Wreckage: Laughing Through the Ruins — SF Mime Troupe’s Bold New Musical with Lisa Hori-Garcia

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Hello, everybody. Thanks for joining Green Room On Air today,

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and I'm Ray Renati, your host.

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My guest today is Lisa Horry-Garcia. She's an actor, director,

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and educator, and a longtime member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

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For more than 20 years, she's been helping create bold, funny,

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thought-provoking theater, while also working with young people to find their

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own voices through the arts.

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I'm excited to talk with her about theater, activism, creativity,

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and what she's learned from a career spent bringing stories to life.

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And also the Mime Troops new show that is going to be playing this summer.

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Lisa, welcome to the podcast.

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Thank you so much, Ray. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate the time,

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the platform to be able to share with your audience a little bit of what's going,

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what we're cooking up over here at the Mime Troop with our summer show.

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Yeah. Tell us what's happening with the summer show and how far it's gotten

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and what it's going to be about and what it's called.

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Okay. Okay. Let's see. How much can I tell you? Let's see. What do I know?

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The show, the 2026 summer show is called Wreckage, a musical tragic comedy.

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It's, as always, it's free in the parks.

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What do I tell you? It is, Oh, I do have.

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A little talking point here it is it is a show centering around a bleak situation

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which i think that is what,

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the current situation and what all of us are living in is what that's,

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reflecting back it's the literal wreckage of our country and our democratic

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ideals but in true mime troop style It's balanced with music and comedy, and hopefully it will.

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Bring a little hope to all of us who, I can speak for myself,

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it's hard to wake up every day and be inundated with,

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the latest news and updates of what's happening everywhere.

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And let me, I guess what I can also share is, you know, we're a collectively

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run company and we get together at the beginning of each year,

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we call them story meetings.

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We're just generating ideas. We're talking about things that are top of mind

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for each of us in the company.

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And as we're reflecting from our own perspectives and our lives.

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Trying to get a sense of, you know, taking the temperature, if you will,

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figuring out like what would be a relevant topical theme to,

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dig into that'll still feel very top of mind for folks by the time the summer hits.

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And this year was tough.

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It was really hard. There were so many things that I feel like,

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with this administration and the level of just throwing things and distractions and,

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wars and detention centers and protests and people being murdered and American

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citizens being murdered in the streets and things that are happening with the

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education and what's happening with the environment and what's going on with,

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our produce and our gas prices.

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And I mean, the list goes on and on, not to mention Epstein files,

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which don't look over there, don't look behind the curtain.

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So it just felt like, how do we focus in on one thing?

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What is the one thing that will feel like it is the topic by the time the summer

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rolls around and we're touring in parks around Northern California?

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And I think what we all collectively came to is there is no single issue.

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It is a collective state of mind that we are.

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All of these things are swirling around us and the wreckage of it all as we

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look in different directions in our lives personally.

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We send that out to our family members, to our larger community,

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to what's happening in our state and in the nation overall.

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So what I feel like we ended up landing on is as this world becomes increasingly

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fragmented and unstable,

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what do we do with that feeling?

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It makes most of us, especially in that meeting room, it made us reflect on

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how we just didn't want to turn on the news, didn't want to get out of bed, didn't want to...

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As a member of the Mind Troop, though, one of the things is you have to keep

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up with the news, right? I know.

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I know. You have no choice. I know. So I think underneath all of that, we realized that maybe,

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what we needed in the room and maybe what we can share and bring out to our

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audience is that feeling of,

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got to find some hope and got to feel the community.

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We can't do this alone. So if we're surrounded by this wreckage,

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can we build something new from it? But we can't do it individually,

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but it does start with the individual.

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And like you mentioned, we got to make it, it is going to be political.

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We're going to have some satire. It's got to be funny at a time when we were feeling not very funny.

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It's got to feel ultimately like there's a grain of something there that everybody can hold on to.

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And I think this year for me personally, the show felt like it's like what I

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needed. What was the remedy that I was looking for?

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Because I was having a hard time showing up for my life some days because it's

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just so depressing. Yeah.

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Every day is a new catastrophe. Yeah.

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You could have one character who's like navigating through life meeting one

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catastrophe after another.

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Well in wreckage we're following four different characters we wanted to really give a sense of,

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different aspects of the wreckage that people are experiencing.

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And then universally, you may be sitting in the audience and be like,

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well, that's not me, or that's not what I'm experiencing specifically,

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but that this is more of a collective looking around.

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Yeah, all of these things are touching me on some level.

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And I think that we, like I said, I think we're not offering any answers to

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like, this is what we need to do next.

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It's more reflection of what do we need to make happen?

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One thing that we talked a lot about in the room with all of the designers and

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artists and actors and musicians is what do we need to let go of?

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Like on an individual level.

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We don't want to destroy the whole thing, but there are certain comforts and

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possessions and even ways that we, our lifestyle, that we may have to consider seriously,

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letting that go in order to be able to start.

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Collectively rebuilding our society and and leaning into democracy one more

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time but like what kinds of things would you have to let go of.

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I think that that's up to the individual and I'm hoping that that's what these

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four storylines that we present in Wreckage will help.

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We see how these four people, what they have to contend with and the insights,

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that they gain from their situations and looking forward into the future.

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We don't know at the end. This is not a happy ending, per se.

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We don't know what's going to happen to these characters at the end.

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We're not going to know what's going to happen to them until there's some kind

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of a societal change or shift.

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But I think that that dot, dot, dot is kind of what we're all living in right now.

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Just speaking for, like, what is possibly going to happen next?

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And how are we going to get out of this? What is the next theme?

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What about AI? How do you feel about that? Oof, how do we feel about AI? Listen.

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So yeah, we're exploring lots of different storylines, introducing lots of different

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themes, navigating the world around us.

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That includes AI, misinformation, the political division that we're living in,

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you know, looking at historical memory through the lens of one of our characters

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who she was born and her parents were in a Japanese internment camp,

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at Tule Lake during World War II here in California.

