Patrick Torelle Oral History, 2003

[00:00:00] Planet Glassberg:
Interview with Patrick Torelle, May 22nd, 2003, of the Theatre Department at Lane Community College. So can you tell me what you were involved with before you came to Lane Community College and can you speak about that?

[00:00:17] Patrick Torelle:
Sure. Well, I was at Umpqua Community College just before that. I was there for a couple of years. And then this job presented itself and I applied and was very fortunate to get it. It was a very large department when I first came here. But right away, cuts were being paid. And so since I've been here, that's kind of been in process. But, gosh, we've done an awful lot of good work. I'm sure we'll get into all of that.

[00:00:58] Planet Glassberg:
1968, that's when the college started?

[00:00:58] Patrick Torelle:
Well, 1968, I was at Mount Hood Community College as a student. So I had just gone, let's see, 1968 was, yes, I had just gone from Mount Hood to Portland State. So the community college movement has been very important to me. I wouldn't be sitting here. And it turned me around immediately. I had some very good counselors who helped me. The number of credits lowered so that I felt successful when it started. By the end of that year, I was president of the theater club. I had just been elected as student body president, looking forward to working on the student literary magazine. So I went from a place where I just wasn't even sure I could go to college to be very confident. And I've always been grateful. I graduated and started teaching. And I did for a couple of years. I taught in Vancouver. And then I kind of had a shift of what it was that I wanted to teach. I wanted to start teaching people to be professional. I hadn't been one yet. I was very fortunate when I went to the university that there was a professional theater. Some of the students got to it. And so that gave me a kind of taste of it. And I wanted to continue with that. I teach that, although I felt, gosh, if I haven't really done it, then I can't really. And I've just moved in. So for the next 10 years, I studied with Lee Strasburg and did a number of shows. And some movies and so on, the kind of thing. And came back to Oregon. And I did a kind of directing career.

[00:04:22] Planet Glassberg:
And when did you begin at Lane Community College?

[00:04:25] Patrick Torelle:
1986.

[00:04:28] Planet Glassberg:
Can we hold for just a moment? I want to talk to you.

[00:04:34] Patrick Torelle:
So the department at that time, we had a training program in technical theater, as well as a full range of classes at the time. But, you know, every year along the way, there were cuts that happened. And one of the cuts that happened, yeah, big loss at that point. And then just last year, we lost our other full-time position. So it has made life somewhat difficult, but not impossible. We're still teaching all the classes that we had taught before. Just not as many. Do what?

[00:05:35] Planet Glassberg:
Can you describe the classes?

[00:05:37] Patrick Torelle:
Oh, sure.

[00:05:38] Planet Glassberg:
Do you like being specific?

[00:05:39] Patrick Torelle:
Sure. Yeah, that'd be great. We teach a full first year of acting, second year of acting, the intermediate, where they were in the business. They learned something about emotional work based on Strasburg. And then the third term is film. So it kind of follows in that sort of sequence so that we can prep people in the first term for auditioning for other colleges, universities, or wherever it is that they're going to be going. And we've transferred people into colleges, universities all over the country to Juilliard. The only two that actually ever auditioned for Juilliard got in. DePaul, Smith, University of Wisconsin, all the list goes on. And of course, Oregon School is south. So we've been very successful with that. In addition to that, we teach voice for the actor in improvisation. We've just added, actually, in acting Shakespeare. So that's a new course. And we're looking to continue to expand now. And one of the courses that I just love teaching right now, it took me a while to actually learn how to do it. But writing for the theater, which I'll talk about in just a second after I answer the phone. Yeah, actually, the writing program was started by Jerry Siefert when he was here. And when he left, it was so strong and vital, I just didn't want to draw that. And there wasn't anybody else who could have taught it, so I sort of taught myself how to teach it. And they have been continuing to learn how to teach it ever since. But it's been growing so that we had a nice selection of plays for this spring that came out of the fall class. And what we do is we teach the class in the fall, and then the students continue to work on those plays during the winter, doing rewrites. Which is, you know, that's the name of Neil Simon's autobiography, is rewrites. And that's what playwrights do more than anything else. You have to be willing to do that. And then we produce those in the spring. And we'll actually next year have two weekends that we're doing that, because we had such a great response in so many plays. Very prolific group of students this year. Plus a wonderful thing that happened this year. I mean, that's the playwriting part of it, but of course they also direct and act in the plays as well. So they get that experience. And then what happened this year was the students seen the gap, because we had seen the gap there, created a club, went to the associated students, got some seed money to start. I can't remember what that was, 250, something like that. They now have over $1,000, and they produce their own works. So that has been very successful, and I've been so happy that they just stepped into that particular breach. We must have been doing something right for them to think that...

