Adventures in Indie Filmmaking: It's All Theatre: An interview with Chris Fisher

Chris Fisher

It’s all Theatre.

By Sharon Wilfong

Chris Fisher with TC3 resident.

Chris Fisher is one of SCC's dedicated and highly qualified drama and cinema instructors. In addition to restoring antique watches and teaching theatre; she has directed Cloud Nine, Travesties, The God of Hell, Rabbit Hole, Death Trap and her own, Triage, among many others. She wrote Triage as her Master’s thesis at Rutgers University, and obtained her M.F.A. in theatre and playwrighting in 1992. Her plays have been work-shopped or produced at Seattle's New City Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre and The Princeton Rep.

Fisher has been with SCC since 1993. She was tenured in 1996, won the Exceptional Faculty Award in 2002, and chaired the department from 1999 - 2007. She and her students are currently working on a production with the intention of highlighting the contrasts (the good, bad and the ugly) of American life after the Great Recession. Wanted: Bare Minimum is a play that portrays the ways in which individuals are affected by their perceptions of the “American Dream” and the economic realities they face daily. According to Fisher, “The great plays that come down through history are usually written about some imbalance or injustice in society.”

At what point did theater become your passion? I was fortunate to have one of the most amazing drama teachers in High School. I fell in love with it then and have been passionate about theater ever since.

Rehearsal.

In an interview I read, the author noted that you were a musician; specifically that you played bassoon, and studied as a watchmaker in Switzerland. How did you end up at Shoreline Community College teaching theatre?

I was fortunate. My parents were supportive and I got music lessons. I started out playing reeds, the clarinet and tenor sax. Later, I was asked to learn the bassoon – which I loved . . . I taught private music lessons while I was in college. Of course, this whole time I was in shows, taking theatre classes . . . but I was disappointed with what I wasn't learning in the Drama Department in college. The classes I took didn't examine the meaning behind the plays or the issues of society that theater addresses. The classes were just about putting on make up and learning the lines. Those are elements, but there’s so much more. I wanted to study ideas, the social debates embedded in theater. I decided to follow my intellectual curiosity and ended up getting my B.A. in philosophy from the University of Washington in 1973.

So when and how did you end up studying watchmaking? After getting my B. A., I went to the UW Law School. Now, this was during the Watergate hearings and my youthful idealism was shocked. Some of the accused Watergate lawyers had even attended the UW. It was a crisis for me and I left law school.

I got involved with Burke Walker around ’74 –’75. He opened the Empty Space Theatre and I worked as a “silent assistant” (doing publicity and office work) for him, back when he only had two paid employees. I think he hired me because I was the only one who had wheels. So, I did that for a while and saw, besides acting, that even the great theater artists at The Empty Space needed other ways to pay their bills. I decided to take the Certificate of Horology . . . the watchmaking program at NSCC. After that I applied and was one of the first women accepted to W.O.S.T.E.P., The Watchmakers of Switzerland Training & Education Center in Neuchatel, Switzerland. I studied advanced watchmaking there for a year.

Theatre students learning about tent city three.

What drew you to teaching?

At first, teaching was attractive because of the financial security. But I soon discovered it is far more challenging than anything else I've done, and I hope (and on good days, believe) what I do in the classroom has value, matters. I have opportunities to talk about those things that I feel were missing from my theatre classes in college: history, philosophy, sociology, psychology . . . they’re all part of theatre. We talk about relationships, humanity . . . “threads of social movements and how they affect the individual.”

One individual's story.

Your current production revolves around some pretty tough subjects like sudden loss of work, abuse and homelessness. Why produce a student play like, Wanted: Bare Minimum?

I've been teaching here for 20 years. This is the first time I've seen 80 percent of the concerns students mention on their questionnaires revolve around economic issues. In the past they were concerned with voting, family and grades. Now it’s money, housing and loss of jobs. It’s a reflection of what is happening in our society right now.

Inside a community sleeping space.

What do you hope students will gain from the experience?

I hope this journey –the research, writing, rehearsing and performing--gives students a voice to express their concerns, their struggles and triumphs. All the stories in this “play’ are real—they've happened to the actors or designers in our ensemble, or to their friends, or to people they've interviewed. I believe we can gain power over the challenges we face by using art imbued with knowledge, empathy, and ethical reflection.