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We're also looking at community responsibility.

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The AI piece of it.

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It's even doing the research for this, right? Every time we're like, all right, here we go.

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What's the latest happenings in the AI world? Every single day.

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Oh, here we go. Anthropic has gone public. Oh, Elon Musk is doing this trillion. He's a trillion.

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Trillionaire now. You know, we're watching documentaries. We're trying to keep

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up on the latest research on it.

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It's swirling around us and i think we're there's definitely a strong commentary

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that we make about that where,

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you know i think that what sorry that i'm all over the place it's also because

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i'm very excited about this piece,

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i think that we're also trying to give people a chance to to see where they fit into these stories.

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And we have one character who is,

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a developer in Silicon Valley, and he's really grappling with,

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I came into this world, into Silicon Valley now,

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as a software developer to do, to create things that were going to be really.

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That were going to help people, that were going to help individuals,

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that were going to assist and be tools, that were going to make life a little easier.

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And through the course of meeting him, we realized things that he had developed

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in the 90s and the way that they have now turned, instead of just a simple GPS,

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now it has been turned into tracking devices that everybody has in their pockets, their phones.

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And he's like, that's not what I came in here to do. It's not about surveillance,

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not about tracking people.

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I just wanted to do good in the world.

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And the next level of AI is introduced when we have this character named Claudine

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that he has been part of the development team for and we see how she becomes more and more she talks,

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she has online she's like i'm always on you can't turn me off,

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and the characters are like no no no i i don't want you on i don't want you

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listening and they try to turn their devices off and then she pops up she's

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like always on always on they're like no,

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stop with this madness but we are in this madness now.

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Like that is the reality. So we have a commentary about AI in there.

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I was just reading an article in the New York Times yesterday.

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The world's leading, well, America's leading Forsenics person for electronic

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surveillance and other fake, deep fakes and things like that.

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He's so frustrated because he can't even tell anymore what's real and what isn't.

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People are constantly sending him videos and pictures to,

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from war and and other things and he can't tell if they're real,

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um and he and his wife were living in berkeley he got so sick of it he moved

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to a cabin in the hills of vermont to try to get away from it all but he's still

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getting these emails from all over the world and it's driving him nuts and.

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That's just an aside. No, this is great.

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If you don't mind, if I can sort of go off the path for just a second.

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So I've been at the Mime Troupe now since early 2000.

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And I came into the company as an actor. And, you know, we wear tons.

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We wear lots of hats when we come here. And one of the hats that I got to wear

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as soon as I walked in the door was through the educational wing.

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We have a youth program and I came in as a teaching artist and then shortly

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thereafter became the program director of our youth project.

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And it's one of the things that I feel has helped me stay connected to,

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you know, youth culture, pop culture, how they're talking, what's top of mind for them.

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And this year, our spring YTP cohort created a piece that was centered around AI.

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They had these conversations. They had their own little writer's room.

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You know, what are we going to write a show about? What's, you know,

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what's relevant to us as, you know, 12 to 18 year olds?

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And they're throwing around different ideas. Like, you know,

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we hate ice. We hate this. We hate that.

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And then one student said, I don't know if anyone else has had this experience, but.

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I've had some really uncomfortable exchanges online in different gaming platforms,

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like different platforms and apps.

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And this is a young person who...

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The other ones in the room turned to her and were like, I have two.

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And then they started sharing very personal stories about their experiences.

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And through that conversation they realized,

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you know are people are adults really paying enough attention about what's happening

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to us on our phones on our devices in these rooms that we're going into did

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they even know how to talk to us about this stuff,

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so they wrote a show where the protagonist gets sucked into their phone like an Alice in Wonderland.

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Their battery's about to die and they have to figure out how to get out.

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But there are these AI bots in every one of these rooms that they enter that

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are trying to hold them back, that are trying to keep them from progressing forward.

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And they eventually, they had this conversation. They were like,

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does the protagonist get out and win and beat the AI?

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Or not. And we ask them, well, where do you think, from your perspectives,

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where do you think things are going?

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And they're like, well, it seems like adults aren't really paying attention

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and not putting restrictions or regulations on stuff.

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It does feel like we're going in a direction that, you know,

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like to your point, you don't know what's fake or what's real anymore.

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And how do we protect they would i mean they're young people already because

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they're like how we protect like my younger brother or my younger sister,

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you know as they get older and are on these devices more so at the end of their

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show they decided that the a-bot wins,

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and that that human,

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gets trapped or ends up dying and that the next person that that ai bot who

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initially sucked that our protagonist into their phone they target their younger sister,

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and that's how the show ended and it was intense everybody in the audience was

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like oh what yeah so i think that you know,

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there's so much that we need to.

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We need to become a lot more,

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we need to put our attention to learning about what are the things that are happening right now,

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but they're also happening at a speed of, at a rate that is so hard to catch

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up, and it's so overwhelming to know what to pay attention to.

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Well, I think they're happening because these people, these powerful people

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that own these corporations who put this stuff out,

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they don't care about what it's doing to people they just want to make a lot

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of money yes and even for parents adults we don't know what to do we don't know how to stop it,

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yeah i i think uh i think government needs to step in which it's not going to

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our current government sure isn't going to but some sort of,

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more benevolent form of government It needs to step in and have some sort of

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regulations on these things.

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Because the company, you can't leave it up to the corporations.

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All they're going to try to do is maximize profits.

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And they don't care what happens to our kids. Nope.

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Or to adults or anybody. As long as they can continue making a buck off of us. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

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Yeah. I don't know. God, how bleak. It is.

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But I think that that, so this state of mind, this state of feeling,

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this feeling of hopelessness, I think that's key to what wreckage at the heart, what wreckage is also.

