Middletown >> Armed with only a pencil — and perhaps a computer keyboard — Natalie Smith is weaving together 85 Valley Fire experiences into one cohesive performance art piece. The theater production, titled “It Was So Sudden, I Wasn’t Prepared,” will open at the Middletown Art Center (MAC) on September 12, the one year anniversary of the Valley Fire.
Until then there is much work to do. Though the production is fully conceived, Smith is still in the writing stages, with approximately 30 percent of the script still to finish. And once she finds her cast she plans to workshop her script with the actors. It will make the production a true community piece.
“Everybody who will come and be part of this will have experienced the Valley Fire in one shape or another,” Smith said.
For about three months Smith has been working on “It Was So Sudden, I Wasn’t Prepared.” She began by setting up a survey containing 10 questions, including “Where were you when the fire broke out?” and “What did feel the first night away?” Over two and a half months Smith gathered 85 responses. From those she took key stories and common experiences to use as focal points for the production.
The show won’t be entirely non-fictional, however. Smith constructed a few scenes from her imagination, using common themes and ideas gained from the survey. One such scene features characters in Hidden Valley Lake watching the fire whip across Hwy. 29. They discuss how the fire will never cross the highway, convinced their houses will be safe.
Many people engaged in similar conversations on the night of September 12, Smith found.
“It Was So Sudden, I Wasn’t Prepared” will be a far cry from a community production of “Into the Woods.” Instead, Smith is taking a postmodern, poetic approach. One scene will include five actors on a dark stage, each delivering a line stating where they were when the fire began. They will be faceless and unrecognizable, with only their voices carrying through the darkness.
Throughout the production, the actors will play various roles, as opposed to a single character. The show will also incorporate movement and dancing as well as multimedia elements such as video, projectors and sound effects.
Smith’s aim is that the non-traditional style will lend itself to a more authentic performance, one that captures the mood and emotions of Lake County. “I’m hoping that they [the audience] will recognize themselves in some way, but … it’s not just a one person story, this is much bigger,” she explained. “I think I can cast the net wider by doing what I’m doing.”
Most people in Lake County were affected by the fire in one way or another, and many are still healing. Smith wants to contribute to the recovery. “I felt strongly I wanted to do a piece that brings people together in their common experience. Everybody had a very, very intense experience,” she said. “Theater can be a voice for healing and that’s how I conceived the piece originally.”
With an MFA in directing from the University of Montana, Smith has a long history in theater and 40 plays under her belt. But for the past six years she’d stepped away from the stage to raise her daughters in Hidden Valley Lake. The fire was enough to bring Smith out of her directorial hiatus.
“I’m finding now that I really want to give this experience a voice,” she said. “This experience that was so devastating for so many people, I want to contribute to the healing process for our community.”
“It Was So Sudden, I Wasn’t Prepared” will be the first theater performance at the MAC. The art center is in the process of converting their back room to a viable theater space and Smith said they still need donations including chairs, funds, lighting and a sound board. But Smith is most focused on her script, ensuring it is as authentic as she can make it.
Auditions take place Monday April 18th and Tuesday April 19th at the MAC at 6 p.m. They are looking for children aged 5-12 and men and women 18-80 as well as movement artists and dancers. Email Smith at nanismith@mac.com or visit www.middletownartcenter.org/theatre.html for more information.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
