#410 - Marion mcclinton + solid gold

Minnesota Original is made possible by and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota. On this edition of Minnesota Original-- and Tony-nominated director, Marion McClinton, was protege to Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson, and helped define African American theater. Complicated, repetitive patterns and systems inspire Elizabeth Simonson's scientific sculptural installations. And electro-glam rock band, Solid Gold performs. for the party's start But you never know when to leave now on Minnesota Original. electronic music plays drum and tambourine play Step... step... step by the Pillsbury House at Mount Curve Company of Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brothers Size. Hot sun on my back, hot in my face, hot. Step, step. over the last few years, of being able to work with cats I want to work with. They'll be able to work with James Williams, Gavin and Namir. They're basically that I've ever worked with. You left. I know! You don't want me to treat you like you locked up no more. (Marion) knowing they're an artist. an actor myself a lot longer than I've been a director actually, I knew the kind of director that got the most out of me vision, but also could listen. Directors could talk all kinds of crap that they want to talk, but the baseline is, casting is 100% of the job. how brilliant you are. in syncopated rhythm how to do a lot of things. that I was an actor working up at Penumbra, after show after show and you'd have all different kinds of parts, two plays a year at least, direct two, acted two. (James Williams) Marion was an artist, and knew he was an artist before the rest of us realized we were. You know, when most of us were talking about basketball or talking about baseball or talking about something else, Marion would want to talk about theater. We all sort of grew up together, of mistakes, doing almost everything too much. We were put together largely because we were unhappy African Americans in the newspaper, onstage, in movies and so forth, and we knew, African American, that there than was being told. It was probably I've had in the theater. but when I look back on it, there was no time where I was as creative, working with people as creative who were as hungry and driven as we were. And we could do anything. to Ed Bullins, to you know, August, always August Wilson, who I consider the finest playwright America has produced. members is August Wilson. We sort of refined the aesthetic that we do at Penumbra using his plays to do it. That provided the content for us to define who we were as actors, directors, and so forth. We did a production of Fences that was absolutely stellar. Marion played Gabe. I am shaped by that performance, I can never think of Gabe, nor could August frankly, think of Gabe in any other way than with Marion doing it. He had something that was so real, so, so honest. about it-- it was phenomenal! I loved acting, I loved it; there was nothing, nothing better for me than when the lights went down opening night and came back up. I wanted to be onstage for that. The Piano Lesson--it was one of August's plays, and talk about being afraid. You're doing it wrong, he gonna tell you about it. And I was in New York actually the night he saw it, and I called back home to Terry Bellamy and said, Well T-man, what August say? Man, August flipped out. Then I think flipped out means he hated it. laughs Oh man, let me get near his work again. No, I don't think that's the case brother, he loved it. a month later, he told me that it was the best production of anything he had ever seen, for some of the stuff from. always used to go to answer the door with a pistol if it was past midnight. who was at his door and why they were bringing to his door. at the beginning of the show was knocking on the door, calling for Doaker, I had Doaker check his pistol, put it back in his robe go up and said, Who is it? little things like that, touches that I pulled from my father. of his Jitney, writer to director. August wrote about being in this country, with as much heart, empathy, and criticism you know. It was like, well, this guy talks like my father, and I've never seen this guy in a play before. His breakthrough play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom broke through not just for him, but he broke through for just about everybody black in the American theater. there was work. that could pay, there was work at all the big theaters that didn't do black work. I look at that time, from '94 all the way to 2005, when I was working with August, being his Broadway director, and dealing with all of what Broadway is. I mean, there's nothing like being involved with a Broadway show in the spring in New York. New York is all about theater in the spring. You got the Tony's, you got the Obie's, you got the Drama Desk, all of that, cloud nine. the highest-paid directors on Broadway at the time. And uh, got failed by my kidneys. I have a kidney disease called polycystic kidney disease, and when it hit, I was doing Gem of the Ocean, in Boston. the beginning of the 4th week to go to somebody else. He came and told me himself, which is what August would do, you know, and broke down and cried and I said, No man, you gotta go on, you know, the play's going to Broadway in December I'm gonna be in December. So I came home. And in coming home, friends had theaters now and I started working again the best work I've ever done. Oshoosi! What, what? Get up. Don't you get tired of... (Marion) Think I'm a lot less insecure, to actors more, the pressure of being a Broadway director, of satisfying an audience, pressure to have, in a positive way. You ain't never this quiet. I always have in my head two things-- about the play I'm directing, Tell me what it is Oshoosi! with August is probably relationship I'll ever have in the American theater. the kind of work August did, that reflected the beauty of my mother and my aunts, who basically raised me. their life was worthy of art. He wanted to show the world what we knew about our people, and about the greatness in our ability to survive. So I try to keep that in mind as I'm directing... (man) Ogun's Size sees it, how could he not. and is left alone... the early fore-day... in the morning mist. Just like that Marion? (Marion) Yeah. (Marion) Just like that. