Interview with Brett Love

Brett Love is easy to recognize. He has a badass beard and carries his motorcycle helmet with him when he attends performances. He also self identifies as "giant," in reference to his definitely above-average height, so he's hard to miss. He's also an astoundingly regular feature in Seattle audiences. I knew he saw a lot of shows, but I had no idea just how many. After we both attended the first Blood Ensemble theatre salon discussion group, I learned that he's also well-spoken and opinionated, so I thought it would be fun to pick the brain of the guy who sees more plays than just about anyone in this city. 

INTRODUCTION

Beau: Hi, Brett!

Brett: Hi Beau.

Beau: How many plays do typically see a week?

Brett: Over the last four years I've been to an average of 4 and a half events a week, but that also includes music, film, and dance. But the bulk of it is theatre, so my best guess would be 3 a week for plays.

Beau: If you can give me an average that includes a .5, it seems like you must keep pretty close track of what you see.

Brett: Yes, I keep a yearly list on Facebook. If you go to my profile and look at the notes there are lists for 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. I also have a top ten shows of the year for 2010, 11, and 12.

Beau: So, is 2010 when you started keeping track? Or is it when you made some kind of commitment to being a very consistent patron of the arts?

Brett: Both really. I had been seeing the occasional play before that, but in the spring of 2010 I saw the single greatest piece of entertainment I have ever seen: KT Niehoff's A Glimmer Of Hope Or Skin Or Light. That show is what set me on this crazy path. From that point I've just gone to see more and more in every form and style I can find.

Beau: What got you to see that particular show?

Brett: All of the goings on leading up to it. KT had a bunch of different events that were pre-cursors to the actual show at ACT. Somehow I stumbled across them on the internet and I got curious. So, I threw caution to the wind and went just to see what would happen. Here's a link to the Glimmer page. 

Beau: Without making you give a review, can you tell me something about that show that made such an impression on you?

Brett: It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, or have seen since, and the relationship with the audience was such a primary focus. That made it fascinating. It was also done in such a way that you could see it again and have a completely different experience. Which is why I saw it all three weekends it played.

Beau: Wow!

Brett: I'm just a smidge obsessed with it. I still carry all three of those tickets with me everywhere I go. Which isn't creepy. Right?

Beau: Nah. What were you doing with your free evenings before you started attending performances so consistently?

Brett: Watching a lot more TV. I spent about 7 years writing for AOL and CliqueClack about television as a side gig. I think I've written over a million words about television actually. Which is a little mind-boggling.

Beau: Damn. But it also means that you're a more engaged audience member, I would think, as a critical thinker and so on, because of that

Brett: I think so. It lets me look at things in a different way. But it's also why I don't really review theatre. I became a bit jaded about television.

Beau: So how much TV do you watch these days?

Brett: Not nearly as much. I have a few favorite shows that I see all the episodes of, but it's nothing like it was then where I was following multiple shows every night. Now I might go all week without actually being home to watch anything.

Beau: What's a play you'd like to see, that you've heard of or read, etc, that you haven't seen or that hasn't been done here?

Brett: The play I most want to see produced at the moment is Stephanie Timm's Redress Party.

Beau: Why?

Brett: It's just a really great script. It's funny to start, and it takes this really bizarre turn that gets a little bit creepy. And it's got four or five really great parts in it.

That's from the quite likely to happen file. If I'm being all crazy, I really want to see a gender-swapped True West. So, Lee and Austin are sisters.

Beau: That's probably more what I was looking for, and that's really intriguing!

Brett: Why for True West? I think that play would be fascinating if you saw all of that craziness coming from two women.

Beau: And is Redress in development?

Brett: Yes, Stephanie just had another reading of it last weekend as part of the Seattle Rep Writers Group.

Beau: Where did the True West idea come from?

Brett: I saw a really good production of it at Balagan a few years ago and became a fan of the play. Then later I heard about Seattle Public doing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with two actresses in those parts and I thought, that sounds good. But I would much rather see that happen with True West.

Beau: Really, Shepherd's other works aside, one thing I really strongly associate with that play is a very strong masculine dynamic, what they talk about, the way they talk, and so on, that would be really affected with gender flipped casting.

Brett: It would. I think one of the challenges would be how much, or how little, it's changed to fit the swap.

Beau: What's the most successful gender flip you've seen?

Brett: For one part, I thought Dayo Anderson was fantastic as Hamlet. I had some other issues with that particular production, but was captivated by her performance.

Beau: So, other than True West, since you mentioned it, what's a show that you've seen, and maybe even liked, but that you want to see a different version of?

Brett: Oh, another that comes to mind is Danielle Daggerty as River Phoenix in c.1993.

Possibly not what you are looking for, but I'm always up to see a new version of Rocky Horror. Open Circle did a version a couple years ago that went really dark with it, and I thought it was received pretty well.

Oh, here ya go. Poona The Fuckdog. I would really like to see someone tackle that again.

Beau: What's the farthest you've gone to see a show?

Brett: I took a motorcycle trip to see Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. I caught the one night the tour snuck into Washington. So, right at the Washington/Idaho border.

Beau: What'd you see?

Brett: Much Ado About Nothing. After that it would be Bellingham to see My Fair Lady.

Beau: What show would you say you've seen the most?

Brett: I think it would be Rocky Horror. I saw that by Open Circle, The Schoolyard, ArtsWest, Second Story, and the Can Can Castaways.

Beau: Is there a runner up?

Brett: I saw Glimmer and BJ A Musical Romp three times each. Oh, and I saw Balagan’s Dr. Horrible three times. Twice at Balagan, once at ACT.

