Alive Theatre’s Scott Lennard, left, and Aaron Van Geem, on a recent day at The Farm.
3:58pm |The Farm is an arm of Alive Theatre here in Long Beach, which was founded by three gents who graduated from Cal State Long Beach’s theater arts program.
The Farm doesn’t have a barn, and it doesn’t have a silo. In fact, you won’t find any cows or chickens or pigs at The Farm.
See, the name is pretty misleading because it’s not a farm at all. The Farm is a live/workspace where Alive Theatre’s Jasper Oliver, Scott Lennard and Aaron Van Geem reside together.
I decided to sit these three down and pump them for information about the history of Alive Theatre and the multi-faceted array of events to which The Farm is gearing up to play host.
Daniel deBoom: So, what was the inspiration behind creating the Alive Theatre company?
Scott Lennard: Jeremy Aluma and Danielle Dauphinee created Alive Theatre after being paired up for a project in a theatre management class at CSULB. The project was to create your own theater company. My thought is they got a D on the project and Alive Theatre was their extra credit to pass the class.
Jasper Oliver: Hmmm. The story I always heard was that the two were star-crossed lovers and that after an evening of raucous love-making, they looked deep into each other’s souls for an inordinate amount of time and then simultaneously parted lips and whispered just one word: “Alive.” And the rest is history.
Aaron Van Geem: I didn’t start Alive Theatre. What inspired me to become a member of the theater company? I’d have to say peer pressure, my own stubborn feelings toward the Hollywood entertainment industry, a redhead, James Joyce, marijuana, the devil and coffee.
DDB: What kind of background did you have that made you think you could pull it off?
AVG: A background in foolishness?
SL: Every founding member of Alive Theatre came out of the Theatre Arts Department of CSULB, so we all started with the same amount of theatrical knowledge. But probably what made us think we could pull it off was naïveté and the need to use an otherwise useless degree in theater.
JO: I have three years experience on Microsoft Excel. My customer service skills are excellent and I aim to please. My biggest weakness is probably that I am too hard a worker.
DDB: Did you feel there was still something lacking in the local theater community that made you then start up another acting company that you call The Farm?
SL: There are a lot of great theater companies in Long Beach; politically, I have to say that. It’s true, though. I did notice that the kind of theater that was the most interesting in college was not being produced, with the possible exception of The Garage Theatre. Mainly what Alive Theatre started out as, was a way for us to continue doing what we loved after college. Producing shows that require a young, attractive, talented artist like myself to be in them, or producing awesome scripts that we’ve written — just giving us a stage to perform because “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
AVG: Well, The Farm isn’t an acting company. It’s just a venue open for artists who want to show what they have. That doesn’t specifically pertain to acting, nor does it even specifically pertain to theater arts. Therefore, the only void it fills in the theatre community of Long Beach is its vagueness. We don’t just do theater here; we have live music, art shows, film premiers. And we’re currently masterminding ways to expand the kind of activities you could expect to partake in when coming here.
JO: I was actually under the impression that we were literally starting a farm, which is why you see all that mulch in the driveway.
DDB: The Farm is a live/work space. How many members are in this troupe and do they all actually reside on-site?
SL: Alive Theatre is a very welcoming group of people. So our company is huge, I’m talking over 20 artists. So no, we don’t have all of us living here. Nor would many of them want to; not everyone is cut out to live in a space like this. At this point there are three company members that live at The Farm, all of whom are founding members of Alive Theatre. They are, in order of importance, Scott Lennard, Aaron Van Geem and the third guy.
AVG: Scott Lennard, the bedroom, once drank 15 shots of fire, saved a kitten from a tree and satisfied an entire cheerleading squad sexually in five minutes. Jasper Oliver, the office, has never lost a dance competition, turns wine into hit plays and satisfied over 100 art students sexually throughout the course of a semester. And myself, Aaron Van Geem, the garage, well, I taught Scott Lennard and Jasper Oliver everything they know.
