June 25, 2024 • 33 mins
Hey folks, how you doing? Thanks for stopping by. You have reached Green Room On Air and I am your host, Ray Renati. It's a beautiful day today here in the South Bay. Sun shining, birds chirping, and I'm a happy camper. Hope you are too.
Guess what? We have a great guest today. Her name is Valina Brown and she is a company member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. She's an actor there, a singer, and has been a collaborator since 1992. She's won all kinds of awards and has acted in several of the San Francisco Mime Troupe's plays over the years. She's also performed at ACT, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, and all the big professional theaters here in San Francisco.
We're privileged to talk to her today about her life as an actor and the San Francisco Mime Troupe's upcoming show American Dreams, which will be playing this summer all over the Bay Area.
We chat about everything from the true meaning behind the term "mime" as used by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, to Valina's personal journey in the theater world. We also dive into the exciting new production American Dreams and what it explores. You don't want to miss this delightful conversation!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:09):
Hey folks, how you doing? Thanks for stopping by. You have reached Green Room
On Air and I am your host, Ray Renati.
It's a beautiful day today here in the South Bay.
Sun shining, birds chirping, and I'm a happy camper. Hope you are too.
Hey, guess what? We have a great guest today.
Her name is Valina Brown and she is a company member of the San Francisco Mime
(00:31):
Troupe. She's an actor there, a singer, and has been a collaborator since 1992.
She's won all kinds of awards and has acted in several of the San Francisco
Mind Troops plays over the years.
She's been a an actor at act
berkeley rep cal shakes all the
(00:53):
main theaters all the big professional theaters here
in san francisco and we're privileged to be able to talk to her today about
her life as an actor and also san francisco mind troops upcoming show american
dreams which will be playing this summer all over the bay area hey if you like
this show please give it a thumbs Thumbs up and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube.
(01:17):
And if you're listening on the podcast, subscribe to that and give me a rating
somewhere, anywhere. I don't care.
I'm easy. Really helps a lot. Seriously. All right, folks, let's get right to
our guest, Belina Brown.
Good afternoon. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you doing?
Good. Thanks for coming on today. I'm looking forward to speaking with you.
(01:38):
I've been a fan of the Mind Troop for so many years.
Well, thank you. thanks so much for having me you bet i
remember i went to the first mime troop show it was i think
in dolores park in 1988 okay yeah yeah um that might have been and that's before
(01:59):
i i started working with them and that might have been like ripped van winkle or it might have been,
sounds familiar actually yeah i think
that's what it was yeah and i was wondering
why there were no mimes okay well let's
start there yeah maybe we should mention that for the people who are listening
(02:22):
yeah well so the san francisco mime troupe uses the word mime in the more or
traditional sense that most Americans aren't aware of.
For some reason here, we only think of mime as silent mime, like being,
you know, the striped t-shirt and the white face and you're trapped in a glass
(02:44):
box or struggling against, you know, imaginary wind or whatever.
And that is definitely an aspect of mime, but the umbrella of mime is much broader.
And the definition is the exaggeration of everyday life in story and song.
That's the, so that really encompasses a lot of different things that you might see.
(03:08):
And so we are, we do not do silent mime. We do musical political theater.
So it's, you know, there's, it's like going to see a musical.
Michael likes to say, seeing a musical only with a point.
Yeah. And Michael is your husband who's been on the show. And he's the head
(03:30):
writer for over 20 years.
Yeah. Well, also, I just like the name of the company, the San Francisco Mime
Troupe, because it makes people ask questions.
And if you get them asking questions, then they're going to be interested.
Yeah, I mean, we've thought about changing the name.
(03:51):
I mean, it's come up over the years. But what happens, the Mime Troupe,
by the way, is 65 this year. Wow.
So, you know, we so we've been the Mime Trooper, depending upon what era you're
from. Earlier, folks said Mean Troop.
And but regardless, we've had that name for over half a century now.
(04:12):
So, you know, there are people like, oh, no, you can't change the name,
you know, and other people like you've got to change the name.
So we just haven't we haven't really come to a consensus to do it.
And a lot you know generations of people know us that way so well my vote is to keep it the mime troop.
(04:34):
No meme is the french pronunciation uh-huh yeah my wife is french so they say meme,
yeah i think the
thing that's useful about that is that because to
an america general american ear if you're
not saying mime then they don't have
(04:55):
a whole bunch of associations immediately in the way that meme
you go oh what's that you know now meme means
something else on the internet it totally does strange
pictures with undecipherable text right so
that would be a really weird troop you know yeah so maybe that's not a good
idea yeah yeah so so 65th anniversary 65th season we are this is our third show
(05:26):
back in the park since the shutdown, since the pandemic.
So we're still feeling that excited vibes to get to be back with our audience
in person because we did, you know, a radio series,
two radio series while we were in lockdown.
(05:46):
And that was super fun and interesting for us to do.
But it's also just really still very exciting to be back with our audience.
And it's an election year.
So that has really informed what it is that we're talking about this year.
Shall I just jump right into it? Yeah. Tell us about the show and what it's about. Yeah.
(06:10):
So American Dreams is the name of the show.
And it is a plural, American Dreams, Because, I mean, we grew up hearing about the American dream.
And, but now it seems like our country is more fractured than ever.
(06:31):
You know and i mean
there have been some big fractures some deep fissures but
you know that caused civil war you know but it it this seems very splintered
now like in all different kinds of directions and so this this the idea of a
(06:52):
singular american dream doesn't seem like we We agree on what that dream is.
And to the point where it seems like a big identity, American identity was to be a democracy.
And some people are pretty comfortable putting that on the chopping block. So just.
