How did you get into theater and what are your influences?

Well, I guess, well, growing up in Berlin (Germany) you get to see all the really avant garde shit. I skipped school quite a bit, so I could go to the center of the city. I could see some good shit; I mean who cares about some school play. I mean here's some woman covering herself in blood. The first person I saw that I had an interest in was Ann Clark. What she did was say poetry in front of some very odd scenery with very cool electronic music. I really liked it - that's what got me into the idea of taking written work to another level. To tell you the god-honest truth, and I don't know why I shouldn't tell you the god-honest truth, if I hadn't gotten stoned when I was 17, I would not have known that I was going to be a writer. I was stoned off my ass on hashish, sitting there in my flat in Berlin with a group of friends listening to music. "This is great." Come to find out there was no music that night...hahaha.

Then when I came to Orlando I was an actor for a while. Being a writer I am very critical of contemporary writers. I decided if I was going to be a writer I had to be a little different from the norm. So that's when I started out doing live presenting of my work. First were the short stories, then I took parts of my novel and then I started writing specific polemics. And ahh...

Do you have some deep-rooted hate for the Catholic Church?

No, actually, no I don't. I have a great fondness for the Catholic Church. I really do. A lot of my work you've got to remember is not necessarily my own feelings, but a reposition of feeling of things because I don't think you can show exactly someone...let's take love, for instance. Sometimes in art you can't show someone love unless you show them the opposite.

As far as the church goes, it's necessary for me to show maybe a concept of God and religion by showing the enthusiast of it first what it is not...because if I can't put my finger specifically on what God is, I can at least show you what God is not. A lot of people have that idea, but it's not as valid as they think.

How do you feel about the Church reaction to Revelations 13.4?

Ahhhh. Hahaha. Well...ummm. They have their own dogma and doctrine they have to follow. However, I don't see how my piece is damaging to them. It's quite interesting to say that I don't remember seeing anyone from the Church. So I don't think they saw it; they heard it from hearsay, from what an audience member had to say, and never fully investigated it themselves.

A lot of your work has HIV or AIDS subjects in it.

Now you're getting into deep shit..

Do you hate how the Church is reacting to it?

I think the best way I can put is ummm.... Let's take Sermon, for instance. A lot of people saw it as an AIDS pieces, but it wasn't...

It didn't sound like an AIDS pieces to me.

Exactly...good. It was my look at lack of compassion. (AIDS) was not the topic, but an example, and the same with Revelations 13.4; the topic was not the Devil or Satan - that was the example - but hypocrisy. In Torture the example was the need to let everything go. Let all the anger go, otherwise it's going to torture you. It's going to torment you to the point of lashing out and screeching. So that's why I like leaving all this work finished now....

How do feel about the Orlando audience?

Rephrase. I don't follow you.

Do you think the audience understands all that you're saying, or do they go there to watch a performance?

Wow...

Do you think people understand exactly what you are saying?

They don't...

I mean I have a problem following some of your stuff.

I don't blame them. I really don't because I have a tendency to go off into my own personal dilemma in my work. Unless you know my head very well, you would not know what I am talking about. I don't even know my head well enough sometimes. What the fuck am I doing up here? I think half my audience comes to see the novelty of what I am doing...it's a very rare kind of thing that you won't see any one else do. I am fortunate that I have put myself in a position that I am characterized by the kind of work that has a very high merit...and no one else can come near it, and if they did it would just be a copycat. So I kind of became a measuring stick for spoken word/performance art here in Orlando. Trying to approach the situation like I do, he will be turned away from because it is already being done by the best. I have to be better because I invented it. Hahaha.

Do you think that's fair ... I mean if someone comes to town and starts doing performance art?

This is where the idea of authenticity comes in to play. If he comes in doing his own thing, and it looks like my own stuff then kudos to him...you know...I mean this community is small enough that we know pretty much everything that's going on right now. So if this guy pops out of nowhere I would probably be the first person to say right on, good shit, let's work together. You know...ahhh, but if it's someone in the community who would have the serious audacity to do what I am doing...first they have to have a serious vocal range to do what I am doing. Hahaha.

Let's talk about being banned.

Oh, being banned. That is the greatest thing an artist can hope for. It gives you a sense of pride that your work has affected someone so intensely that they can't deal with it...hahaha. I never thought of it that way. It's like an award...I was banned...not once, but twice, and that was a great omen to start out your career with: not once, but twice....hahaha. There's some futuristic hope in that one. So as a consequence my work got worse and worse...more demonic, more demonic, just so I can get banned. That was my banning experience for the last couple years.

Are you trying for more?

Yea. Hahaha.

Are you constantly revising your pieces?

Yea...yea, because some stuff in theory or in rehearsal or on paper does not work right. I'll be on stage, and I'll catch, you know, my self inventing and improving to make up for it. And that ends up being a lot better. So that will be added into it. Like when I was doing Revelations, there were eight different versions of that fucking piece by the time it was done. You know, I figure I got three weeks to get it right, you know. It does not have to be right on opening night. Opening night is kind of like, like let's work on this. Let's see how this develops. So I can guarantee closing night will be entirely different than the opening.

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Eric Von Stephan is an engineer aspiring eventually to make a living pursuing his real love, drama. He makes a mean gumbo, and he works as a director and more at Theatre Downtown. Other Articles I've Written