While Peter Coyote Cohon still mouths off as the spokesman for all things counterculture and because of his bloated ego which has just grown larger over the years and because of the way the media has fallen in love with him he is likely regarded as the originator and leader of all things doing to Mime Troupe ...
Well, he ain't ... and I am here to tell you that ain't so.
Darryl Henriques was the instigator for the selection of the first play for El Teatro Campasino ... and Darryl got that from a little ad I had cut out from the Claremont Courier that was for the play "Los Olivos". Darryl went to the play at Padua Hills and spoke with every one there and developed the first information.
That it grew from there, I will not deny. But I'm proud to say that I had a small hand in the creation of that famous part of the REAL HIDDEN AND NOW OBSCURED HISTORY of the early origins of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. They'll never hear anything about this in San Francisco, I'll wager.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
GRAPE STRIKE PUPPET SHOW (LOS OLIVOS)
For the grape strike puppet show, the little puppet on the right held a big coin while the puppet on the left watched and rubbed his head ... Then the puppet on the right bobbed down and popped right back up holding a small hand of thompson seedless grapes.
At first, the puppet on the left would rub his tummy in a circular motio (yum might taste good!) but then! the moment of awareness! The puppet on the left would draw back in horror, and hold his hands to his head and fall over in disbelief, then turn to the crowd and rub his hands together like "Mickey Moose! (very bad!!)
At first, the puppet on the left would rub his tummy in a circular motio (yum might taste good!) but then! the moment of awareness! The puppet on the left would draw back in horror, and hold his hands to his head and fall over in disbelief, then turn to the crowd and rub his hands together like "Mickey Moose! (very bad!!)
Friday, September 6, 2013
During Larry Leon's time as owner of what always was known as the Springfield estate (which during my time of residence there, as students, we always referred to as "Williams College"), during his improvement phase decided to tear down the rickety old "Gymnasium". Which had a wall of mirrors for the dancers, old wall hung coat racks that would hold mufflers, umbrellas, and canes, and a large and exquisite wood floor that was always waxed with a special wax so as not to harm the dancers' feet. I lived for several years (1969-1971?) in the basement room under what was then the ballet studio. I took this photo in 1970.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Peter tended to handle narratives to the crowds because he was naturally endowed with a good speaking voice that drew people in to the story. (And he liked hearing the sound of his own voice.) He was naturally charismatic. He had a good appearance. The people would see him standing up front in performances talking to them, and as he was up front talking to THEM, he seemed like the star of the show (and this was the result of the way media had trained people, they'd tune in on the lead singer, the public speaker, the starring actor on the screen, the one who was paid the most was the one to be paid attention to, and they'd kind of gloss over the supporting cast or be unable to recognize this was an ensemble piece they were enjoying so much and all the actors and all the scripts went into the mix. And in responding to that public trend, movie and tv scripts were written to show and point people to the star, who generally uttered platitudes, to my way of thinking. The audience many times, because of their own shaping by their response to media, was just not overall sophisticated enough to really understand the puppet shows, but because of the way they were presented, just as they had been to the common peasants of the 14th century who were similarly "unlettered", people understood and responded to them just as the crowds did six centuries prior. You see, commedia dell arte was still valid as an artform, and may be for quite some time into the future, as well.
CENSORSHIP PUPPET SHOW
At various points during the CENSORSHIP puppet show, these things happened:
The puppet on the left would move his small arms and
1. put his hands over his ears
2. put his hands over his eyes
3. put his hands over his mouth
While the puppet on the right would act out various portions of 14th century commedia del arte complete with small props
With the EYES, the puppet on the right had a small commedia del arte mask held on a stick in front of his face, while another hand came up behind the puppet's hand to stick a small stick into the puppets hand (held with a light tan velcro sewed as the puppets "paw" ... and on that stick would be a huge horn that commedia del arte actors had used to suggest a large penis, a sight that outraged the bourgeoisie and they'd go into legal battle and suppression of those troupes, too, to drive them out of existence.
The puppet on the left would pull back in shock, turn and ball up, and shiver, then rise up again in outrage.
When the point was made about CENSORSHIP, which was at the end,
another puppet would come up in the middle
the puppets would all move into position to imitate the three monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) which was a way of empowering the audience to remind them how to behave, as well.
