by Travis Mateer
Yep, after realizing the absurd synchronicities in Miss Congeniality, which led me into a name-associating doozy of a post, I was confronted with a DELUXE edition of that damn movie sitting right next to a Philip K. Dick book at one of the MANY Half-Priced Books I have visited on my travels.
PKD used “2-3-74” as shorthand for the experiences he had in 1974, experiences he spent the rest of his life trying to understand. I am using one3twenty in much the same way. So, yes, this pairing at a bookstore really fucked with me. Then, thanks to the following headline, I was reminded of something happening back in Missoula this weekend. Here’s the headline:
From the link:
Playwright Victoria Stewart wrote a stage show that addressed the complex man himself, along with his complicated questions in “800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick.”
An independent production is coming here through a new company, A Quantum Dream, led by actor-director Reggie Herbert, in the Show Room at the Zootown Arts Community Center.
How funny is this? It’s almost more funny than I can find words to describe. I mean, the Zootown Arts Community Center is the PERFECT venue, since they used to take my money for rent until they realized that MY reporting on “reality” didn’t jive with their WOKE ambitions (I report on euthanized and executed black men in Missoula, and that makes them sad).
Here’s more (emphasis mine):
In 1974, Dick had a kind of otherworldly experience in which he believed other beings were piping information directly into his brain, which affected him until his death in 1982 at age 53.
“I was convinced that I just had to do this play — it had all of the elements that I liked, but also it investigated the scenes that the titular author explores in their work, but also relates them to us as audience members,” he said.
He also admired Stewart’s approach to Dick as a person — her script doesn’t engage in hero worship or make him out to be a great man. (Dick struggled with drug abuse and was married many times over.)
The characters include ones based on real people, such as his ex-wife Tessa (Erin Lee Agner) and the great science fiction author Stanislaw Lem (Timothy Ballard). The truth behind other figures is fuzzier — Dick did claim to have interactions with the FBI, so an agent appears in the play (also Ballard).
Was I blindsided by this low-vision visionary and his desire to bring his interpretation of Dick to a Missoula stage? No, I actually called up this director before I left Missoula and gave him just the slightest peek into my version of 2-3-74, and he gave me a peek into his sense that Dick’s brain was just stroking out and nothing more. Did I mention this director can’t see well?
A University of Montana graduate with a bachelor’s and a master’s in theater, Herbert said one of his upstart troupe’s goals is to bring “meaningful, challenging art” to the community.
Herbert, who is blind/low vision, also built accessibility into their productions — this one will be presented with live audio description at all performances, and open captions on Friday and Sunday evening.
“I would also like to continue to hold our community to a higher standard when it comes to accessibility and the arts,” he said.
Why am I making this out to be something? Because in my fucked up reality, it is something. You see (no pun intended) I actually saw someone who is blind recently, and they were putting on a blindfold on someone else, like they were training them to be blind or something, and that seemed weird until it came up in conversation that AUSTIN has a school for the blind. No, am NOT fucking kidding you.
What else can I say? Enjoy the show, Missoula.