Baltimore Chronicle, an independent newspaper