RITES is the Bryson family's newest exercise in documentary theater
See the lives of local people portrayed on stage in this new play from Brian and Gavin Bryson and the players of Broken Theater
Brian Bryson, 57, co-founder of Broken Theater, has been interested in theater since he was in junior high. Stand-up comedian, former stuntman, actor and playwright— Bryson has done it all.
“I started becoming less interested in acting and more interested in that magic thing that happens between a play or a movie or even just a script where the audience laughs or cries or just gets swept up and taken away,” said Bryson. “That really, really captivated me the strongest, so I just started pursuing that more and acting less and got more and more into writing and directing.”
Around 16 years ago, Bryson tried something new: documentary-style theater. Bryson, who now lives in Sebastopol, was working in Petaluma at the time.
“I had all the young folks interview all different people throughout Petaluma about their past and present and about life in Petaluma,” he said.
Then these young actors acted out vignettes from the lives of those people on stage.
“We performed this play called the Petaluma River Anthology [at the fairgrounds], and the experience was just extraordinary, like one of the most profound experiences of my life,” he said.
“I just recognized, at that moment, [that] this is the most community-building thing I’d ever experienced, and the most healing thing I’d ever experienced. I just recognized its potential and thought I could really devote my life to this, and so ever since then, I’ve just been doing these documentary theater pieces.”
The documentary theater style starts when young artists conduct interviews with various members of the community.
“We choose the golden moments from those interviews, the moments that make us laugh or cry or cheer or see the world in a whole new light,” Bryson said.
Bryson and his team then transcribe those memorable moments from the interviews, word for word.
“We take all of them and we put them on a table on three-by-five index cards, and we figure out a way to create some kind of dramatic structure,” he said.
Broken Theater’s upcoming play, RITES, follows a similar format.
“All the interviews and the reactions, the joy and excitement from all the cast members in putting this together—we’re all really excited to share this with everybody,” Bryson said.
The play was co-directed by Bryson and his 13-year-old son, Gavin Bryson.
The lives of local people on stage
RITES is about rites of passage. The student actors working on the production of RITES interviewed several people in Sebastopol and West County about the rites of passage in their lives.
They talked to Sophia Henderson, Reena Burton, Chris and Bodhi White (father and son), Brooke Syme, Annmarie Ginella, Rabbi Erwin Keller, Justin Seeley, Ben Becker, Ruby Day, Joti Stephi and Katie Stoll.
Interviewee Sophia Henderson explains what it was like being interviewed for the play:
“It was sweet to do the interview, because it was in the family’s home, and they had tea out for us and little snacks. I was planning originally on going by myself, but it just turned out that I needed to bring my son with me, and it ended up being perfect because he is my rite of passage. And so it was really sweet to actually have him there while I told our story.”
“The story was basically about my journey into motherhood and how it shaped me as a midwife,” Henderson said. “Without sharing too much, my story has a lot to do with when to step into the medical system and also how the medical system can harm you, but how to use it when it’s appropriate and how to know when a more holistic approach would actually be better.”
“A blanket statement is, like, ‘The hospital system saved my son’s life and almost killed my daughter.’ And how to navigate that experience and how to learn from it…how to utilize it to your advantage, but not treat them [doctors] as gods that know everything, because they’re human,” she said. “You know, humans make mistakes, and you’re the one that lives with the results for the rest of your life. Don’t just hand over your autonomy, stay in control of decision-making power, because you know you have to live with the choices, [and] the consequences for the rest of your life.”
And that’s just one of the fascinating West County stories that make up RITES.
Beyond children’s theater
“I think when people hear children’s theater, they get a certain image in their head. And these plays are certainly not that—they’re really plays that are for everybody, people of all ages, they’re for the community,” said Bryson.
RITES debuts at Main Street Theater, April 18 to April 20 and April 25 to 27.
“These are confusing times and hard times,” Bryson said. “There’s a lot of disconnection. There’s algorithms and things that are all set up to divide us, and here this comes along and it’s such an antidote. It’s such a huge, powerful antidote that it connects us all.”
Get your ticket at https://brokentheatre.ticketspice.com/rites. You can also learn more about Brian Bryson and Broken Theater here.
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