The puppet on the left would move his small arms and
1. put his hands over his ears
2. put his hands over his eyes
3. put his hands over his mouth
While the puppet on the right would act out various portions of 14th century commedia del arte complete with small props
With the EYES, the puppet on the right had a small commedia del arte mask held on a stick in front of his face, while another hand came up behind the puppet's hand to stick a small stick into the puppets hand (held with a light tan velcro sewed as the puppets "paw" ... and on that stick would be a huge horn that commedia del arte actors had used to suggest a large penis, a sight that outraged the bourgeoisie and they'd go into legal battle and suppression of those troupes, too, to drive them out of existence.
The puppet on the left would pull back in shock, turn and ball up, and shiver, then rise up again in outrage.
When the point was made about CENSORSHIP, which was at the end,
another puppet would come up in the middle
the puppets would all move into position to imitate the three monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) which was a way of empowering the audience to remind them how to behave, as well.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
I'd see the guerilla portion of the theater here and there at major demonstrations I happened to swirl within. That's why I can tell you of the evolution of the soldier's mechanical arm, as the years of performances stretched out.
But .... first Sandy was gone, then (oh and in between I was kicked off the stairs and I was a nobody) then Ronnie, then Darryl .... well nobody was left really who was in the initial groove. So I would follow Darryl's spin off the East Bay Sharks, his crankies, and his shows for Chinese people in parks at the edge of San Francisco Chinatown (when the doors of China were about to be pried apart).
All that darting around across the country to race ahead of Dow Chemical recruiters, that was Ronnie and Sandy, I felt. And Peter was merely another horse in the harness pulling.
Although Peter did go to speak with Dalton Trumbo after word came up from Los Angeles that he was writing the script from the new English translation (1968), the script and movie were based on Dalton's imagination, a fictional portion, as it turned out, something that had never happened, and so not mentioned in the book ... he took artistic liberty with that, probably because the real story was so difficult to wrap your head around) ... I mean, I'd already read that excerpt and had discussed it with my friends, and I was already wearing my French prisoner's denim shirt everywhere I went in Berkeley at the time .. and even to performances of the Mime Troupe, because it just seemed suitable somehow. I didn't have time to go off on these events because I was studying at the university, which was very important to me, and I needed to save my juice for that. That plus working any and all odd jobs to get by ... usually manual labor, like weeding and raking, cleaning and painting places, trimming rose bushes (very badly I might add). Not too many of those jobs were for actual homeowners who lived in their homes, but rather landlords (who seemed exceptionally wealthy to me, to buy Berkeley properties on investment to rent to students and so make even more money). In 1968, I maintained an interest in community activities, and walked in to the Berkeley Co-op on University to see if I could lend a hand on the board, and at the board meeting I was the only person who'd showed up! They were all busy elsewhere. And I realize now, I could have effectively taken that place over, but all I wanted was a j-o-b.
But .... first Sandy was gone, then (oh and in between I was kicked off the stairs and I was a nobody) then Ronnie, then Darryl .... well nobody was left really who was in the initial groove. So I would follow Darryl's spin off the East Bay Sharks, his crankies, and his shows for Chinese people in parks at the edge of San Francisco Chinatown (when the doors of China were about to be pried apart).
All that darting around across the country to race ahead of Dow Chemical recruiters, that was Ronnie and Sandy, I felt. And Peter was merely another horse in the harness pulling.
Although Peter did go to speak with Dalton Trumbo after word came up from Los Angeles that he was writing the script from the new English translation (1968), the script and movie were based on Dalton's imagination, a fictional portion, as it turned out, something that had never happened, and so not mentioned in the book ... he took artistic liberty with that, probably because the real story was so difficult to wrap your head around) ... I mean, I'd already read that excerpt and had discussed it with my friends, and I was already wearing my French prisoner's denim shirt everywhere I went in Berkeley at the time .. and even to performances of the Mime Troupe, because it just seemed suitable somehow. I didn't have time to go off on these events because I was studying at the university, which was very important to me, and I needed to save my juice for that. That plus working any and all odd jobs to get by ... usually manual labor, like weeding and raking, cleaning and painting places, trimming rose bushes (very badly I might add). Not too many of those jobs were for actual homeowners who lived in their homes, but rather landlords (who seemed exceptionally wealthy to me, to buy Berkeley properties on investment to rent to students and so make even more money). In 1968, I maintained an interest in community activities, and walked in to the Berkeley Co-op on University to see if I could lend a hand on the board, and at the board meeting I was the only person who'd showed up! They were all busy elsewhere. And I realize now, I could have effectively taken that place over, but all I wanted was a j-o-b.