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Tapping into that in this feeling of hopeless hopelessness in our society which

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is a disempowering one a disempowered society feels like you know it can't,

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like it can't we can't shape our future but that's not true the future isn't like some far you know,

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far off you know it is within reach it's decisions it's the decisions that are

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being or that are happening today and,

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I keep having again I'm taking it back to these young people working with these

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young people reminds me that it is my responsibility.

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I am one person. I am an artist.

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But I do this work and I'm so proud of being a company member here at the Mind

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Sheet that it's about reinvigorating that feeling of like all of this is worth fighting for.

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I got to figure out like how I'm contributing to that.

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But that it's that those reminders of we have buying power.

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Money. We have voting power.

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I need people and especially young people to remember that their vote counts.

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Even if you educate yourself on the platforms of what these politicians are about.

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And you may not agree with everything that they stand for, but weighing our

00:21:07.207 --> 00:21:11.177
choices and making a choice that you feel like is going to help,

00:21:14.768 --> 00:21:22.284
push us forward in a direction that is leading us back on track is so important. And again, it's.

00:21:24.927 --> 00:21:31.607
Paying attention, understanding that we have to learn and educate ourselves

00:21:31.607 --> 00:21:36.057
on the things that are happening around us in order to know how to raise our

00:21:36.057 --> 00:21:39.704
voice and step into this moment so that,

00:21:40.883 --> 00:21:42.061
we can meet this.

00:21:42.276 --> 00:21:49.288
As we're in this struggle, we have to be able to do this collectively. That's our power.

00:21:49.730 --> 00:21:52.069
Well, I hope our vote still counts.

00:21:52.797 --> 00:21:55.680
I know I do too. I try not to lean into the cynicism. I know.

00:21:56.051 --> 00:22:01.607
Yeah, I don't want to. I know. I mean, that's even scary about whether or not

00:22:01.607 --> 00:22:03.180
our vote will continue to count.

00:22:04.993 --> 00:22:09.346
I don't even want to go there because that's, I know that's, that's scary.

00:22:09.642 --> 00:22:13.411
But, but I think that's part of our responsibility as we, the people.

00:22:14.354 --> 00:22:17.624
We, we have to call those things out.

00:22:17.624 --> 00:22:24.614
And the powers right now are so loud and have so their tentacles go out in all

00:22:24.614 --> 00:22:26.101
these different directions.

00:22:26.246 --> 00:22:30.391
But I, I, again, I don't have the answers.

00:22:30.896 --> 00:22:36.080
We don't have the answers. I think it's about, but when you know just like,

00:22:36.753 --> 00:22:40.914
you know we create theater you bring a whole bunch of really creative minds

00:22:40.914 --> 00:22:45.130
together and you set out on a on a project

00:22:45.530 --> 00:22:49.514
you think oh it's going to turn out like this but at the end when you have all

00:22:49.514 --> 00:22:51.869
of these other people working on it,

00:22:52.334 --> 00:22:55.863
it comes it turns out to be bigger and bolder and,

00:22:56.763 --> 00:23:00.844
even more than you could have the one person could have ever imagined it to

00:23:00.844 --> 00:23:03.984
be i I think that's what we're, that's what we need to do.

00:23:04.466 --> 00:23:13.254
We have to trust that there are a lot of really smart, creative,

00:23:13.805 --> 00:23:20.574
you know, big hearted people who want good things for the next generation,

00:23:20.574 --> 00:23:23.656
for them, for their family, for themselves right now.

00:23:24.086 --> 00:23:28.608
But we can't sit back and we can't hide under the covers, which,

00:23:28.898 --> 00:23:31.874
you know, I'm not, I'm not pointing fingers. I'm actually pointing a finger

00:23:31.874 --> 00:23:34.419
at myself. I'm saying it for myself.

00:23:35.162 --> 00:23:42.731
Well, but you and the mime troupe, I mean, you're certainly doing your part, I would say.

00:23:44.026 --> 00:23:48.298
Yes. And I mean, we need more mime troops.

00:23:50.508 --> 00:23:54.098
Hopefully we're inspiring. People will come out into the parks and be like,

00:23:54.643 --> 00:23:58.318
they might not even agree with our show, but they might be like, you know what?

00:23:58.660 --> 00:24:03.568
Let, you know, Ray, come on, let's go do our own version. We can do, we can say something.

00:24:03.568 --> 00:24:07.798
We can do a bigger, better, you know, it's, that's what we want.

00:24:07.798 --> 00:24:12.539
We want to spark those things so that start those conversations,

00:24:12.655 --> 00:24:14.548
get that activation to happen.

00:24:14.548 --> 00:24:20.608
We have this whole community component to our shows, which is we get folks from

00:24:20.608 --> 00:24:27.847
different organizations to come and table at our, you know, as many shows as they can attend.

00:24:28.346 --> 00:24:33.708
Their organizations are in alignment with different topics that the show brings.

00:24:33.708 --> 00:24:39.668
So, for example, this organization, local organization called Stop AI has been

00:24:39.668 --> 00:24:45.768
in touch with us and would like to attend our shows and do tablings.

00:24:45.768 --> 00:24:51.368
And we're like, yes, you've got to be there. So that way our audience who comes

00:24:51.768 --> 00:24:54.628
and sitting in a park and under the hot sun,

00:24:55.699 --> 00:25:00.118
eating their lunch with friends and family afterwards, they're going to feel

00:25:00.118 --> 00:25:01.626
some kind of call to action.

00:25:01.626 --> 00:25:07.000
And look around and go, oh, look at those folks, those activists, those.

00:25:08.270 --> 00:25:14.102
There's people who are here to help, you know, connect me with there's a protest

00:25:14.102 --> 00:25:18.262
happening or there's a local meeting happening or here just sign this petition.

00:25:18.262 --> 00:25:23.982
Just whatever it is and whatever level of engagement that that our audience

00:25:23.982 --> 00:25:32.612
are feeling like they can have, you know, is making it more accessible is part of that goal.

00:25:33.744 --> 00:25:38.732
Yeah. Yeah, you need to just, you're raising awareness and hopefully that will

00:25:38.732 --> 00:25:40.768
get people to do something.

