Northwest Classical Theatre and Coffee Creek Theatre present ‘Elektra’ to public audiences

It’s not the first time that the Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative has performed at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison. But the November performances of the Greek tragedy “Elektra” does mark the first time that the play has been selected and performed by the women in custody themselves. Patrick Walsh is the executive artistic director of the Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative. He and production manager Lyndsay Hogland co-facilitated the theatre project, which began in March. After the women signed up for the theatre program, they were given four classic plays to consider: “Elektra,” “Three Sisters,” “Our Town,” and “Measure for Measure.” After reading and discussing all the plays over many weeks, the women finally chose “Elektra” and began rehearsals in May.

The show opened on Friday, Nov. 14, with one other public performance on Nov. 21, as well as two separate shows for the women in custody. We’re joined by Walsh and Hogland to learn more about the impact of the program and performances, along with two of the actors at Coffee Creek: Nistasha Tate plays Elektra, and Fahlynn Nix is the assistant stage manager and also plays the part of Aegisthus.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We end today with the Greek tragedy “Elektra.” A new production of the play premiered recently. It was put on by the Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative. It’s for and by a captive audience – literally. The cast are all adults in custody at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville. The run also includes two public performances.

Nistasha Tate plays Elektra. Fahlynn Nix is the assistant stage manager and also plays a dramatic role. Patrick Walsh is the executive artistic director of the Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative. He co-facilitated this theater project along with production manager, Lyndsay Hogland. All four of them join now. It’s great to have all four of you on the show.

Lyndsay Hogland: Yeah, thanks for having us.

Patrick Walsh: Thanks so much, Dave.

Miller: Nistasha first, what made you want to sign up for this program?

Nistasha Tate: I was always really interested in acting, and also I like to push myself in directions that I feel might be a little uncomfortable for me. I’ve never done anything like theater before, and I thought this would be a really good way for me to grow and learn some new skills. So I was really excited about it.

Miller: So for you, the discomfort you thought you’d feel from being on stage, that was part of the draw.

Tate: Yeah, that was part of the draw. I wanted to push myself in that direction and see what it would do to me.

Miller: Well, obviously we’re going to have to find out what it did to you. But Fahlynn, what about you? Why did you want to take part?

Fahlynn Nix: I have previous experience from high school, just little stuff. I like the arts, like music, drawing, all of that. It was part of something from my past that I wanted to include in my new future. So it drew me towards it so that way I could feel some sort of normalcy in an otherwise not normal situation.

Miller: What was your previous theater experience?

Nix: Just drama class in high school. We did a couple of plays. I can’t give you the names, it’s been so long. But it was something that I really enjoyed in high school, and junior high.

Miller: And this was a way to feel some version of what you did in the past while you’re locked up.

Nix: Correct.

Miller: Patrick, how did this production come to be?

Walsh: Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative usually tours plays, and we visit culturally underserved populations. So we do visit some prisons, jails, low income assisted living facilities, homeless shelters. We did a play last fall called “The Year of Magical Thinking.” While I was at Coffee Creek Correctional, Jason Roy, who is the life skills coordinator, asked me if I would be interested in starting a theater program at Coffee Creek Correctional. Previously, I had run a program at Two Rivers Correctional in Umatilla, Oregon, with the actors in custody being the actors. So he knew I had a background in it, and he asked me if I was interested in starting the program.

Miller: OK, so this wasn’t you saying, “hey, can I put this on in Coffee Creek?” This is somebody at Coffee Creek saying, “hey, will you come here?” Why did you say yes?

Walsh: My experiences up at Two Rivers Correctional really have shaped how I think about art. They’ve shaped how I think of the world, how theater and performance can be used as a platform and a tool, not just as entertainment. I had been taken away from that for a really long time, and so my artistic life felt more empty without that. It was just something I had been wanting to do for a while because I hadn’t been able to run a program for eight years previously.

Miller: Lyndsay, what about you? How’d you get roped into this?

Hogland: Well, Patrick asked me. I’ve done theater for over 30 years now. I’m trying actually not to do theater anymore.

Miller: Not very successfully.

Hogland: Not very successfully. Just because this particular project tugged on my heartstrings.

Miller: In what way?

Hogland: I believe in the transformational powers of theater, and I know that this particular group at Coffee Creek has been asking for a theater program for 20 years. I knew it was important to them and it just seemed like a really cool thing to be able to bring a population that doesn’t have access to that programming otherwise and I wanted to be involved in that.

Miller: Can you describe the play selection process that you all came up with?

