A.E.: How is your training in philosophy, in art history and as a theatre practitioner and as an actor related to your peculiar way of doing things or seeing the world?
S.H.: They probably had different influences, but it’s interesting to think about them all together like that. I think one thing they all have in common is they’re all about the manipulation of reality: theatre is the manipulation of a bubble of space and time in which people are gathered together; philosophy is a manipulation of how one sees the world; and art history examines how artists manipulated their materials to express the time they were living in and something about themselves and how they saw things. I’m interested in books as objects that manipulate the reality of the reader, in the ways theatre and philosophy do, or like the actor does to her self when she puts on a role.
A.E.: That leads me naturally to asking you why you began Trampoline Hall, the lecture series where non-experts talk about what they don’t know much about and then take questions.
S.H.: It was 2001 and I was doing a lot of publicity for The Middle Stories that year, and I was sick of talking about myself and being on a stage and I felt too much attention had been paid to me—or more than I was comfortable with, anyway—so I wanted to create something that would put other people on a stage and turn the attention on other people. I also felt upset at the over the fact that part of what it means to be in a culture is that you hear from the same voices over and over again. It’s a bit less true now because of how the Internet gives everyone a voice, but it’s still true. So it wasn’t just about turning the attention from me, but from the newscasters, the popular actors, the columnists, everyone. Every month, three people who didn’t want to be on stage and who didn’t have experience with performing or who didn’t have an outlet would give prepared talks, 15 minutes in length, on subjects in which they were not professionally expert, then the audience could ask questions for another 15 minutes. Misha hosted the shows.
A.E.: Finally what surprises or innovation in style or vision are we to look forward in your future work?
S.H.: Your question made me think of my favourite bit of dialogue from the movie Sixteen Candles. Jake (the love interest of Samantha Baker, played by Molly Ringwald) and some jock guy are in the locker room, doing pull-ups at a bar:
Jake: Do you know Samantha Baker?
Guy: Sophomore, right?
Jake: Yeah, what do you think of her?
Guy: I don’t!
Jake: Would you go out with her?
Guy: Depends on how much you paid me.
Jake: She’s not… ugly.
Guy: There’s nothing there, man. It’s not ugly, it’s just void.
A.E.: Thank you very much for a fascinating conversation.
