Waiting for “My Spokane Black People” is like Waiting For GODot. Must we die first? Life After Trump. It has been difficult getting Spokane’s African American community involved in social justice concerns. Here’s something easy you can do. Come see talented young actress Regina Carerre at the September showing of Waiting for Godot.
The last time we, Bob and Diane Lloyd, were waiting for Godot was in the mid-1980’s at 123 Arts at 123 S. Madison with Dave Gustafson & his wife, Nancy Malloy, Johnnie Montgomery, Frank Ponikvar, Ralph Busch, Tim Behrens, Tom Davis, John Schneider, Jennifer LaRue, Brian Flick. 123 Arts was on the south side of the railroad tracks across from the Otis Hotel in another historic Spokane brick warehouse, now a parking lot for condos.
The Venue: Terrain
Don’t miss the mid-2010’s version 40 years later on the north side of the tracks at 304 W. Pacific. Watch for more Terrain events at the Washington Cracker building “changing our region one artist at a time”.
I witnessed a great performance by the Gonzaga University Dept. of Theater and Dance.
The Acting : The Cast
You should have seen Regina Carerre who played Pozzo. She is a senior at Gonzaga University with an English major and a double minor in Criminal Justice and Theatre. And Jaron Fuglie as the slave Lucky gave the most tremendous monologue when asked to demonstrate that he could think.
If you did not see it, it’s OK, Godot never showed. Come see it September 7 or 9 at 7:30 pm or September 10 at 2:00 pm.
The Set : The Art
The outdoor set IS the environment and changes with the forces upon it. The installation artist J. J. McCracken says that it “responds to adjacent elements: the constant flow of materials via the BNSF Railway and the history of the Washington Cracker building. Embedded objects refer to the transformation of raw material into goods through refinement and manufacture. Items in the junk pile suggest transportation, labor, communication, marketing, demand, consumption and waste when a hill of earth material slowly weathers, washing over and reclaiming them. The tree, questionably dead, loosely references beetle kill ravaging forests as climate change warms the North American woods. other referents include the Great pacific Garbage Patch.
The Trains
A moving part of the set, we wait for the next train. Part of the ambient sounds of police sirens, ambulances, motorcycles that weave into the stream of the sound design which featured selections from Insect Courage (2016) & Califone (1998) by Califone and Guitars Tuned to Air Conditioners (2016) by Tim Rutili & Craig Ross.
Says Director Charles M. Pepiton, “We are entangled. Climate changes. Leaves grow like ashes as the BNSF railway threads its way west and east rolling pipelines of oil, coal, and lumber. We wait. ‘But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not.'”