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What is what is what are people's dreams
and so that's that's sort of like the jumping
off point that we're doing with this this show
is that people are different people are as
during the run-up to no november
election day having these
(07:34):
dreams and they and they're happening at
different points during the process
heading towards election or even after
election and what are
some of the different results that happen
depending upon how the election goes so
and just the idea that one person's dream
(07:56):
is can can be another person's nightmare
so that's the idea behind american dreams
so do the characters have actual dreams
like yeah like awake dreams
or sleep dreams sleep dreams okay yeah no and it's irony and funny and music
(08:18):
like san francisco mime troupe always gives us that's right well you know i
mean that's our thing that's what's unique about is that we do musical.
Political, we're leftist, and we use satire and farce and parody and things
like that to discuss really heavy subjects.
(08:41):
But we're not making fun of the topic. We're making fun of some of the people
who are, from our perspective, ridiculous.
But we deal with serious subject matter and the way that we can do it and have
it be something that people can, can kind of sit with is with our music and our humor. Yeah.
(09:04):
Well, I listened to some of the music this morning. It's a lot of fun as usual.
Who wrote the music? So, yes, our composer lyricist is Daniel Savio.
And yeah, and then the head writer is Michael Gene Sullivan.
Wow. Wonderful. Have you seen interviews? I've seen some interviews on YouTube
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where the interviewer asks random people like at a Trump rally if they would
rather have Joe Biden as president or Trump as president as a dictator.
And all of them answer Trump as a dictator.
I find that very alarming. Well, sure.
I mean, that's what I'm saying about about what is what does it mean to to to
(09:49):
be an American in certain people's minds?
Right. That being a democracy was a big part of the American identity and a
big part of the American experiment.
Experiment and the you
know yes there are things that you we can
(10:10):
definitely critique about the founding
people of of the united states
but the whole point the whole
reason why they're coming out here was to say all
right yeah we're we're not we're not going to
be under the monarchy rule right
you know and so that's a really big
(10:31):
obviously from my perspective
regression to be like okay now we don't even care about whether or not we have
a democracy anymore and we're fine with the idea of a dictator we're fine and
therefore you you know you have to be fine with the idea that this election
could be the last one we have you know.
(10:55):
I don't think people understand the implications of what they're saying.
I mean, you'd have to be lucky to have a benevolent sort of dictator,
even though I don't think that's better.
And that's an extremely rare occurrence in history.
Usually dictators are not benevolent and they tend towards.
Yeah. Yeah. A person who wants to be a dictator, that's a certain personality type.
(11:22):
Usually. For sure. Yeah.
So what about you? Tell me a little about yourself. And how did you decide to
pursue a career in the theater?
How did I decide it? Oh, that's going back to when I was six years old.
Well, let me put it this way.
When I was six, the first play that I saw was Guys and Dolls. Oh.
(11:44):
Which is one of the great American musicals. Love it. And my dad was in it.
My dad is a career army officer. And on, uh, we, we, at that time stationed
at Fort McClellan in Alabama, and they had a little theater and they decided
to put on guys and dolls and he was nicely, nicely Johnson.
And it was really thrilling. They had me at the overture, you know,
(12:06):
and I was just like, Oh, excited.
And it was so fun all the way through. I was very inspired and I knew that I wanted to do that.
I didn't know about having a career as a performer.
I just knew I wanted to do that, what I saw and felt and experienced with the
music and the dancing and just everything.
(12:28):
So I got bitten by the bug of performing in musical theater when I was six.
When I decided that I wanted to be a professional actor, of course,
now that's later when you have that concept. And I, you know, I.
(12:49):
I was doing theater through school, through high school and in college,
while I was also, I got a vocal scholarship to San Francisco State.
And that was really, that was really helpful.
But I actually ended up getting a BA in psychology and then an MS in marriage,
(13:09):
family, child counseling.
But I was doing theater the whole time. And so once I graduated with my master's,
and I was, I had been doing both tracks, you know, at the same time.
And then I decided I wanted to just keep going with, with theater.
And, you know, and again, I pretty much everything that I do,
(13:32):
involves music, typically, not always, but mostly, even if it's not a musical,
it often has music involved.
And the first time I worked with the Mind Troupe,
i i was inspired to want to work at the mime troupe because of.
Seeing double which was michael's my
(13:54):
husband michael's first show where he was he originated
a role because he was he was a replacement actor in
rip i think it was in rip van winkle so that's why i
know that show from 1988 and so
he was in seeing double actually is it
was the mime troops show about Israel-Palestine that
(14:16):
they and they went to Israel-Palestine back in 89
but when I saw
that show I was so inspired because
there was so much stuff that I didn't know about that situation and a lot of
happened since then like you couldn't really do that show again as is because
so much stuff that was such a an optimistic show and I was just like this is amazing,
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you know, to get to do something that has incredible music, that's really funny, that's really moving.
I'm learning stuff that I didn't get taught in school.
And I just felt like I just really wanted to have the opportunity to do that at least once.
You know, that's what I was like, just do that once, you know.
(15:03):
And then I had a chance to do a show where I was a replacement actor in 92 for a fall tour.
The original actor didn't want to do the tour.
So that was my opportunity to work with them. And then my first time originating a role was in 94.
And I've just.
(15:26):
Kept working with them because there's something about having the opportunity
to use your abilities as an actor, as a singer,
in the service of something that feels really important.
And also to be a part of the process of being able to come to new show meetings
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and talk about experiences that you've had,
documentaries you've seen,
articles you've read like what's what's happening
in the world and everybody can bring that those
those different things to the table and kind of make
a case for you know why why we
should talk about this or that or have a character that represents this or whatever
(16:11):
and so that's really exciting to being part of the creative process yeah but
that's always been my impression of the mind troop is they have such a great
team of people who put together the, these shows.
