The Flint Journal March 30, 2006
Director-soldier brings theater expertise to war zone
By Carol Azizian
Staging a play in a war zone gives new meaning to guerrilla theater.
Scott Mackenzie, a major in the Army Reserve in Iraq, found this out firsthand.
Last month, Mackenzie - a former theater instructor at the University of Michigan-Flint and Mott Community College - directed a play, "Big Foot Stole My Wife," in the former Presidential Palace in Baghdad.
"I wanted to try to do a play because there's a captive audience in the International Zone," said Mackenzie, who recently was on leave in Pennsylvania, where he now lives.
"They're often looking for something different to do besides sit in their rooms and read or watch DVDs. It's a nice way to create a diversion for people."
The International Zone (formerly known as the Green Zone) is the heavily guarded area of closed-off streets in central Baghdad where U.S. occupation authorities live and work, according to the Web site www.globalsecurity.org.
Mackenzie said he wanted to "keep my theater chops sharp and do something I've never done before - direct a play in a war zone."
He staged the play by Ron Carlson - originally a series of comic short stories - because it's "funny and has poignant monologues," he said.
While corresponding via e-mail with Carlson, an English professor at Arizona State University, Mackenzie received another short piece from the author that he decided to stage.
"Ron sent me 'What We Wanted to Do' because he thought the Baghdad audience would be particularly appreciative of the piece," Mackenzie said. "I liked it because of the parallel between our dependence on high-tech weapons that often don't work out. In the end, you still need troops on the ground."
The short piece is about a medieval scientist explaining why a weapons system he created to defend his village failed.
"The weapon was pouring oil on the enemy," Mackenzie said. "It turned out the flaw in the system was he didn't know quite when to start heating the oil so it wasn't hot enough when the bad guys got there.
"It got a laugh and kind of hit home," he added.
The play was staged in the U.S. Embassy annex, formerly Saddam Hussein's Presidential Palace. "They have a large room in the former palace and we were doing the play in one corner of the room," the director said.
"In another corner, people were playing cards, surfing the net and reading books," he recalled. "I'd see them watching the play."
The audience included American military personnel, civilians and soldiers from other countries.
The eight actors were American military personnel and civilians - some had theater experience and others didn't.
"They did pretty well when you figure they were trying to learn 5- to 13-page monologues and they're working six or seven days a week," Mackenzie said.
"There are things that I probably would have been frustrated or annoyed with from my students because they didn't learn their lines fast enough or didn't come to rehearsal.
"But (these cast members) had good reason not to be at rehearsal so I couldn't get mad and scream and holler."
Scheduling rehearsals was a bit of a challenge because of security concerns, he noted.
"You can't just say we're having auditions at this time and this place," he said. "We sent out a notice via e-mail saying we're interested in doing a play (to all military personnel and civilians). Once somebody sends you an e-mail saying they're interested, you send each person an e-mail (back) about the site for auditions.
"If you send a general e-mail to be at this place at this time, there's a concern that somebody might plant a bomb at that location," he added.
A 1976 graduate of Carman High School, Mackenzie earned his bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Texas at Dallas, a master of fine arts degree from Michigan State University and a doctorate from Wayne State University in Detroit. He is an assistant professor of theater at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa.
While at the University of Texas, he studied with Carolyn Gillespie, now a theater professor at UM-Flint. He taught theater at MCC from 1992-2000 and at UM-Flint in 2000 and 2001.
Mackenzie served in the U.S. Air Force from 1976-80 and was in the Michigan National Guard for several years. This is his first time in a war zone - he's been in Iraq since August and helps plan the training of Iraqi Ministry of Interior forces.
"My experience has been relatively tame," he said. "I hear lots of bombings. But I haven't seen anybody get shot and nobody's shot at me."
Was the play he staged in Iraq a smash?
"I thought it was a success, if nothing else because we gave people a few hours of escapism," Mackenzie said. "It showed me that theater is important to a lot of people."
© Copyright 2006, Independent News and Media Limited
