Five Acts with Jodeen Revere - part two

photo credit: Lila Streicher

Welcome to the "Five Acts with..." series, featuring artists, performers, musicians, and more from around the Treasure Valley. In this series, Arts Boise presented artists with five questions (or, in this case, Acts) and below, the answers, in their own words.

Thanks to Jodeen Revere for jumping right in with this project. The following is part two of their interview. You can read part one here.

ACT III: Who and what inspires Jodeen Revere? (In the arts, and beyond!) - cont'd

I read a great deal, see lots of movies, dance and plays whenever I can. Always museums and galleries. I have cancelled all streaming services and only see films in the theater. On occasion I will rent a movie (yes, you can still do that at The Flicks!) When you go to a place and look at the titles on the shelves and then choose the film you want to watch and take it home, it is a conscious decision. There is specificity in that, rather than scrolling through an endless list of content and feeling sort of sick and bloated with choice. I read something recently about the difference between consuming art ( sounds violent and gluttonous) and allowing yourself to receive the art.

The artist makes it and it is your job, if you participate, to give it your attention and let it work on you. That is the exchange.

I'm inspired by grown ass women, being well over 60 myself. Frances McDormand, Michelle Yeoh, Olivia Coleman, Jodie Foster, Juliette Binoche, Jamie Lee Curtis, Amy Madigan. Tracee Ellis Ross. Jesse Buckley is a fierce force of exquisiteness! Rene Reinsve, who was in Sentimental Value, blew my mind. Vicky Krieps.

Punchdrunk Theater's epic constructs (Sleep No More, The Drowned Man), Jamie Lloyd as a theater director. His version of Cyrano with James McAvoy is still one of the most riveting pieces of theater I have ever seen.

Laurie Anderson, Theaster Gates, Kelly Reichardt, Jen Silverman, Hansol Jung, Brian Quijada, Bo Burnham, Nathan Fielder, Miranda July.

SITI training.

Okay, I must stop now. If you do not know who any of these people are, please look them up and dive in.

Locally, I think Tracy Sunderland and the work she does as a director and the immersive experiences she creates with Migration Theory are on par with anything I've seen nationally. She is a visionary. She arranges beautiful pictures on stage. She directed me in The Cripple of Inishman and again in The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time at BCT. I was in S5, her first experiment with Migration Theory and then a couple of years later, Small Matters. These experiential immersive experiences are absolute magic and the audience is deeply altered by them. She has a film director's eye and then creates that filmatic tableau to insert the audience into the unexpected outside world space of an alley, parking garage, the open doors of a parked van full of people telling a story.. It is quite something.

I could geek out on artists and art that inspire me for the rest of my life.

ACT IV: Where do you see the future of theater/performing arts headed?

I think with funding issues, grants disappearing and a lack of appreciation for the arts in general in this country, it is a bit frightening. The arts are not some extracurricular whimsy. They are the foundation of what it is to be a well rounded, empathetic human being. I know that theaters are struggling, but there is a ground swell of smaller, bare bones solo shows, or two or three person plays, plays with no elaborate sets, and salon type house show readings that are of great interest to me. My show that I toured was me and a stool and a cube with two props. One lighting cue. One music cue. Boom. Easy, portable, self contained. Inexpensive to produce.

Sitting in a theater full of people and having that shared experience is always magic, but the smaller the container, the more it ratchets up the intimacy experience and I think people are really craving that. To be physically pushed right to the edge of the performance container makes it more human. More personal. That is thrilling to experience, both as an audience member and as a performer. More small readings, performances, salons. Ming Studio supports this and Address Book events here in town are finding a thirsty audience for such happenings. The Speakeasy Productions shows that I referenced earlier were cut from this cloth.

I personally hate every single thing about Marvel movies. The budget for one Marvel movie could easily fund 20 smart, unique independent films, that make you think and feel and contemplate rather than anesthetize.. It is infuriating.

I think both film and theater need to keep going rogue. Small, out of the box, inventive, more human. If we want that, we have to put our. money where we want it and stop supporting and funding the mass mediocrity. Give to individuals and their projects. Support local artists. Boise is so very generous in that regard. Thank you for showing up for the arts and the artists.

Artists are professionals and should be paid accordingly for their time and their craft. For way too long this BS idea that artists should just feel lucky that they get to do what. they do and they should do it for free is beyond insulting. There is no other profession in the world that anyone would ever think of presenting that as an option. It is why most artists have at least three other jobs. We have to eat and pay bills.

ACT V: What's up next for you? What are you currently working on? Favorite projects in the last five, ten years?

I have been in a memoir writing workshop for the last two years with Nick Jaina. (Someone else to google, know about, buy his books, listen to his music) Through that I have many, many personal essay type pieces. Some I have been reading at open mics and readings both here and in other cities. Again, portable performance. Tracy Sunderland and I performed a solo show duet sort of piece at BCT this summer, at Ming and at Project Flux and we are having fun sculpting into a bigger something.

I am ever and always hopeful of being cast in something as someone other than myself, now that The Persistent Guest is behind me.

I cut my teeth on directing a reading of Tira Palmquist’s play The Body’s Midnight for BCT a couple of years ago. I loved that and would really like to do more directing.

If anyone wants to produce a play, I have been jonesing to do Witch by Jen Silverman for five years. My dream roll. I have a cast in mind and a director. You could make this dream come true.

Thanks for indulging me in these wild ranting director's cut answers to your questions. I'm all inspired!