Um, and it's such a collaborative situation and you can really tell when you,
when you see the show, because everything just sort of all fits together.
(16:36):
And it's, it's hard to do that with an original piece that you create so quickly.
Uh, usually people do something original has to go through a year or two of readings.
But you guys are able to just, make it happen every single year.
It's quite, it's quite amazing. Yeah. It is fast and it is in intense.
(16:58):
Um, most musicals do take at least two years to develop and we do a new one every year.
Yeah. I think it, it.
Part of it is that what it is we're talking about is, is, is so like of the
moment that, that it, it's, it doesn't really work to take, you know,
(17:20):
two to five years to make the thing. Yeah. Right.
A lot of stuff has happened, will have happened in the meantime.
And so you can never finish, you know? Yeah.
That's one of the great things is when you go to one of your shows,
it's, it's always about something that just recently happened.
It's, it's quite amazing. It's, It's just a lot of fun.
(17:42):
So did you have any significant challenges in your career that made you wonder
if you went the right direction or not?
Or did you, or has everything just been smooth? Well, I wouldn't say everything's
been smooth, but at the same time, I mean, you know, just because life is rarely just smooth.
(18:03):
You know, things happen in a life, you know, but.
I haven't really questioned whether or not, like, oh, did I make a mistake being an actor?
Yeah. I actually haven't had that feeling.
I've been pretty fortunate, actually, to become part of a company.
(18:30):
Because that's huge and that's rare. because there was a time when there were
a number of companies that were, that were actual, that had acting companies,
you know, ACT used to have an acting company.
So did Cal Shakes. And the Mime Troupe was sort of the other one in the area
where there was a company of actors.
(18:52):
And, and then there was a point where I guess by the nineties, then the next.
Artistic directors that came into those companies just set about dismantling
the acting companies, all of them, they all did them.
And so, yeah. And so to be, to, because that was another dream that I had,
(19:15):
you know, by the time I was finally done with school, I, you know,
I'd been in school a long time since I was like two and a half.
And finally I graduated with my master's. I'm like,
I think I think that's enough school right now my
dream was to be part of a company now that's not the easiest thing to get a
chance to get in there when there's a company right if they have the people
(19:38):
that they need and I was just fortunate to have a chance to work with the troop and.
And what I had to offer meshed with what the company needed and also was on
track with like their mission fit with my mission as a person, you know.
(20:03):
And so it just really helps. So therefore, things like the choices that a woman
who's an actor has to make around, are you going to have children?
When do you have children? You know, like that kind of when to make that leap
(20:24):
is a kind of a bigger choice.
It's a big choice for anybody, but it's a bigger choice for women, you know. Yeah.
And so the fact that Michael and I were in this company together,
we were part of the, you know, as collective members, because the collective,
by the way, is the artistic director of the company.
(20:45):
And so the company is, you know, has a family friendly part of its ethos, you know.
And so when we had Zachary, we could bring Zachary to rehearsal.
When we toured, we, you know, Zachary came with.
And so, as opposed to going, oh,
(21:07):
well, if I have this baby now, I'm automatically pressing pause on my career
because nobody wants babies in the rehearsal hall and nobody,
you know what I mean? Yes, that is wonderful.
Wow. I didn't know. I didn't know that. Yes. That's so rare that a company will
let you bring your kids. Totally.
(21:28):
And, but that, that was so,
you know, I mean, I think that, that those kinds of, you know,
questions and crisis of,
of your choice or whatever with your career, I think would, would come into
play a lot more likely if you're having to choose between,
you know, can I, can I have maintain a relationship and do this?
(21:52):
Can I have a family and do this?
Then the tension there would create a crisis that I was fortunate I didn't have
to face because I was part of a family-friendly company.
And you're both part of the same company. So that's fantastic because,
you know, I've been doing this for years myself and I've had to miss so many
(22:15):
family functions, trips, vacations.
Yes. school events and and
partly it's my wife is not in this business so recently
I've decided I'm I'm definitely taking a
turn and laying off for I don't know how long
(22:35):
cuz you know I'm already in my 60s and it's like I need to live a life that
I haven't for practically my whole adult life and see what it's like you know
yeah And so that's great that you're able to incorporate your family life into
the theater company. Yeah, I mean... That's fantastic.
Like you, though, I have missed, you know, like with extended family,
(22:59):
like both sides of, you know, my parents' families, you know, they would have...
Reunions, July 4th weekend. Yes.
That's your biggest weekend for Mime Troupe, right? I've missed just about all
of them. Yeah. The past, you know, 30 years.
Yeah. So that's, so yeah, that I, I definitely feel that.
(23:24):
That's one of the, I think that's one of the most difficult sides of being in
theater is, is you miss a lot of family events.
Yeah. And there's no way around it. Either you're rehearsing at night or,
or you, or you have a show and right.
Especially when you have a show, there's no option. You got to go to the show.
I mean, right. People are going to show up who paid for tickets. You better be there.
(23:48):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the thing that a lot of people don't understand.
So I'm always surprised when someone goes like, oh yeah, I would never marry an actor or whatever.
And it's like, well, you know, maybe you've had some battery experiences with
who you dated, you know, but that doesn't mean in general.
Like, because I think it's really hard to be in a business that's so demanding
(24:10):
with somebody that really doesn't get it at all.
It helps to be able to say we're going into tech next week and the person goes, got it. Yeah, exactly.
(24:50):
Understands. stands. Yeah, because with most jobs, if you don't show up one
day or two days or whatever, you know, you can get work around it.
But but in the theater, it makes life extremely difficult for yourself because
you're going to be behind and then it makes everything really difficult for
everyone else. And so it's just not an option.
And your time is so compressed.
(25:12):
Yeah. A lot of people don't get what that's like.