[00:10:03] Planet Glassberg:
So how did your teaching evolve in what ways, like from 1986 until now? Do you want to speak about that?

[00:10:12] Patrick Torelle:
Wow, what a good question. It's a great evolution. I would say probably... Well, I've gone from having my curriculum be very well-defined and knowing, you know, on a daily basis during that week, I knew what it was that we were going to be doing. I knew on a daily basis what it was that we had planned, what information I was going to be giving out and so on, to walking in the door with the general idea in my head and then playing it by ear. So that has changed significantly, and I found that it works better that way because you get much more of the student participation. You're not trying to create a false sense on spontaneity. It really is spontaneity. I started to do this when I had to alter the content of what it was that I was offering when I did some team teaching for an entire year where there were four teachers in the same room with a group of some 70 students, and it was called Alternative Visions, and there was a... Yes, it was right here. It was the start of learning communities here. It was about 1990, and our in-service centered around that. We had representatives from Evergreen College come in, and so there was a lot of activity around that, but it wasn't really a big push to revamp curriculum because it's hard to do that. It's very hard to do it. But there were four of us who decided to get together and do that, and what that means is that you have to give up some of that content. There was a history teacher, writing teacher, philosophy teacher, and myself. And so we would have subjects or material that we would center the particular lesson plan around, and then each one of us had to give up all kinds of content in order for each teacher to have some time during that particular session. I don't think I've worked as hard before or since doing that year. It was a constant. It was all that was on the plate because you were constantly reading papers for one thing, meeting with students, and then having to meet with your colleagues because we had to plan, and it was all... Since it had never been done before, we were planning as we were going. We spent the whole summer planning. But by the time that we got to that first class, we were still having to plan, and every week we had to plan. So there was no... You know, once you have your lesson plan in hand, and you've done it a couple of times, you can pretty well just walk in the door and do it. Well, that wasn't the case here. Plus, we had to coordinate all four of us and all of us today. It was the most daunting and memorable experience. I mean, I've taken that along with me for the last... And that is part of why I... Well, I just learned how to do that. I learned how to come in the door with the subject in my mind and not necessarily be insistent on exactly that particular content, to teach that particular lesson, and to feed off of what the students had to offer. It's become, as a result, for me, a much more... And I hope for the students as well.

[00:14:54] Planet Glassberg:
And is that continuing now?

[00:14:56] Patrick Torelle:
No, no, that was one year. It's a very expensive thing to do, you know. I mean, each one of those instructors, that's approximately... students were an instructor, so it becomes a very expensive proposition. And while the college was willing to pay for it on an experimental basis for one time, it just became impossible to do it like that, unless the Hulk, which it's not. So he said, next year, I love this idea about the reading project. We don't know about this. Okay, well, we're doing a reading project, and one of them is a textbook on here, but the other one is a novel called Montana 1948. And it's structured a little bit like To Kill a Mockingbird, in that there is an adult narrator talking about his experiences as a child in this small town in Montana. And there are issues of power and privilege that are in that novel. The way in which I would like to participate, if we get permission to do it, and then we can't do it, is to adapt that to the stage. I'm wondering, in what ways have you seen

[00:17:04] Planet Glassberg:
the theater department change since you've been here?

[00:17:07] Patrick Torelle:
And in respect to, like, curriculum, which you've talked a little bit about, in respect to the students, and to the community involvement or the community response.

[00:17:20] Planet Glassberg:
So could you speak about that? Well, I think that students seem to get more talented every year,