Hogland: Patrick and I knew that it was important that the women involved in the program really be the head of the program. So it was important that they select the play. We brought them four different plays to read. We did about a month and a half of exploration of those plays. They performed individual monologues from those plays. We talked about those plays. We really got into them. They selected two of those four to really concentrate on. We did another three weeks of work on those plays, and then they voted between those two plays. It was down to Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” and then Sophocles’ “Elektra” that’s been translated by Anne Carson, which is what they picked.

Miller: Fahlynn, why did you pick “Elektra?”

Nix: I really resonated with the grief and the rage. Because those are emotions and something that I didn’t really want to touch on in my past was grief because I lost a family member that was very close to me, so it’s always been a very touchy subject. And rage is just one of the easiest emotions for us to feel as humans, but it’s not an actual emotion, it’s a secondary one. Digging into that to find out what your primary emotion is, it’s a big feat.

I think with doing the monologues that we chose, it was easy for me to tap into the real reason as to why I was feeling the rage, and it really helped me move on past my grief. I think everybody should give theater a try because you may think that you’re just in the shoes of somebody else, but it does help you move past your own emotions that you struggle with in your day to day life.

Miller: Nistasha, for those of us who did not have classical educations, what is the story of “Elektra?”

Tate: The story of “Elektra” is… It’s full of emotions and it’s a family that’s just shattered. It follows a family in power, and how it was shattered by grief and tragedy. Elektra first loses her sister at the hands of her father, and then loses her father at the hands of her mother, and then exiles herself because she doesn’t accept what her mother had did. The brother comes to react a revenge around like 16 years later, like a long time later, which they do successfully, but I don’t think that anybody in the end really feels any better. It just makes it worse.

It’s a play where it really makes you think, is revenge worth it? Is a tragedy for a tragedy gonna fix anything? So that’s what the play is about. It is a lot of emotion, deep emotion, and it was wonderful to play out. I’m really glad that this was a play that we picked.

Miller: Nistasha, what were the biggest challenges for you?

Tate: Well, the biggest challenges for me was the vulnerability, which is… Actually, I feel like that’s what this play did to me. It made me more comfortable being vulnerable. In our situation as incarcerated adults, the last thing we get to be is vulnerable. It’s like you have a wall up, you learn to just kind of cut those emotions off.

Having this theater program, having this play that was so full of emotion and grief and anger, it really helped me feel comfortable expressing those emotions as a human being again. Which it was uncomfortable to do, but also brought me comfortability. It helped me lean into that, and I feel a little bit more comfortable now in my day-to-day to be able to express that, which I feel like was something that was taken from me. So I’m glad that I got that back.

Miller: Lyndsay, this might seem obvious, but what are the challenges that are unique to developing and rehearsing a show when the performers are incarcerated?

Hogland: Too many to count. Boy, just from a practical production standpoint, the actors didn’t see their props until the week of the show. We had paper props that we rehearsed with. We have a tiny little room that isn’t as big as our performance space. So we had to do a lot of improv about the actual physical layout of the space.

It’s really hard. We didn’t have everybody in the same room until the week leading up to the performance because people have other engagements, other callouts, other appointments. We didn’t have our entire cast together. We weren’t able to run the entire show until four days prior to our opening night, which is incredible. So a lot of challenges, for sure.

Miller: All the ones you just mentioned, they seem like real challenges and they seem like the logistical challenges of theater-making in a highly securitized zone. What about the emotional ones? That’s what Nistasha was talking about; talking about a newfound vulnerability in a place where vulnerability I think could be dangerous. How did you deal with that as you were working with the actors?

Hogland: I think that theater in any context is transformational. I think any performer in the rehearsal process feels like they’re getting more in touch with their emotions. I have so much faith in the women that are in “Elektra” to tell us what they need, to let us know what kind of care they need. As much as rehearsing a play, we were providing I think – and still providing – a space for them to just be humans together, which is not a freedom that they are allowed in that prison.

I don’t know that we particularly offer them aftercare, but I just… They’re just such an incredible group of women. They’re so good at supporting each other, taking care of each other, so creative, so giving. I just feel honored to be in the space with them and I feel like they take care of each other and that we all take care of each other in that space. As they became familiar with their characters and we’re really diving into those emotions of rage and revenge… You know, a lot of stuff comes out in the rehearsal process, but that really is what theater is. I think that part of our jobs as facilitators and as a director and a stage manager is to create a safe space for those emotions to be explored.

Miller: Patrick, was this then significantly different from other directing jobs you’ve had? Or in the end, theater is theater, whether you’re in a prison or a library or a big fancy stage?

