New Yorker of the Week

DecMon 2009 Filed in: New Yorker of the Week

Lián Amaris

Craft: Performance Artist
In New York: 7 years on and off
Lives: Brooklyn
Why we think she’s cool: She reminds us why monologues can be brilliant
Where to find her: www.lianamaris.com/
Interview by: José

Swimming to Spalding is the 70-minute monologue reflecting on Lian Amaris' pilgrimage to the sites in Thailand which Spalding Gray evokes in his account of the filming of The Killing Fields. While returning to Gray's traditional storytelling, Amaris also ventures away from the "table and notebook" to embody a year of experiences all over the world, from Bangkok brothels to Baghdad bombings, from Mardi Gras to mental institutions. Part homage, part commentary, Swimming to Spalding reflects on how beauty, grace and art endure amidst the cruelties of war, prostitution, and mental illness, like the very rare orchids that cost a fortune in the States but grow up through the cracks of Bangkok sidewalks.

Jose:  You gave an amazing performance the other night.
Lian: Thank you. I felt really good about it. It was a good, loud audience.

J: You said Swimming to Spalding is fast-forwarding a generation and hearing a young woman talk about the same things Spalding did. It’s a great premise.
L: Yeah, I decided I would use this premise as a way to talk about contemporary war and how it’s seen very differently from different perspectives. People forget that we are still at war.   For me that was a major thing.

J: Would you say it’s an anti-war piece?
L: I wouldn’t say this is an anti-war piece specifically, but that comes through in the work itself. I use this strange sexual experience within the brothel shows in the play as a way to get into the psyches of these three army guys. The purpose of the project was to contextualize the war that we’re in right now in a meaningful way in a way without beating you over the head with it.

J: There were moments in the show where your voice was dubbed. Was that Spalding?
L: Those were lines specifically from Swimming to Cambodia and also from Life Interrupted, which was his final piece.   Although Swimming wasn’t his first monologue, it was the first one that got him famous. Life Interrupted was the unfinished monologue he was writing when he started to go crazy.   He then disappeared, and it was discovered later on that he had killed himself.

J: I read that you struggled with similar vanities, obsessions and weaknesses to Spalding’s. Do you still?
L: Sure. I’m constantly running a meta-commentary in my head thinking, “Is this experience meaningful? Is it worth talking about and addressing? How do I give these characters form and do them justice at the same time while taking dramatic privileges?” Any time you represent someone on stage, that’s something you have to struggle with.

J: Do you find NY audiences tough?
L: Sure, I think in some ways they’re tough. They’re used to seeing a lot of theater. People are prepared to be critical. However, when I do get the compliments and the acclaim, it means a lot more.

J: How do you deal with critics?
L: There’s a criticism that somehow it’s not OK to take Spalding’s name and make a direct reference to his piece - that it’s dangerous. Quite frankly, the issue is I’m taking on Spalding Gray - the king of monologuists.   One critic said, “Why is her story being told? Why does she get to tell her story? Who is she?” But what was spectacular about Spalding was that he wasn’t spectacular. He didn’t talk about spectacular things. He talked about ordinary things. I do the same thing. I realize that I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, and that’s scary, but at the same time what are we supposed to do—just look up at the giants?

J: Your director, Richard Schechner was Spalding’s original Director. If anyone is going to direct your piece, he’s your guy.
L: Absolutely. What I’m doing here is taking something out of Spalding’s past (his director) and saying, “Wait! We can keep going and build on something.” When I got the idea of the show I told him that he was the only one who could do this. Because with him it’s real, it comes full circle and it’s validated.

J: OK, so how do you prepare before each show?
L: I walk around the stage area in a circle at a pretty rapid pace and run the entire monologue as fast as I possibly can.   What that does is get me through the whole narrative. It gets my body going.

J: I know you recently had your mom is the audience. What was that like?
L: It’s difficult for my mother, because I talk about some difficult things. 95% of the show is direct address, so I just avoid giving the harsh lines to my mom {laughs}.
My mother has been supportive from the beginning. She comes to every one of my shows no matter where it is or what it is.

J: Why New York and not LA?
L: I was never interested in commercial acting. I’ve always been doing the downtown experimental theater, and New York City lends that kind of opportunity. Commercial theater was never in my radar.

J: What’s next?
L: The goal is to take this production on tour; do the college circuit and places Spalding did his work.   I spent three years as an undergraduate professor, so that’s something that is still part of me. I plan on doing some more performance workshops.

J: Do you ever bring any of your characters home with you?
L: You mean bring the homicidal army guy with post-traumatic stress disorder? [laughs] No, I do my best to shed everything as soon as I step off the stage.

J: Well, I was hoping that was the case, but you never know.
L: True

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How did Lian answer our Outsider questions?

1. List three things you’d like to find in your Christmas stocking.
L: Lip gloss, jewelry and a rare graphic novel
2. What was the worst gift you ever got?
L: A re-gifted 4-inch long pair of fake pearl earrings
3. What freaks you out about New York?
L: The amount of impossibly high money we pay for the apartments we live in and the conditions
4. What's your favorite NY Icon?
L: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
5. Hot apple cider or eggnog?
L: Cider with some rum or Brandy

Tags: Jose, new york, new yorker, Interview, Artist