I mean, to put a show together in four weeks, you know
is is quite an amazing feat but it means you got to dedicate yourself
to the thing but it's not just us it's not just theater people i mean you know
when people during thanksgiving they're like oh let's watch the turkey day game
you're watching people who are not at the turkey day table exactly the field
(25:36):
right athletes another thing similar similar thing yeah yeah yeah.
Very similar. Yeah. And what role are you're in the play, right?
No, I'm the director this year. Oh, you're the director. Oh,
let's talk. So you just started directing a few years ago. Is that correct?
Yeah. The, my first time directing the mime troupe, you know,
(25:59):
it's like my, my primary identity has not been directing, but I direct.
You know, but I first started working as a director with the mime troupe.
It it was the the it was supposed to
be the the 20 the 2020 you know
so that was going to be my first time directing a park show and
(26:20):
then there was no park show yes so then i
ended up directing so we like i said we do
two seasons of tales of the resistance and
so it was all these episodes so radio show
that's right and i really enjoyed it by the way thank
you yeah that was that was an
amazing experience because at a
(26:42):
time when everybody like theaters are going okay theaters
are closed what are we going to do and and different different
theaters and different circumstances had different responses to it and we were
just really fortunate that because we have an in-house writer we have an in-house
composer lyricist we have an in-house sound designer like Like that's part of this part of us.
(27:07):
That's part of the, you know, that we had the plus we had, you know,
in-house actors and people who could direct. And I had said I was going to direct that season.
So it's like, OK, well, I'll direct this that week. We had the ingredients we
needed to go ahead and and make.
Radio show or scripted podcast as they're
(27:29):
called now yeah so we we had everything we
needed to just move forward and do it you know
but that pivot involved a pretty
steep learning curve we'd never done anything like that before
in terms of creating for that medium but in terms of creating original work
we've been doing that for decades yeah yeah it's mostly the technical aspects
(27:52):
of yeah creating a sound a show
that's all about sound right i mean and it sounded really professional.
Yeah yeah and keeping it visual and the sound effects
and the music and yeah and then the quality of
the sound is super important and it was really good yeah
yeah that taylor gonzalez was our
(28:13):
is our sound designer yeah did a great
job yeah when i was in england going to
school i used they still have a lot of radio plays there and
i enjoyed listening to them and it reminded me you that yeah well
Michael just happened to be a fan of radio
plays and so he was just listening to them you know
that's just something that he had been doing for you
(28:35):
know his adult life anyway and so so he was very familiar with that that art
form and so was kind of excited to have a chance to to do that and he was he
was already knowledgeable about that but we just had to to find a way to make,
to tell the story 100% auditorially.
(28:56):
So that was something that we were learning to do together.
So yeah. Because a lot of your shows are so physical. The physical comedy,
the physicality of each character is very distinct.
And it's part of the fun of watching your shows.
Now, the current show, American Dreams, when is it opening?
(29:21):
It's playing all over the Bay Area, I assume, as usual. Yes.
So it opens July 4th weekend.
It's opening the July 4th is at Dolores Park, which is our typical opening location.
And then we're going to be, I think, at Live Oak. Let me just double check.
Yeah. So then that Saturday. So Thursday is July 4th. It's a it's a Thursday.
(29:46):
Then Saturday and Sunday, we're going to be at Live Oak and Berkeley.
And so we're going to be we're going to be doing parks all over San Francisco,
Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto.
Oh, good. And yeah, kind of like all over the place.
And we're going to also going to we're also going to go to Ukiah and Katahdi. Oh.
(30:08):
Yeah. So there's going to be mostly park shows.
Right. That's our main thing. But this year, for example, we're going to be
indoors for some of those locations like Davis that can be very hot and Ukiah that can be very hot.
We're indoors this year.
So that makes it so that there can be like air conditioning and it's not,
(30:32):
you know, because it can be 100 degrees, you know, in Davis and Ukiah.
So, but mostly we're going to be in parks all over the place and probably a park near you.
Well, I know that I will. Usually you go to Mitchell Park in Palo Alto.
Right. Hopefully that's where you're going again, because I live like two minutes away.
(30:57):
This is the Coverley Community Center. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Road. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's it.
Well, that's similar. That's just like a block from Mitchell Park.
And then a new thing, actually, is we're going to be at the Bruins Theater. Cal Shakes is.
Oh. Oh, you know, we're going to be there. Wow. Nice.
(31:19):
Yeah. On Thursday, July 18th. That's a beautiful outdoor theater.
Yeah. Yeah. And so that space, it is, it's a ticket sales situation,
$20 a ticket to go to the Cal Shake space. Oh, I see. Cause usually it's free.
Yeah. Unless people, but then you're really good. You're really good at fundraising too.
(31:42):
Well, I mean. I mean, I love how you do your fundraising at the end.
It's really, it's a lot of fun. And actually you want to give.
Yeah. Yeah. Pass the hat because, you know, our idea is that we don't want to
create something that is, is out of reach of anyone that wants to see the show.
So we, it's past the hat. We, it's a $20 per person suggested donation, right?
(32:09):
You know, but if you, if you can't put anything in the hat. And we don't want
to be like, okay, get out.
So everybody can come in there for their people who don't pay anything.
And then we have people who put a check in for $1,000.
It has to do with what you can do. Whatever you can do, please do.
(32:32):
Because that makes it so we can continue to do the work. Yeah. Great.
And people can go to your website to find out all the information about this. Yeah. SFMT.org.
Okay.
If you don't remember that, just search for San Francisco Mime Troupe.
(32:52):
Yeah is there anything else you'd like to share today velena with the audience.
