By Jonathan Burger, Craven Arts Council & Gallery, Inc.
Where are you from and how’d you end up in eastern North Carolina?
Born a Hoosier (let’s hear it for Kurt Vonnegut!), I was raised in (mainly) Western Pennsylvania. My father was a Methodist minister and in that day it meant moving around every 3 or 4 years. Spent a couple of years in Pittsburgh if you ask me about my real “home town” I would go to the tiny hamlet of Townville (population, 328 today and about the same then) where most of my better childhood memories are. I grew to love the South after my parents moved to Florida and my wife and I traveled a couple of times to visit. I make my work where her job as a nurse is, so when the hospital where she was employed in Pennsylvania started laying off and put her to part time we shopped North Carolina for new work — she wanted to go South but to still have a change of seasons. She was offered a job everywhere she interviewed, and even in one where she didn’t, and she liked New Bern best of all. When people ask what brought me to North Carolina, my usual answer is “January.”
You have written a number of plays, skits, and other media, does your work have one central theme, or many themes?
In much of my “minor” works I just want people to be happy — I want to make them laugh, and the many comic murder mystery plays I’ve done do just that. They spoofs and silliness and sometimes my mind just works that way. But even in those a touch of pathos sometimes appears — the little, flawed man who strives against odds. He doesn’t always succeed, but he tries, and he hopes even in the face of hopelessness. I have a character, “Want,” in our upcoming Christmas production “Miscreants’ Christmas.” She is the hopeless little girl from Christmas Carol who, by very definition, can never have anything she wants… and yet she never gives up hoping. The show is pure comedy, and she is part of the fun, but under the surface I think she approaches being the main theme. In another comedy I have an old-school actor during the Civil War: he is hopelessly untalented and foolish, yet like a kind of Don Quixote he has dreams and, though defeated at the end, he looks through the ruins of his life and sees — and pursues — hope. Yes, that’s actually a comedy as well.
Lately I’ve been pursuing more “serious” works — “Honour: The Musical” took the Stanly-Spaight duel that happened in New Bern in 1802. I looked at the story from the viewpoint of Richard Dobbs Spaight, a kind of tragic hero, and also at the story of his slave Sarah Rice who was struggling to gain freedom for herself and her son. Both were undone and their hopes unachieved when the curtain closed (though Sarah and her son would gain freedom down the road), but the spirits of both came out supreme.
My next big play show is “Flight” — the story of the Wright Brothers, little guys who had to overcome everything with little formal education or funds, and they succeeded in a way that changed the world.
History is a big part of nearly all I write. I choose other periods for most of my work, and use that to shine a spotlight on the mores of today, and invite people to realize that humankind has never really changed, and that the wisdom of the past has much to say today.
But the biggest thing is holding up the downtrodden, but always hopeful little guy. It’s the “little” people whose stories are the best.
You’ve been a newspaper reporter for a number of years, what connection do you see between that and your more artistic works?
Fairness and the presentation of life, of hopes. I believe there is at least some good in everything, and even the worst people have good elements. Hitler loved dogs, for all his evil, and he loved to paint critics say he wasn’t terribly good at it. C. S. Lewis suggested that evil could not exist without good — that evil, when you come down to it, is a perversion of good — that all evil rises out of a twisting of it. Lust is a perversion of love and a sexual act that God created for people in love; theft is a corruption of providing for your needs. I try to present both sides of any issue, whether I am writing a piece of journalism or bathing myself in the creativity of art.
I want people to find hope and achievement; I want no one to ever give up. Journalism and art are both ways to change the world a little bit at a time.
Do you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A little of both. I attended a tiny college in Pennsylvania (Geneva College) where I had a double major in English and Theater. The theater angle was an independent major; the school did not have an actual theater program. I also had an eccentric lady named Norma Leary, a writer who played organ at our church, who taught me much about journalism and sassy attitude. But I would say most of my lessons in writing, interviewing, researching and especially stage craft are very much self taught over many years through trial and error. I tend to be a loner — while I have taken part in local community theater — and greatly enjoyed it — I have usually wound up developing plays and shows on my own and learning from my mistakes as I went along.
You started a nonprofit, the North Carolina History Theatre. Can you tell me a bit about the work they do and plans they have?
And there is where the loner takes the ultimate lesson. I have little sense of organization; I am bad at times at followthrough and desperately bad with handling money and so, when I stepped forward on my dream of a theater to present the history and culture of our state, I knew I had to put myself under the discipline of a board. Our board is amazing, by the way — encouraging, willing to argue, always supportive and loving. We’ve got a good thing here.