The Passage of Time through a Looking Glass of Histo
I wonder about the acuity of my own memory sometimes, usually pretty sharp even under the most strained circumstances.
This photo of Sandy: I remember seeing that play ... I was surprised when the actor on the left (in this photo) made his entrance onstage, as I fully expected that role to be played by Henriques. My friend explained to me, oh no, Darryl had a different role with the theater, a more physical one. Unbeknownst to me at the time, when I was at Berkeley going to school in 1964, was that Darryl had traveled up to the Bay Area to join with a group called the Actor's Guild.
So when I met up with her again, my friend Heidi was filling me in on what she and Darryl had been up to in the intervening span of time.
We were seated far back in a park, and I had travelled there from Berkeley with Heidi who had a CAR and who was Darryl's girlfriend. We were in a park somewhere in San Francisco, and far back and could barely hear the lines because of our seating. Of course, because I was with Heidi, we arrived very very late in the performance, it was almost the end of the play. So I remember a snippet of that play, but I can't place the year ... as I traveled up to the bay area in 1964 and then in 1965, I traveled up there a bit more, a few bus trips, an airplane ride, a hitch hiking trip that ended up with someone giving me money to finish the trip all the way on the bus, rides part of the way with friends in their cars sometimes until I could grab a bus ... hitch hiking across towns to get to the bus station and so forth that my movements were scattered ... and I was busy with other things, as well.
So I must have seen this in 1965 although they had obviously been performing it for awhile ... my sense is this was an early Spanish romantic piece and they'd had to get the park authority's permission to perform in a public park. That's when things were a little smoother, before events boiled up, and the collective decision-making came into it (which translated into a guy struggle between Ronnie and Peter, and Peter was hard to bring into line sometimes, because he tended to play differently ... he wanted to show that he shared the same values as and totally and completely understood all the longhairs and hippies in the audience and they were all together like they understood an in-joke, and Ronnie and others had a more traditional view of commedia dell arte and would try to pull everything back to its center. So it was a tug of war, and push and pull, even over the scripts and how they were written. And it's like the guys were so busy duking it out with each other in conceptual performance concerns that Sandy's more refined approaches would be shoved to the backburner. I kind of knew one time later, when I heard some little tidbit or piece of gossip, that this being shoved into the background and being disregarded would be hurtful, and might eventually cause Sandy to quit one day and to go her own way, though I hoped that wouldn't happen because Sandy could fight back and hold her ground. But eventually after years that was what happened, and it was burn out because every thing else had gotten so large in simultaneity with the performances.
A mexican vaquero costume, from a store in Mexico or maybe a distant part of Los Angeles where they sold clothes for the Mexican rodeo cowboys, which the band and players at Padua Theater would wear as well in their historic plays.
When the little handpuppet came out with a rainbow headband, that was really a rainbow wrist band that some merchandiser had dreamed up ... to provide matching accessories for the rainbow headbands everywhere ... they sold them as sets, sometimes. I thought they were funny, the wrist bands. I used to be able to tell a long joke back in 1965 about a Swiss guy named Alec Sanders who came from a long line of famous Swiss watchmakers and how he'd invented a new interesting time keeping instrument. He was a poor guy, Alec was, who broke the strap on the old wrist watch his grandfather had given him, and that was his entire inheritance from his grandfather. But Alec Sanders was so poor because he had been disinherited by his family in all other ways, he couldn't even afford to replace the strap. He was so removed from the family's business, he barely knew what to do to fix a watch even. But Swiss watch makers, even poor Swiss watch makers, can be clever, too. So he repaired his watch with some old cloth strips because he couldn't afford to buy material, and he called his invention "The Alec Sanders Rag Time Band".
