Career Journey
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Keeping Theater Alive Amidst a Pandemic
An Interview with Susan Kelejian, Founder & Artistic Director of the Ojai Valley Artists Theater Ensemble October 2020 
Photo Credit: Holly Roberts
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About Susan:
An award-winning playwright, actor and director, Susan Kelejian began her professional acting career at the age of 17, when she ran away to France and joined a Commedia Dell’Arte company. [Commedia dell’Arte - translation “the art of comedy” - originated in Italy in the late 1400s. Its storylines revolve around iconic characters (the clown, the villain, the young lovers, etc.) played by actors who are usually wearing masks and dressed in stylized costumes.]
When Susan returned to the States, she founded and became the artistic director of Equine dell’Arte, the “only professional theater company in the world to consistently perform Shakespeare on horseback.” Susan later made her Ojai Shakespeare Festival debut as Prospera in The Tempest and went on to direct the OSF internship program.
She has continued to be a central fixture in the Ojai theater community and beyond. Her most recent original works include The Tragedy of Boudicca, “a contemporary verse drama of a classical historic figure,” and The Belles of Bedlam, which asks the question: “What if Shakespeare’s heroines ended up with mental disorders and lived in an institution?”
She recently founded A Muse of Fire Teen Conservatory to bring theater veterans and novices together to learn from and inspire one another. In conjunction with A Muse of Fire, Susan founded and became the artistic director of the Ojai Valley Artists Theater Ensemble (OVATE).*
Just as OVATE was getting off the ground, COVID hit. Plans to do live, in-theater productions had to be postponed, of course, yet the need to create theater was too strong to put off. OVATE decided to do a travelling variety show in the same vein as the Commedia dell’Arte shows that toured during the time of Shakespeare and the Black Plague. Ham & Cheese’s Motley Stew, a 45-minute sketch comedy show, was born.
OVATE plans to do several Ham & Cheese’s Motley Stew shows over the next few months, including: Julius Caeser Salad (“A comedy variety show for lovers of Shakespeare, Commedia, and Monty Python.”); Blue Plate Special (“For lovers of songs from the 1920's - 40's intermixed with a little humor and featuring a sing-along”) and Southern Fried Kitchen Sink (“Songs, skits, and parodies … including an Elvis impersonator, characters from Tennessee Williams plays, and Margaret Mitchell.)
An award-winning playwright, actor and director, Susan Kelejian began her professional acting career at the age of 17, when she ran away to France and joined a Commedia Dell’Arte company. [Commedia dell’Arte - translation “the art of comedy” - originated in Italy in the late 1400s. Its storylines revolve around iconic characters (the clown, the villain, the young lovers, etc.) played by actors who are usually wearing masks and dressed in stylized costumes.]
When Susan returned to the States, she founded and became the artistic director of Equine dell’Arte, the “only professional theater company in the world to consistently perform Shakespeare on horseback.” Susan later made her Ojai Shakespeare Festival debut as Prospera in The Tempest and went on to direct the OSF internship program.
She has continued to be a central fixture in the Ojai theater community and beyond. Her most recent original works include The Tragedy of Boudicca, “a contemporary verse drama of a classical historic figure,” and The Belles of Bedlam, which asks the question: “What if Shakespeare’s heroines ended up with mental disorders and lived in an institution?”
She recently founded A Muse of Fire Teen Conservatory to bring theater veterans and novices together to learn from and inspire one another. In conjunction with A Muse of Fire, Susan founded and became the artistic director of the Ojai Valley Artists Theater Ensemble (OVATE).*
Just as OVATE was getting off the ground, COVID hit. Plans to do live, in-theater productions had to be postponed, of course, yet the need to create theater was too strong to put off. OVATE decided to do a travelling variety show in the same vein as the Commedia dell’Arte shows that toured during the time of Shakespeare and the Black Plague. Ham & Cheese’s Motley Stew, a 45-minute sketch comedy show, was born.
OVATE plans to do several Ham & Cheese’s Motley Stew shows over the next few months, including: Julius Caeser Salad (“A comedy variety show for lovers of Shakespeare, Commedia, and Monty Python.”); Blue Plate Special (“For lovers of songs from the 1920's - 40's intermixed with a little humor and featuring a sing-along”) and Southern Fried Kitchen Sink (“Songs, skits, and parodies … including an Elvis impersonator, characters from Tennessee Williams plays, and Margaret Mitchell.)
*OVATE is a nonprofit theater company in Ventura County, California created to provide process-focused training in contemporary and classical world theater including multi-generational and multi-cultural performances with socially relevant themes.
Emily Dodi, contributor, spoke with Susan Kelejian, who is also a licensed psychotherapist, about how she is creating art in the days of COVID, and why art is so important, now more than ever.
Looking back to the traveling shows of the Renaissance and your own experience in Commedia dell’Arte, when did you realize you wanted to do work with this style of theater again?
All of this dawned on me in May, and I’m like, we can do that here. I think Ojai is really great for it, and instead of a caravan or a wagon as they used, we’ll use our cars. We’ll go individually in cars, in our masks. It’s absolutely so similar.