00:25:41.284 --> 00:25:45.942
Yeah. But, you know, the strange thing about AI is it can be used for so much

00:25:45.942 --> 00:25:50.160
good and it can also be used for so much evil. Yeah.

00:25:51.026 --> 00:25:55.531
And it's, I don't think we've ever faced anything on this scale before,

00:25:56.825 --> 00:26:03.946
you know, that, that's worldwide like this other than maybe the nuclear, you know, the cold war.

00:26:04.578 --> 00:26:07.862
I mean, that was kind of awful too, but this is more ubiquitous.

00:26:07.862 --> 00:26:09.872
I mean, it just gets into everyone's life.

00:26:11.242 --> 00:26:16.240
Right. In so many ways. And it can, it can, you know, for medical reasons or.

00:26:17.735 --> 00:26:21.544
For therapeutic reasons or just getting information and learning,

00:26:21.544 --> 00:26:25.421
that's great. But then there's the other, the dark side.

00:26:28.172 --> 00:26:34.494
And how does that get stopped? Yeah. I mean, one thing that we've been around

00:26:34.494 --> 00:26:38.720
the table saying, reminding each other, it's just a tool.

00:26:39.289 --> 00:26:44.339
It's not smart. It's just collecting a whole bunch of information,

00:26:44.577 --> 00:26:47.729
funneling it through, and then it's spitting it back out.

00:26:48.205 --> 00:26:53.644
I think we endow it with so much, especially as these AI bots,

00:26:53.644 --> 00:26:58.274
you know, we've got Claude and, you know, whatever the, their names,

00:26:58.274 --> 00:26:59.885
they're given names now.

00:27:00.141 --> 00:27:02.284
Their voices don't sound robotic.

00:27:03.038 --> 00:27:10.630
Now they sound just like, you have to ask it, are you AI or are you a human?

00:27:10.892 --> 00:27:12.964
Yeah, that's scary. Yeah.

00:27:13.864 --> 00:27:15.095
Oh, my gosh.

00:27:17.224 --> 00:27:17.824
What?

00:27:19.843 --> 00:27:23.114
You know, but then on the other hand, it could help solve things like climate

00:27:23.114 --> 00:27:29.304
change. And I mean, it could do all these great things. But how are we going

00:27:29.304 --> 00:27:33.016
to use it? Are we going to use it that way or are we going to destroy ourselves?

00:27:33.208 --> 00:27:35.004
Again, I think as a tool,

00:27:37.323 --> 00:27:44.382
we have to use it in ways that, yes, if we want to make huge medical advancements,

00:27:44.632 --> 00:27:47.014
then yes, use that tool in this way.

00:27:47.014 --> 00:27:51.034
If we want to figure out climate change, yes, but it's the other things.

00:27:51.034 --> 00:27:54.941
It's the other parts of our goal.

00:27:56.374 --> 00:28:02.882
Eroded government that is all about the money and the buck and figuring out

00:28:02.882 --> 00:28:06.462
how to make this stock, you know, the shareholders, all of that.

00:28:07.222 --> 00:28:08.820
That needs to be stopped.

00:28:09.052 --> 00:28:11.992
That's where we need to start drawing those lines.

00:28:11.992 --> 00:28:16.900
We need to regulate things in ways so that we can know this tool,

00:28:17.028 --> 00:28:19.972
we need to use it for the greater good.

00:28:19.972 --> 00:28:24.493
And I think that's going back to the show, one of our characters,

00:28:24.813 --> 00:28:30.562
Bobby, who is the developer and has been, you know, working in the field for

00:28:30.562 --> 00:28:33.272
over 30 years, he talks about that.

00:28:33.272 --> 00:28:37.302
He sings about that, that I've been doing this.

00:28:37.642 --> 00:28:43.672
I came into this work because I could see that I could make a contribution that

00:28:43.672 --> 00:28:46.182
could really help humanity.

00:28:46.902 --> 00:28:53.437
It would be an advancement, but also be able to, you know, make some things

00:28:53.616 --> 00:28:58.109
easier, make, you know, so that we could focus on other things.

00:28:58.434 --> 00:29:04.471
But those tools that were created have now been turned against us.

00:29:05.075 --> 00:29:09.742
And it's that this that's the part of the conversation.

00:29:10.096 --> 00:29:15.862
We cannot allow these things to go down this dark road to continue going down

00:29:15.862 --> 00:29:20.795
this dark road because you know then then we all go into the like,

00:29:21.358 --> 00:29:27.796
terminator and all of the horrible things like this is what's gonna happen we just we cannot.

00:29:28.881 --> 00:29:32.323
We can't we have to stop that yeah yeah Yeah.

00:29:33.722 --> 00:29:39.707
It's amazing how these science fiction movies and books foresee the worst.

00:29:41.385 --> 00:29:48.421
I'm always amazed at how these writers are able to imagine things that may happen or are happening.

00:29:49.691 --> 00:29:53.172
That's what makes them so good. Well, there's that movie Her.

00:29:53.172 --> 00:29:54.142
Do you remember that movie Her?

00:29:54.202 --> 00:29:58.392
Yes, with Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson was the voice.

00:29:58.821 --> 00:30:02.422
Yeah, and he fell in love with this girlfriend on the internet,

00:30:02.422 --> 00:30:05.781
and she was fake. I mean, they have those apps now.

00:30:06.205 --> 00:30:13.014
She wasn't, she was the, he fell in love with the phone, basically. Yeah. Right, the app.

00:30:13.154 --> 00:30:19.162
And look at today. Now we have reports of, oh, this is horrible.

00:30:19.802 --> 00:30:30.002
But people who have been using these, you know, chatbots to be therapists or to help them or be,

00:30:30.837 --> 00:30:36.335
there have been many reported cases of people being in relation, intimate,

00:30:37.409 --> 00:30:44.662
emotional relationships with their with their phones now, just like that movie.

