Indy Theatre Habit

I happened to meet actor/writer Les Kurkendall at the Metro Bar and Grille after the 2008 Indianapolis Fringe Preview Night Party.  I enjoyed chatting with him, so I looked forward to seeing his personal storytelling show, “Christmas in Bakersfield,” too.

I saw it at Stage Two of Theatre on the Square at 9:00 on the first Sunday evening of the Fringe festival.

It is warm and satisfying.

Kurkendall’s telling style is very deliberate.  During his Preview Night excerpt, he told very fast and sort of “hard.”  I overheard him telling someone else afterwards that he had done this in order to give people has much of an idea as he could about what his full piece is about.  However, in his full show, his telling pace is much more measured.  It is also endearing.

He uses “So (pause)…” and “Now (pause)…” a lot, which could become a crutch, but works well enough in this piece.  Maybe this is just part of his telling style.

Kurkendall is pursuing an acting career from his base in Los Angeles, so I’m not sure he even thinks of himself as a storyteller.   A stand-up comedian, yes.  A solo artist, yes.  A monologuist (is that a word?), yes.  But an oral tradition storyteller?  No.  Or at least, he doesn’t include the word “storytelling” in the “genre” portion of his show’s description in the Fringe booklet.

However, a storyteller is what he is.

Because he comes to storytelling from acting, he tells with the house lights down and the stage lights up, rather than having all of the lights at a sort of medium level, which is what most professional storytellers prefer so that they can see their audience members clearly and therefore connect more effectively with them.  It is possible to connect intimately with an audience just by listening to their reactions as you’re telling, but why work that hard if you don’t have to?

Even without being able to see us clearly, though, Kurkendall seems comfortable with the absence of a Fourth Wall between him and his audience.

His story is about the time his white boyfriend took him home to Bakersfield one Christmas to meet his family, without really warning them that he (Kurdendall) is black.  Gay they could handle.  But black?  According to Kurkendall, not only is Bakersfield predominantly white, the community has roots in the KuKluxKlan.  They are that kind of white.

He introduces us to each of his boyfriend’s family members.  They are outrageous, but he swears he has taken them directly from real life.

What I loved most about his story is that its point is that any family has its share of drama, prejudices, and colorful characters.  Any time any two people fall in love, they and their families have to adjust to each other.

At the end of the show, Kurkendall was exuberant in his praise of the Indy Fringe Festival.  He said he had been having a wonderful time so far and had been made to feel welcome.  I was touched, and glad to hear that he felt that way.

In the lobby, I caught him coming out of the theatre space and asked him how he had learned about our Fringe. 

He said that there is a Fringe circuit and that performers on the circuit talk to each other about what the various Fringe festivals are like.  His friend, Dan Bernitt, had performed here last year and raved about the experience.  I didn’t remember the name Dan Bernitt, but when Kurkendall said, “Scabies,” I said, “Oh, yes!  I loved that show!”

“Thanks for the Scabies, Jerkface” was pre-blog, of course, and it was someone else’s job on the IndianaAuditions.com review team to review that show for IA last year, but I wrote about it informally in this IA thread.

Les Kurkendall’s “Christmas in Bakersfield” show runs at the 2008 Indy Fringe Festival through 4:30 pm on Sunday, August 31.

Hope Baugh - www.IndyTheatreHabit.com