Dennis Delsing, Jon Amirkhan and Gregg Christie in “The Size of Pike.” Photo by Ross Kramer.
Most of the people I now know beatify nature. They post photos of idyllic pastures, and rhapsodize about day hikes over man-made paths, and love love love the wild animals.
Those of us who grew up in nature know different. We know that nature has two states: boring and deadly. As a boy in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, I stepped on rattlesnakes, was charged by a stag intent on goring me, fell into a sinkhole I was lucky to get out of, was so badly stung by bees that I was rushed to the hospital, was attacked by a vicious snapping turtle of the sort which can shear off your fingers, and more. When those things weren’t happening, there was nothing to do. Absolutely nothing.
So I’m grateful for the modern age. To put it lightly.
Lee Wochner. Photo by Emma Wochner.
At the same time, I look at what we’ve lost. In losing the uncivilized man who understood the reality of outdoors, we’ve lost his knowledge of what to do with it. The men I grew up with seemingly could fix or build or conceive of anything, drawn straight from whatever was at hand, wherever they were. In my young years, I saw things done with wood and metal and rope and such that were unpredictable and accomplished: a Franklin stove made from a 55-gallon drum. Kitchen implements and a pistol grip made from a tree felled in a storm. A hunting knife forged from an axle. And so on.
The Size of Pike, my play about three rugged middle-aged men who are, or are not, going on an austere backwoods fishing trip, is my tribute to these lost men and their lost art — a rough-hewn capability in most situations. It’s also an examination of friendship, of what happens when the ties of loyalty and history fray and snap. Someone once said that when you lose a friend, part of your personal library burns down. For the three men in The Size of Pike, a lot of their history is on fire.
Moving Arts, where the play is now running, has its own historical saga. For 21 years and counting, we’ve served as a launching pad for new plays and emerging playwrights (as well as actors, directors and designers). We were the first theater to produce Sheila Callaghan and the first to produce John Belluso, and we have staged premieres by Beth Henley, Werner Trieschmann, Trey Nichols, Jennifer Maisel, Craig Wright, EM Lewis, Michael Folie, Terence Anthony and many more.
After developmental readings at Moving Arts and FirstStage LA, The Size of Pike received its world premiere first in a 1996 production at Moving Arts, then in a transfer to the Hudson Theatre in Hollywood. Later, it was produced elsewhere in California, and in London.
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we decided to turn our 21st season into a re-examination of signature plays we had previously produced. Our artistic producer, Sara Wagner, read all the plays Moving Arts had ever produced — hundreds, I’m sure, ranging from 10-minute plays to plays of two or three acts — and put 20 together into a series she called “20/20 Vision.”
Jon Amirkhan, Dennis Delsing and Gregg Christie.
I was surprised when she selected The Size of Pike; I hadn’t seen or thought about the play in years. Now I get another chance, and with my home theater company, and I’m grateful for that. I’m also excited to see the play in a new way. Sara is staging the play environmentally — audience members who see The Size of Pike will be seated in various areas of the lead character’s “apartment,” able to experience the play as if they too were drinking too much and sharing fish stories before heading out.
My biggest hope with this production is that people will see these men the way I do: they were warm, and clever, and genuine, and also untamed, reckless, and thoughtless, all at the same time. And funny — boy, were they funny.
Now they’re gone, and with them and their generation, a certain way of being is gone. I miss these men. And I deeply regret not having paid more attention when I had the chance.
The Size of Pike, Moving Arts, 1822 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake. Opens Friday. Thu-Sat 8 p.m. Through June 2. Tickets: $20. 323-666-3259. www.MovingArts.org.
**All The Size of Pike production photos by Ross Kramer.
Lee Wochner is the author of more than two dozen plays produced in New York, London, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. From 1992 to 2002 he directed, produced, or developed more than 150 new plays as the founding artistic director of Moving Arts. He is a former president and CEO of LA STAGE Alliance, and since 2004 has been a principal in the creative marketing agency Counterintuity, LLC.
