End of the world is beginning of director's careerBy Lauren Nelson
News-Sentinel Feature Writer
Last updated: Friday, May 25, 2007 11:02 PM PDT
Jaye Lee Vocque has big plans for stage and film. But it doesn't matter if he never hits it big because he'll always have community theater. Vocque, who in his spare time performs marriage ceremonies as an ordained reverend, is the director of "Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grill" at Vino Pizza. The final performance is 8 p.m. tonight at Gnosis Theater in Lockeford.
For more information, visit http://www.GnosisTheatreCompany.org or call 478-4003.
Q: What is "Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grill"?
A: I refer to it as a dark comedy and that scares a lot of people. It's really funny, but the humor comes from a dark place. It's a small town, it's a small town bar and the news just went over the wire that the world is coming to an end. There is no explanation why, it's just over. So now, everyone in the town has to deal with it. That's where a lot of the humor comes from. When you have a small town, you never know how people will deal with something like this. There is one guy who shoots his wife and then he goes around the rest of the town trying to find people who did him wrong to shoot them. There's another guy who thinks he has enough money that he can buy his way out of it, which is honest — if you were rich you might think you could buy your way into a bomb shelter. There's another lady who is breaking in and stealing cars because she's never driven a Mercedes. She's never played baseball, so she goes out to the high school to use the pitching machine. She made a list of everything she never did, and now she is going to do it. It has a lot of really good humor, but it's very honest. You have one day left, what would you do?
Q: What drew you to this play?
A: Honestly, it's one those "you can judge a book by its cover." One year while going through (a pile of scripts), this title jumped out at me. I looked at it and I thought, this looks great on a poster. I read the description and really enjoyed it. I sat down and read it and fell in love. I was so lucky that the title I saw was exactly what it needed to be. I like drama, but I love comedy so I need to find that balance in scripts. This is one that the touching moments are very dramatic and very touching and the funny moments are falling-out-of-your seat funny.
Q: What drives the characters?
A: In order for any show to work, the characters have to be honest. Even with the character Willy who shoots his wife, you're going, OK, that's a despicable person. But when he starts describing all of his reasons, you start realizing that it's kind of frightening because you know somebody like that. That's the major push that I do. I tell them they are not playing caricatures or what's written out. You've got to be real or the audience is going to hate you. A lot of time in rehearsal goes into showing people the realism.
Q: How has the audience responded to the show?
A: They all walked away really loving the piece.
Q: What about yourself, how did you get your roots in theater?
A: I started acting when I was in kindergarten. My aunt did a show at Delta College — "The Wizard of Oz." They had a little person playing the mayor of Munchkinland. He fell ill and they needed someone to step in really quickly. My aunt took this little tape recorder and recorded all of his lines and played it for me over and over again. She dragged me in there, I fit in the tuxedo and it worked out great. I was hooked.
In sixth grade I met a teacher, Dr. Morandes, who really loved Shakespeare. So here I was, this little country school — Elkhorn Elementary — and he brought Shakespeare in for us to watch, to listen to and for us to act. Here was a bunch of sixth graders handing us "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and wishing us luck. From that moment I fell in love.
Through middle school and high school, I kept going. Freshman year I went to Bear Creek when it was brand new school. I looked at the classroom and later met the drama teacher and I walked up to the door and I was like, you know what? I'm going to be the first student director. I was. From then on out, I knew directing was the only way to go.
Q: You mentioned working on independent films. Do you have any prospects for that?
A: There are a couple production companies here in town that are working on a movie that we'll start filming soon. With one film, they need an assistant director because the director is also the star. So, they need someone to do his scenes. I have a friend, Liz Fies, in Los Angeles who wants me to in her film that she will film in June. I have a couple of scripts that we've talked about filming. I just need to contact one of the bars in the area to try and use their spot. It takes place at the last empty table in a crowded bar.
Q: Which Lodi bars are you considering?
A: I don't know yet. I really like the booth setup in El Rancho and that works out well. I also went into Mojo's and they were really helpful in trying to get me stuff for the show I'm doing right now — because it takes place in a bar. They gave me a couple of things for my set and said I didn't even need to return it.
I need to finish the script and see it in a life format. It'll be a short film so I'll send it to festivals. I'll hope and pray that something happens with it. If it doesn't, I am so happy doing live theater and so happy getting that audience reaction. I thrive on watching my cast doing an amazing job. I feel like a dad. I've been yelled at, called every name in the book by actors. Then opening night happens and they realize why I did it.
Q: After watching the show so many times, are you still able to appreciate it?
A: There's this one scene that is heartbreaking and makes me start to cry even though I've seen it a million times now. The way the actors perform it and the way the scene is set up, it brings me to tears. I like looking around the audience and seeing who is catching that same emotion that I am feeling. They are seeing it for the first time.
If nothing ever comes out of the independent film, oh well. As long as I have a place and theaters in this area, I will be here doing it.
Contact reporter Lauren Nelson at laurenn@lodinews.com.