JO: Don’t forget the ghost of Scott’s great-grandmother, Grandma Ennis, whose urn we prominently display and who’s The Farm’s patron saint of partying!
SL: Are you joking about my grandmother’s ashes?
JO: Yeah!
SL: I’m not really comfortable with that. Can we cut that part out of the interview?
DDB: What kind of projects do you have planned for The Farm?
AVG: Right now we’re working on arranging a mini-season for The Farm, which will include some small budget plays not yet chosen, weekly movie nights, some light music acts, standup comedy, art shows, performance art pieces, local film premiers and more stuff like that.
JO: The first standup comedy show is called Bucky Finster’s Super Monkey Happy Hour. We’re doing it on April 1 [or are we?]. The movie night series occurs ever Thursday at 8 p.m. and is intended to compliment the city’s already ravenous interest in revival screenings. The difference between us and our friends at Mondo Celluloid and the LB Cinematheque is we tend to push our screenings into more bizarre, extreme waters. Most of the movies we watch are on analog, and we in no way have the legal rights to charge for admission. All of April we’re going to be watching unendurably sad children’s animated movies. You know, the kind of cartoons that make you question the existence of a God.
SL: We also have play readings three times a week, DJ nights and possibly “old people doing yoga.” More on that as it develops. You can always check out our schedule online at Alivetheatre.org/The_Farm.html.
DDB: How are the chores divvied up down at The Farm?
AVG: Some call me the janitor; at least, I feel like one a lot of the time.
SL: Jasper still has to do his dishes from last weekend when he made cookies. I’m not your maid, Jasper!
JO: That’s what we have a janitor for, Scott.
DDB: Are some of the members more adept at certain aspects of the theater?
JO: I have three years experience on Microsoft Excel. My customer service skills are excellent and I aim to please. My biggest weakness is probably that I am too hard a worker.
DDB: I mean, do you all share equally in the creative workload?
SL: Whichever roommate champions the project, that person does the loins share of the work, generally.
JO: That’s no typo! We literally take on work with our loins! I’ve been devising an original piece called Alive Theatre Re-writes the Classics [stay tuned!] but had to take a break because my pelvis was killing me!
DDB: I previously received a bit of grief for a piece I wrote about one of your first productions at The Farm, which was Hungover Improv. Besides the comments that were left criticizing me for being a no-talent hack, there was one in which you were accused of being “a bunch of smelly, dull-minded drunks.”Which smelly, dull-minded, drunk actor inspires you?
AVG: Crocodile Dundee!
JO: North Dakota!
SL: I remember the comment board for that article. I used it to shamelessly promote the show we were doing at the time. I’ve grown a lot since then. I would say the smelliest drunk actor that inspires me (although he isn’t dull minded) would be Ryan McClary, who is the playwright of our newest production, Entropy General, which opens April 29. [Check out Alivetheatre.org for more information.]
DDB: If heaven exists, which alcoholic beverage would you like to hear God say is on special when you arrive at the pearly gates?
AVG: Marijuana!
JO: South Dakota!
SL: I’m also a bartender at Clancy’s Long Beach, so this is a hard one. Part of me wants to say Irish Car Bombs, because that means there is Guinness and Jameson available. Part of me wants to say a Pabst Smir because it was the first drink I ever created. It’s taken like an Irish Car Bomb but its PBR and Smirnoff. Either of those should be fine.
JO: Scott’s actually waiting to hear back from the patent office on Pabst Smir, so if you could hold off on publishing this for a couple weeks or so …
SL: Shut up, Jasper.
Alive Theatre’s Aaron Van Geem, Scott Lennard and Jasper Oliver goofing around at The Farm.
Alive Theatre’s Scott Lennard, Jasper Oliver and Aaron Van Geem goofing around at The Farm.
Alive Theatre’s Jasper Oliver has a tendency to chew scenery, beer cans and books.
Alive Theatre’s Jasper Oliver brushing up with a copy of “Acting One” at The Farm.