[00:17:25] Patrick Torelle:
so that's been a great pleasure to see that happen, more sophisticated as well. As I said before, you know, cuts have been happening since I've been here, but that doesn't seem to dampen our enthusiasm at all. Enthusiasm, it seems. And we've done some just beautiful, beautiful work together. You know, when you do theater, it's always a collaboration. So Skip Hubbard, Sue Serdom, Rick was here. Rick just couldn't be stopped. We were doing plays all over the place. And there's just something about theater that you create this little family each time. And what's nice about working with the same people as far as the designers are concerned is that you just know, you get to know them like you do your family, and you get to understand, you know, if I make this kind of a suggestion, they're going to play off of it. If I'm too definite about what it is that I'm looking for, I might dampen their spirit, so I don't want to do that. So learning how to work with each other over these years has been a wonderful experience and has produced some. Well, for me personally, some of the best work I've ever done, professionally or otherwise. And so I list among those, Deus, Jim McCarty was here, another designer, and certainly the crucible last year with Skip. I walked in with Skip and said, I just want a bare wooden platform. And he said, oh, well, let's talk. And so as we talked about it, that bare wooden platform actually became the crucible itself with a hole in the center, which could be plugged for the majority of the play, but was on for the opening of the play where the girls came together in the forest, and that was sort of the pit. And then later on, that pit became the jail cell. And Skip also designed some structures behind it, sort of looked like gallows, because as you may know, the people in Salem were not burned as witches but hung, and the play stays with that. And, you know, over the years, we've done so many great plays. That's the other thing. You know, when you're in an educational situation and you get to work with these plays, that are the very best that have been written, there's nothing quite like that to have this wonderful material to work with. So there we are. We've got great material. We've got wonderful professional designers and enthusiastic students, and you put that mixed together. And you do it several times during the year. This is some of the most exciting work anybody could do. I'm one of the luckiest people in the world, and I can't. The stars that I'm in. I know you're speaking about collaborating, like with the designer and the students and all. What about the collaborations with the theater department

[00:21:51] Planet Glassberg:
and the music and the dance departments here?

[00:21:53] Patrick Torelle:
Is there a particular performance or several

[00:21:56] Planet Glassberg:
that actually stand out for you?

[00:21:58] Patrick Torelle:
Right. Well, we've done a number of those. One of them that I enjoyed a great deal was, well, on the dance was women. Yeah, oh, that was lots of fun. And she was there in costume as a musician. And when we did advertising for it, she came out with us as well. You know, Barbara also dances. Wings was another one where a music student created, actually did the initial work on this play. Let me just explain this play a little bit. This is a play by Arthur Coddett that has, it's about a woman who suffers a stroke. On one side of the page, there are all the sounds that occur, and he says it doesn't make any difference what order they come in. In the middle of the page, there is any dialogue that might be taking place. Again, not in any particular order. And then on the right side of the page, there are all the images, once again, not necessarily in any particular order, as she's having this stroke. Well, who knows where to start with that and in what order to put it? So I presented this to a music student who was a part of the electronic music program, and I asked her if she wouldn't just play around with it a little bit and see what she came up with. Well, she created this wonderful soundscape that told me where to put the images and how to arrange the dialogue. And once we had that, then everything else fell into place with that. And we had some gorgeous images that were being projected while you saw her actually sort of coming apart in front of you. The movement, the dance movement, again, we had choreography for that. Mary Seawriter worked on that choreography. And that was just gorgeous. The other part of this is, of course, the design of the set, very interesting. We sat in the meeting with that. Here's how the play starts. She's sitting in a chair reading a book in her living room, and all of a sudden things start to disappear. Lamp disappears. The table disappears. Rug disappears. And then they come back, and then they disappear. And then her chair disappears until finally she's just adrift in a void. So we start talking about this and the designers are going, well, let's see, we could cut a hole in the floor and we could invent this lift and I'm just watching the money go click, click, click. And all of the labor, of course, all of the time and effort that that would take. And I just started and I said, guys, why don't we just kind of rethink this? I've got actors already who are in black. If we put gloves on them and kind of hood them, how about if we just do the old trick? So they'll just come out and they'll grab ahold of those things and take them away and the audience will think that they disappear. They won't know that actors are doing it. The lighting is right. And sure enough, it worked. And we did this sort of little actual, sort of little dance with them so that not only did it look like the objects were being picked up and disappearing, but that they were sort of floating and dancing off into nothingness. And so I just enjoyed that so much. That was a great little trick. The actress from that went on to, we entered this in the American College Theater Festival. She received Irene Ryan nomination and that meant that then she had to compete in the regional with a couple of monologues. And she did compete. She won and went to Washington D.C. with it. So that was a great collaboration. Of course, every time we do musicals, that's a big collaboration. When another one that was really successful, I feel, and I wish we could bring this one back. This would be great, was our electronic music concerts. Ed McManus, because he is the electron, produced that. Jerry Seifert, he was here at that time, was the stage director. Mary Seawriter would create dances for it. And so that was a great collaboration. I really enjoyed those. I wasn't directly involved. When we do a musical like we did Chorus Line, I got to be in on that one. I produced that one. And what we also did that in collaboration with the University of Oregon in this way is that we used one of their Joseph Guild, who did a great job with that. So yeah, we've done some pretty amazing collaborations, really. When Ed did the electronic music, he brought people in from... He brought in one guy. Oh, gosh. You'll have to ask Ed what his name is. I forgot. This guy was great. He scored for movies. And what we did for him is create a video that he had never seen. And right there in front of the audience, we played the video, and he composed as he watched it for the first time. Yeah, it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Just incredible musician, and obviously, incredible composer as well. So with all the plays and productions, do you have actually videos of all the... Oh, we have some, yeah. We've videoed for archival purposes, yeah. And we have some around. Why, you want to look at them? I don't know, but since next year is the 40th anniversary of the college and then 30 years of the performing arts building, that might come in handy for further use. But I was wondering, did the performances, let's say in the 80s, 90s, and like up until now, reflect the times at all in regards to like world events or events in Eugene, did they have any influence

