Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On Feb. 17, 2023, at about 11 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were contacted at the Sheriff’s Main Station regarding an assault that had occurred at a residence on the 3500 block of Buttermilk Lane, in the county’s jurisdiction of Arcata.
Deputies met with a 39-year-old male victim who had visible injuries. The victim told deputies that his roommate, 26-year-old Tukatuk Many Trees Nelson, reportedly instigated an argument then physically assaulted him earlier that morning causing significant facial injuries. Nelson reportedly also threatened to kill the victim numerous times.
Deputies responded to the residence and took Nelson into custody without incident. Nelson was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of battery with serious bodily injury (PC 243(d)) and criminal threats (PC 422).
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
UPDATE, 2:39 p.m. Press release from the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services:
Humboldt County residents are encouraged to prepare now for a winter storm system forecasted to impact the county beginning this afternoon.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for interior Humboldt County and a Winter Storm Watch for communities along the coast beginning Tuesday, February 21 at 1 p.m. through Thursday, Feb. 23. Heavy snow is expected for communities above 1,000 feet, with total snow accumulations of 6 to 18 inches.
Communities along the coast may experience hail, sleet, and even snow during this storm. Additionally, temperatures are expected to drop into the teens and 20s Friday and Saturday mornings.
PREPARE FOR STORM IMPACTS
Strong wind, hail and heavy snow are expected to create hazardous travel conditions particularly Wednesday and Thursday. Community members are urged to use extreme caution while traveling this week, especially on higher elevation routes such as Highways 299 and 36. If you must travel, create an emergency supply kit for your car. Include jumper cables, sand, a flashlight, warm clothes, blankets, bottled water and non-perishable snacks. Keep the gas tank full.
Power outages may occur as a result of this storm. Gather supplies in case you need to stay home for several days without power. Keep in mind each person’s specific needs, including medication. Remember the needs of your pets. Have extra batteries for radios and flashlights. If utilizing a generator for power, always operate the generator outdoors and at least 20 feet away from windows, doors and attached garages to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. Never heat your home with a gas stovetop or oven.
WARMING CENTERS AND SHELTERING RESOURCES
Central Humboldt
Eureka Rescue Mission: Overnight sheltering, dinner and showers
Men - 110 Second Street, Eureka. Arrive between 5:30-6 p.m.
Women- 102 Second Street, Eureka. Arrive at 6:30 p.m.
Betty Kwan Chinn Day Center: Overnight sheltering, dinner and showers
Call before 4 p.m., 707-407-3833 or visit the Day Center at 133 Seventh Street, Eureka.
Southern Humboldt
SoHum Housing Opportunities (SHO) Warming Recharge/Warming Center
Tuesday, February 21: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Redway First Baptist Church (1055 Redway Drive, Redway)
February 22-24 (Wed. - Fri.): 1 - 4 p.m. at Mateel Community Center (59 Rusk Lane, Redway)
Redwood Rural Health Centers (RRHC) Extreme Winter Weather Shelter
Call to check capacity: 707-923-2783, ext. 1361)
Northern Humboldt
Lower Trinity River Prescribed Burn Association Warming Center
February 22-23 (Wed.-Thur.) 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. at 111 Mayfair Street, Willow Creek
The Heights Casino Warming Center
February 22-24 (Wed.-Fri.) 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Heights Bingo Hall 27, Scenic Drive, Trinidad
STAY INFORMED
Residents are encouraged to monitor the National Weather Service for updated forecast information and always check conditions prior to traveling: https://www.weather.gov/eka/
Sign up for Humboldt Alert to receive emergency alerts and information from Humboldt County: humboldtgov.org/alerts For updated information from Humboldt County OES, please go to humboldtsheriff.org/emergency and visit @HumCoOES on Facebook and Twitter.\
# # #
Who’s ready for a “prolonged period of stormy weather”?