Um well i think i i
talked about the show yeah and we learned a
little about you yeah and which is always fun and
i just encourage people to go
it's a lot of fun you guys always do a great job and it's
(33:14):
a nice day outside and it'll make you laugh and
it'll also make you think and and often
a great combination when you come to a park often there
are people who are working on whatever the issues are that we're talking about
in the show and so if you feel like okay now i understand what's going on about
this i think i do want to get involved there's often a table that you can go
(33:37):
to that someone can help you take the next step to get to get more
involved and take action. Great.
Love it. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you.
I appreciate it. You're welcome.
Music.
(00:09):
Hey folks, how you doing? Thanks for stopping by. You have reached Green Room
On Air and I am your host, Ray Renati.
It's a beautiful day today here in the South Bay.
Sun shining, birds chirping, and I'm a happy camper. Hope you are too.
Hey, guess what? We have a great guest today.
Her name is Valina Brown and she is a company member of the San Francisco Mime
(00:31):
Troupe. She's an actor there, a singer, and has been a collaborator since 1992.
She's won all kinds of awards and has acted in several of the San Francisco
Mind Troops plays over the years.
She's been a an actor at act
berkeley rep cal shakes all the
(00:53):
main theaters all the big professional theaters here
in san francisco and we're privileged to be able to talk to her today about
her life as an actor and also san francisco mind troops upcoming show american
dreams which will be playing this summer all over the bay area hey if you like
this show please give it a thumbs Thumbs up and subscribe if you're watching on YouTube.
(01:17):
And if you're listening on the podcast, subscribe to that and give me a rating
somewhere, anywhere. I don't care.
I'm easy. Really helps a lot. Seriously. All right, folks, let's get right to
our guest, Belina Brown.
Good afternoon. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you doing?
Good. Thanks for coming on today. I'm looking forward to speaking with you.
(01:38):
I've been a fan of the Mind Troop for so many years.
Well, thank you. thanks so much for having me you bet i
remember i went to the first mime troop show it was i think
in dolores park in 1988 okay yeah yeah um that might have been and that's before
(01:59):
i i started working with them and that might have been like ripped van winkle or it might have been,
sounds familiar actually yeah i think
that's what it was yeah and i was wondering
why there were no mimes okay well let's
start there yeah maybe we should mention that for the people who are listening
(02:22):
yeah well so the san francisco mime troupe uses the word mime in the more or
traditional sense that most Americans aren't aware of.
For some reason here, we only think of mime as silent mime, like being,
you know, the striped t-shirt and the white face and you're trapped in a glass
(02:44):
box or struggling against, you know, imaginary wind or whatever.
And that is definitely an aspect of mime, but the umbrella of mime is much broader.
And the definition is the exaggeration of everyday life in story and song.
That's the, so that really encompasses a lot of different things that you might see.
(03:08):
And so we are, we do not do silent mime. We do musical political theater.
So it's, you know, there's, it's like going to see a musical.
Michael likes to say, seeing a musical only with a point.
Yeah. And Michael is your husband who's been on the show. And he's the head
(03:30):
writer for over 20 years.
Yeah. Well, also, I just like the name of the company, the San Francisco Mime
Troupe, because it makes people ask questions.
And if you get them asking questions, then they're going to be interested.
Yeah, I mean, we've thought about changing the name.
(03:51):
I mean, it's come up over the years. But what happens, the Mime Troupe,
by the way, is 65 this year. Wow.
So, you know, we so we've been the Mime Trooper, depending upon what era you're
from. Earlier, folks said Mean Troop.
And but regardless, we've had that name for over half a century now.
(04:12):
So, you know, there are people like, oh, no, you can't change the name,
you know, and other people like you've got to change the name.
So we just haven't we haven't really come to a consensus to do it.
And a lot you know generations of people know us that way so well my vote is to keep it the mime troop.
(04:34):
No meme is the french pronunciation uh-huh yeah my wife is french so they say meme,
yeah i think the
thing that's useful about that is that because to
an america general american ear if you're
not saying mime then they don't have
(04:55):
a whole bunch of associations immediately in the way that meme
you go oh what's that you know now meme means
something else on the internet it totally does strange
pictures with undecipherable text right so
that would be a really weird troop you know yeah so maybe that's not a good
idea yeah yeah so so 65th anniversary 65th season we are this is our third show
(05:26):
back in the park since the shutdown, since the pandemic.
So we're still feeling that excited vibes to get to be back with our audience
in person because we did, you know, a radio series,
two radio series while we were in lockdown.
(05:46):
And that was super fun and interesting for us to do.
But it's also just really still very exciting to be back with our audience.
And it's an election year.
So that has really informed what it is that we're talking about this year.
Shall I just jump right into it? Yeah. Tell us about the show and what it's about. Yeah.
(06:10):
So American Dreams is the name of the show.
And it is a plural, American Dreams, Because, I mean, we grew up hearing about the American dream.
And, but now it seems like our country is more fractured than ever.
(06:31):
You know and i mean
there have been some big fractures some deep fissures but
you know that caused civil war you know but it it this seems very splintered
now like in all different kinds of directions and so this this the idea of a
(06:52):
singular american dream doesn't seem like we We agree on what that dream is.
And to the point where it seems like a big identity, American identity was to be a democracy.
And some people are pretty comfortable putting that on the chopping block. So just.
(07:13):
What is what is what are people's dreams
and so that's that's sort of like the jumping
off point that we're doing with this this show
is that people are different people are as
during the run-up to no november
election day having these
(07:34):
dreams and they and they're happening at
different points during the process
heading towards election or even after
election and what are
some of the different results that happen
depending upon how the election goes so
and just the idea that one person's dream
(07:56):
is can can be another person's nightmare
so that's the idea behind american dreams
so do the characters have actual dreams
like yeah like awake dreams
or sleep dreams sleep dreams okay yeah no and it's irony and funny and music
(08:18):
like san francisco mime troupe always gives us that's right well you know i
mean that's our thing that's what's unique about is that we do musical.