00:30:44.662 --> 00:30:46.636
Yeah. What? Right?

00:30:47.982 --> 00:30:51.470
I mean, it's led down some really dark paths with some people have,

00:30:52.202 --> 00:30:57.742
there are many reported cases now of young people who have committed suicide

00:30:57.742 --> 00:31:00.362
because the chat bot was like, no one understands you.

00:31:00.362 --> 00:31:03.876
You're right. It's just me and this and that. And, and.

00:31:05.373 --> 00:31:10.934
And it's the young person is now deceased. Their family is trying to figure

00:31:10.934 --> 00:31:16.786
it out. And now they're looking at the transcript and seeing, oh, wait a minute.

00:31:17.233 --> 00:31:21.264
My young person was actually reaching out and needed help. But this thing was

00:31:21.264 --> 00:31:25.984
telling it not to tell anybody to just keep it within the two of them and then

00:31:25.984 --> 00:31:29.255
helping them write the suicide letter. What?

00:31:29.882 --> 00:31:33.684
Oh, my God. These are the ways. Oh, my God. Yeah. I'm sorry.

00:31:33.684 --> 00:31:36.584
I didn't mean to go down that road. Oh, no, that's okay. I mean,

00:31:37.084 --> 00:31:40.656
hey, this is what we're talking about, right? We've got to bring it out in the open.

00:31:41.984 --> 00:31:50.064
Yeah. I mean, I know that Mime Troop does it in a more humorous and more satiristic

00:31:50.064 --> 00:31:55.360
way, and we're kind of being serious about it, but these are real topics that need to be talked about.

00:31:55.922 --> 00:31:59.414
And this is the kind of research that for months and months and months we've

00:31:59.414 --> 00:32:06.696
been digging into to sort of get it again and to get a take on what is.

00:32:08.757 --> 00:32:16.112
The ecosystem that is building around us and trying to understand and understand.

00:32:17.540 --> 00:32:26.860
So that we can, again, try, I think we do do, I think we are doing a good job of it, you know.

00:32:27.870 --> 00:32:33.175
Creating characters that are rooted in the things that we're talking about.

00:32:33.175 --> 00:32:38.198
But we have to make them slightly larger and,

00:32:38.609 --> 00:32:44.785
you know, with comedy, that they have these surprising emotional moments,

00:32:44.785 --> 00:32:49.899
keeping it light and funny, but they have real hearts and they go to real places.

00:32:50.195 --> 00:32:57.503
But because we perform outdoors in the park and you've got wind and dogs and

00:32:57.764 --> 00:33:01.503
planes and church bells and all these other distractions,

00:33:01.985 --> 00:33:07.695
you know, it's not like going into a theater with four walls and a proscenium

00:33:07.695 --> 00:33:12.706
and lighting and that can really get an audience to focus in,

00:33:13.194 --> 00:33:15.395
on what's happening on the stage.

00:33:15.395 --> 00:33:18.659
We are amongst the elements.

00:33:19.338 --> 00:33:27.297
And I think we, so we have to ride that line of we're making these characters,

00:33:27.784 --> 00:33:30.195
bringing them, bringing real life to them.

00:33:30.195 --> 00:33:33.421
But again, having to at times make them

00:33:33.845 --> 00:33:39.580
a little bit bigger and broader than you would in a traditional theater so that

00:33:39.899 --> 00:33:45.045
they so that the audience sitting outside under the hot sun is able to take

00:33:45.045 --> 00:33:47.605
all of that in and stay with us.

00:33:47.605 --> 00:33:53.515
And then we've gotten amazing songs by written by Daniel Savio to just keep

00:33:53.515 --> 00:33:55.995
things moving and grooving.

00:33:55.995 --> 00:34:01.045
We've got amazing band, our, our head writer, Michael Gene Sullivan,

00:34:01.045 --> 00:34:04.815
who's been our head writer for over two decades now.

00:34:05.735 --> 00:34:11.165
Is it's been from, from me as the director on the show, it's been a real gift

00:34:11.165 --> 00:34:15.889
to get to work with him and Daniel and.

00:34:16.835 --> 00:34:20.003
Figure out all the different pieces as they come in every day.

00:34:20.003 --> 00:34:21.944
We don't come in with a full script.

00:34:22.210 --> 00:34:27.353
So over the course of four weeks, almost five weeks, we are literally building

00:34:27.353 --> 00:34:32.043
the show up until we open on Fourth of July weekend.

00:34:32.043 --> 00:34:38.393
So how it's shaping up is also a lot of conversations that happen in the room

00:34:38.733 --> 00:34:40.593
while we're putting scenes on their feet.

00:34:40.593 --> 00:34:46.013
The actors also have a lot to also contribute in that conversation of like,

00:34:46.013 --> 00:34:50.583
oh, wait, how did my character from the last time we saw them up to this point

00:34:50.583 --> 00:34:54.836
and where they're headed in terms of the end of the show, the trajectory, the arc?

00:34:55.553 --> 00:35:00.043
And so it's a living process that we're in, which is exciting.

00:35:00.043 --> 00:35:02.400
I think that it's not for everybody.

00:35:02.539 --> 00:35:08.286
Not every actor is working. Well, it's so different than most theater companies in the process. Yeah.

00:35:09.453 --> 00:35:14.086
Yeah. so you're opening on july 4th where where's the show,

00:35:14.898 --> 00:35:22.538
we're actually yes so july 3rd we'll be at dolores park we officially open always

00:35:22.777 --> 00:35:25.522
july 4th also at dolores park

00:35:25.952 --> 00:35:31.043
and then sunday the 5th will be at yerba buena gardens and then the show is

00:35:31.043 --> 00:35:35.313
going to be touring all through northern in california will be in oakland and

00:35:35.313 --> 00:35:40.623
berkeley san jose will be up in davis and ukiah i'm,

00:35:41.480 --> 00:35:47.943
sure i'm missing some other places and then we will close we'll round out the

00:35:47.943 --> 00:35:55.148
the summer tour back in dolores park on september 6th and 7th which is labor day weekend so,

00:35:55.931 --> 00:35:57.833
lots of opportunities to catch it.