That’s what Mother Nature has in store for us, according to the trusty crew at the National Weather Service’s Eureka office. Sounds like a slow build to a crescendo of truly nasty weather, with wind and light rain becoming gusts of up to 45 miles per hour this afternoon and evening.
From there, brace for rain, hail and snow. A winter storm warning has been issued for the inland region:
⚠️WINTER STORM WARNING ⚠️ A Winter #Storm Warning has been issued for interior #Humboldt County beginning today, 2/21, at 1 pm through Thursday, 2/23 at 4 p.m. https://t.co/irpw4Q1u1Q
On Monday morning the National Weather Service urged locals to plan on “significant impacts to travel” across the region, from coastal communities across the Coastal Range inland.
“Heavy low elevation snow as well as numerous coastal hail showers will occur Tuesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon,” the NWS warned.
If you plan on traveling over the next few days, follow the advice in the tweet above and make sure to first check current road conditions on the Caltrans QuickMap.
A medical examination room in Fresno on June 8, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
Brian Iv works in a factory in Orange County, earning around $26 per hour. He suffers chronic pain from a lifetime of manual labor jobs and previous workplace injuries, but often treats the pain with home remedies or traditional Cambodian practices. Going to the doctor is too expensive, he said.
Iv recently got a raise and was able to purchase health insurance through his company, but for a long time he had a Covered California Silver Plan, a mid-tier plan under the state’s version of the federal Affordable Care Act marketplace. A visit to a primary care doctor cost nearly $50, and every time Iv picked up a prescription it was an additional $10 to $15. It was a lot for someone living paycheck-to-paycheck with little wiggle room in the budget.
“Right now, after COVID-19, everything is expensive,” Iv said. “Sometimes when you get sick you avoid that (expense). You have to keep the money to pay the rent, pay the bills, pay the car.”
Mid-tier health coverage like Iv’s Silver Plan is widely considered the best value for people who have insurance through Covered California. But in the past nine years, deductibles for the Silver Plan have grown nearly 88% after adjusting for inflation, increasing out-of-pocket costs for enrollees. In raw numbers, last year deductibles grew from $3,700 for an individual and $7,400 for a family with a Silver Plan to $4,750 and $9,500, respectively.
That’s why health care advocates are miffed that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal would sweep away $333.4 million set aside a couple of years ago for the state to defray health care costs for middle-income residents, transferring the money to the general fund. The proposal to move money out of the Health Care Affordability Reserve Fund is temporary, with plans to restore it in 2025 when current federal subsidies expire. But advocates say inflationary pressures and rising health care costs are reasons to use that money right now to help Californians struggling to pay the bills.
“We recognize there’s not a lot of room for new spending in the current budget situation, but we don’t see this as new spending. We see this as the existing commitment,” said Diana Douglas, policy director for Health Access California, which sponsored legislation to create the reserve fund.
Newsom’s spokespeople ignored multiple requests for comment.
Given the inflationary pressure people like Iv face, the governor’s proposal to transfer the money into the general fund is “mystifying,” said Scott Graves, director of research at the California Budget and Policy Center, a nonprofit policy research group.
“Why is the governor borrowing from a special fund that was set up specifically to help make health coverage through Covered California more affordable, right?” Graves said. “This is money for which every penny in the account could right now be used to bring down the cost of health care for Californians, but instead the governor is choosing to sweep that money out of the account.”
Stories like Iv’s are common, said Jaquelinne Molina, a caseworker at The Cambodian Family, a social services center where Iv receives case management for health care and financial aid issues. Most of the people she serves work in warehouses and factories for low pay and no benefits.
“It’s three years after COVID, but people are still behind on their light bills, their water bills from 2020 because they weren’t able to work due to COVID,” Molina said. “Right now everything is tight and it gets harder and harder every year.”
Broken promise?
Health care advocates say Newsom’s latest budget proposal follows a pattern of missed opportunities to make insurance more affordable under Covered California.