Looking back to the traveling shows of the Renaissance and your own experience in Commedia dell’Arte, when did you realize you wanted to do work with this style of theater again?
All of this dawned on me in May, and I’m like, we can do that here. I think Ojai is really great for it, and instead of a caravan or a wagon as they used, we’ll use our cars. We’ll go individually in cars, in our masks. It’s absolutely so similar.
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We all really know that the Renaissance was an explosion of thought. My hope is that we elevate as humanity right now with an explosion of different types of thought. That’s what I’m hoping…to create the safest touring show I can. We might not be able to pull it off, but we’re going for it.
It’s the philosophy of making lemonade out of lemons or looking at the glass as half full. It’s all of those metaphors and analogies of, “OK, we’re in the sh*t, right?” Everybody is pivoting. The education system is upside down. Work...the economy...is upside down. Nobody knows what to do. And then we get to the arts. As a psychotherapist, I think the arts, more than anything else, are incredibly needed - for people to experience (both as performers and as audience members), to keep the connectivity of humanity. Where politics destroy us, the arts save us. |
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Do virtual or onscreen performances have the same power?
Not being able to be ‘live’ with performing arts has been hugely detrimental to our psyches. Zoom performances are not the same. There is nothing that moves us more than live theater or dance or music. So, I said, what the heck. We’re in another pandemic, flash-forward 500 years. Let’s do the same thing with a little bit more knowledge of potential risk and outcomes.
How are you preparing?
We take precautions. In rehearsals we wear masks and shields. And, like a travelling show, we’re going to have a pop-up background. We have to block everything. The stage picture is six feet apart, minimum. We’re doing our best to split the difference, with a conscious understanding that this thing [COVID] isn’t playing. So how do we keep helping our community by uplifting through the arts?
Why do you think it’s so important to keep performing, even during a pandemic?
If you’re a performer, your soul doesn’t want to do anything else. If you’re an artist, you have to create. It’s not like something you can choose to turn on and off. Sometimes artists go days, weeks, years without performing.
Not being able to be ‘live’ with performing arts has been hugely detrimental to our psyches. Zoom performances are not the same. There is nothing that moves us more than live theater or dance or music. So, I said, what the heck. We’re in another pandemic, flash-forward 500 years. Let’s do the same thing with a little bit more knowledge of potential risk and outcomes.
How are you preparing?
We take precautions. In rehearsals we wear masks and shields. And, like a travelling show, we’re going to have a pop-up background. We have to block everything. The stage picture is six feet apart, minimum. We’re doing our best to split the difference, with a conscious understanding that this thing [COVID] isn’t playing. So how do we keep helping our community by uplifting through the arts?
Why do you think it’s so important to keep performing, even during a pandemic?
If you’re a performer, your soul doesn’t want to do anything else. If you’re an artist, you have to create. It’s not like something you can choose to turn on and off. Sometimes artists go days, weeks, years without performing.
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As a therapist, I see them and the diagnosis across the board is depression. An artist that isn’t allowed to create becomes depressed…that reciprocity of exchange is a fundamental connectivity to our human experience and also creates a God-like state of the connection to spirit. [When] working in ensemble, through voice, or through movement, the expression of human emotion is a spiritual experience, and it’s not less than that.
When you finally got to rehearse together, did you see a shift in the company members’ psyche - even with masks and social distancing? We started with ten people, and we’re down to eight for a couple of reasons (non-COVID related). They’ve all written me an email individually and said, “This is actually saving my life.” I think that’s a little exaggerated, but it does mean to me that there’s been a shift. The people who are in the ensemble are feeling uplifted. They’re feeling buoyant. They’re feeling alive. They’re feeling like they have purpose. |
Where do you find sanctuary?
I find sanctuary in many places: on the back of a horse; creating with like-minded artists in an ensemble; a walk in the pines with a light breeze; sitting near a natural water source; being with a great friend; daydreaming; being sequestered with my son; having a den of dogs cuddling in bed; reading a great book on a private dock on a lake; and the idea that I can create an exciting future full of wonder, magic, and adventure. Sanctuary, in essence, is being on life's amazing quest.
I find sanctuary in many places: on the back of a horse; creating with like-minded artists in an ensemble; a walk in the pines with a light breeze; sitting near a natural water source; being with a great friend; daydreaming; being sequestered with my son; having a den of dogs cuddling in bed; reading a great book on a private dock on a lake; and the idea that I can create an exciting future full of wonder, magic, and adventure. Sanctuary, in essence, is being on life's amazing quest.
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Emily Dodi has been writing in the entertainment and publishing fields for over 20 years. She has written extensively for Disney, FOX, ABCFamily, The Hub and others. She is also the author of Drive, a full-length play that premiered at Company of Angels in Los Angeles. Her blog, Pura Vida Loca, documented her family’s adventures while living in Costa Rica. She is currently a television and theater critic for the VCReporter.
