Quarantine Q/A: JAMES E. GARCIA

by Gil Benbrook

Our series of "Quarantine" interviews, which focus on individuals involved in the Phoenix theatre community and their reaction to Arizona's stay at home mandate and the recent protests to fight racial injustice, continues today with a conversation with Phoenix-based journalist, playwright and communications consultant James E. Garcia, who is also the founder and producing artistic director of New Carpa Theater Co.

The COVID-19 virus and the protests for racial equality in support of #blacklivesmatter  have affected us all in many ways. The theatre community has been harshly impacted with show closures and postponements. We hope this series of interviews will be a way to provide some personal insight into what people are doing during this period of time while highlighting familiar individuals from the theatre community in town.

Was there a show you were in or involved with or preparing for when the stay at home order started? 

"I'm usually juggling three or four productions at once, at least in my head, but I was specifically planning a run of a new work called The Fight in the Fields, a new one act about the ideas and philosophies of the civil rights icon Cesar Chavez. It was scheduled to premiere at the Kax Theatre in June. The show's been pushed off now until next spring, depending on when the apocalypse ends. I'm not sure how apocalypses normally last. I was also slated to premiere a full-length work in October 2020. That piece is a co-production between New Carpa and ASU Gammage called The Moment, which follows an African American family in the year leading up to Barack Obama's election . That piece has been put off indefinitely."

How have you been personally impacted by both COVID and the stay at home order in March as well as the current situation with the protests fighting for racial justice and #blacklivesmatter?

"In addition to my work as a playwright and producer, I've been a journalist for more than 30 years. In both capacities, I've built a career writing about social justice issues. My first gig in the news business was reporting for an African American weekly in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After that I went on to cover immigration issues, among other things, on the Texas-Mexico border. My first play, a monologue, was about a man dying of AIDS. It was called Ray. The vast majority of my writing since has revolved around social justice and communities of color. As for how the virus and BLM have impacted my life, I've been pretty much on lockdown. In addition to being in one of the high-risk groups myself, my wife and I also care for my wheelchair-bound mother-in-law, who almost certainly wouldn't survive a COVID infection. So we spend a lot of time keeping her from getting infected. That said, a day doesn't go that I don't have those issues on my mind. As a commentary writer for the AZMirror.com, I've addressed the topics regularly in my columns. As a playwright, I'm sketching out a someday play about a group of Latino siblings whose once close relationship has been destroyed by the polarized politics of the day. The device that brings them together is the death of their mother from COVID and the socially distanced funeral that's forced on them. Beyond that, I'm also a tireless critic of President Trump's racist and authoritarian administration, which I plan to address in a sorta-quasi-annual satire I'm planning as a Zoom production this fall. My working title is American Pastorela: The Trumpifornication Tour, Part 2"

How has your daily routine changed? 

"As someone who doesn't believe the pandemic is a hoax, I'm pretty compulsive about avoiding infection. Basically, I'm living by the philosophy that we're all gonna, but why rush it. The science isn't complicated. The virus is about ten times as deadly as a common flu. There's no cure, and there's no vaccine. So, if you don't want to die soon, wear a mask and stay the fuck away from other people. So that's basically what I do. Call me weird, but I take once-a-century global pandemics seriously. Anyway, I'm pretty much working from home. Which isn't that hard for me, since I'm not the outdoorsy type. I love hikes in the country, but kind of hate camping. Seems like a lot of work. I write for a living, so I'm one of the lucky folks who, for the most part, doesn't have to leave my house to do my job."

What do you feel will be different when theater restarts? 

"I feel like it'll be more diverse and it'll take more chances. Not just because of COVID -- and maybe not even mostly because of COVID -- but because of George Floyd's murder and the already years-long wave of resistance to Trumpism. In some ways, people have been protesting the Trump regime since the day he was elected. And not because he's a Republican, which he really isn't, but because most Americans like democracy. While the eruption of recent protests was clearly sparked by Floyd's video-streamed lynching, the nature of the protests was multidimensional, in terms of the issues being addressed, and far more multicultural and intersectional than many might have predicted. So, and this isn't much of a reach, people's creative energy is going to explode on the scene next year, and I believe that explosion, which is already in the works, is going to be driven by a realization across the board that there's no turning back. Today's deep division is really about the fact, I think, that most of the country was moving in one direction, but that movement was hijacked by an ideological throwback that's trying to force the country in another direction, an unnatural direction. A direction back in time. A direction toward less pluralism, and, frankly, less equality. Art's role, if its creation isn't mandated by authoritarians, is pluralistic by nature. You can't order people to create art, if you don't want it to be worth a shit. Dictators and fascists, like our president, despise artists because they can't control them. And because the only creative streak they possess is in killing things. Anyway, I expect an explosion of art in the coming years as our wounded societal soul begins to rebuild. "

When do you think that’ll happen? 

"It's already happening, but it'll peak on January 20, 2021. Maybe sooner, if Trump and Pence resign and Pelosi becomes a caretaker president. And just for the record, I'm a total nonpartisan. This isn't about party politics. It's about a people, a nation, and its artists trying to get through a day that isn't dominated by Trump's chaos and dysfunction, and coupled with the virtually unfettered wave of death that's been wreaked by COVID and exacerbated by the government's total dysfunction. And, BTW, the Russians and ISIS are still intent on destroying us. There still out there. So things could be worse. Hey, the last pandemic happened during a world war. Call us lucky."

What have you been doing to stay creative during this time? 

"Just desperately trying to not lose sight of my center. In some ways, that's easier now, since I have fewer daily distractions. My problem is I've always worked on deadlines, whether as a journalist or a playwright. So all of the unknowables have me disoriented. I often forget what day it is. Like all of us, I'm not yet sure when I can stage a show. But that's doubly hard for me because I need deadlines to stay on track. For now, I'm doing a lot of journalism. So that satisfies some of my craving to write. But it's not enough."

Any binge tv shows you’ve watched? 

"I rarely watch television, and don't have the patience to watch series television to the end. My attention span is terrible. That probably explains why I binge-write, if you will. Give me a deadline for a play's production and I'll write a script in a few weeks, sometimes days, even if I've been shaping the story in my head for years. That probably explains my attraction to journalism."

Any new hobbies you’ve taken on? 

"Not a one. I hate hobbies more than camping. Okay, hate is a strong word. I'm allergic to hobbies, the way I'm phobic about most insects, which tend to be outdoors, which is why I don't care for camping."

How have the experiences of the past three months changed you? 

"It's reminded me that today is all we have. There's a lot of death all around us, and none of it seems natural. It's not just old people dying because their old or smokers dying of cancer. It's not even people being shot on the battlefield (though I know that's happening elsewhere in the world). It's just catch-as-catch-can dying with no logic or reason, and half of it, maybe most of it, could have been avoided. The only consolation is that as a student of history, I know it'll eventually end. It all eventually ends. Just hoping I'll still be around when it does."

What is the one thing you’re most looking forward to when the pandemic is over?

"I miss listening to talented actors deliver my lines in ways I couldn't have imagined, meaning in ways that make them better. I miss the process of creating, in some ways even more than finishing. Staging shows can be nerve wracking, but fun when it goes well. Rehearsing is meditative for me. It's a moment in time, virtually all the time. It's the making of the art that I love. That's what I miss the most. "