Walsh: I think these plays have a certain amount of power, no matter where they’re performed. I do think having a long rehearsal process… So our group is called the Coffee Creek Theatre Company. When Lyndsay and I were speaking about it; the idea of a company, the idea of people who worked together for years, who develop skills, who develop a way of working, was very important to me when we talked about that. It’s not really the same thing, having a group of people who not only work together, also live together, experience things together, cry together, are angry together. That is very different than anywhere else that I have worked.

I think specifically in Coffee Creek, watching that company ethos takeover has been really amazing to watch. Lyndsay mentioned the collaborative nature of the rehearsal process that we had. Directing is a very lonely job. There’s always another designer for a designer to talk to, actors always get a chance to be able to talk with actors. For the most part, I’m sitting by myself figuring out how people are gonna move around the stage and what the psychological architecture is that’s gonna make them go on that journey. It’s pretty much just me by myself.

This was such an open collaborative process where Lyndsay mentioned where the women of the group were really in charge of it. That was very good for my soul, and I think just very good for the room in general, and I’ve never had that before.

Miller: Fahlynn, did you feel like you were in charge, you and your fellow performers, and actors who are all adults in custody? Did you feel like you had power there?

Nix: I feel like the power came in working together and everyone collaborating to make it what it became. We all had inputs and we all had suggestions that helped in the end. Like I suggested maybe that Elektra wears a crown at the very end to indicate that the deed was done, but you may have the crown but nothing’s changed.

Every step of the way, Patrick would always ask us, “what do you feel like your character needs?” or, “what do you feel like is going to be your next step?” Being included into that really shaped the whole play. Everyone collaborating, it turned out wonderful because of it.

Miller: I’m curious what the premiere was like on Friday for all of you, but Nistasha first. So this past Friday night, this was a play for the outside world, for friends and family. For people who are not residing at Coffee Creek. What was it like in the hour leading up to the curtain going up?

Tate: It was a beautiful chaos, It was amazing. We had a lot of help. We had the help of our cosmetology program to get us ready with our makeup and our hair, which was so cool. Then of course we had our costumes that were custom made for us by our costume designer, a volunteer from the outside. We ran lines. It’s kind of like a family that we built. We all just were anticipating this for so long. I just feel like there was a lot of excitement before it happened, before the curtain went up.

I actually don’t feel like there was as many nerves as I thought there was gonna be. It just went really smoothly. We did run lines a little bit, but we really didn’t need to. Everything was there. Everything was already implanted in us, and so I think we were just excited more than anything. It was just a big ball of excitement and then when we finally got there and executed it, it was beautiful.

Miller: Fahlynn, what about you?

Nix: You could say that the room was charged with the electric feeling of excitement while we were all getting into dress and costume. Then the walk up to visiting and getting ready and getting into places, like this is the final moment that we’ve been rehearsing for.

It was the big night and given that we didn’t have that platform at the end of the room during our rehearsals – that was the first night that we had that there – everybody improvised and worked with it. It went really well. Having more space to go to in that area was nice as well.

I think that overall, everybody did way better than I could have ever, ever imagined. I felt such a sense of pride for everybody and just honored to be a part of that group.

Miller: Lyndsay was talking about the challenges of rehearsing and how up until the last week you couldn’t even all be together to rehearse. Were you able to get together among yourselves, even just in smaller groups, to rehearse? Or did you really have to wait till the last minute?

Nix: We really just had to wait till the last minute. The times that we had while Lyndsay and Patrick were with us, is what we had. We did it in bits and pieces, like I would fill in for those that couldn’t be there that had other engagements or appointments, so I would be playing other people’s roles. As assistant stage manager you step in where you’re needed. You provide the help that others might not be able to do. So I had everybody’s lines. I had everybody’s blocking. I knew where to go. I helped them rehearse their parts while their counterparts were not there. So it really, it made the show.

Miller: What did you learn, Fahlynn, directly from Lyndsay about stage managing?

Nix: I learned about blocking, which is an actor’s movement on stage. If they have a prop in their hand, if they’re turning around to exit at a certain spot in the stage or to sit down, you’re recording all of this in your script. You’re making sure everybody knows when they’re supposed to go on, what props they have.

While Patrick is directing them on what they should be doing, the stage manager is the one that’s keeping record of that, so you’re on point with everything. Not only that, like incredible amount of patience I’ve learned and just compassion for others. It really has changed my outlook. Lyndsay was a great teacher and there’s just so much fun in this entire program.

Miller: Nistasha, what about you? What do you think you learned from Lyndsay and Patrick in particular?

Tate: As I said before, how to express emotion, how to feel comfortable and the emotions that I might not be so comfortable in. I think Patrick really opened my mind to being aware of what you have to offer as you, and what your character has to offer. So, how are you feeling and how do you think Elektra would feel? And how can you mix those two? I got that from Patrick a lot so that was really nice to learn. It makes you think, and I feel like as an actor and playing a role like that, you really do have to think because it comes from your own experience, your lived experience, and then the experience that your character would have had in their lives.

