A shot at dark
JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Entertainment Writer, 01/17/2002
Katrina Lofgren takes center stage in the Nightingale Theater's production of Occupancy 70." STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World
Real life robbery inspires one-woman show
It sounds like a suggestion an acting teacher might give to a student: "A man in a ski mask walks into a bar."
Now improvise a scene.
Some might think to rush the man in the mask, especially if it appears he's holding a gun. Others might choose to find whatever protection they can, in case that gun goes off. And one person could realize that, when someone with a gun enters an enclosed space, it's likely someone will get shot.
That is more or less what happened one night in Kansas City a few years ago, when the members of an improvisational theater group had gathered at a local watering hole.
"We had done a show, and it hadn't gone well at all, so we were sort of drowning our sorrows," said Katrina Lofgren. "It was about 10:30 at night, when this guy in a ski mask came in to rob the place."
Lofgren was one of those who tried to get out of the gunman's way, ending up crouched behind her barstool -- which she recognizes now as a laughably inefficient barrier against bullets. Some of the bar's patrons tried to disarm the robber. The gun went off. A young woman fell, mortally wounded.
And Lofgren found herself staring at a sign on the bar's wall: "Occupancy 70."
That became the starting point for Lofgren's one-person show of the same name, which opens this week at the Nightingale Theater.
The show, which combines scripted performance with improvisation, audience participation, songs and poetry to examine the emotions and ideas this incident prompted.
"It was really a surreal moment," Lofgren said, recalling that night. "For one thing, we expect guns to sound a certain way, because of movies and TV shows. But what I heard that night sounded like a cap gun -- just this little `pop-pop!' It sounded almost silly, but it was the sound of someone getting killed.
"Something like that just makes you realize how precious life is, and how much in your life you take for granted," she said.
Lofgren, a native of Overland Park, Kan., got involved in the Kansas City theater community early on, ultimately working with a number of improvisational theater companies with names like Funny Outfit, Polly's Crackers and Lighten Up. She first came to Tulsa in 1996 to study theater at the University of Tulsa.
"I went back home after my sophomore year, and it was during that time the hold-up happened," she said. "And that was the catalyst to bring me back to Tulsa, because I knew I wanted to deal with this event and I needed to learn how to do that from (TU associate professor of theater) Lisa Wilson, who is just so incredible."
Originally, Lofgren's plan was to create a piece entirely through improvisation, but friends recommended she seek out someone to serve as director. Brett Aldridge, a TU grad who is best known for his work with Light Opera Oklahoma, offered to direct.
"I have a tendency to ramble on, and Brett did a lot to help me focus on specific things," Lofgren said. "I also realized that, for me, the emotional demands of going back to that night would be tough, and that having something written down, some kind of structure, would help get me trhough those moments."
Despite the grim nature of the event that prompted "Occupancy: 70," Lofgren said the work does not lack in humor, nor does she intend it to be depressing.
"It's true that I want to take the audience with me through that moment in the bar, but the goal is to find the positive within this negative," she said. "There's no reason to feel depressed or sad or lonely once you realize how precious and fragile life is, and you try to live every moment to its fullest."
James D. Watts Jr., World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8478 or via e-mail at james.watts@tulsaworld.com
Event: "Occupancy: 70," one-person show by Katrina Lofgren
When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Jan. 24-26
Where: Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Tickets: $5 at the door