Erik Roldan writesPavement Group - Chicago’s Theatre Punks (an Interview with Pavement Group’s Artistic Director)

David Perez is a Mexican-American living, breathing and loving theatre life in Chicago. Since 2006, Perez, along with several friends and collaborators, have been growing their company, Pavement Group with the intention of doing something different. As Artistic Director, Perez has used alternative loft spaces and stages, tackled sex, friendship and punk music for larger and larger audiences. In fact, the exposure has been so good that for their 2008 presentation of Lipstick Traces at the AV-aerie, opening night was shut down by the police and the run had to be completed speakeasy-style, with large signs on the front door that read “CANCELLED” and a suspicious looking person directing you to go around the back. Such is life in Chicago when you are trailblazing punk-rock theatre for independent-minded folks, I suppose. I emailed David to ask him a few questions about their current production punkplay, his love of music and being different in a city full of thespians. punkplay is a Steppenwolf Visiting Company Initiative and runs through Sunday April 25, 2010 in the Garage Theatre. On Saturday, March 27th people who attend punkplay are invited to a post-curtain celebration in the theatre with cast members, complimentary food, beverages and CHIRP DJ Mike Gibson spinning his picks of the best in punk, post-punk and hardcore.

Tickets are available at steppenwolf.org or by calling the box office at (312) 335-1650. Read on for the interview…

Erik Roldan: What is punk about theatre?

David Perez: Theatre at its best forces an audience to reorganize themselves around their taste and humanity. Good theatre can enrage you, revolt you, and inspire you to participate in your humanity. A good piece of music unlocks a conversation with yourself, and I think theatre is the same. I get the same rush reading a great play as I did the first time I heard Pixies “Doolittle.” And then there is the assumed vow of poverty. Really, we are all broke.

ER: punkplay is Pavement Group’s 2nd play about punk rock. Why have you chosen to tackle this subject again?

DP: Well firstly – we wanted a play that was in direct (or indirect) conversation with Lipstick Traces – a companion piece of sorts. We are fascinated and curious about culture and how we augment it – replicate it – assign it in ways to activate our lives. I think “punk” and music in general serve as a great point of entry into our generation’s humanity. As a demographic raised by TV – especially MTV, music serves as a way to anchor ourselves in memory and identity. While Lipstick Traces argued punk as an impulse and a vehicle into finding some sort of genuine interaction with the world around us, punkplay argues the genre as an identity system – a tarnished relic of what used to be – a total negation of the purity of the movement. The play is almost anti-punk in the way it warns us about the frailty of trying to assign our selves identity with fashion. The play tells us to go out into the world and be the people who we are supposed to be. Very punk. While both plays use punk as a point of entry, Lipstick Traces explores the intellectual implications of the movement, punkplay ponders the deeply personal and emotional territory.

ER: What is Pavement Group doing in Chicago that is different from other theater companies?

DP: This is an awesome question…and one we ask ourselves a ton. We founded on the new plays platform, but the second prong of our mission, the one I feel that gives us our unique brand, is that we speak directly to a non-theatre audience. I mean, you are reading this interview on the CHIRP website – not exactly the main line theatre environment. Our audience is comprised of folks who see two plays a year – and they are Pavement Group plays. Our core demographic usually uses their spending power on live music etc. We are proud to be changing peoples minds about the form.

ER: You’re still a relatively young company, and yet you’ve already partnered with About Face Theater and Steppenwolf. Tell me about your experience so far in Chicago and what your plans are for the future.

DP: Well were really fucking lucky. Steppenwolf has given us a tremendous opportunity this year, and given the PG founders are former Steppenwolf apprentices, were pretty happy to see this dream come true. AFT under the brilliant leadership of Bonnie Metzgar has really taken on the mission to engage the theatre community in ferocious conversation with the XYZ Festival, which we were thrilled to be a part of.

We are also lucky enough to be part of the unofficial league of itinerant theatre companies. Our friendship/sharing of resources with Sinnerman Ensemble, Theater 7, and 13 Pocket have really given us hope and pride in this community.

We are proud to be a Chicago Theatre. Lets not mince words: Fuck New York. Chicago is where the energy is put into the work, not into the orbiting egos around the work. We are lucky enough to be part of a collective pool of energy that supports and encourages discourse, regardless if your haircut and lack of a trust fund.

The future … well … let just say stay tuned. We have some very exciting news we want to share, but can’t just yet.

ER: Tell me your last 7 music downloads/purchases. What is your current favorite jam and why?

DP: The rest:

1. Pavement – Quarantine The Past – Well, lets get real – I am huge Pavement fan so I of course just bought Matador’s Greatest Hits Comp. Awesome. Huge pavement dork. Clearly I am stupid-excited about Pitchfork.
2. SHAPERS – Little, Big – I am biased, as the folks in the band our friends, but this album is my favorite purchase of the year. Seriously … progressive and haunting. Features members of May Or May Not, and The Hood Internet. This album irritates my coworkers because I play it so much
3. Girls – Album – So obsessed. Its like if Jan and Dean were homos.
4. Amen Dunes – Dia
5. Surfer Blood – Astro Coast
6. Eric Satie – Piano Music – When I want to pretend I am smarter then I am
7. Lotus Plaza – The Floodlight Collective

As for a jam. Totally not new, but I can not stop listening to Band of Horses “The Great Salt Lake.” I am a sucker for some nostalgia-anthemic-lonely boy music. I also am a Seattle transplant, and was a huge fan of their previous incarnation (Carissa’s Wierd). Life is all about changes for me right now…so anything that is unearthing the past and moving boldly into the future has a place on my ipod.