In 2020, the Legislature voted to reinstate a tax penalty on residents without health insurance in an effort to bring costs down. The economic theory goes: The penalty incentivizes people to buy health insurance, and the more people who participate in the health care marketplace, the lower the costs because risk is spread out among a mix of healthy and less-healthy consumers.
“Advocates, including ourselves, clearly stated that we do not support the reinstatement of the penalty without additional assistance,” said Linda Nguy, a lobbyist for the Western Center for Law and Poverty.
Early on, that was the plan. In fact, on his first day in office, Newsom proposed using the money to bring down prices for people with Covered California.
“The governor, to his credit, proposed this idea of providing state subsidies in Covered California, augmenting the federal dollars, and proposed the individual mandate as a funding source for it,” Health Access Executive Director Anthony Wright said.
Influential advocacy groups supported reinstating the health insurance penalty, and the 2019-2020 budget included more than $1.4 billion over three years to bring down out-of-pocket costs for Covered California enrollees.
So far, the state has only kept that promise once, spending approximately $355 million in 2020 to enhance Covered California subsidies for middle-income residents. This meant an individual making up to $74,940 and a family of four earning up to $154,500 qualified for additional financial assistance. But when the federal government increased health care subsidies in 2021 as part of its COVID-19 pandemic relief package, the state stopped funneling penalty money toward cost reduction.
Kaiser Health News reported in November that the state has generated roughly $1.3 billion in penalty money from uninsured state residents. By statute, that money has always gone directly into the general fund, and from there could be moved into the reserve fund.
“There’s an argument to be made that those fines really should be plowed back into the system, especially for people who are low-income,” said former state Sen. Richard Pan, a doctor who chaired the health committee at the time the penalty was reinstated.
“What we think has been happening, and there truly is not a lot of transparency on this, is that as money is put into the reserve, it is taken out the following year,” Douglas with Health Access said.
Who relies on Covered California?
Most people who purchase insurance through Covered California are low- to middle-income Californians, meaning individuals who earn roughly between $21,000 and $87,000 a year or families of four earning $45,000 to $180,000 per year.
At that income level, enrollees make too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal, the state’s public insurance for very low-income residents, but for a variety of reasons don’t have employer-based health insurance. They may be self-employed, a gig or part-time worker, or work for a small business. They may even opt to purchase insurance independently because it’s cheaper than what their employer offers.
Although more stable than the national insurance marketplace, Covered California has not been immune to the rising health care costs that plague the industry. Health insurance premiums have grown every year since the state first offered Covered California. That growth is less obvious than deductibles to enrollees because federal subsidies keep out-of-pocket premiums relatively stable for most enrollees. But federal subsidies are based on federal income limits and poverty levels, which don’t take into account California’s high cost of living.
Brian Iv in Santa Ana. Photo courtesy of The Cambodian Family
Iv and his family rent a single room in a house in Garden Grove for $900 a month. In the past year, he said, expenses have tripled with inflation, with gas alone costing around $300 per month.
“At home, sometimes we don’t know what to cook and we don’t have food. Then we eat Cup Noodles,” Iv said.
Molina, the case worker from The Cambodian Family, said her clients who have deductibles and co-pays use their insurance less than clients with Medi-Cal, who typically don’t have to pay anything out-of-pocket.
“I’ve known families with kids who break or sprain their fingers and feet, and they don’t know for months because they can’t go to the doctor,” Molina said.
But when the American Rescue Plan was at risk of expiring in 2022, legislators and regulators saw an opportunity to lessen the staggering health insurance costs enrollees would face — double what they paid the year before. They proposed reinjecting penalty money back into the Covered California marketplace, as promised, for the first time since 2020.
In June, the Covered California board approved a $300-million cost-reduction plan: If the federal subsidies were not renewed, the money would be used to help alleviate the resulting out-of-pocket premium spikes. If subsidies were extended, the money would be used to eliminate deductibles for all Silver Plans.