[00:30:02] Planet Glassberg:
on what was performed?

[00:30:04] Patrick Torelle:
You know, it's funny. Every time that you do a play, you see it reflected in society. And you wonder, you know, what's influencing what. But great plays, I think, tend to talk about issues in a way that could be right for just about any time. As, you know, we did The Skin of Our Teeth, you know, right at the right time, right around 9-11. So that was pretty amazing that we did that. We, you know, I'm always astounded at how things reflect in real life. But, you know, maybe we're just watching, those who are doing it, watching what's happening in the world a little bit more in light of that play and the issues that are in that play. I don't believe in sympathetic magic. I don't think that, you know, the fact that we're doing a play, it's causing that to occur. But I do think that we do, it makes us look at things and see the events happening. It's simply because those are the issues that we're dealing with in the play. So whenever I've done this one play, Cold Storage, many, many times, and every time that I do it, it's about this guy who's dying of cancer. Every time I do it, all of a sudden, everybody around me is having cancer. Not me yet, knock on wood. But so, and sometimes it seems like, well, no, I can't just be because I'm seeing it, because it just gets so close all of a sudden. But yeah, whenever you do a play, the world around you seems to have that.

[00:32:16] Planet Glassberg:
What's next?

[00:32:18] Patrick Torelle:
Can you recall any difficult situations and how they were resolved,

[00:32:22] Planet Glassberg:
or what were some challenges and how did you overcome them?

[00:32:26] Patrick Torelle:
Well, the first one, of course, was having the tech program cut. That was a big challenge, trying to figure out how we were going to be training students just to do the tremendous labor that's involved with doing any production. So that had to be done in a very hands-on way. But fortunately, one of the things about a community college is that one of the advantages of a community college is you get to have your hands on the equipment and you get to do it. So you learn by doing. So we just took that community college notion.

[00:33:16] Planet Glassberg:
What year did that happen?

[00:33:20] Patrick Torelle:
That was right around that. Sorry, I just can't remember. You'll find out, I'm sure. But every year, there's a challenge. Some kind that you've got to overcome. Some kind of train wreck of some sort. It's just since I've started. Well, I know that you said you came in 1986 and from speaking with Mr. Ragazino and Mr. Reed, I know there was a transitional period happening with the department. With the leadership in the department. Yes, at that time.

[00:34:14] Planet Glassberg:
How did that affect the theater at all? Or in what ways did it or did it not affect the theater department? All that transition happening?

[00:34:25] Patrick Torelle:
You know, Ed was a theater person. And so he actually, you know, I mean, he built this thing. And so, but when he built it, he built it with a kind of integration. It was actually just music and theater at the time. Dance wasn't with us yet. That happened later on. Mary Seawriter did want to join us. And Dick Reed, I thought that was a good idea. And so did I, and so did I. We all agreed that Dan should join us. So that was a big kind of transitional period. And that happened after. He really, when he built it, he built it with this, you know, everything was so integrated that it was, it was very difficult to continue to do what, without continuing to do it in that integrated fashion. But not everybody wanted to do that, you know. Suddenly Ed leaves and everybody wanted to have their own little domain. So there was some struggle with all of that. And I'm not so sure that that struggle does continue. But, and that's, I suppose, only to be expected. But it didn't have anything to do with me. I wasn't here for all of that, so. However, we weren't in on the history. It doesn't mean that we all have to deal with history, don't we? So, you know, you didn't ask to be born into your family, but your family has a history. And that history is now your legacy. And so we kind of was a feeling of wanting to deintegrate while maintaining, you know, the individual integrity of each. Not easy to do. Can you speak about the use of the main performing arts theater

[00:37:07] Planet Glassberg:
and also the Blue Door theater?