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take ten. duck quacks (man) We're playing music today on the banks of the St. Croix River. river to be logged in Minnesota, on the Wisconsin side, Rivers and the Namekagon. right here, in uh Arcola, had logs that came down of the St. Croix, or just from logging camps that were along the banks of the St. Croix. These kind of songs were really popular in bunkhouses where guys would sing to entertain themselves. Roll Drivers Roll, in Wisconsin. It was an older folk song called Drill Ye Terriers Drill. And it was reworked to be about pushing the logs out on the river. So in the song they're complaining about the hard work all the logs out into the Wolf River there in Wisconsin. sustained tone plays I'll tell you true About our time on the Waite boys' crew was running high reached to the sky And it's roll you drivers roll roll all day No sugar in your tay When you're working on the Waite Boys' rollway banjo solo our walkin' boss when he gets cross He'd try his best his men to kill on the ol' duckbill roll roll no sugar in your tay the Waite Boys' rollway a fine young man a handsome dame She baked her bread and she baked it well But she baked it harder than the hubs of hell roll roll no sugar in your tay the Waite Boys' rollway went to town one day to put in our tay When he got there it was too dear our old tay clear And it's roll you drivers roll roll You heroes roll roll all day no sugar in your tay When you're working on the Waite Boys' rollway on work and sweat How there ain't no driver got rich yet and work some more And we'll drive right through to the devil's door roll roll no sugar in your tay the Waite Boys' rollway roll roll no sugar in your tay the Waite Boys' rollway acoustic guitar plays softly I'm Elizabeth Simonson, and I'm a visual artist installations. I like to work with material that is kind of recognizable things like beads, tape, wire, and then transform them into something that is kind of unrecognizable from a distance until you get up closer. is what goes on one of these, so that's what I'm gonna do, 23. in building the shapes, but the sequence of building the shapes, a certain order, you know, my brain ache, what my work's about, at some point. I first got familiar with Elizabeth through, I think it was an exhibition at the Weisman Museum. I thought her work was quite strong in the way that it really made something quite elegant and complicated out of something very simple. I just felt that she was an artist who worked very well well to architecture, good person to invite to do one spaces here at the Walker. Immediately when I saw the space like a huge aquarium. It's an atrium that links the lower lobby to the restaurant above. a few of these globe pieces that also looked sort of like sea creatures. like jellyfish, so I thought well I'll just sort of create the evolution of a globe. you see this kind of spider web, and then I just start laying in rows and rows and rows of beads. And they kinda start to form imperfections and curves. to all the work that she does. kind of organic, but it's itself over a period of time. with systems that have a beginning, middle and an end. It's usually like a repetition that I've figured out. over the course of developing these patterns and systems that I really am sort of executing a life process, you know, a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's sequentially organized; it kind of always reads left to right. And that's why the globe stuff is a new body of work for me because it's not sequential, it's entities. it takes forever the final result, what it's going to look like, but I kinda think it will be. for the McKnight show, is made up of identical modules, so that basically structure is symmetrical, a symmetrical floating shape, as they get applied, an asymmetrical pattern of, of modules. I'm a little nervous about whether this is this gonna-- only be able to build these out this stage in my studio, and then I'm going to bring many of these into the space, and then I'm going to have to connect them onsite, so I hope it works out okay! laughs I moved into the building because my studio got so small and I made an additional 48 pods in a classroom back there. of MCAD's staff. They all came in there and we were just like beading frenzies. We had a bead sorting table, a stringing table, my mother was there, you know, picnic of beading. Of course, as usual, I had my ideas of how I wanted it to be, what I thought, so I really reformatted the piece to be more elongated kind of come in and see it get underneath it in order to see the whole thing. installation work, respond to the space. 'cause you know, and then it's just like but then again, that's part of the creative process, which is why I make art. And I think I'm pushed to work. Before I was using the globe as sort of individual objects. use the globes which is exciting for me. to what I was using before, to build large pieces. another little new avenue pursuing. laughs play in slow rock rhythm I came alive in the storm Through the time that was between you and me You don't even know where to start And on the hill across the line you wouldn't believe You don't even know where to start So you empty out your bank account Or get it all for free for the party's start But you never know when to leave Yeah you never know when to leave Hey man dissolve you played the game and lost looking you over Hey man good luck, it's off so keep it off They looking you over Coming back to take the throne And the throne that belongs to me where to start And at the gates there comes a crash It makes a sound like you wouldn't believe where to start So you empty out your bank account Or get it all for free Always late for the party's start know when to leave You never know when to leave Hey man dissolve you played the game and lost looking you over it's off so keep it off They looking you over You can only take so much The devil in the dust In and out of touch Now you're wearing diamonds on your sleeves And court possibility But you never know You never know when to leave Hey man Hey man Hey man CC--Armour Captioning & TPT (man) Minnesota Original is made possible by and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota. synthesizer fanfare