Either way, the money would make health care more affordable. When the federal government opted to extend premium assistance until 2025, affordability advocates were excited by the chance to remove other cost barriers.
“Let’s get rid of deductibles,” Pan said. “Because what is a deductible? It’s just really a barrier to people being able to get care.”
To enforce the plan, Pan carried and Health Access sponsored a bill that would have required the state to bring down costs for Covered California enrollees. Newsom vetoed the bill, citing a “downturn in revenues” despite the state budget already including more than $300 million to implement the plan.
When the bill died, Covered California lost the ability to implement the plan, said James Scullary, spokesperson for the program. Instead, Silver Plan deductibles that would have been eliminated jumped about 20%.
“Covered California’s position is we are always looking for ways to make health care more affordable,” Scullary said. While deductibles have climbed, pharmacy costs decreased and out-of-pocket maximums remained relatively stable.
Some advocacy groups say they’re dismayed that increased cost-sharing is “not a priority for Gov. Newsom.” The majority of small business owners are middle-income Californians who often have trouble affording health insurance and find it too expensive to offer to their employees, said Bianca Blomquist, California policy and outreach director for the Small Business Majority.
“We are super disappointed,” Blomquist said. “If we’re talking about small businesses’ ability to recover from the pandemic, these are the kinds of programs that might not be obvious, but really help.”
###
CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
[Just discovering this LoCO feature? Find the beginning by clicking here.]
CLEAN BREAK
by
Lionel White
Image by Deep Dream Generator AI.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
1
The wail of the siren reached Johnny Clay’s ears at exactly the moment he caught sight of the flashing red light in the rear vision mirror over the windshield.
It took iron nerves, but he carefully slowed down and pulled over to the right curb of Third Avenue. He sat there then, hardly daring to breathe, as the speeding police car came up to him and a second later passed in a wailing scream of sound.
The car swung to the left a block beyond and turned into East Thirty-first Street.
Johnny knew.
He knew just as well as he knew he was driving that blue sedan on Saturday evening in the last week of July.
He didn’t hesitate, but followed the car around the corner.
The police had stopped in front of the apartment house.
Johnny didn’t hesitate, nor did he speed up. He drove past the parked car and kept on going. Halfway down the block he passed the dimly silhouetted figure of a man staggering in the shadows of a tall building. He glanced at him only casually.
Ten minutes later he found the secondhand store on the Bowery. He pulled up at the curb and went in. When he came out he was carrying two light weight suitcases.
It took time, but he finally found the dark deserted street out near Flushing. It was difficult in the dark, but still it didn’t take more than ten minutes to transfer the money from the duffle bag to the two suitcases. When he was finished, he tossed the bag into a clump of bushes and put the suitcases on the floor at his feet. He backed away and headed back toward the Parkway.
He tried the radio but was unable to get a news program. Looking at his watch, he saw that it was just eleven o’clock.
A mile from the airport, he again turned off the boulevard. He found an all night restaurant not far away. He knew that he would have to kill another twenty minutes. He pulled up in front of the place, shut off the ignition and went in and ordered a cup of coffee.
Leaving the restaurant ten minutes later, he saw a newsstand across the street. He went over and bought an early edition of the next morning’s tabloid newspaper. He didn’t bother to look at it, but folded it once and put it into his side coat pocket. And then he started for the airport.
# # #
2
The driver had looked worried when he had climbed into the back of the cab.
“You sure you’re all right, Buddy?” he asked.
“Yeah—all right,” George Peatty mumbled. “Just a nose bleed. Bad nose bleed,” he said. He sounded drunk.
“Where, to then, Mister?”
It was then that the thought hit him. He knew that he was badly hurt, he knew that he wasn’t quite clear in his head. But also, at that exact moment he remembered. He remembered the airline brochure which had fallen out of Johnny Clay’s pocket three nights before, the last time they had all met at Marvin Unger’s. He remembered now. It had been bothering him all along, and now he remembered.
“La Guardia,” he said in a barely audible voice, “La Guardia Field.”