But I could also, see the hurt that softly grows into a larger ache, sometimes I could sense that, when people were shifting subtly away from each other, and giving their attention to another, and I would sing a song appropriate for the moment, but change the words a bit for the current circumstances I was witnessing:
"I once knew a lass and she played as she willed
I hated for others to spake of her ill
But now she is gone like the fleurs on the hill
For she's gone te be wed tae another"
(And that would sober the room up for a moment because they realized they recognized themselves and their own parts in the song, and would try to straighten out)
This photo of Sandy: I remember seeing that play ... I was surprised when the actor on the left (in this photo) made his entrance onstage, as I fully expected that role to be played by Henriques. My friend explained to me, oh no, Darryl had a different role with the theater, a more physical one. Unbeknownst to me at the time, when I was at Berkeley going to school in 1964, was that Darryl had traveled up to the Bay Area to join with a group called the Actor's Guild.
So when I met up with her again, my friend Heidi was filling me in on what she and Darryl had been up to in the intervening span of time.
We were seated far back in a park, and I had travelled there from Berkeley with Heidi who had a CAR and who was Darryl's girlfriend. We were in a park somewhere in San Francisco, and far back and could barely hear the lines because of our seating. Of course, because I was with Heidi, we arrived very very late in the performance, it was almost the end of the play. So I remember a snippet of that play, but I can't place the year ... as I traveled up to the bay area in 1964 and then in 1965, I traveled up there a bit more, a few bus trips, an airplane ride, a hitch hiking trip that ended up with someone giving me money to finish the trip all the way on the bus, rides part of the way with friends in their cars sometimes until I could grab a bus ... hitch hiking across towns to get to the bus station and so forth that my movements were scattered ... and I was busy with other things, as well.
So I must have seen this in 1965 although they had obviously been performing it for awhile ... my sense is this was an early Spanish romantic piece and they'd had to get the park authority's permission to perform in a public park. That's when things were a little smoother, before events boiled up, and the collective decision-making came into it (which translated into a guy struggle between Ronnie and Peter, and Peter was hard to bring into line sometimes, because he tended to play differently ... he wanted to show that he shared the same values as and totally and completely understood all the longhairs and hippies in the audience and they were all together like they understood an in-joke, and Ronnie and others had a more traditional view of commedia dell arte and would try to pull everything back to its center. So it was a tug of war, and push and pull, even over the scripts and how they were written. And it's like the guys were so busy duking it out with each other in conceptual performance concerns that Sandy's more refined approaches would be shoved to the backburner. I kind of knew one time later, when I heard some little tidbit or piece of gossip, that this being shoved into the background and being disregarded would be hurtful, and might eventually cause Sandy to quit one day and to go her own way, though I hoped that wouldn't happen because Sandy could fight back and hold her ground. But eventually after years that was what happened, and it was burn out because every thing else had gotten so large in simultaneity with the performances.
A mexican vaquero costume, from a store in Mexico or maybe a distant part of Los Angeles where they sold clothes for the Mexican rodeo cowboys, which the band and players at Padua Theater would wear as well in their historic plays.
When the little handpuppet came out with a rainbow headband, that was really a rainbow wrist band that some merchandiser had dreamed up ... to provide matching accessories for the rainbow headbands everywhere ... they sold them as sets, sometimes. I thought they were funny, the wrist bands. I used to be able to tell a long joke back in 1965 about a Swiss guy named Alec Sanders who came from a long line of famous Swiss watchmakers and how he'd invented a new interesting time keeping instrument. He was a poor guy, Alec was, who broke the strap on the old wrist watch his grandfather had given him, and that was his entire inheritance from his grandfather. But Alec Sanders was so poor because he had been disinherited by his family in all other ways, he couldn't even afford to replace the strap. He was so removed from the family's business, he barely knew what to do to fix a watch even. But Swiss watch makers, even poor Swiss watch makers, can be clever, too. So he repaired his watch with some old cloth strips because he couldn't afford to buy material, and he called his invention "The Alec Sanders Rag Time Band".
But I could also, see the hurt that softly grows into a larger ache, sometimes I could sense that, when people were shifting subtly away from each other, and giving their attention to another, and I would sing a song appropriate for the moment, but change the words a bit for the current circumstances I was witnessing:
"I once knew a lass and she played as she willed
I hated for others to spake of her ill
But now she is gone like the fleurs on the hill
For she's gone te be wed tae another"
(And that would sober the room up for a moment because they realized they recognized themselves and their own parts in the song, and would try to straighten out)