00:35:58.273 --> 00:36:00.436
It's all on your website, right? Yes.

00:36:00.900 --> 00:36:04.673
Yes. www.sfmt.org.

00:36:06.531 --> 00:36:10.200
Or you can just search San Francisco Mime Troupe and you'll get it.

00:36:10.924 --> 00:36:17.344
There you can do that. And always, whatever the start time is for the show, 2 o'clock, 7 o'clock,

00:36:18.044 --> 00:36:22.424
whatever, if it's a weekend or day of the week show, we always have the band

00:36:22.424 --> 00:36:25.954
plays a 30-minute live set of music before the show.

00:36:25.954 --> 00:36:30.154
So I always encourage people, get there early, bring your blanket,

00:36:30.154 --> 00:36:35.314
have some treats with you, get comfy, and enjoy the band.

00:36:35.314 --> 00:36:40.395
They're amazing the music is great yeah daniel does a great job with the music

00:36:40.674 --> 00:36:46.844
yes musicians are fantastic always i love it i love it so like i said i i don't

00:36:46.844 --> 00:36:51.704
know what the i i we haven't finished the show yet and we don't have all the songs yet and you know,

00:36:52.411 --> 00:36:57.064
we're about halfway through our process so this is really a sneak peek ray i'm

00:36:57.064 --> 00:37:01.094
like i'm telling you things that you know come opening if you and i were to

00:37:01.094 --> 00:37:06.864
sit down again you'd be like so what happened And I'm like, things change. We just go with the flow.

00:37:07.764 --> 00:37:11.784
Isn't it amazing with theater? Like you, whatever time you have,

00:37:11.784 --> 00:37:15.527
you'll fit it all in and get it to work no matter what. Right.

00:37:16.165 --> 00:37:21.181
Yes. If you rehearse for 12 weeks or you rehearse for four weeks,

00:37:21.535 --> 00:37:24.226
the end product can be pretty similar.

00:37:24.993 --> 00:37:29.189
And you're always going to be, and every time where there's the four weeks or

00:37:29.189 --> 00:37:32.439
the 12 weeks, you're always going to be like, gosh, if only we had more time,

00:37:32.759 --> 00:37:37.359
if only we had more time, then we really could have gotten in there.

00:37:37.359 --> 00:37:39.879
And you're like, really? Four weeks, 12 weeks.

00:37:41.059 --> 00:37:45.691
It's just that, that fire under your, under your tissue. Like we just,

00:37:45.836 --> 00:37:48.071
we got to put it on. We have the pressure.

00:37:48.373 --> 00:37:50.019
It is the pressure. Yeah.

00:37:50.683 --> 00:37:54.625
Amazing. People always wonder, how do you do it? Well, it's like,

00:37:55.236 --> 00:37:58.519
well, anybody can do it. If they knew that there was going to be an audience

00:37:58.519 --> 00:38:02.279
sitting there in a month, you know, your brain figures it out.

00:38:03.419 --> 00:38:07.419
We have a countdown that we have now in our studio where we're rehearsing.

00:38:07.419 --> 00:38:08.470
We have a dry erase board.

00:38:08.812 --> 00:38:13.499
And every day the stage manager is doing a countdown, how many days till opening.

00:38:13.499 --> 00:38:17.159
And every day I look at it, my heart just kind of goes, oh.

00:38:19.699 --> 00:38:23.469
We're just not, we're not there yet. We'll get there. We're just not there yet.

00:38:23.469 --> 00:38:29.744
But yeah oh we we always make it happen can i just share a really random just short thing so please,

00:38:30.290 --> 00:38:35.959
the very first summer show that i was in my very first time i no idea i i my

00:38:35.959 --> 00:38:42.212
mom had taken me to a mind troop show when i was a young person so i i knew of the mind troop and,

00:38:42.694 --> 00:38:46.809
the mind troop was the reason that i decided that i wanted to be an actor that

00:38:46.809 --> 00:38:51.146
i wanted to live in san francisco because they were the San Francisco, mind true.

00:38:51.285 --> 00:38:55.999
And I pointed to the stage and I said to my mom, I'm going to grow up and I'm

00:38:55.999 --> 00:38:59.049
going to be one of them someday. My mom was like, yeah, okay,

00:38:59.049 --> 00:39:01.419
well, you have to go to college and do all the other things.

00:39:01.419 --> 00:39:03.191
And I was like, yeah, of course, I'll do all those things.

00:39:03.998 --> 00:39:10.256
Fast forward to, I, you know, was like dedicated to the craft.

00:39:10.256 --> 00:39:17.001
I moved to San Francisco and I got my break. I got to audition for the troupe and got cast.

00:39:17.477 --> 00:39:19.747
And so here's the part of the story I wanted to share.

00:39:20.315 --> 00:39:25.026
It's the night where we're packing up the truck, all of the set,

00:39:25.026 --> 00:39:30.856
all of the costumes, Everything so that the next morning, we're going to 9 a.m.

00:39:30.856 --> 00:39:35.814
Drive the truck to Dolores Park to set up for the very first time.

00:39:36.156 --> 00:39:41.026
My very, very first time ever performing on a mind trip stage.

00:39:41.613 --> 00:39:46.530
But the night before, as the truck is getting packed, we got a new song.

00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:51.827
And the composer at the time was like, yeah, the band stuff is already packed

00:39:51.827 --> 00:39:58.411
up their instruments. I can play it on the piano for you. And we pull the mirrors out.

00:39:58.818 --> 00:40:03.567
And one of our company members in the show is also our resident choreographer.

00:40:03.567 --> 00:40:06.309
And he's like, oh, OK, let's put some simple steps to this.