Political, we're leftist, and we use satire and farce and parody and things
like that to discuss really heavy subjects.
(08:41):
But we're not making fun of the topic. We're making fun of some of the people
who are, from our perspective, ridiculous.
But we deal with serious subject matter and the way that we can do it and have
it be something that people can, can kind of sit with is with our music and our humor. Yeah.
(09:04):
Well, I listened to some of the music this morning. It's a lot of fun as usual.
Who wrote the music? So, yes, our composer lyricist is Daniel Savio.
And yeah, and then the head writer is Michael Gene Sullivan.
Wow. Wonderful. Have you seen interviews? I've seen some interviews on YouTube
(09:26):
where the interviewer asks random people like at a Trump rally if they would
rather have Joe Biden as president or Trump as president as a dictator.
And all of them answer Trump as a dictator.
I find that very alarming. Well, sure.
I mean, that's what I'm saying about about what is what does it mean to to to
(09:49):
be an American in certain people's minds?
Right. That being a democracy was a big part of the American identity and a
big part of the American experiment.
Experiment and the you
know yes there are things that you we can
(10:10):
definitely critique about the founding
people of of the united states
but the whole point the whole
reason why they're coming out here was to say all
right yeah we're we're not we're not going to
be under the monarchy rule right
you know and so that's a really big
(10:31):
obviously from my perspective
regression to be like okay now we don't even care about whether or not we have
a democracy anymore and we're fine with the idea of a dictator we're fine and
therefore you you know you have to be fine with the idea that this election
could be the last one we have you know.
(10:55):
I don't think people understand the implications of what they're saying.
I mean, you'd have to be lucky to have a benevolent sort of dictator,
even though I don't think that's better.
And that's an extremely rare occurrence in history.
Usually dictators are not benevolent and they tend towards.
Yeah. Yeah. A person who wants to be a dictator, that's a certain personality type.
(11:22):
Usually. For sure. Yeah.
So what about you? Tell me a little about yourself. And how did you decide to
pursue a career in the theater?
How did I decide it? Oh, that's going back to when I was six years old.
Well, let me put it this way.
When I was six, the first play that I saw was Guys and Dolls. Oh.
(11:44):
Which is one of the great American musicals. Love it. And my dad was in it.
My dad is a career army officer. And on, uh, we, we, at that time stationed
at Fort McClellan in Alabama, and they had a little theater and they decided
to put on guys and dolls and he was nicely, nicely Johnson.
And it was really thrilling. They had me at the overture, you know,
(12:06):
and I was just like, Oh, excited.
And it was so fun all the way through. I was very inspired and I knew that I wanted to do that.
I didn't know about having a career as a performer.
I just knew I wanted to do that, what I saw and felt and experienced with the
music and the dancing and just everything.
(12:28):
So I got bitten by the bug of performing in musical theater when I was six.
When I decided that I wanted to be a professional actor, of course,
now that's later when you have that concept. And I, you know, I.
(12:49):
I was doing theater through school, through high school and in college,
while I was also, I got a vocal scholarship to San Francisco State.
And that was really, that was really helpful.
But I actually ended up getting a BA in psychology and then an MS in marriage,
(13:09):
family, child counseling.
But I was doing theater the whole time. And so once I graduated with my master's,
and I was, I had been doing both tracks, you know, at the same time.
And then I decided I wanted to just keep going with, with theater.
And, you know, and again, I pretty much everything that I do,
(13:32):
involves music, typically, not always, but mostly, even if it's not a musical,
it often has music involved.
And the first time I worked with the Mind Troupe,
i i was inspired to want to work at the mime troupe because of.
Seeing double which was michael's my
(13:54):
husband michael's first show where he was he originated
a role because he was he was a replacement actor in
rip i think it was in rip van winkle so that's why i
know that show from 1988 and so
he was in seeing double actually is it
was the mime troops show about Israel-Palestine that
(14:16):
they and they went to Israel-Palestine back in 89
but when I saw
that show I was so inspired because
there was so much stuff that I didn't know about that situation and a lot of
happened since then like you couldn't really do that show again as is because
so much stuff that was such a an optimistic show and I was just like this is amazing,
(14:43):
you know, to get to do something that has incredible music, that's really funny, that's really moving.
I'm learning stuff that I didn't get taught in school.
And I just felt like I just really wanted to have the opportunity to do that at least once.
You know, that's what I was like, just do that once, you know.
(15:03):
And then I had a chance to do a show where I was a replacement actor in 92 for a fall tour.
The original actor didn't want to do the tour.
So that was my opportunity to work with them. And then my first time originating a role was in 94.
And I've just.
(15:26):
Kept working with them because there's something about having the opportunity
to use your abilities as an actor, as a singer,
in the service of something that feels really important.
And also to be a part of the process of being able to come to new show meetings
(15:48):
and talk about experiences that you've had,
documentaries you've seen,
articles you've read like what's what's happening
in the world and everybody can bring that those
those different things to the table and kind of make
a case for you know why why we
should talk about this or that or have a character that represents this or whatever
(16:11):
and so that's really exciting to being part of the creative process yeah but
that's always been my impression of the mind troop is they have such a great
team of people who put together the, these shows.
Um, and it's such a collaborative situation and you can really tell when you,
when you see the show, because everything just sort of all fits together.
(16:36):
And it's, it's hard to do that with an original piece that you create so quickly.
Uh, usually people do something original has to go through a year or two of readings.
But you guys are able to just, make it happen every single year.
It's quite, it's quite amazing. Yeah. It is fast and it is in intense.
(16:58):
Um, most musicals do take at least two years to develop and we do a new one every year.
