GAYLETTER

Marc Arthur is a 28 year old playwright/director originally from Tucson, Arizona. He is about to debut his latest piece, Mascot, an ambitious large-scale performance that “investigates perception, loss and the nature of violence through live painting.” We had the opportunity to chat with him about his process, his doves, his inspiration, and his haunting dreams.

How did you get involved in the arts?  My mom is a costume designer so I’ve always been around the arts. But I definitely have always felt a calling, or just known deep down that this is what I need to do. There were a lot of rehearsals I sat and watched in a dark theater that were very influential.

How old were you when you first watched a rehearsal? I was really young, probably around 4 or 5.

What did you go to school for? I actually studied playwriting.

Is this the first piece you have directed? How did you get into directing? I started directing in high school, so around 2000. Whenever I wrote plays in playwriting school they were too crazy and weird for directors to take on so I ended up directing them on my own. But I already has some experience. In highschool I directed a version of Oedipus that involved many gallons of honey being poured over me.

When was the first time you felt that someone in the “art world” was interested in what you do? The Kuchar brothers came to one of my early performances. They loved it so much that they ended up asking me to work on a film. Today I’m still collaborating with Mike Kuchar, I just made a new movie with him in SF in February.

When did you decide to make Mascot? Is this something that was in your mind for a while? Yeah, about two years ago I had a pretty traumatic or I dunno, insane experience that I spent some time working through… I did some writing about it and there was a line that stuck, “Mascot for the Dead.”

Tell me more about that phrase? It was part of a poem that I wrote. It was dark poem but there was something that I really liked about that line, like you could hold up something like death and root for it.

Why did it take a year to create the piece Mascot? The first reason is because I believe that spending more time working on something and thinking it through will make it stronger. A lot of artists today, especially working in performance, have this pressure to create a short piece they can show in lots of festivals. While that’s great, I’m more interested in creating a masterpiece that has lived and breathed a bit. I also needed to spend time fundraising so that we could make it epic (we had a fundraiser in November at Patrick McMullan’s studio).

Can you explain how Mascot “investigates perception, loss and the nature of violence through live painting”? I’m really inspired by this 80’s avant garde theater director Reza Abdoh. This piece certainly draws inspiration from him. And in early workshops I had the opportunity to work with the actor Tony Tornwho was in his company. Abdoh had a particular kind of rage in his work that was visceral, intense and immediate. A lot of this had to do with him dying of AIDS at the time. So that investigation of violence comes out of that. But also, I’m interested in creating paintings where paint is like body fluid or is a thematic symbol for other liquids. I have a lot of crazy dreams like where I’m taking a shower and the water is orange.

What type of dreams? Dreams where it’s raining colorful acrylic paint.

Were you high before you went to bed? Or just natural dreams? Just natural dreams.

Is that why Mascot has the painting element? In part, but also because I’m interested in trying to make a performance permanent in a painting. So that a person looking at the painting later on will see it and remember the performance, or if they weren’t there have a sense of it in some way.

So it behaves like a record? Yes, I like documentation but in a more special and specific way.

How did you find the space where Mascot is being performed, did you have that space in mind, did the history attached to this place attract you? I’ve always been a huge Merce Cunningham fan so yes. And also now with the Martha Graham school there, it was really the perfect fit. I’m building on their lineage and it’s really exciting to literally do it following in their physical footsteps. Because of the epic nature of the piece a space that large has always been necessary.

From left: Ryan Lawrence, Jehan O. Young, Philly Abe, Jake Lasser and Marc Arthur.

Tell me a bit about your casting process? I’ve known Ryan Lawrence since I was a teenager, we used to date the same guy in Tucson who ended up getting a nose job… So he’s a close collaborator who I’ve worked with on a lot before. Philly Abe I met through the Kuchar brothers, she was one of their muses when they were making movies here in New York in the 70’s and 80s. I have a pretty close relationship with all of my performers and it’s exciting to me that they all come from different backgrounds. I like the way it feels on stage. Jake Lasser I also met through a friend, and he’s definitely coming more out of an acting background. As is Jehan O. Young. They both went to Columbia for acting.

Did the guy disappear after the nose job? Yeah, Ryan and I sort of bonded over that, like literally when we were both taking care of him with black eyes lol…

Did he have an ugly nose before? No! his nose was perfectly fine.

You told me during rehearsal that Diane Arbus used to live in the building where Mascot is taking place, and that she killed herself there…Did you see any ghosts during the rehearsal? There are some crazy noises up there. Especially during quiet moments of the piece, as if people were talking to us. Or maybe trying for a cameo.

Marc with Professor Pickles, Becky and Calle Wolf Spider.

Let’s talk about Birds…

Why are you using doves in this piece? Jack Pierson invited me to collaborate on a piece in Brussels where I originally wanted to release a bunch of live butterflies but we ended up deciding on doves instead. The birds were totally magical and rich with symbols. We had about 15 of them that I dyed different colors. That’s when I first got Professor Pickles (Marc’s pet dove) here in New York as a sort of experiment and we’ve been in love ever since. Yes in love with Professor Pickles.

Why did you get Professor Pickles? He was the test in New York to see what it would be like to work with doves there.

Was he expensive? No, but they are very needy pets.

He looks very expensive. You should see him when I dye him gold.

Do you own any other doves? I have three now: Professor Pickles, Becky and Calle Wolf Spider.

You named them all? Yes, hehe.

Did you know from the beginning you wanted to include them in your piece? No, it actually happened mid-way through. After the project in Brussels which was the Jack Pierson collaboration…

Why the birds? There’s a lot of stuff about the loss of innocence in Mascot. The birds were a really perfect way to think about that. Also we use them in similar ways that magicians use doves which builds a lot on the themes of perception in the piece.

When you describe Mascot, how do you describe it? A dance? A performance piece? Or simply art? I usually avoid that question because the answer is so complicated. I think art sounds good though.

Did you have a good day today? Yes, feeling stressed but in the best way possible.

Thanks for the chat. Thank you.

Mascot is playing Friday April 12th, 8:30pm, Saturday April 13th, 8pm and Sunday April 14th, 8pm. Click here to purchase tickects.