Secrets Revealed
By KAREN SHADE, 7/8/2006
Joseph Gomez pours another glass and listens as Julie Seals Foster pours her soul out at Arnie's Bar in the Blue Dome District. Gomez will take his turn Saturday night during "Old Crow Confessions" at Nightingale Theater. MATT BARNARD / Tulsa World
Theater company turns over stage to people with confessions
Stand-up is too rehearsed, the confession booth too small and every open-mic night entices a Phoebe with a guitar who wants to inflict the latest incarnation of "Smelly Cat" on everyone within earshot.
But "Old Crow Confessions" gets the best of them all with a slightly wicked turn -- one person standing under the spotlight with a bottle of whiskey close at one hand, the truth in the other. What happens next is anyone's guess. Even Joseph Gomez, who brought the "Old Crow Confessions" concept to the Nightingale Theater, isn't sure.
"It's getting naked for five minutes on stage," Gomez said. "I think it could really be an interesting, risky night at the theater. It could be really magical, or it could be a bunch of people feeling sorry for themselves on stage."
He isn't talking of physical nudity, but the urge to let down your guard and 'fess up to something you've never revealed on stage before.
"It's theater without the masks, without the lines and costumes, stripped to the essentials -- storytelling and performers who trust the truth of who they are to be enough. It challenges the notion that you have to lie in order to entertain," he said. "I think this kind of honesty is refreshing and appealing in a voyeuristic way."
Nightingale Theater will host "Old Crow Confessions" every late Saturday night in July.
"It's a very simple and small-scale project, but it's one of the things we're a bit more excited about," said John Cruncleton, theater owner. "It's an experiment. We wanted to give it a little bit of an extended run so we could have time to shape it a little bit, see how it functions under an audience."
Gomez said he has been thinking about the show's idea for some time, but the project took better shape after he heard a radio program featuring clips of "Saturday Night Live!" alumna Julia Sweeney's stand-up performances recorded in the mid-1990s in Los Angeles' Un-Cabaret. Her material came from the very unfunny experience of being diagnosed with cancer and the tragedy of losing her brother to the disease.
Sweeney's honest accounts of what she and her family went through were optimistic and did not discourage laughter.
While Gomez and Cruncleton said they want to hear people open up whether their stories are funny or not, the stories cannot be rehearsed. They can be embarrassing, awkward or sad, but above all, they must be true and never before shared on stage.
"It's not about memorizing lines. It's not about the polish of a well-written story. It's more about an honest and raw unburdening of the heart, maybe. We're not wanting people to get up and undergo therapy or anything. The bent of the evening will be towards humor, but I'm sure there'll be a lot of poignant things that come out, as well, and some sad things," Cruncleton said. "The awkwardness of seeing someone struggle with words is part of the charm of it, I think, more than watching someone do a polished monologue."
For Gomez, "Confessions" also comes out of his past.
"I was raised Catholic, grew up going to confession, and maybe there are some vague, albeit skewed, religious undertones to something like this. It's also similar in a way to those evangelical churches that routinely call sinners to come forward to the stage for prayers and healing," he said.
What the churches do not offer, however, is a shot of whiskey.
"It's like the feather. The spotlight's on you, but it's also the fortifying spirit. It's not secret that sipping whiskey will loosen tongues of the most stalwart and quiet backwoods farmer, so maybe it'll work for us Oklahomans on stage," Cruncleton said.
Several area actors have been invited to participate in the first couple of shows, but the "Confessions" stage could become an open mic to anyone wanting to be part of this unique forum if it takes off, Cruncleton said.
Gomez will be among the first-timers to test the ungilded stage.
"Yeah, it scares me. I realize that a lot of my fantasies about doing stand-up revolve around material that isn't necessarily confessional. It's usually like some political rant, but it's different than this," he said.
The best storytellers could turn out to be the ones people least expect.
"Oftentimes, the people who are terrified about doing something like this are the people who I feel have the best stories, and are the most interesting to watch," he said.
Confessing a secret may seem strange to some, but no one doubts there's an audience for it.
"Watching someone air their dirty laundry and secrets up on stage can be very entertaining and cathartic," Gomez said.
"Old Crow Confessions"
When:
10 p.m. Saturday and July 15, 22 and 29
Where:
Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Admission:
$5 For more, call 583-8487 [As of February 2007, 633-8666].