Bringing Old and Young People Together: An Interview Project

Abstract

In 1995, I began working with Fred Rochlin, a man who became a performance artist at the age of seventy-four by telling stories about his World War II experiences. I was teaching a solo performance workshop at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California, a place that attracts mainly queer and bisexual artists, transsexuals, transgender, and people exploring all manner of sexual and gender issues. My class was filled with young actors in their twenties, most of whom sought stardom via the highly successful one person show.

As she recounts here, Laurie Lathem faces a group of kids who need to know something more than appropriate techniques for acting or playwriting They need to connect with the world that makes sense of those techniques as means of re-imagining the world in which they live. With the courage of convictions learned through many prior writing workshops, Lathem introduces a new element into the summer playwriting course at the Berkeley Repertory Theater school—an interview project that, in turn, introduces her, her students, and us to the powerful alchemy of young and old voices, histories, and memories engaged in a creative process of mutual witness.