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Chloe (Wendy Woolery) is the mother of Marcus (Gary Reed) a troubled
ex-con returning home in The Exile Project, an original theatrical piece on
the correctional system that opens March 7.
Photo by Jim Rogers |
In Holly Eckert’s ambitious new musical
The Exile Project, Marcus returns home
from prison craving the simple comforts
of a soft bed and fresh vegetables. He
has been deprived of these amenities
for the last 20 years along with fair pay,
a sense of safety, and basic dignity. Marcus,
played by Gary Reed, is so damaged
from his incarceration that he retreats
in fear as his mother rushes to hug him
when he enters her house. Even the
most basic tasks of making a phone
call or crossing a street are challenging;
the free world includes more bustle and
choice than he can cope with. “Maybe I
should just go back,” Marcus angrily laments.
“At least I knew the rules.”
This is a common sentiment of those
recently released from prison, many
of whom have great difficulty finding
employment. On the other hand, work
in prison is plentiful – and extremely
low-paying. Eckert, the director, choreographer,
and co-writer of The Exile
Project, says she was inspired to write
the play after volunteering in a public
defenders’ office and visiting the state
correctional complex at Monroe.
What does Eckert believe to be the
cause of the nation’s still-growing prison
population? Greed. “As soon as you introduce
the idea that the prison system is a
private industry to make a profit…then
what do you need? You need criminals,”
she says. And it’s not just companies like
the Corrections Corporation of America,
who own more prisons than any other
company in the U.S., that are profiting:
“It’s IBM, Microsoft, Intel. These are huge
companies that are going into prisons
and that are exploiting prison labor at
20 cents an hour.”
The Exile Project’s protagonist takes
a dig at the CCA, cursing his tiny wages
that only dent the mass of debt he rings
up while in prison. However, the play
is not about his time physically incarcerated;
rather, it explores the mental
incarceration that lingers long after
the sentence is served. Marcus’ greatest
challenge is forgiving his cousin,
who has become the focal point for his
rage. Marcus’anger is ever-present in
his body and his voice; furrowed and
frowning, he speaks in a whispery, defeated
fury between violent outbursts.
The only language he is fluent in is that
of intimidation.
The grit of these themes is tempered
by the play’s elements of humor, dance,
and song. It seems that Marcus dreams
in musical numbers; while he slumbers,
paintings of his ancestors come to life
and flit around his subconscious mind.
One of the more successful of these
vignettes involves a reanimated jazz
singer sauntering off the canvas and
singing a maternal, darkly sexual lullaby
as she caresses Marcus’ sleeping
form. Accompanying the voices of the
formidable Selena Whitaker-Paquiet and Carissa Meisner Smit is the
minimalistic strumming of prolific
Seattle musician Amy Denio.
The Exile Project sounds sometimes
like a shanty and sometimes
like Soundgarden – even
the occasional Casio-tone beat
can be heard.
This is the first time writing
a musical for both Eckert and
Denio. The story that they have
crafted is earnest but rather
rough hewn; “We have one more
step in the process,” Eckert tells
me. “We have to do a little more
editing.” The excitement of the
cast was clear in the final week of
rehearsal as they tightened up and pared down lines
and dance numbers in preparation for the play’s debut
on Friday. Says actress Smit, “That’s original theater: it’s
always evolving.”
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