NCHT marries my two greatest loves — three, actually: history, theater, and writing as I am the inhouse writer. The playwright Bertolt Brecht believed all theater should be educational — done for a reason. I don’t totally agree, but I see his point and I know that I can teach you a lesson through theater that you will still reflect on 30 years down the road whereas the history book you read or the pamphlet you picked up that gives the same information will be forgotten in days, weeks or a year.
Because a play, a musical presentation — they affect your spirit, your soul: you witness real people. Even though the “real” people are imaginary presentations or interpretations on a stage, we are giving those historic figures or ideas and principles flesh and bone. Like Ezekiel in his vision, we are taking the dry bones of history and wrapping them in flesh then breathing life into their lungs. Theater that teaches history is far more than an intellectual exercise: it is participation in great events. I love North Carolina, and I love showing other people my love.
We also aim to educate through the presentation of the older “classic” plays.
Right now we are presenting purely plays, although our aim is to add other elements of culture — visual art, possibly film, speakers and musicians to our venue. Our first season is set: in February we will present Harriet Jacobs by Ldyia R. Diamond, an adaptation of “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” written by a woman who was a slave in Edenton. It is a powerful piece. Then we’ll have some fun with the old classic “Arsenic and Old Lace” in April (“Hey, this stuff is old, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun!”), and then in late August we will present our big annual musical (my script with Simon Spalding’s music), “Flight,” which will be a much brigher, happier show than Honour was.
Is there another writer or artist whose work you admire or inspires you, and why?
Jounalism: Andy Rooney. Edward R. Murrow. They were in the trenches and didn’t flinch with what they wrote, and they had a great style that helped take the pain out of the bad news.
Painting: Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse. Can’t say why; just love their stuff. Andrew Wyeth: a realism with a deep spirit. Christina’s World is one of the most fascinating and deep pieces I know; even his paintings of empty houses are filled with mood and emotion.
Writing: Mark Twain — My soul mate; I’m so obsessed with the man that I perform him every chance I get. Not that I agree with his religion, mind you. I’m an evangelical with a lot of questions that way. Kurt Vonnegut as well. It’s strange I’d pick writers who were so opposed to my faith, but they had great observations and asked amazing questions. Just goes to show you don’t have to agree with someone to really love them. And who couldn’t love that strange old curmudgeon Papa Hemmingway? Not to mention his five-toed cats. These writers all had the ability to use extremely simple language to present a most complex and deep theme.
Playwrights: Shakespeare. I say that because it’s required by law. Moliere — great comedy and exploration of the inner mind. George Bernard Shaw: Just the right touch of humor and an amazing insight into the human soul.
Do you have any advice for someone looking to get into the arts?
Please, please, please, don’t go up to any writer and say you’re going to write a book as if it’s as easy as taking out the trash. Realize that art — any medium — is hard, it is a discipline. That’s the difference between great actors and actors who just think it’s fun to be on stage. A director can pick that up in a moment: the ones who are there to participate in a great art, to give themselves over to the discipline of their craft. Anyone can do art, and everyone should. You don’t have to be a great writer to enjoy writing; you don’t have to be an amazing actor to enjoy being in a show; you don’t have to be a master of chiaroscuro to have fun with a brush and tubes of paint. Do it. And if you have a particular skill or gift, that spark will strike, and when it does pursue it with all you’ve got. Do you want to write? Read like crazy. Do you want to act? Watch television and film critically, attend shows. Do you want to paint or make art out of metal or clay? Make the NC Art Museum a quarterly goal and visit the amazing shops in town that showcase local work. Do you want to write a play? Go to shows, read scripts, watch shows. In every case vivisect everything you’re seeing: what makes it work? What doesn’t? Why does it work for you? Don’t be afraid to imitate; it’s not only the sincerest form of flattery, it’s how you learn. I’m a cartoonist as well, and my teachers were Charles Schulz and T. K. Ryan (he had an old daily called Tumbleweeds about the wild west). Don’t worry that you’ll be a carbon copy: if this is your true niche, you will develop your own style. Geez, I’m getting wordy.
I know you’re involved in a lot of projects, where can people see or learn more about your work?
Currently, most of my work is going to be found through the North Carolina History Theater and you can find that at nchistorytheater.org or through our Facebook page.