The Play's the Thing
Strange Travel / A "feel-good tragedy"
Ages ago, it seems, I stood in the spotlight and performed a one-man show. Strange Travel Suggestions premiered at The Marsh in San Francisco in October 2003, and continued with a series of successful runs in San Francisco and the East Bay for about 12 years.* Inspired by the Tarot (specifically the Fool’s journey), the conceit was to recreate the often serendipitous experience of travel through a solo show that relied, for its narrative, on a huge Wheel of Fortune. The wheel, designed by artist Mark Wagner, had 30 stops. Audience members would come up, submit to a brief interview, grab the wheel’s edge, and give it a spin. Each stop on the wheel held a symbol, which stood not for a specific story but for a theme: e.g., The Celestial Sphere; Impossible Situations; Unexpected Gifts; (un)Happy Meals.
It was joyous fun. For each theme, I could tell one of several stories. Nobody, including myself, knew where any of the performances would take us. It was possible that, during the course of a 90-minute show we would visit places as far-flung as Iran, Alaska, Burning Man and Tibet.
Early in 2021, I released my seventh book. 108 Beloved Objects is about the necessity of letting go — not just of our material objects, but of everything we are attached to — including, ultimately our very lives. Featuring tales and images, the book was, in a sense, an attempt to put Strange Travel Suggestions into book form. It was released near the end of the pandemic, in a signed and numbered edition of 108 hardback copies — each including a tiny sculpture by the gifted poet and artist Silvi Alcivar.
At around the same time, The Marsh invited me to re-stage Strange Travel Suggestions as a Zoom event. This was about a year into my Parkinson's diagnosis, and I realized that setting up the enormous wheel was no longer an option for me. And so the show evolved into a different form. Based on my new book, it invited a different kind of interactivity. The audience would see a colorful grid of 16 objects, drawn from those in the book. A volunteer would join me on stage and, after a brief interview, click anywhere on the grid. The software would play a jig, randomly select an object — and I’d tell an appropriate story. The show premiered via Zoom in May 2021 (the video can be purchased from The MarshStream).
The last time I performed 108 Beloved Objects was live on stage in 2022, as part of Brian Copeland's wonderful “Best of Solo SF” series at the San Leandro Main Library. Now Brian’s series is back, and so am I — again in the library’s lovely theater, on the eve of Saturday May 31 and for a Sunday matinee on June 1. Come if you can! Tickets will be $40 at the door.
Am I nervous? You bet I am. Performing with Parkinson's — especially given my mobility issues — is scary. But performing about Parkinson's, I imagine, is even scarier. That’s why I was amazed to hear about a show that is playing for a single performance only – today, April 13th – at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center. Written by Matthew Moore, and starring Moore and the versatile Krista Stauffer (who plays five roles), What I Didn’t Say is a candid exploration of Moore's own experience with his early-onset Parkinson's diagnosis, and the path it forged through his life. During the past two and a half years there have only been about 40 performances, in eight states. In the likely event you’ll miss this show, a well-produced video is rentable for individuals and groups via Moore’s show site.
After seeing the show, I spoke with Moore at his home in Columbus, Ohio.
Jeff G - What led you to write and perform your experience with Parkinson’s as a live stage play?
Matthew Moore - I was doing a lot of Shakespeare in the Park and local acting gigs, but my tremor was getting worse — to the point where it was really distracting for the audience. But I didn't want my acting career to end. So I wrote my own play; one in which my Parkinson's symptoms wouldn't matter.
Jeff - Are the tremors we see during the play your actual tremors, happening in real time?
Matthew - Yeah... That's why that's why I sit on my hand in the first scene; because people are supposed to be looking at my foot tapping, not at my hand tremoring! I have little tricks like that all the way through.
Jeff - What were the most challenging things about staging this play?
Matthew - Well, I interviewed twelve people to create these characters. It's a tapestry of all of them — including care partners, and even a couple of neurologists. But it was very difficult to both put and not put myself into the play. The character “Paul” is not me exactly, but he has many elements of me. So writing it was about writing and crying, writing and crying. It was cathartic. I had to kind of go through the desert to get to the other side.
Jeff – Even so, I’m sure it was impossible to capture all the nuances of the PD experience.
Matthew – Yeah, a lot of people come up to me and say the play ought to include this, and this, and this — and I agree. But there are so many possibilities, and it's impossible to dig into each one of them.
Jeff – And the landscape is constantly changing.
Matthew - Isn't that the way with this ridiculous disease? Every day I get up and, like, Something’s happening to me... is this Parkinson's?
Jeff - Can you say something about the other shows you do?
Matthew - I'm doing one called John's Gospel. I've selected portions of the scriptures to make it into a show, of which roughly 50 or 60% comes from the Book of John. I used to perform it, beginning to end, in 40 minutes. I can't do that anymore. So I innovated: I hired a cellist. I perform for five or 10 minutes, then the cellist plays for 10 minutes, while I sit down and sip some water and look at my script. We go back and forth.
Jeff - I love that.
Matthew – I also have a stand-up comedy routine that I perform. I'm not the world’s greatest stand-up comic, but I think that PD patients need to laugh, like everyone else. And you can only laugh at something if you're separated from it. Laughing at Parkinson's is healthy for me — in the sense that I'm observing it from afar, instead of wallowing in the throes of it.
Jeff - Regarding John’s Gospel: Are you a deeply religious person, or do Bible stories simply fascinate you ?
Matthew - I used to be an extremely religious person. Now I'm more of an open-minded, spiritual person.
Jeff - Did Parkinson's have anything to do with that?
Matthew - I think, yes. Because when it comes to blaming God for what's happening in your life, well, you have to work through that.
Jeff - What’s the future of “What I Didn’t Say?”
Matthew - Well, we’re actively changing the stage play into a screenplay.
Jeff - That must be exciting.
Matthew - It’s very exciting, except that I have the same problem as I did with the play: Writing a story that’s so much my own is difficult. It's all about what I hope, and what I hate. My personal story is too sad to make into a movie. But we're trying — and we’ve talked long and hard about how to label the movie script. Is it a comedy? a tragedy? We determined it was a “feel good tragedy.” ... But my own reality is that there's no “feel good.” It's just tragic.
Matthew’s personal experience is different from my own; in part, I imagine, because my PD was not early onset. I was able to do the majority of my life’s traveling, and travel writing, before the tightening of Parkinson’s made itself felt. But Moore and his show are inspiring to me. And although I won’t have a cellist with me in San Leandro (though not a bad idea), I hope I still have the vocal capacity to project, and the agility of wit to keep the audience entertained — if not enthralled. I’m sure y’all will let me know.
Thanks, as always, for reading. And please consider supporting this work, at any fiscal level, by becoming one of my beloved paid subscribers.
* During an early run of Strange Travel Suggestions, KQED’s Dave Iverson interviewed me about the show and my process. You can listen to the recording here.
I first met you at one of your one-man shows at The Marsh SF, in 2003?! Doesn't seem possible that so much time has gone by, but I'm happy to hear you're performing again. <3
You’re fearless, Jeff! Always loved the wheel and now this is so creative!