He reached into his trouser pocket and took out several bills which he had neatly folded twice. Carefully, moving almost like a man in a slow motion picture, he peeled off the top bill and handed it through the window to the driver. It was a ten spot.
“Stop somewhere and get me a box of kleenex,” he said.
Somewhere near the tunnel he must have lost consciousness because he couldn’t remember getting over to the Island. By the time the lights of the field were visible, he knew that he couldn’t last much longer. He was having a hard time seeing and it took all of his will power to focus his eyes, even for a minute.
But he had to get away.
He couldn’t go home. They’d be looking for him at home.
# # #
3
Fay Christie looked at the clock over the information booth and then checked it with her watch. Her watch was right. It was just ten minutes before midnight.
God, she didn’t think it would be like this.
Why didn’t he come? Where was he? What could have happened?
And then, again, she struggled to control herself. The plane left at half past twelve. He’d said midnight. He’d said that without fail he’d be there at midnight exactly.
Nervously she stood up and started toward the restaurant. But then, once more, she hesitated. She doubted if it would be physically possible for her to swallow another cup of coffee.
Five minutes later she again got up. Slowly she started walking toward the doors leading out to the taxi platform. She had to move aside as the man staggered through the doors and past her. He looked drunk and he was holding a handful of kleenex to his face. His clothes were badly stained and it looked as though his face had been bleeding.
The man almost staggered into her as she moved out of his way. His eyes were wide open and they had an odd, blind look about them.
And then she saw Johnny.
A small, half sob escaped from her throat and she ran toward him.
He dropped the suitcases and he was holding his arms out to her.
“Johnny—oh, Johnny!”
She was half crying.
She buried her face in the collar of his coat.
Johnny’s hand reached up and he caressed her head. He started to say something to her, looking down at her as she began to lift her face.
Neither of them saw George Peatty. Neither of them saw the gun in his hand.
George’s voice sounded as though he were drunk as he mumbled the words. The blood was pouring from his mouth as he spoke and it was almost impossible to understand him.
“God damn you, Sherry,” he said. “So you’re running away with him, are you.”
He pushed Fay away from Johnny as he spoke.
“You can’t,” he said. “You can’t.”
And then the revolver began to leap in his hand.
The bullets made a peculiar dull, plopping sound as they followed one after the other into Johnny Clay’s stomach.
# # #
4
The matron held the smelling salts under her nose and turned her own head away. She looked up at the airline hostess who was hovering over the two of them.
“Poor darling,” she said. “I guess the sight of blood was too much for her. It’s certainly taking her some time to snap out of it.”
The airline hostess nodded.
“You don’t suppose she could have known him, do you?” she asked.
Fay Christie opened her eyes and looked around her blankly for a second. And then, without having made a sound, the tears began to well up and roll down her cheeks.
Out in the lobby the uniformed policeman leaned over and pulled the blood soaked newspaper from under Johnny Clay’s elbow.
“Keep those god damned people back,” he said.
His eyes fell on the headline and unconsciously it registered on his brain.
RACE TRACK BANDIT
MAKES CLEAN BREAK
WITH TWO MILLION.
# # #
Stark House Sunday Serial was brought to you by the Lost Coast Outpost and Stark House Press.
Based in Eureka, California since 1999, Stark House Press brings you reprints of some of the best in fantasy, supernatural fiction, mystery and suspense in attractive trade paperback editions. Most have new introductions, complete bibliographies and two or more books in one volume!
Rhonda Byrne thought big. In her 2006 bestseller
The Secret, the journalist claimed to have discovered “the
greatest power in the universe”: The Law of Attraction. Not gravity
(despite the name) but the notion that “you become what you think
about most, but you also attract what you think about most.” I
suppose if she’d stuck with “the greatest power in her home town
of Melbourne, Australia,” or even “…in the world,” she’d
have had more credibility. But the universe, no less. That’s
pretty ovarian thinking.
