Interview with KPCC's Alex Cohen

January 14th 2010
By: Alex Cohen
Source: SOURTHEN CAL. PUBLIC RADIO
Credits: Url-girl
Edited by: Marcy

Gale: He's a bit of a hustler -- in the best and the worst sense of the word -- and he's trying to, um, change. He gets waylaid in this town and, uh, he meets this woman, uh, lady, who owns this mercantile store, Lady Torrance. And they have some things in common that they discover during the play, when they find out that, uh, they kinda come from the same place, spiritually, I think, emotionally.

KPCC: Right now when you said he's trying to change, you winced a little bit when you said that. Do you know what that's about in that character?

GALE: I'm thinking about him, uh, me and him. He says to Lady this first night he meets her, he says, um, "Through with the life I've been leading. I've lived in the corruption, but I'm not corrupted. And this why my life's companion i- uh, my guitar, it washes me clean like water after anything unclean has touched me." And I think that he really... he loves music and it's all that he lives for. But just to survive and just because he's on his own, he's had to come up with some interesting ways to get paid, you know, that's not just playing and singing. [laughs]

KPCC: This is not one of Tennesse Williams' better known plays, and as I understand it, he worked on Orpheus Descending for something like 17 years. What about this play do you think required that much work and what about it appeals to you?

GALE: Well, it originated as Battle of Angels, I believe, which was, went down very early and he, uh, had a really... it was tough, very tough for him. And he actually says in his own words that he never stopped working on this play, ever. Because it kept growing and changing, and I think it was such an ambitious thing to try an, you know, an ad-- if you would even call it an adapt- an adaptation - of this Greek myth that's so, you know, kinda staggering and important and difficult to think about adapting that into the late '50s and the American South. So there's so many subtextural things going on, I think that the fascinating thing about it is that it is happening in the '50s in the Mississippi, but it's about this much bigger, you know, kind of eternal idea about, you know, making art and, uh, being free and, uh, it's very pre-Christian, you know. There's not these judgments about morality and I think that might've been a good thing for him to see to kind of idealize because he was really-- he struggled, you know, a lot, not being able to be free and, um. So and I think, you know, it's kind of, when you put that up in the '50s, in the '60s, in the United States at the time, it's kinda hard to tell that story without people being either very confused, 'cause it's difficult to put it up, you know. It's difficult to make it an honest, truthful, simple performance about rural America at the time, but knowing [laugh] the myth that you're up against, right, or that you're working with. So I think it's just daunting and I think it can be very possibly confusing and probably very difficult to bring out all the, you know, the latent ideas that are in it -- the racism, the sexuality, the... the American ideal, you know. It's tough. It's-- He was going for pretty much all the icons, you know, and he pulled them all down, which is beautiful. And he put 'em back up in a great way, so.

KPCC: Actors are supposed to be able to channel into any role despite whatever their actual real biographical background might be, but you're actually from the South. Do you think that helps you tap into the understanding of Tennessee Williams in a different way?

GALE: I-I'm not sure how... it... does on the real deep level that I'm still trying to find yet -- I mean, I haven't found that yet -- but I think, cadence-wise, the rhythm of his dialogue, the different, um, rhythms between the different characters, um, some of it is very country and very rural, some of it's, um, more Metropolitan, if that's the word. There-- You know, you've got a girl that would've grew up on a plantation who's very wealthy, you have some very poor people, and you've got some very dangerous people in this play. And then you have, you know, Uncle Pleasant, who is in a whole other level. And then my character, because he's from the Bayou and ended up in New Orlean, he has his own dialect -- they call him a "peculiar talker" -- he talks a little backwards, almost like a French-Italian kind of mélange; you know, like the verbs and the nouns are put out of place. Like when you hear-- when you translate something from Spanish or Italian, it's like, "Wow, how--", you know. So it's-- I mean, for me, right now, that's the thing that I really have some grip on, is like, hearing that. I fall into that very easily, even though I don't really understand what I'm saying, I think we're all discovering, "What am I saying tonight?", you know? I just f-- realized that these people are all speaking to each other in almost, um, like a chamber or like an orchestral kind of way and it's so beautiful and it's very hypnotic to even just say it, you know? So, maybe that?

KPCC: Gale Harold, I understand that before you got into acting you had a number of other jobs -- interesting jobs -- according to Wikipedia, at least--

GALE: *snortlaugh*

KPCC: --you were once a Ducati motorcycle mechanic, is that correct?

GALE: No. I have worked on Ducatis and I have ridden them avidly, but I worked primarily on Moto Guzzi, another Italian, and--

KPCC: But you were a motorcycle mechanic?

GALE: I was not a mechanic, I was a... amateur restorer and I did work in shops and sold parts and helped people. But it was, that was more of, as a functionary role. I love motorcycles and have for a long time and at one time I did try to do that professionally as a way to just survive financially in an interesting way. Cos I was running outta money and, um, seemed like a good idea. That's that story.

KPCC: Lesson learned. Never trust Wikipedia. What has been the most interesting non-acting job that you've ever worked?

GALE: Uuuuuuum... I used to drive an ice-cream truck when I lived in Atlanta. And, uh, I remember one day when I was doing that, listening to... you know, I've got the ice cream music and then I had my little, uh, beatbox in there that I was listening to, and I was, uh, very dirty and smelly and sweaty and had pretty long hair and ssssome little kid said something about, um, Guns & Roses [laughs].. and it was like, "Does this kid think maybe I'm in Guns & Roses or something..." And he just wanted a Bomb Pop, a three-stage, so... I gave it to him. And he dropped it on the ground. And it exploded, just like a bomb does. [laughs]

KPCC: What's next for you, after Orpheus Descending?

GALE: I don't know right now. I don't know. Um. We shall see. I mean, I'm really just, you know, nervous and excited and terrified right now, until we get up and get going. So I don't know, I don't know.

KPCC: Gale Harold appears in Orpheus Descending at Theater/Theatre. Thank you very much.

GALE: Thank you!