00:40:06.709 --> 00:40:12.467
We're learning the song, looking at the mirror, trying to add some choreography

00:40:12.467 --> 00:40:15.434
to it, listening to on a piano.

00:40:15.864 --> 00:40:19.451
Not the full instrumentation and i'm going,

00:40:20.282 --> 00:40:25.284
i'm cool they're they're cool i'm gonna play it so cool like yeah this is it,

00:40:25.969 --> 00:40:30.127
this is this is how it's done right this is this is totally normal we get to

00:40:30.127 --> 00:40:37.689
the park the next day the band sets up they play the song with its full orchestration so we can hear it,

00:40:38.194 --> 00:40:42.187
and we get up on the deck and we're trying to put it together and we were memorizing

00:40:42.187 --> 00:40:44.098
these lyrics and these dance,

00:40:44.690 --> 00:40:46.757
and the director pulls me inside and said hey.

00:40:47.860 --> 00:40:53.073
I know i'm throwing you into the fire and it's totally your call like we can

00:40:53.421 --> 00:40:59.952
not do this musical number and we can go back into rehearsal after we open and

00:41:00.341 --> 00:41:02.867
and then we can add this song in,

00:41:03.483 --> 00:41:07.847
song and dance moment the following weekend after we've opened she's like it's

00:41:07.847 --> 00:41:13.987
totally up to you no pressure i'm feeling a lot of pressure, Ray. I'm like, what?

00:41:14.387 --> 00:41:17.887
It's up to me, the new person. I can't screw this up. I'm like,

00:41:18.345 --> 00:41:22.367
no, no, I am totally down for that. I'm like, we are going to do it.

00:41:22.707 --> 00:41:28.810
I, yeah, if everyone else, these professionals are totally, I am too. I'm like, let's do it.

00:41:29.628 --> 00:41:33.832
I have never been so scared in my life. There were, you know,

00:41:34.412 --> 00:41:38.249
over a thousand people sitting there opening day at Dolores Park,

00:41:38.667 --> 00:41:41.988
all excited to see the new show that we were putting on. I'm going.

00:41:43.491 --> 00:41:46.766
This is, this is it. So we did it.

00:41:47.236 --> 00:41:51.739
I don't know how it went. It went great in my mind because we did the thing, but yeah.

00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:56.359
And you know, over the course of the summer, it just got tighter and better.

00:41:56.359 --> 00:42:01.359
And by the end, I'm sure it was day and night, but wow, what a thrill,

00:42:01.359 --> 00:42:03.711
what a crazy rollercoaster ride.

00:42:03.984 --> 00:42:08.262
And that's what it's like to be here. Like you have to be down and it's,

00:42:08.657 --> 00:42:15.280
it's challenging it's risk-taking i mean on its feet in front of people and you just,

00:42:15.943 --> 00:42:19.629
you know we're performers you get through it you drop a line or whatever you

00:42:19.629 --> 00:42:24.579
keep it going it's the yes and yes and you just keep going you keep going and

00:42:24.579 --> 00:42:30.000
you have fun and i hope that the audience watching has fun and at the end of it,

00:42:30.703 --> 00:42:34.649
had that has that small little takeaway and feels a little bit brighter,

00:42:34.649 --> 00:42:38.638
a little bit more hopeful to carry on, to keep going.

00:42:39.468 --> 00:42:41.959
It's going to be a long... It is.

00:42:43.032 --> 00:42:45.999
It's the journey of life. That's what we're on. That's what we're doing.

00:42:46.979 --> 00:42:50.242
Yesterday, I'm rehearsing for Urinetown, the musical.

00:42:50.782 --> 00:42:56.391
Oh, I love that show. Yeah, I do too. And I'm playing Cladwell.

00:42:56.838 --> 00:43:01.109
And in the middle of one of my songs, I don't know, I wasn't sure about the

00:43:01.109 --> 00:43:05.330
choreography, or whatever, and I got distracted, and, you know, songs are really fast.

00:43:05.771 --> 00:43:11.329
Yes. And I screwed up the middle stanza. I started saying a line from the next

00:43:11.329 --> 00:43:14.714
one, and then I tried to get back on track, and.

00:43:15.804 --> 00:43:19.495
You know, we were doing a full run-through, and of course I didn't want to stop the show.

00:43:20.325 --> 00:43:25.688
So I'm just like, I just started singing. It's like, I don't remember the next

00:43:25.688 --> 00:43:28.435
lyric, but I will keep on going.

00:43:30.428 --> 00:43:35.018
Yes! That's not the right melody. I know. And then I got back on,

00:43:35.018 --> 00:43:40.191
and everything was fine. But I looked at it, I don't even think the director noticed.

00:43:40.672 --> 00:43:42.634
Oh my gosh. You know what I mean? Yeah.

00:43:44.108 --> 00:43:48.956
If you just stay with it, you just gotta stay with it right you just keep pushing

00:43:49.142 --> 00:43:51.522
that's what makes live theater so,

00:43:52.062 --> 00:43:57.298
amazing and exciting it's that even if there were people in there who know every

00:43:57.298 --> 00:44:02.348
single lyric and are singing along and are they're ultimately rooting for you

00:44:02.348 --> 00:44:06.648
like you've got this keep going and then you get back and they're like yeah,

00:44:08.508 --> 00:44:14.978
you know no one is going oh my god they're just like they're like oh it's exciting

00:44:14.978 --> 00:44:18.138
it's You're as present as you can be.

00:44:18.138 --> 00:44:22.670
You're authentically in that moment. And they're with you on that ride.

00:44:23.071 --> 00:44:25.468
It's exhilarating. And you can't beat yourself up.

00:44:25.908 --> 00:44:29.098
That's what's great about Mime Troop. You get that feeling when you watch your

00:44:29.098 --> 00:44:31.868
shows. I mean, it's just. I hope so. Yeah.

00:44:33.015 --> 00:44:39.068
And you're able to keep everybody's attention with all those competing things outdoors. Right. Yeah.