Of course, Byrne wasn’t the first to discover
magical thinking, the belief that (per the Encyclopedia
Britannica) “one’s ideas, thoughts, actions, words or use of
symbols can influence the course of events in the material world.”
Or, as Wikipedia has it, that there’s a causal connection between
“religious ritual, prayer, meditation, trances, sacrifice,
incantation, curses, benediction, faith healing, or the observance of
a taboo” and “an expected benefit or recompense.” Anyone who
has thrown a pair of dice while visualizing the outcome (“C’mon
boxcars!”), or prayed to the Good Lord for help when facing an
operation, is guilty of magical thinking. That is, all of us.
(Re the prayers: Harvard
professor and cardiologist Herbert Benson initiated a 2006 study to
determine if prayer helped patients recover from surgery, which
involved 2,000 coronary artery bypass patients. On a random basis,
some were prayed for by three “experienced prayer groups”
consisting of Catholic monks, Catholic nuns, and a Protestant prayer
ministry. The prayers, which started on the day of surgery and lasted
for two weeks, seemed to make things worse: 59 percent of the
patients who knew they were being prayed for suffered complications,
compared to 51 percent who didn’t know. And 18 percent of the
uninformed prayed-for group suffered major complications such as
heart attack and stroke compared to 13 percent of the uninformed,
un-prayed-for group. See this.)
The latest instance of
magical thinking, I’m told, is the “Lucky Girl” fad currently
being promoted on TikTok and Instagram. Quoting two posters,
“Everything I want and need is on its way to me right now. I am
open to receive,” and “I am powerful and in control of my
reality. I attract all that is good in this universe. I find myself
in a state of perpetual happiness.”
Look, there’s nothing
wrong, in my view of the universe (!), with optimism. But the notion
that we can achieve success effortlessly, simply by thinking about
it, seems dangerous to a fault. Here’s how I think it really works.
Years ago, Louisa and I were staying in a small town on the Bolivian
side of Lake Titicaca in South America. One evening, we walked up a
low hill by the lakeside, where, on what appeared to be an altar at
the top, were a dozen or so toy pick-ups and trucks and buses.
Photos: Barry Evans.
A family group was
standing around the altar, murmuring what may have been prayers.
Later, at the bottom of the hill, we saw them again and started
chatting with them. (That is, Louisa did—her Spanish was and is way
better than mine.) “We were curious about the trucks on the altar,”
we said. “Did you leave them there?” “Oh no, we bring them down
after blessing them,” they explained, pulling out several of the
brightly-painted vehicles.” “Um, why?” we wanted to know.
“Well, last year we wanted our family to have a taxi to bring in an
income, so we blessed a toy taxi. Then we all worked very very hard,
and last month, we were able to buy a taxi. This year, we blessed a
combi (minibus). So if we work very very hard, we should have one by
next year.”
I thought of a friend
who had a photo of a pony on her fridge door, and another who had a
picture of a red sports car stuck to her bathroom mirror. The
Bolivian family was simply doing—in three dimensions, rather than
two—just what my friends did. They visualized what they wanted,
then they worked very very hard. That’s how it works! You decide
you want something and then, with that picture in your mind as your
incentive, you work—very very hard!—to achieve it. Nothing magical
about it at all.
On the other
hand, if we indulge in magical thinking, we’re likely to make poor
decisions by naively assuming that everything will work out in the
end. According to Robert West, a psychologist at University
College London (quoted in Live Science), “The danger of
believing that we can achieve things just by imagining them is that
it actually stops us doing the things that would make our lives, and
those of other people, better.”
Put another way, it’s healthier to take
responsibility for our lives, knowing that dumb luck is going to have
a big say in the outcome of our actions, no matter what, than
believing in some mystical power that grants our wishes because we
believe it will..
That’s the trouble with aging: you see patterns
repeating and start feeling that been-there-done-that syndrome. Seems
every generation has its own version of magical thinking, complete
with books, movies and now online videos. Me? Cynical? You bet I am.
