Devising a dialogue

By HEIDI GAISER

Theater teacher's project will put domestic violence issues center stage

The Daily Inter Lake

Jesse Culp can't predict whether or not she'll get any sleep during her occasional 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift answering phones at the local Violence Free Crisis Line.

"There are nights when you have zero calls," she said. "But then there are other nights where the phone is ringing off the hook."

She takes calls from women from all walks of life who need help finding legal counsel or a safe place to stay, but who most often just need to talk.

"Every woman thinks they're alone," she said. "And that breaks my heart."

Culp, 33, calls domestic violence "a silent epidemic," especially in Montana, which has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the nation.

She has found that people often are defensive about the subject and refuse to believe it can happen to them or their loved ones. She says it too often is asked, "Why doesn't the woman just leave?" when instead people should be asking, "How can I help this woman leave?"

So she wants to use the power of theater to get people talking.

Culp, an adjunct faculty member at Flathead Valley Community College and instructor at Summit Preparatory School, recently dove into the first stages of a two-year devising theater production entitled "The Domestic Violence Project."

She will spend the next year interviewing community members, both those who have and have not been affected by domestic violence, gain perspective on the subject and material for a stage presentation.

Devising theater is a reality-based dramatic form rooted in research, interviews, theater-based workshops and community conversation on a social or political topic.

"The script is an amalgamation of all of those things, told from the perspective of those you've interviewed," Culp said. "The purpose is not to give answers, but to raise questions and provoke action on the topic."

Culp began her career in theater as an actor growing up in Connecticut, securing parts as an Equity professional starting at age 13. After gaining numerous acting credits by her early 20s, she began looking for something to get her excited about theater again. She found it in directing and teaching devising theater.

After earning a degree in musical theater at Ithaca College in New York, she ended up with a master's degree in Theater and Social Change/Devising Theater at Vermont College.

Her theater background also includes stints as an acting instructor at the University of Maine, as the director of Vermont Children's Theatre and four years as the director of theater at Lyndon Institute, an independent high school in Vermont. She also spent five years in New York City, acting, singing and dancing in off-Broadway productions.

She currently is instructor for Introduction to Theater and Acting 4 at FVCC, moving to the Flathead Valley last fall to pursue her love of hiking and rock climbing, with the bonus of a small college where she could connect with theater students "at a grass-roots level."

Her last project in devising theater was as a writer and assistant director for the acclaimed "The Voices Project," an original Vermont state touring theater production focused on the state's youth.

"It was about the trials and tribulations of teenagers growing up in Vermont," she said. "Their hopes, their dreams, their concerns."

Through "The Voices Project," which toured statewide in 2006 and was well-reviewed by the New York Times, Culp saw how devising theater had the power to create change.

"The Vermont Legislature was about to cut the after-school programs out of the budget completely, but after this, they increased it instead," she said. "It helped them recognize the need to engage the youth."

Before that, Culp was the sole director of another Vermont project, "A Generation Speaks: For What It's Worth." The production was based on an honest and open dialogue among some of the oldest and youngest residents of Vermont.

"The elderly said what they think the youth should hear, and then the youth spoke back," Culp said. "There were some really interesting stories."

Though it's not a devising theater piece, Culp will direct another show about a socially charged topic, "Addict," at FVCC in March. The show will feature a number of monologues by teenagers sharing the stories of how they died from drug use.

"It's very somber, and it's nice for students to exercise their dramatic abilities," she said. "It's their chance to be center stage."

Culp doesn't constrain herself only to weighty topics in theater, as she will be the choreographer for the college's spring production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

She has appreciated both the cultural climate of the Flathead Valley and the enthusiasm of her drama students.

"People here have a passion for the arts, which you don't find everywhere," she said. "There are a lot of opportunities for students here to take what they can from all of us."

Culp currently is asking people to lend their voices to "The Domestic Violence Project."

She has applied for a grant that she desperately needs to finance the project, and expects the show to be staged at the O'Shaughnessy Center in October 2009, using the insight she will gain from community input to write the script.

If potential contributors fear being candid with their views or are worried about anonymity, Culp assures that no one will attend the show and hear their comments quoted verbatim.

"They will all be combined with other stories," she said. "You might hear a few of the words you said, or see a piece of yourself on stage, but no one will associate that with you."

The devising theater plays do not follow the typical narrative storyline of most dramas, she said. The scripts weave facts, stories, ideas and differing perspectives, while actors will head in unconventional directions, such as talking to the audience, or the text might be juxtaposed with other actors doing gesture work.

"There might be frozen images, perhaps a screen with an image, or bold lighting choices," she said. "It's avant garde, it's multimedia."

The most important aspect of devising theater, she said, is that people do not feel as if they've been preached to on a topic, but are made to think and possibly prompted to start conversations on the topic.

"You don't leave a devising theater show humming a tune," she said. "It's not all tied up in a neat bow. You should leave with a challenged or altered perspective."

To contribute stories, ideas, songs, poetry or artwork on the subject of domestic violence as inspiration for the production, send submissions to Jesse Culp c/o The Violence Free Crisis Line, P.O. Box 1401, Kalispell, MT 59903 or call the Violence Free Crisis Line office at 752-4735 to schedule an interview. Include your name, phone number and/or e-mail address.

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com