[00:37:10] Patrick Torelle:
Well, you know, it used to be that the Blue Door wasn't used for performances at all. And started using that theater. Shortly after I got here, Sparky Roberts and I did a play called University. That was the start. And then just this year we did that play again, because we were going to be at least for a short period of time. I'm hoping it's a short. But because we wanted to create a Blue Door program, we thought, well, let's go back to doing university again. It was very interesting to go back.

[00:37:58] Planet Glassberg:
And is that right?

[00:38:00] Patrick Torelle:
Let's see if that would be. And I think we started it shortly after I got here. And then every year we would look for something to do. We used to do this. We used to have a student-directed production in the Blue Door to start off the year. And that would rehearse during the summer. And then we'd always do the student plays, as we currently still do, student-driven plays. And then in the winter we would do the student-directed plays. While at the same time we were also doing three plays, two to three plays on the main stage. But every year a cut would come, some sort or another. And so gradually that just got reduced and reduced. Which is a great space. Everybody who loves that space would like to work and designers come in. In the year I can do some great stuff. But of course the differences between those two spaces are significant for the students. And the kind of training that you need to go out onto the main stage, we still continue to do. But as I say, we don't offer quite as much. So if you miss out on the class. And then without having a production out there, you can't really teach it inside of rehearsal and performance. Working in the Blue Door, much more intimate place, in space. And so it doesn't have the same kind of vocal demand. And then if you really use it as a theater and a round, well the blocking becomes very mean. So when we did Equus this year, one of the reasons for choosing that play is because it already has a turntable that's in the play. And so this was a play that had a lot of circular movement pretty well. We had a very successful production of the Diary of Anne Frank in the Blue Door.

[00:40:50] Planet Glassberg:
When was that?

[00:40:52] Patrick Torelle:
Gosh, I guess Myrna might be able to tell you when that was. But that was partly due to Myrna, that one. Here's how the Blue Door could be used. If you just start thinking about creative ways to do things sometimes, you can do things that you didn't think you could. Well, the Anne Frank exhibit was touring through town. And we had already selected a season. Everything we're talking about is during the summer. Oh gosh, we can't do Diary of Anne Frank. And we might be able to do it in the Blue Door, but we can't do that play in the Blue Door because you have to have, it all takes place in the annex. And the annex has an upstairs and a downstairs, and you've got to have this little room where Anne is. You've got to have her room, and you've got to have the boy's room. And the parents' bedroom. And you just can't do it inside of that space and have the audience see all of that. And she said, oh, well, maybe. Yes, you're right. So when she hadn't said that, that just made me go, well, maybe I ought to think about that. So I said, oh, now, wait a second. You could create this great feeling. It's an intimate space, so you could create this great pentapostrophobic feeling if you just took out some of the seeds and made the beds happen there. And sure enough, I talked to Skip about it, and he said, oh, yeah, let me think about that, as he does, and then comes back with a design a couple days later, and there it was, and we were able to do that inside of that. The audience's imagination is called on in a greater degree, but audiences love that. They want that to happen, in fact. They want to be able to see things that are not there. And the trick, of course, always is you have to believe. If you believe and the audience believes, they came to play. It's called a play, and they came to play. And so that space really allows the audience to do that. In a much stronger way than it would on the main stage, where you really have to fill that thing. Because it's a huge space, and you have to fill it with something. And the absence of that something, then if you fill that with your imaginary world, the audience will step right into it with you and play right along. And then here you are, you ended up in Oregon. Right in his backyard. Yeah, so the Crucible.

[00:44:01] Planet Glassberg:
What year was that?

[00:44:02] Patrick Torelle:
That was just last year. And of course, you start playing these things a year ahead. So it was really the year before that, that I started talking to Ed about,

[00:44:18] Planet Glassberg:
do you have a student, maybe?