00:44:40.948 --> 00:44:45.101
So much energy in all your shows. Yeah. Just full of energy.

00:44:45.786 --> 00:44:49.468
And then they always make you think, you know, and they always make you think

00:44:49.468 --> 00:44:54.365
and make you consider whether or not your opinion is, is the one you really want. And,

00:44:55.773 --> 00:44:59.120
Make you think about the bigger picture. So that's what I love about the Mime

00:44:59.120 --> 00:45:02.292
Troop. And at the same time, you're laughing, which is great.

00:45:02.948 --> 00:45:06.110
Right. Yeah. Me too. All of it. Yeah.

00:45:08.230 --> 00:45:12.664
All right. Well, everyone needs to go see this show. What's the name of it again? Remind everyone.

00:45:13.227 --> 00:45:17.007
It's called Wreckage. Wreckage. Okay.

00:45:17.756 --> 00:45:21.613
And you're opening July 4th weekend in Dolores Park.

00:45:23.320 --> 00:45:28.254
All the information is on the mime troupe website yeah san francisco mime troupe,

00:45:29.060 --> 00:45:36.710
sfmt.org yep that's us yep and everything is free you can you can donate if

00:45:36.710 --> 00:45:40.072
you want after the show right but uh to attend is free,

00:45:40.810 --> 00:45:44.910
right i mean the idea is like you got to pay for a movie up front and you could

00:45:44.910 --> 00:45:49.160
sit there and be like oh this is this is the worst piece of why did i come to

00:45:49.160 --> 00:45:53.448
this or on what we do is come check it out.

00:45:53.768 --> 00:45:58.284
And at the end, how much, what is the value of this to you?

00:45:58.911 --> 00:46:02.920
What did this bring to you? If you're like, oh, this is terrible.

00:46:02.920 --> 00:46:05.668
Okay. Well then don't drop anything in the hat.

00:46:06.017 --> 00:46:11.520
But if you feel compelled to support life theater, if you felt like the message

00:46:11.520 --> 00:46:15.256
was moving to you, if you felt like that kind of community,

00:46:16.030 --> 00:46:20.260
that you get sitting in the proud with all these folks who are cheering and

00:46:20.260 --> 00:46:25.190
booing and you're you're feeling lifted you're rooting for the underdog you're

00:46:25.190 --> 00:46:29.246
having all of this and at the end you just you feel a little,

00:46:29.890 --> 00:46:34.530
that little tingle of like yeah that this is more than just going to see a show

00:46:34.530 --> 00:46:36.171
there's something else happening and.

00:46:37.790 --> 00:46:43.050
And then show us with your you know whatever you drop into our our hat at the

00:46:43.050 --> 00:46:47.357
end and show us what the value of it was because.

00:46:48.939 --> 00:46:52.717
We really, we don't take any corporate money. We get grants,

00:46:52.717 --> 00:46:57.705
we get foundation money. Those things are dwindling. This administration has slashed those things.

00:46:58.282 --> 00:47:02.787
So it's really about individual donors and coming out and supporting us.

00:47:02.787 --> 00:47:06.217
And theater is struggling as we all know.

00:47:06.517 --> 00:47:11.731
And so it's, again, to my earlier point, like we have buying power.

00:47:11.957 --> 00:47:17.117
Where do you put your money? How do you want to show what the value of things

00:47:17.117 --> 00:47:24.715
are and what you find is part of the list of things that we don't want to let go of.

00:47:25.324 --> 00:47:29.757
We need to keep these things around. And hopefully live theater is on that list.

00:47:29.757 --> 00:47:32.162
We got enough screens distracting us.

00:47:32.522 --> 00:47:40.007
But it's that human-to-human, being in community, getting to have that thing,

00:47:40.007 --> 00:47:43.894
and being outside in a park for a couple hours. Yeah. Woof!

00:47:45.154 --> 00:47:49.171
And human beings need to tell stories to one another. Definitely.

00:47:49.728 --> 00:47:56.944
Definitely. And we need to stop getting them just from our little phones. We need to keep it human.

00:47:58.030 --> 00:48:01.907
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We need a new tagline. Keep it human, folks.

00:48:01.907 --> 00:48:04.487
Keep it human at the Mime Troop.

00:48:05.367 --> 00:48:08.605
Yeah. Well, thanks so much, Salisa, for being on the show.

00:48:09.406 --> 00:48:12.831
No, thank you, Ray. And I'm really looking forward to seeing Wreckage.

00:48:13.528 --> 00:48:18.237
Awesome. Well, we'll see you at, I think you, are you in Palo Alto area,

00:48:18.237 --> 00:48:21.067
Mitchell Park? I am. Are you going to be at Mitchell Park this year?

00:48:22.607 --> 00:48:26.746
We are in, it's in the works. So just to let your listeners know,

00:48:27.488 --> 00:48:30.337
our schedule is constantly being updated.

00:48:30.337 --> 00:48:36.847
We have several to be determined dates still, just because we were having some

00:48:37.147 --> 00:48:40.337
challenges with getting park permits and whatnot.

00:48:40.337 --> 00:48:44.467
We don't have to go into all that. But there are specific places that we always

00:48:44.467 --> 00:48:49.097
represent. And Mitchell Park is on that short list. We're just trying to lock

00:48:49.097 --> 00:48:50.734
down a few little details.

00:48:50.972 --> 00:48:55.407
So check the website. I believe that's going to be happening in August.

00:48:57.027 --> 00:48:57.601
So

00:48:59.807 --> 00:49:02.805
again, check the website. Yeah. Well, if it's not there, I'll go see it somewhere else.

00:49:04.087 --> 00:49:07.867
Hopefully it's at Mitchell Park since it's two blocks from my house. There you go.

00:49:09.147 --> 00:49:13.859
There you go. All right. Well, thank you, Lisa Horry-Garcia, everyone. And,

00:49:16.320 --> 00:49:21.521
go see the Mime Troop show this summer. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.