Beau: What was the last show you went out of your way to see a second time?

Brett: Undo.

Beau: I assume that's still your favorite show of the year thus far?

Brett: I'm debating it. It's neck and neck with Marie Chouinard's Rites Of Spring at the moment.

Beau: Both definitely in your top ten for 2013, though I take it?

Brett: Yes, they are 1A and 1B at the moment. I actually keep the top ten list as I go through the year so I don't discount things that appeared in the early part of the year.

Beau: Very sensible. Can you talk about those two shows a bit, why they made such an impression?

Brett: Undo is just a fabulously written play. It's a really simple idea that you get immediately, but you're still so curious to see how it's going to play out. And they cast it really well. There were a lot of great performances in it.

And Rites Of Spring is just something that you have to see to believe. It's magical to gaze upon. And this production was helped by having the UW orchestra playing live with them. To give you an idea of the imagery.

Beau: Is there a show that got away?

Brett: I think there was one Tuesday, actually. Amy O’Neal curated a night of dance performances for SIDF that was full of my favorite dancers, but I was not up to going out.

In theatre, I don't think so. Generally, the runs are long enough that I do eventually make it to all the shows I want to see.

Beau: Is there a particular company or theater in town that you regularly have higher hopes or expectations of than others?

Brett: Probably On The Boards. Although that is more higher hopes with lowered expectations. The nature of what they do makes it really hit and miss. Usually, over the course of the year I'll find a couple OtB shows at the top of my list, and at least one way down at the bottom.

Beau: And that's the nature of the risks they take?

Brett: Yeah, they swing for the fences. There is no worry about whether or not it's actually going to work, or if it's something the audience will like. They pick the shows and put them up and let the cards fall where they may. So you end up getting things on the stage there that you can't see anywhere else in town. And when it works, it's amazing. But the price is that occasionally, something is going to miss. I think we come out ahead in the end for it though, and I wouldn't have them change a thing.

Beau: Would you say they're taking the most risks at the moment, then?

Brett: Yeah, if you consider the wide canyon between something like Catherine Cabeen's Fire, a dance piece that was so polished and perfect, and False Peach, theatre run amok. You are not going to find that kind of variety and experimentation anywhere else.

Beau: Totally. What range of shows do you go to? Do you go to the 5th? Do you go to high school or college stuff?

Brett: My general rule is that I will go see anything. I don't rule anything out because of who is doing it or where it is, but there are only so many days you can go see a show. The range goes from the 5th, down to a 4th grade production in north Seattle.

I've been to a few high school shows as well, and some of the UW Drama stuff.

Beau: What was the 4th grade show?

Brett: Stranded. The story of a soccer team that crash lands on an island in the Bermuda Triangle. Written and performed by the 4th grade class.

They even made the posters. 

Beau: And how did you wind up there?

Brett: It was part of Macha Monkey's Monkey Works program. I'm on their board, so when I heard about it I had to see what this would be. It was really fun.

Beau: Do you have other specific involvement in theater, like being on MM's board?

Brett: I'm a nominator for the Gregory Awards, and I am one of the Live Girls' Peeps, meaning that I volunteer for them, because the Live Girls are awesome.

Beau: So does that mean you have Gregory stuff in mind when you see a lot of the shows you see?

Brett: Well, kind of. The way the nominator process works means I am not scoring every show I see for the awards. Only a certain number of nominators will score a given show. So I am only scoring the shows that I am assigned, which is less than a tenth of the shows I actually see.

Of course, the way the mind works, you are always comparing and contrasting things in your head either way.

Beau: How long have you been doing the gregories?

Brett: This is my second year. I would have to check the rules, but I believe that you can be a nominator for up to three years.

Beau: How well do you feel the awards represent seattle's theater for any given year?

Brett: I thing they do as good a job as any awards system does. Given the nature of theatre, or art in general, we're all going to like different things. I think Kittens In A Cage was the best show in town last year. You probably disagree. Neither of us are wrong. So the Gregory's are taking on an impossible task, and handling it as well as can be expected.

Beau: Are there cases when shows like Kittens get passed over because they're too fringey or risky, like you said the OTB stuff is?

Brett: I wouldn't say passed over. That's actually something that the new nominator system is designed to prevent. The way it works now is that every show has the same chance to be scored, regardless of whether it's fringe, or at the Rep, or a big 5th Ave musical.

But I still think that the nature of a show being fringe probably means that it has less chance at an award, simply because it is fringe. If it was the thing that the most people liked, it wouldn't be fringe, right?

Beau: What space do you like the most or feel the most welcome or comfortable in?

Brett: Well, my favorite space is Annex, simply because I have seen more of my favorite shows there than anywhere else. Not just from them, but as rentals as well.

I'm not really picky about the accommodations if I'm going to see something great.

I once went to a hole in the wall space and sat on a wooden bench at 2 a.m. on a Wednesday because I was going to see two dancers I really like work together.

Beau: That is some commitment

Brett: Yep, and it was really cool.

Beau: Why 2 a.m.?

Brett: It was part of a project Jessie Smith was doing. She was bringing different artists to work with all day. They would come in, rehearse something, then open it up for a public performance. Then another artist would come in, create something, etc. It worked out that the version I really wanted to see was at 2am.

It was called Trios.

Beau: Anything you'd like to add or something you would like to talk about?

Brett: Nothing really comes to mind, other than I would encourage everyone to go see something out of the blue for no other reason than to see what happens. Sometimes, that's where you find the really good stuff.