Local Keenan Hilton (John Merrick) backstage at Ferndale Repertory Theatre. | Photos: Stephanie McGeary, except when noted.
###
[Writer’s note: I want to be clear that this piece is not intended to be a review. I don’t mean to throw shade at the people who write or publish reviews. I understand that reviews have their purpose. But in general, I find them to be, well … boring. And also sometimes mean. I just don’t love the idea of sharing how good or bad I thought a show to be, nor do I like the idea of basing my decision to see something on someone else’s opinion. Art is subjective, right? Someone may love the same thing that someone else hates. I would rather allow my readers to form their own opinion about the art they consume.
With this feature, I instead aim to give a sense of the work that goes into stage productions and the role that local theater plays for the actors and the community. ]
###
Backstage at the Ferndale Repertory Theatre buzzed with excitement as the actors readied themselves for their fifth performance of The Elephant Man, hurriedly putting on their costumes and makeup, some asking to borrow brushes or eyeliner from a fellow actor, some adhering fake hair to their face, while others took last minute bites of food as they prepare to go on. The energy was lively, with jovial conversations and predictions being made about how many people will be in the audience tonight.
Before going on, local actor Keenan Hilton, who plays John Merrick (the Elephant Man), took a moment out of his pre-show ritual to talk to the Outpost about the joys and challenges of working on this show, how he embodies the character of Merrick and why participating in local live theater is so important to him.
“In the beginning, one of my big concerns was about the ethics of performing the part of someone with a disability that I don’t have,” Hilton told the Outpost while he was applying his stage makeup. “Especially given the fact that theater is not a very accessible space for people with disabilities.”
If you’re not familiar with the story of The Elephant Man, it is based on the life of Joseph Merrick (1862 - 1890), an Englishman who suffered from severe physical deformities. After spending the first few years of his young-adult life working in the Leicester workhouse, Merrick went to work at a London freak show under the stage name “The Elephant Man,” a name given to him due to the appearance of his deformities. While working in the freakshow, he caught the attention of Sir Frederick Treves, a British surgeon who wished to study Merrick’s body. Eventually, Merrick was invited to live at the London Hospital, where he stayed until his death in 1890.
Jaison Chand (left) Joshua Purvis (middle) and Keenan Hilton (in the tub) during a performance of The Elephant Man. | Photo submitted by Ferndale Repertory Theatre.
The play, written by Bernard Pomerance, premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in London. The play has since been revived multiple times on Broadway and in prominent theaters in many other cities, with Merrick being played by several well-known celebrities, including Bradley Cooper and David Bowie.
Like the greats Bowie and Cooper before him, Hilton was faced with the unique challenge of giving the audience a sense of Merrick’s deformities and the pain he constantly suffered, without actually looking like Merrick. The audience is given a reference image in one of the earlier scenes of the play – a famous picture of Merrick is displayed on the stage (the same photo is also included in the programs) while Hilton stands in front of it, contorting his body to mirror Merrick’s, while Treves – played by Joshua Purvis – describes Merrick’s physical deformities.
The script specifically calls for no prosthetics or makeup to recreate Merrick’s appearance, Hilton explained to the Outpost. “Basically, the more realistic that you could get with [Merrick’s] visual appearance, the more it would distract from the story of the show,” Hilton said. The same goes for trying to accurately portray Merrick’s speech. He was very difficult to understand and actually speaking the way he did would detract from the story, Hilton added.
And Hilton manages this feat amazingly well, with a captivating performance that somehow allows the audience to imagine him within Merrick’s body, capturing the emotional and physical pain that Merrick felt on a daily basis. The play allows the audience to look beyond the deformities and see Merrick for who he really was – a kind and gentle man, who only wants a bit of warmth from others and some tranquility in his life.
Jaye Templeton carefully applies their facial hair.
