Every month, Willing Suspension Armchair Theatre celebrates the written word by turning it into spoken word. Without sets, costumes or stage directions, the group performs readers’ theater, bringing audiences themed selections from literature.

This month, director Karen Schamberg presents An Evening of Claireity: Works by Claire Braz-Valentine. The evening celebrates the prose, poetry and plays of the internationally-produced writer, who lived in Santa Cruz until 2001. The show previews January 19 at Capitola Book Cafe before moving to Actors’ Theatre for two nights.

Schamberg kindly agreed to answer a few of Weekend Santa Cruz’s questions via email.

What is it about speaking the written word aloud that makes it so alluring? Why read literature aloud? People used to read aloud to each other. Before TV or even radio, back when books were scarce and precious, entire families read aloud to each other. More and more, reading has become a solitary pastime, done in private and in silence, if at all.

When I was a child, my mom read to my sisters and me every night. As I learned to read, I’d read to my younger sisters. I’ve always enjoyed reading aloud – and being read to. I was once a voracious reader, but fell away from it. Now, I read mostly email, murder mysteries and the occasional heaving-bosom novella.

I never developed a love of poetry, and certainly not much understanding of it. I used to think that poetry had to rhyme and had to be really oblique, confusing, deep and super-intellectual. None of those are my strong points.

I do, however, love the human voice. I love the many tones and accents and all the things you can do with your voice. The best roles are the ones where the author’s words let you exercise your instrument – please give me long vowels and alliteration and lots of resonance – let me play with the tones and surprise myself.

All of Claire’s poetry is written for performance. She has read her own poetry to audiences across the United States and she chooses sounds and rhythms especially for performance and spoken word. Our presentation will be the first time Claire has ever heard anyone on stage reading her poetry or prose. She has, of course, seen her plays produced many times.

When Patricia Grube asked me if I wanted to be the director for one of the Willing Suspension Armchair Theatre presentations, I decided to take a chance – venture out of my comfort zone of plays and acting and into the world of poetry. I’d heard Claire reading her poetry at Celebration of the Muse. Her poetry is accessible – it tells a story and is easy to read and understand. That is not to say that it is simple. Her work is honest and hard hitting, she deals with joyous and with painful subjects, her work will touch something in everyone who hears or reads it.

As a director, how does preparing for a reading differ from preparing for a play? First, I have to confess that “directing” is not my first love. I’m a performer at heart. I have, however, directed a number of play readings over the years and a few plays as well. There are great differences in the prep work for plays versus readings, but first, the similarities.

For both, you must do research. The type and scope will be dictated by the play itself or by the theme of the reading. A director must be extremely well organized. For both, the buck stops at the director. The director works with and has final say on every aspect of a show. However, there are many, many more “aspects” to consider when doing a play.

For my reading, there are no costumes, sets or blocking. I’m only using pre- and post-show music, and the lights will come up at the beginning and down at the end of the show. This has been a conscious choice on my part. Other directors of readings might include more cue changes, but that’s entirely up to the director.

For a play, depending on the play itself, there is usually a much longer period of preparation for the director. It’s not unusual for a director to begin working on a show a year before opening night. Before a cast is selected and before rehearsals begin, a director will have already met with lighting, costume and set designers. There have probably been discussions about publicity and the program, as well as aspects of relationships with the theater facility.

There are many different ways to present a reading of a play, poetry or prose, probably as many as there are directors. I’ve chosen to keep this one as simple as possible so people will hear Claire’s work.

How did you first come to know Claire Braz-Valentine’s work? What piece was it and what was your reaction? The first of Claire’s plays I saw was Blue Skies Forever, about Amelia Earhart. I went to see it at Actors’ Theater because a friend was in it. I LOVED the way Claire had written Amelia. I watched the play as an actress and wished I could have been up there – saying the lines.

The next piece I saw was When Will I Dance? about Frida Kahlo and my reaction was physical – it was tears and laughter and deep sadness mixed with awe at the strength and focus of Frida. Again, a strong female character, and again, I wanted to be up there. That was the piece that hooked me – I was a goner – this woman could write! I’m not the only one touched by When Will I Dance? It has now been produced in five countries and translated into four languages.

I didn’t know Claire personally back then – just knew of her. I can’t remember when we first met or how we came to be friends. We have a lot of friends in common and traveled in overlapping social circles. At some point, we realized that we enjoyed each other’s company.

When we’re together, we laugh an awful lot – a good thing to do with friends. We also tell each other the truth. I love that Claire must tell it like it is – she has to – in her writing and in her relationships. It’s difficult to find someone who will tell you, with love and acceptance, when you’re messing up. Those are the friends you keep.

But, I digress from the 5 Questions…

I understand from the press release that Braz-Valentine chose the pieces to be performed. What input, if any, did you have in the selection process? Is there a piece you particularly relate to?In October, I spent about a week with Claire in Paradise. In addition to visiting and catching up, we began the process of choosing the pieces for this event. Claire printed out about 25 pieces of her work – poetry, prose, as well as excerpts from plays and from her latest work, Potrero Hill, A Memoir. Even though she is well known for both plays and poetry, because of the focus of Willing Suspension Armchair Theatre, we only considered a few monologues.

I brought everything back to Santa Cruz and began the actual selection process. Reading, timing each piece and categorizing them in various ways, both in my mind and on the rather extensive Excel spreadsheet I created to keep track of what I had.

Since October, she’s sent me four or five additional pieces to consider. It was agonizing trying to eliminate work, but eventually I chose 13 poems, one monologue, two articles and one chapter from her memoir — a total of 17 pieces will be read. Most of these pieces have been published in various journals or anthologies. Some are personal, some political and some about her 25 years as a prison artist with experience in Soledad State Prison, Chowchilla Prison and at Santa Cruz Juvenile Hall. Some pieces are extremely funny and some will bring tears, but all of them are powerful.

Hmm, one piece I particularly relate to? The thing about Claire’s work and me is that the piece I most relate to is the one I’m reading at the moment. Some of them are gut-wrenching and some make my guts hurt from laughing so hard.

Is there a thematic element to the performance, and if not, what glues this production together? All of the previous Willing Suspension Armchair Theatre presentations had an overlying theme; Fathers and Sons, Stories About and By Women, Tales With a Twist, Fences and Bridges, etc. Rather than choose a theme and find works that fit with that theme, I chose an author and am presenting works entirely by her.

I toyed for awhile with the thought of including comments and emails Claire has received from other people, but that would have taken too much time away from presenting her work.

The four readers, Philip Slater, Billie Harris, Wilma Marcus-Chandler and I, are also long-time friends of Claire’s.

Sticky as it sounds, Claire IS the glue here.

An Evening of Claireity: Works by Claire Braz-Valentine previews 7:30 p.m. Monday, January 18 at Capitola Book Cafe, 1475 41st Avenue, Capitola. Regular performances take place 7:30 p.m. January 19 and 20 at Actors’ Theatre, , 1001 Center Street, Santa Cruz. Free, but donation requested. (831) 425-7529.