Yeah. I think it, it.
Part of it is that what it is we're talking about is, is, is so like of the
moment that, that it, it's, it doesn't really work to take, you know,
(17:20):
two to five years to make the thing. Yeah. Right.
A lot of stuff has happened, will have happened in the meantime.
And so you can never finish, you know? Yeah.
That's one of the great things is when you go to one of your shows,
it's, it's always about something that just recently happened.
It's, it's quite amazing. It's, It's just a lot of fun.
(17:42):
So did you have any significant challenges in your career that made you wonder
if you went the right direction or not?
Or did you, or has everything just been smooth? Well, I wouldn't say everything's
been smooth, but at the same time, I mean, you know, just because life is rarely just smooth.
(18:03):
You know, things happen in a life, you know, but.
I haven't really questioned whether or not, like, oh, did I make a mistake being an actor?
Yeah. I actually haven't had that feeling.
I've been pretty fortunate, actually, to become part of a company.
(18:30):
Because that's huge and that's rare. because there was a time when there were
a number of companies that were, that were actual, that had acting companies,
you know, ACT used to have an acting company.
So did Cal Shakes. And the Mime Troupe was sort of the other one in the area
where there was a company of actors.
(18:52):
And, and then there was a point where I guess by the nineties, then the next.
Artistic directors that came into those companies just set about dismantling
the acting companies, all of them, they all did them.
And so, yeah. And so to be, to, because that was another dream that I had,
(19:15):
you know, by the time I was finally done with school, I, you know,
I'd been in school a long time since I was like two and a half.
And finally I graduated with my master's. I'm like,
I think I think that's enough school right now my
dream was to be part of a company now that's not the easiest thing to get a
chance to get in there when there's a company right if they have the people
(19:38):
that they need and I was just fortunate to have a chance to work with the troop and.
And what I had to offer meshed with what the company needed and also was on
track with like their mission fit with my mission as a person, you know.
(20:03):
And so it just really helps. So therefore, things like the choices that a woman
who's an actor has to make around, are you going to have children?
When do you have children? You know, like that kind of when to make that leap
(20:24):
is a kind of a bigger choice.
It's a big choice for anybody, but it's a bigger choice for women, you know. Yeah.
And so the fact that Michael and I were in this company together,
we were part of the, you know, as collective members, because the collective,
by the way, is the artistic director of the company.
(20:45):
And so the company is, you know, has a family friendly part of its ethos, you know.
And so when we had Zachary, we could bring Zachary to rehearsal.
When we toured, we, you know, Zachary came with.
And so, as opposed to going, oh,
(21:07):
well, if I have this baby now, I'm automatically pressing pause on my career
because nobody wants babies in the rehearsal hall and nobody,
you know what I mean? Yes, that is wonderful.
Wow. I didn't know. I didn't know that. Yes. That's so rare that a company will
let you bring your kids. Totally.
(21:28):
And, but that, that was so,
you know, I mean, I think that, that those kinds of, you know,
questions and crisis of,
of your choice or whatever with your career, I think would, would come into
play a lot more likely if you're having to choose between,
you know, can I, can I have maintain a relationship and do this?
(21:52):
Can I have a family and do this?
Then the tension there would create a crisis that I was fortunate I didn't have
to face because I was part of a family-friendly company.
And you're both part of the same company. So that's fantastic because,
you know, I've been doing this for years myself and I've had to miss so many
(22:15):
family functions, trips, vacations.
Yes. school events and and
partly it's my wife is not in this business so recently
I've decided I'm I'm definitely taking a
turn and laying off for I don't know how long
(22:35):
cuz you know I'm already in my 60s and it's like I need to live a life that
I haven't for practically my whole adult life and see what it's like you know
yeah And so that's great that you're able to incorporate your family life into
the theater company. Yeah, I mean... That's fantastic.
Like you, though, I have missed, you know, like with extended family,
(22:59):
like both sides of, you know, my parents' families, you know, they would have...
Reunions, July 4th weekend. Yes.
That's your biggest weekend for Mime Troupe, right? I've missed just about all
of them. Yeah. The past, you know, 30 years.
Yeah. So that's, so yeah, that I, I definitely feel that.
(23:24):
That's one of the, I think that's one of the most difficult sides of being in
theater is, is you miss a lot of family events.
Yeah. And there's no way around it. Either you're rehearsing at night or,
or you, or you have a show and right.
Especially when you have a show, there's no option. You got to go to the show.
I mean, right. People are going to show up who paid for tickets. You better be there.
(23:48):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the thing that a lot of people don't understand.
So I'm always surprised when someone goes like, oh yeah, I would never marry an actor or whatever.
And it's like, well, you know, maybe you've had some battery experiences with
who you dated, you know, but that doesn't mean in general.
Like, because I think it's really hard to be in a business that's so demanding
(24:10):
with somebody that really doesn't get it at all.
It helps to be able to say we're going into tech next week and the person goes, got it. Yeah, exactly.
(24:50):
Understands. stands. Yeah, because with most jobs, if you don't show up one
day or two days or whatever, you know, you can get work around it.
But but in the theater, it makes life extremely difficult for yourself because
you're going to be behind and then it makes everything really difficult for
everyone else. And so it's just not an option.
And your time is so compressed.
(25:12):
Yeah. A lot of people don't get what that's like.
I mean, to put a show together in four weeks, you know
is is quite an amazing feat but it means you got to dedicate yourself
to the thing but it's not just us it's not just theater people i mean you know
when people during thanksgiving they're like oh let's watch the turkey day game
you're watching people who are not at the turkey day table exactly the field
(25:36):
right athletes another thing similar similar thing yeah yeah yeah.
Very similar. Yeah. And what role are you're in the play, right?