[00:44:21] Patrick Torelle:
This is kind of an extensive score, I'm thinking about. It's going to be, we're going to play it under a lot of scenes, and it's a big supernatural sort of thing. And I think these girls actually believe, they're not just playing at it, they start that way, but then they end up actually believing that they are possessed. So it needs to have that kind of quality to it. So Saul McGurf was the student who was a creative guy. Ed just knew this was the guy, this was the guy who wanted to do scores, wanted to do movie scores, and that was the thrust of his work with Ed. So this was right up his alley. It helped him. Besides the amount of time actually teaching, I would think that it takes much more time and preparation, and of course with all the rehearsals,

[00:45:32] Planet Glassberg:
could you speak about that?

[00:45:34] Patrick Torelle:
Because I think maybe the average person doesn't really realize, possibly, I'm not sure, with theater, with music, with dance, how much time and commitment and dedication, not only the instructors, but the students put in as well. Well, if a student is playing a lead role, they're going to put in something like, depending on the play, somewhere between 90 and 120 hours in rehearsal. Then, of course, they have to do their homework, the research that they need to do on it, as well, as just the kind of accomplishment that happens. So it's thousands and thousands, a small point. In addition to the rehearsal, of course, there's all the prep and design meetings, depending on the play. Something like the Griswold one, a lot of research. Something like, you can't take it with you, not quite as much, but still, we want to know about that time a little easier for us to grasp. So each play has its own demands, just thousands of hours that are spent. And then, of course, if you have a cast of, say, 20 people, well, all of those schedules have to be coordinated. And so you have to create a rehearsal schedule, that will accommodate. And especially these days, the way that the students are, they're working, they've got families. Oh, it's amazing. I don't know how they do it, really. But that schedules. Sometimes you're doing it in a very short period of time, four to six weeks. So that means you're rehearsing three to four hours, six days a week in order to get in there. And then there's individual sessions, too. I've taken to, recently, beginning rehearsals with individuals, or couples, if that, the family, the individuals. And we will just do character work together, just sitting in the office talking about the character, talking about what it is that moves them, motivates them, talking about what they're trying to do moment to moment to moment in the play. So all of that is clear before we actually get up on our feet and start blocking the play. After that, you start talking about business, smaller movements. No, when an actor approaches a play, they're using every single part of themselves, trying to get themselves totally. And everything that they do, physically, emotionally, says something about that to the audience. So we, and then that has to be coordinated with what, so you see, that's part of the work that has to be done that takes so much. We're creating a lot of what, out of the words that are there on the page, which is really a kind of skeleton. It doesn't give you everything. It doesn't give you the, you know, hints at, maybe some movement. It hints at what the emotional life might be like. It hints at what is happening spiritually, mentally. It may hint at the subtext, the inner monologue, but it doesn't give it to you. And all of that has to be created by the actor, the director and designers. With all the budget cuts occurring and with many people retiring or going part-time,

[00:50:41] Planet Glassberg:
how is the theater department able to continue to exist?

[00:50:47] Patrick Torelle:
Did you see the movie Shakespeare in Love? Do you remember the reply to, but how does it ever happen? I don't know. It's a mystery. And just when the night comes, it happens. It always seems to be sort of a mystery. We still do the same amount of work as far as the acting is concerned. That is the same. You can't get away from that. There's not as much, of course, in terms of set because it's a space that doesn't have to be built as much. Costumes are still important. You still have to spend time. And how it all gets done? Well, part of it has been this year, and I expect that it will continue to be, the students who are doing that, that student club. It's a very important invention on their part, and we'll continue to use that. So there are ways and ways, and as long as the spirit is willing, the flesh seems to puddle right on behind.

[00:52:13] Planet Glassberg:
Are there talent grants or scholarships within the theater department? Oh, yeah, sure. And how often and how many are given out?

[00:52:21] Patrick Torelle:
Yeah, there are four talent grants that we give out. We give out $1,000 scholarship in cooperation with the very little theater. They give that one, the smaller scholarships that we give out. We have the Ed Regazino Award that we give out for people who are going to go on and study musical theater. Yeah, the Ed Regazino Award happened when we were exactly how this idea came about. I'm not sure, but I... about making a feather in someone's gap in the head. And so I came up with this thing about doing a roast. I know we've been roasted people. And we'll do a silent auction, and we'll just gather some money together and put in the foundation and giving that one out. That's their life. That's what they want to do. You know, through... There's something about the theatrical spirit that just as long as there's some kind of opening to do theater, it will be done. Well, I don't know what it is about us humans, but we just want the show to go on. So what has inspired you throughout the years,

[00:54:25] Planet Glassberg:
and what inspires you now?