“The whole point of [the story] is trying to convey, in a poetic sense, the ways that we otherize people who look different, and that it profoundly affects their lives,” Hilton told the Outpost. “There are things that can make that easier or harder to navigate … either the emotional pain that goes from being excluded or the great relief and wonderful feelings that come from having a connection with someone. And you get to see both in the play.”
The ways in which Hilton has to distort his body to give a sense of Merrick’s pain (he walks with a cane throughout most of the play, contorts his face and twists his legs and arms), took a lot of physical conditioning. Director Cleo DeOrio, who has a strong background in physical theater and dance, helped coach Hilton through this, he said. The two spent a lot of time studying photos of Merrick and discussing how Hilton could achieve this in the show. Hilton also has to do an extensive physical warm-up, mostly yoga positions, before his performance, he said. The physicality of the show leaves his muscles and joints in pain, he said, which he helps by using a CBD pain relieving balm given to him by his castmate Mary-Jo Caassanta (who plays Pin Head, Sandwich and Princess Alexandra.)
The level of camaraderie between the actors is heartening and the dedication that they bring to their craft is impressive, especially considering that these are unpaid roles. Because local theater actors aren’t usually paid for their work, as you can probably imagine, they do it because they love it.
“For me, as a performing artist, the primary draw is the artistic expression,” Hilton told the Outpost. “I see it as such an integral part, a rewarding part of being a human.”
Actors (left to right) Austin Maisler, Jake Hyslop and Taya Ross have some pre-show fun backstage.
When you think about how many types of entertainment we have in the world today – high-budget and action-packed films, live music concerts, a seemingly endless number of television shows and movies that you can stream for a pretty cheap price in your own home – it’s amazing that live theater remains a relatively well-patronized artform. But it does seem to serve a unique role in the community. Though local theater has struggled somewhat to again find its footing since COVID closed venues down, for the people who work in and attend live theater, there has never been a question of whether or not this art form needed to return to our lives.
“There’s no sense of manufacturedness, because it’s real, live human bodies on stage,” Jake Hyslop, who plays multiple roles in the show, including the Pin Head manager and an English police officer in the show, told the Outpost backstage. “If we mess up, we can’t fix it in post. We can’t do a second take. We’re really trusting in the audience, and the audience is trusting in us.”
Hyslop’s sentiment is echoed by all the other performers – Purvis, Casasanta, Jaison Chand (Gomm/ Belgian Police), Austin Maisler (Conductor/ Bishop/ Count), Taya Ross (Mrs. Kendal/ Pin Head) and Jaye Templeton (Ross/ Lord John/ Will) – who all feel that the ephemeral nature of live theater is a big part of what makes it so special.
“Every show is going to be ever so slightly different because it’s not like film where you can take different takes,” Templeton told the Outpost. “The audience is experiencing the story right as it’s happening.”
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As I promised at the beginning, this story is not a review of the play, so I will not go into detail about the storyline or the performances. If you would like to read reviews of The Elephant Man, you can do so here and here.
This is the closing weekend of The Elephant Man at Ferndale Repertory Theatre – 447 Main Street, Ferndale – and you still have two opportunities to see the show on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 8 p.m and Sunday, Feb. 19 at 2 p.m. You can purchase tickets at this link.
CORRECTION:This article previously contained a quote from Hilton saying that there is no wheelchair access to the theater. He contacted the Outpost to point out that he misspoke — there is wheelchair access to the theater, but not to the stage. The Outpost regrets the error.
We
don’t know why he continues to join the show — doesn’t he realize
he’s palling around with a bunch of treehugger dirt worshipers? —
but Congressman Jared Huffman joins the EcoNews again for more
discussion on what’s going on in Washington D.C. Who does he want to
replace Feinstein? What’s it like to work with George Santos? How is
D.C. going to help fund offshore wind infrastructure improvements?
(For the answers, you have to listen.)
Brian Iv in Santa Ana. Photo courtesy of The Cambodian Family
