TFLL: Hello. We are Linda and Rae, and this is Theatre for Lifelong Learning. Our guest today is Bernie Stephan. Bernie is from Sebastopol, California and is 73 years old. He is a lifelong learner with multiple careers and pursuits. Over the last few years, he has taken a variety of theatre classes, including theatre improvisation with me. Thank you for joining us today, Bernie. It is a pleasure to have you.
Bernie Stephan: Thank you so much for inviting me. I am excited about your project for lifelong learning for seniors.
TFLL: How did you get into theatre?
Bernie Stephan: I became an activist later in my life. I was finding that the message I was trying to communicate to people about the seriousness of what climate change and extinction and all that means to our future was meeting a lot of resistance and people not wanting to hear my message.
So I decided I had to learn to communicate better. I took an improv class from Linda at the Santa Rosa JC and that helps loosen me up for the idea of being more present in the moment with the group I was with.
After that, I took some acting lessons because I felt that would be a valuable step, as well another improv class. Again, I learned techniques. I think the most important one that I learned was that you’re not wrong. You’re never wrong, whatever you do, if it’s genuine, if it’s appropriate. That was a big release for me, both in improv and in acting: the idea of understanding the character and the interaction that the character has in that particular scene, what is it that they’re trying to achieve. And then just putting yourself out there, as you would in real life.
TFLL: What was it about theatre specifically that drew you to it as a means to improve your communication?
Bernie Stephan: In a way I was desperate. In real life I was definitely meeting up with resistance from people not wanting to hear me. I thought if I became more maybe dramatic, I’d break through. I also took some comedy classes. I thought if I could put the message in a comedic form that it would be better received or more easily received by people I was trying to communicate with.
TFLL: That reminds me of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, “A laugh can be a powerful thing.”
Bernie Stephan: Yes, I still think humor is the best way to deal with some very serious issues, and I wish I could have developed my stand-up comedy skills, a little better.
TFLL: How do you think theatre courses and theatre help older adults?
Bernie Stephan: Part of it is as we’ve gotten older, we elders have gotten kind of comfortable in how we’ve matured. So we tend to be one way, and this is maybe a way to break that mold and try something new. By being another character, it allows you, the individual, to maybe adopt parts of that character as being authentically you.
TFLL: What is your favorite type of theatre class and why?
Bernie Stephan: I took acting from Brian Glenn Bryson at the 6th Street Playhouse and his approach was more of an improv style. The way he defined acting for us was that, as a character, you have a goal. You’re meeting obstacles and your goal as the character is to get to your goal — not being someone who tries to mimic or pretend to be something you’re not, or try to ascribe these other characteristics to the character, but accepting that the character has a goal.
And then being yourself. I really like that and to me that’s a lot like improv. That’s taking improv into theatre and allowing myself to express myself in the situation that’s prescribed.
TFLL: What do you want to get out of taking a class?
Bernie Stephan: I think learning to be more present. To be authentic, but in the right role. Being in the exercise. Being in the play. Being in the context of what the group is doing. I’m blending acting and improv in that same sense of “I know that I should have a part in this story” and “I am finding my part in it.”
TFLL: What were you challenged by in these classes and what new skills did you develop from these challenges?
Bernie Stephan: I’m a person who tries to go contrary in many ways. Sometimes the biggest challenge was not being such a goofball because that didn’t do so well with the other people in the class. Finding a way to be myself but still be a part of the team, and if you will, part of the play part of the improv class.
TFLL: How have you applied skills you developed in theatre courses to other parts of your life?
Bernie Stephan: I believe now I’m less intent on trying to put my message out there. I am looking for ways to insert little pieces into a situation with a family or with friends or poker game, or whatever. I pull out little pieces that are less likely [to cause] people to react negatively, and instead make them laugh or maybe hear something new, but be able to swallow a bitesize message from me, rather than overwhelm them with my philosophy.
TFLL: Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Bernie Stephan: The specific examples are hard. With my son, often I’m frustrated. I have these beliefs, and I feel like people are crossing their arms when I’m speaking and showing me that they’re not interested in this stuff. His message back to me has mostly been, “It’s not what you say. It’s how you say it.” What I’m saying is too difficult for most people to process because it’s so contrary to what our life is about.
In other words, I tend to go right from climate change to extinction and most people aren’t ready to see that linkage. They don’t want to be told that we’re all culpable, that we all have a role in this. So when people rail against a fossil fuel company or its CEO as being responsible for destroying the planet because of what that company does, I look for ways to bring it down to home. I try to say that, even without fossil fuels, a Tesla, which may be viewed as more helpful by not having an internal combustion engine, still contributes to the pollution of the planet and as part of a toxic lifestyle. And what we really need to do is drive less. And the real sustainable vehicle is not an electric car. It’s a bicycle. So I’ll stay at that level rather than taking the bigger issue.
TFLL: Thank you for sharing that Bernie. The reason I asked you to elaborate is because I think that’s something a lot of people struggle with in terms of trying to communicate and connect big ideas with people. Let’s shift gears a little bit. If you can think about the most memorable moment that you’ve had in the theatre class, could you tell us about that?
Bernie Stephan: For negative, in one of the acting recitals my forgetting my lines was definitely memorable. It sort of caused the brain freeze and I realized that the importance of getting the exact line right was less important than carrying the story forward. So inserting a little improv to get out of a failing to have memorized lines was the way I let the show go on, rather than beat myself up and say, “Oh my God I failed.”
TFLL: “If you get tangled up just tango on,” to quote Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.
Bernie Stephan: But one of the things Linda told us in the very first class that I was a student in was, “You can’t do anything wrong,” and I took that to heart. So now I’m invincible because I can’t do anything wrong.
TFLL: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received or given about theatre?
Bernie Stephan: It’s not about mimicking. It’s about being yourself in that situation, given the setup and given the characters purpose. It’s about what’s inside of you, that would react to that. That’s what I believe is the bottom line in better acting, rather than mimicking.
I had written with the cohort a Trump play that was a kind of a comedy set in the Lincoln Bedroom between myself as Trump and the woman he’s married to. What’s his wife’s name?
I spent a lot of time trying to sound like Trump or look like Trump or speak like Trump but that turned out not to be something I could do very well. So rather than be a Saturday Night Live kind of a Trump imitator, I just played the Trump role with my own sounds with my own words.
TFLL: Now that you have quite a few classes under your belt, what would you say to someone who’s brand new to theatre?
Bernie Stephan: Don’t try so hard. Go for it. Come in relaxed.
One of the things that Brian did was an exercise that will stick with me forever. In this exercise, you were tasked with repeating a set of lines with another character, but you had to choose whether you’re going to try to make that person feel bad about themselves or feel good about themselves. That decision was the most important decision, because once you decided to make them feel bad about themselves, your words and actions came naturally from that, or if you wanted them to feel good about themselves.
And I asked myself why would I ever want to make anyone in my life that I love feel bad about themselves? And yet I knew that I had done it many, many, many, many times and just making the choice that we all have, that we can make someone feel good about themselves or feel bad about themselves. That’s a life lesson that came out of acting.
Photo Credit: Mussi Katz, “I Want to Ride My Bicycle,” 2014