Interview with Jerry Rabushka
Submitted by Richard Tar
Jerry Rabushka must think I’m an idiot. I talked to him for about 90 seconds on Friday night, just long enough to tell him I enjoyed the show, agree I’d be conducting this interview via email, and ask him what his production company Ragged Blade’s next show would be.
“’Helen’ by Euripides” he said.
“Oh?” I said, “Did you write that, too?”
“No,” he said, “Euripides wrote it.”
Ahem.
In my defense, I was under the impression Ragged Blade was dedicated to producing original material. Looking at the list of past performances on their web site, I see I’m mostly correct; but in their 7-year history they’ve thrown in the occasional classic, like “Prometheus Bound.” And, um, “Helen.”
Is this just to throw off inattentive members of the press?
Actually I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that folks were doing theatre 2500 years ago, and that we still have some of it lying around. It’s a shame we don’t have more. We’re struggling with a lot of the same issues these days that they were back then, and it’s fascinating to see how little we’ve changed sometimes. But for a long time it had been a dream of mine to stage a Greek play, so we did it with Aeschylus’ “Prometheus” in 2001, and we’re trying it again now with “Helen.”
Besides Euripides and yourself, who else gets their work produced by you and how do those scripts typically find their way to you?
Other than a couple short skits, the only other “non me” show we’ve produced was “Icons: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1,” by Jade Esteban Estrada. I met Jade through a gay theater list, and he was at the theatre festival in Ohio that we participated in as well. “Icons” is a one- man touring show that had national recognition, so fortunately both Jade and our theater were free for the same week, and we brought him in to town.
Looking over the productions in Ragged Blade’s history, there seems to be an emphasis on plays dealing with gay and alternative lifestyles. Is this a conscious decision?
I don’t think I set out to say “I’m going to write a gay play,” but since I’m gay I guess a lot of my characters just sort of come out that way (well, maybe pun intended). It’s sort of where the brain and the heart takes me. “Love Of Last Resort” was the result of a gay group in Springfield, MO asking me to bring gay theater to their city, so it was gay from the gitgo. It became two men on an island because it was easy to travel with a 2 man cast; stranding them on the island made it easy to KEEP it at a cast of two. Sometimes inspiration comes in odd packages. A lot of my plays are sort of a mixed bag of gay and straight folks; our upcoming musical “The Soviet Tango,” I’ve joked is the “everybody’s straight and nobody dies” genre.
Do you have any reservations (or funny stories) about staging plays dealing with S&M and homosexuality in a Methodist church?
St. John’s is really pretty open about letting the theater groups tackle a wide variety of subjects, and we appreciate that. We haven’t done bondage onstage since “Ship In A Bottle” in 1999. The guy’s parents had to leave early, after seeing their son chained up and auctioned off and heaven knows what else, they’d had about enough. We had a critic that wasn’t all so comfortable with the concept either, and said so.
But actually, the bondage in “Love Of Last Resort” isn’t gratuitous… it’s the only way the characters, at that point, feel they can deal with their issues. In fact between our production in Los Angeles and the one here, we intensified the bondage scenes; I think it’s much more effective this way.
What effect do you think the Martha Stewart scandal has had on the gay community?
I’m not sure she’s a community icon; I’m sorry it all happened like that but I think homosexuality will survive intact. Thankfully we have the Queer Eye guys to tell us how to decorate for our weddings.
Would any two men stranded alone on a desert island end up as lovers?
Well, like a lotta guys in prison take what’s available, perhaps things would happen if that was your only outlet. A romance between two straight guys could be… well… interesting.
Do you think a lot of homosexual couples find themselves wondering: are we really in love or just taking what is available?
I’m sure it’s been wondered about me, and I know I’ve wondered it about people as well. There’s a lot of that “he’s interested in me so I might as well give it a try” kind of thing going on. Then again, I think a lot of folks have love staring them in the face and they’re just sure there’s some greener grass somewhere, so off they go. It’s definitely a straight AND gay issue, but I think since a lot of gay society seems to revolve around casual sex it makes it harder to find something stable.
What will you do when Miramax wants to turn “Love of Last Resort” into a summer comedy starring Julia Stiles and Matt Damon?
Well… suicide? Err…. Or hope that Julia has a sex change. I’m sure a show like this could be done with a man and a woman, but this one? Hope not.
The musical interlude is quite risky. Can you tell me why you were sure it was the right thing to include it?
Jeff asked me the same thing as we were writing the play. My concept is that “on the island,” they only hear Matt singing and Josh playing the recorder, but the audience sort of magically hears the music. I think it works because in the context of the play, it’s just another one of the character sketches they do to pass the time; and just like in all the other little skits they do, it gives some insight into the character and lets them play with their relationship outside the bounds of who they really are. And, it’s a cool song.
Any idea why jeff schoenfeld insists on using all lower case letters in his name?
Jeff likes to joke that he has an inferiority complex, and when he hand writes his name, he dots his j with a heart. You can’t dot a capital j. He’s very talented, so he doesn’t really need the complex. I was originally going to write this on my own, but I saw he had some ideas and concepts that turned it into a better play with deeper characters. So while the basic concept of the play was mine, this is definitely the product of two writers exchanging ideas.
Besides “Keep writing!” what advice do you have for aspiring writers and directors here in St. Louis?
Well keep writing is good advice, because the more you write, the better you get at it. Show people your work and get feedback, and learn the difference between constructive criticism and all out attack. There are a few folks producing local playwrights, like First Run Theatre, but there’s no shame in producing work yourself. When a whole crew of people gets together to spend 3 months putting on a play I wrote, to me that’s a great compliment of faith in my work. Don’t expect the city to pull you to their arms and say: “Wow, Jimmy wrote a new play, how wonderful!” And don’t turn down an opportunity. I know I’ve blown a couple myself, but if someone says you can write something for them, do it, and do a piece they can use. Learn to write plays for kids, if a kids group will produce you, for example.
As far as a director, while you’re the creator of a small universe, do it with humility. Don’t confuse “director” with “writer’…you’re not there to write, you’re there to direct. It’s an honor that people put that much faith in you to make their project work; once again the more experience you have in a variety of circumstance, the more “saleable” you’ll be later on. And maybe go see a lot of theatre, see what you like and what you’d do differently.
Further information about Jerry Rabushka and Ragged Blade productions can be found at http://www.raggedblade.com. “Love of Last Resort” will be showing at 8pm January 30 and 31 at the Theatre at St. John’s, located at 5000 Washington Place (NOT Washington Avenue) at Kingshighway, adjacent to the St. John’s Methodist Church. My sincerest thanks to Jerry for his participation in and help with this article.