Lyndsay helped me a lot with my lines. She taught me a really good trick. If it wasn’t for her, I definitely… I don’t know how I would have got through all of that. I did try to learn my lines for the first time – like I said, I’ve never done anything like that before – and it was really hard. I was struggling. She just sat with us, a lot of us, for a long time and helped us run our lines. She gave me a little trick, and then I got through all of it, and now I have all the lines in my head.

Miller: Wait, we have to know. What’s the trick?

Tate: [Laughs] So, you look at a line and you read it in your head and you read it out loud a couple of times and then you cover it and you do the same thing. Then you uncover it and you repeat that process and then, voila, you remember that line. You just keep going down for all of your lines. It was really just covering… I covered it with just a little notecard. I would repeat that line to myself in my head and out loud and then I’d look at it again and cover it, and then look at it again and repeat that process and then it was in my head.

I remembered all of the Elektra lines, which was a lot. And very quickly. I mean, it took me a while. I had done this for weeks and I was struggling and she showed me this trick and I got all my lines down within probably like the next week, two weeks, three weeks, but it was super fast.

Miller: So Lyndsay, obviously, Nistasha and Fahlynn both say they learned a lot from you. Did you learn anything yourself from working with them?

Hogland: Yes. The thing about Nistasha, Fahlynn, the whole group, again, is that they are just so giving. They give of themselves, they give to each other. Working theater on the outside, actors are a mixed bag. There’s a lot of ego, there’s a lot of competition, there’s a lot of stuff to unpack after rehearsals. This group, very different than that. Very authentically there. Very appreciative of each other, of us, of the process.

So if you’re ever feeling burnt out about theater, I would say go see “Elektra,” go see these women, because it’s really an incredibly positive experience. It’s renewed my faith a little in what that process can be because they’re just such cool people.

Miller: Patrick, we heard from both Fahlynn and Nistasha about how working on this, the changes they see in themselves over the course of this process. Have you seen changes in them as well?

Walsh: Oh my God, yeah. Nobody’s the same as when they came into our room last March when Lyndsay and I started co-facilitating the program. I’ve seen people grow in confidence. I’ve seen people grow in empathy. I have seen people pick other actors up when they’re having bad days. I have seen these actors take emotional loads from people who are maybe not able to function at their heights on the day we happen to be there. I know that’s happening when we leave, too. I mean you can feel that energy sort of infect the prison.

To Lyndsay’s point, we are the conduits. We are the people who are there, so this program can thrive, because you can’t do it without a volunteer. But they are the people who’ve taken ownership over it, and ownership over that change in themselves and wanting to be different than they have been in the world and in their daily lives.

Miller: Nistasha, the performance on Friday – this past Friday – and the one this coming Friday are for outsiders, people who are not incarcerated. But starting tomorrow is going to be the first of two performances for the women who you live with. Who you see day in, day out. How do you think those performances are going to be different?

Nix: Nerve-wracking.

Tate: Yeah, I feel like it’s definitely gonna be different nerve-wise. So, when we had, and have, the play in visiting for the outside performance, I feel like that one is gonna be easier, was easier, because I’m like, I’m not gonna see all these people again. [Laughs]. But this inside performance, I’m a little more nervous because I’m gonna see these people every day for the rest of my life. I hope that they love it or I’m gonna hear about it forever. So it’s a little more pressure, I feel like.

But I am very excited and to see that some of my close friends, they signed up for both. We have two performances on the inside. I don’t know if they’re gonna get to go to both, but they signed up for both. That makes me feel really good because they’re excited. And they’ve helped me with my lines. They know what I’ve been doing where I disappear like two to three times a week for hours and then come back. They know where I’m at. So I’m excited for them to be able to come and see it, but I’m nervous. I’m a lot more nervous for the inside performance than I am for the performance we had on the outside.

Miller: Nistasha, Fahlynn, Lyndsay and Patrick, thanks very much.

Walsh: Thanks so much for having us, Dave.

Hogland: Thanks, Dave.

Tate: Thank you so much, Dave. Have a good day.

Nix: Thanks, Dave. Have a good one.

Miller: Nistasha Tate and Fahlynn Nix are two of the performers in the new production of “Elektra” that’s happening at Coffee Creek Correctional Institution in Wilsonville, put on by Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative. Patrick Walsh is the executive artistic director of the collaborative. Lyndsay Hogland is a production manager, one of the co-facilitators of this production.

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