[00:54:27] Patrick Torelle:
Well, I started as an actor, and acting is the first thing, I think, and then directing and then writing. But it's that theatrical experience, finally, folding in of the audience, and then having the people... We get... Some people are very experienced, but the most exciting is when you get a novice, somebody who's never done theater before, and you connect them with maybe an audience who is not so experienced as an audience either, and they get to make magic together. And it really is magic. It is. I mean, it is the very definition of magic that you come to believe that something happened that you know couldn't have actually happened. You know, the coin didn't really disappear. You know that. But the illusion is, is that it did. And with a good magician, they even say, they say, it seems to disappear to me too. I know I've manipulated the trick, but it seems to disappear because if... And that is the trick there, is for the people who are making the trick happen to believe. And when they believe, the audience believes, and when all of that happens, something magical occurs. And that's what keeps me going. That's what I love to have happen. And especially with people who haven't really had that experience in theater before. There's nothing like a live audience. And you pulled in that last element. That's the unknown. That's, you know, you've forgotten what is funny, what will make them cry. You know, you're just working on the reality, trying to believe in what it is that you're doing. And then it comes to the audience, and then they tell you what you have. They finally tell you, there's nothing like that. That's very exciting. And, you know, I was asked recently, you know, because of PERS and all of that, you know,

[00:56:47] Planet Glassberg:
are you thinking about retiring?

[00:56:49] Patrick Torelle:
And I said, well, you know, even if I did retire, I wouldn't retire. You know, might be collecting a different paycheck from a different source, but I keep on teaching, because there's just something about doing that, something about watching someone have an understanding that makes you want to keep doing it. I just had a student, a couple of, yesterday, I think, it was yesterday, I was going to say a couple of days ago, it was yesterday, who was kind of a hard case. He was opinionated. He thought he already knew things. He, you know, but his acting was kind of by the book. It didn't really have a life to heart that he was missing. Well, there were several, and he's still going to be working on something. But the main thing that he was missing was what it is that the character was actually meaning by what it was that they were saying other than what the denotative words are. So the subtext, he was missing that. And although he knew that concept of subtext, he wasn't actually using it. Plus what it is that the character is thinking, or inner monologue. He wasn't quite getting that. And it was only when we were able to reflect back to him and say, you know what, you're so much in the words that your mouth is moving while she's talking. So you're repeating, you're saying her words along with, I am? I didn't know that. Well, you know, I think I'm beginning to get this. And then, so now what he's going to be coming back as a new kind of actor, he's going to be doing things that he hadn't done before as a result of that realization. No longer now this hard case, but now somebody who is curious, who sees that this is really a lifelong process. And it really is, and for me it certainly has been, a lifelong process of learning. This is like going to school and getting paid for it. It's great. I can't beat it.

[00:59:27] Planet Glassberg:
I know how much time and energy and commitment you put into LCC, and I was wondering if you could describe your community involvement. Do you even have time for community involvement?

[00:59:40] Patrick Torelle:
Well, yeah, I have actually. I really, Lord Lebrick was probably, well, that was one theater that I really got involved with early on as they started, because when I first got here, the organ, but it only lasted a couple of years after I was here, I did get to work with him. And so that was one involvement. We did The Good Doctor of the Soaring, and it was really sweet and had a great time with that. And Joseph Gilk was the artistic director at the time. But the Holt can eat up a company if you're not careful, and I'm afraid that's what happened there. So then Lord Lebrick came along and I thought, well, maybe this is the next one. So I'm always looking to try to, wherever I can, try to help out. So I've done a number of plays with some Shakespeares, did Shylock and Venice, Richard III and Sylvia, and a number of works with them. We did a collaboration with the Cottage Theater, from Cottage Grove, and we did On Air at the Wind and toured that in churches. We did it in a church in Cottage. So that was last night. We have a professional theater in town, the one that did their very first play since. My favorite was Midsummer Night's Dream, where we worked with the symphony. And so they played the Mendelssohn while we did the play. And Miguel was experienced that way. It was nothing like having a symphony orchestra back you up, and you back them up as well. So I had to do that again. And then, of course, whenever I get a chance to work with high school students, I'll do that. So there's a, you know, theater is a small world, just like, you know. That's how I look at it. When I go out in the community, it's nice to have a paycheck, another paycheck, but I'm not looking for that.