No, I'm the director this year. Oh, you're the director. Oh,
let's talk. So you just started directing a few years ago. Is that correct?
Yeah. The, my first time directing the mime troupe, you know,
(25:59):
it's like my, my primary identity has not been directing, but I direct.
You know, but I first started working as a director with the mime troupe.
It it was the the it was supposed to
be the the 20 the 2020 you know
so that was going to be my first time directing a park show and
(26:20):
then there was no park show yes so then i
ended up directing so we like i said we do
two seasons of tales of the resistance and
so it was all these episodes so radio show
that's right and i really enjoyed it by the way thank
you yeah that was that was an
amazing experience because at a
(26:42):
time when everybody like theaters are going okay theaters
are closed what are we going to do and and different different
theaters and different circumstances had different responses to it and we were
just really fortunate that because we have an in-house writer we have an in-house
composer lyricist we have an in-house sound designer like Like that's part of this part of us.
(27:07):
That's part of the, you know, that we had the plus we had, you know,
in-house actors and people who could direct. And I had said I was going to direct that season.
So it's like, OK, well, I'll direct this that week. We had the ingredients we
needed to go ahead and and make.
Radio show or scripted podcast as they're
(27:29):
called now yeah so we we had everything we
needed to just move forward and do it you know
but that pivot involved a pretty
steep learning curve we'd never done anything like that before
in terms of creating for that medium but in terms of creating original work
we've been doing that for decades yeah yeah it's mostly the technical aspects
(27:52):
of yeah creating a sound a show
that's all about sound right i mean and it sounded really professional.
Yeah yeah and keeping it visual and the sound effects
and the music and yeah and then the quality of
the sound is super important and it was really good yeah
yeah that taylor gonzalez was our
(28:13):
is our sound designer yeah did a great
job yeah when i was in england going to
school i used they still have a lot of radio plays there and
i enjoyed listening to them and it reminded me you that yeah well
Michael just happened to be a fan of radio
plays and so he was just listening to them you know
that's just something that he had been doing for you
(28:35):
know his adult life anyway and so so he was very familiar with that that art
form and so was kind of excited to have a chance to to do that and he was he
was already knowledgeable about that but we just had to to find a way to make,
to tell the story 100% auditorially.
(28:56):
So that was something that we were learning to do together.
So yeah. Because a lot of your shows are so physical. The physical comedy,
the physicality of each character is very distinct.
And it's part of the fun of watching your shows.
Now, the current show, American Dreams, when is it opening?
(29:21):
It's playing all over the Bay Area, I assume, as usual. Yes.
So it opens July 4th weekend.
It's opening the July 4th is at Dolores Park, which is our typical opening location.
And then we're going to be, I think, at Live Oak. Let me just double check.
Yeah. So then that Saturday. So Thursday is July 4th. It's a it's a Thursday.
(29:46):
Then Saturday and Sunday, we're going to be at Live Oak and Berkeley.
And so we're going to be we're going to be doing parks all over San Francisco,
Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto.
Oh, good. And yeah, kind of like all over the place.
And we're going to also going to we're also going to go to Ukiah and Katahdi. Oh.
(30:08):
Yeah. So there's going to be mostly park shows.
Right. That's our main thing. But this year, for example, we're going to be
indoors for some of those locations like Davis that can be very hot and Ukiah that can be very hot.
We're indoors this year.
So that makes it so that there can be like air conditioning and it's not,
(30:32):
you know, because it can be 100 degrees, you know, in Davis and Ukiah.
So, but mostly we're going to be in parks all over the place and probably a park near you.
Well, I know that I will. Usually you go to Mitchell Park in Palo Alto.
Right. Hopefully that's where you're going again, because I live like two minutes away.
(30:57):
This is the Coverley Community Center. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Road. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's it.
Well, that's similar. That's just like a block from Mitchell Park.
And then a new thing, actually, is we're going to be at the Bruins Theater. Cal Shakes is.
Oh. Oh, you know, we're going to be there. Wow. Nice.
(31:19):
Yeah. On Thursday, July 18th. That's a beautiful outdoor theater.
Yeah. Yeah. And so that space, it is, it's a ticket sales situation,
$20 a ticket to go to the Cal Shake space. Oh, I see. Cause usually it's free.
Yeah. Unless people, but then you're really good. You're really good at fundraising too.
(31:42):
Well, I mean. I mean, I love how you do your fundraising at the end.
It's really, it's a lot of fun. And actually you want to give.
Yeah. Yeah. Pass the hat because, you know, our idea is that we don't want to
create something that is, is out of reach of anyone that wants to see the show.
So we, it's past the hat. We, it's a $20 per person suggested donation, right?
(32:09):
You know, but if you, if you can't put anything in the hat. And we don't want
to be like, okay, get out.
So everybody can come in there for their people who don't pay anything.
And then we have people who put a check in for $1,000.
It has to do with what you can do. Whatever you can do, please do.
(32:32):
Because that makes it so we can continue to do the work. Yeah. Great.
And people can go to your website to find out all the information about this. Yeah. SFMT.org.
Okay.
If you don't remember that, just search for San Francisco Mime Troupe.
(32:52):
Yeah is there anything else you'd like to share today velena with the audience.
Um well i think i i
talked about the show yeah and we learned a
little about you yeah and which is always fun and
i just encourage people to go
it's a lot of fun you guys always do a great job and it's
(33:14):
a nice day outside and it'll make you laugh and
it'll also make you think and and often
a great combination when you come to a park often there
are people who are working on whatever the issues are that we're talking about
in the show and so if you feel like okay now i understand what's going on about
this i think i do want to get involved there's often a table that you can go
(33:37):
to that someone can help you take the next step to get to get more
involved and take action. Great.
Love it. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you.
I appreciate it. You're welcome.
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