Collaborators: Michael Mason

One of my first collaborators in New York was Michael Mason. I had just moved and was still living in an artists sublet in the garment district. Basically a large rehearsal space cordoned off by curtains. Through my one contact in New York, Vanessa Sparling, I had connected to the artistic director of a new company, had interviewed with them, and was now directing for the very newly formed Working Man's Clothes. A conglomeration of Texans and other southerners dedicated to breaking into the New York theater scene with authentic, original theater. I was casting at the New School for drama and saw my leading man - intuitive, natural, scratchy voice, perfect instincts, long lanky body, sex appeal. All the girls reading with him were falling in love with him. The perfect male lead. I cast him.

We did our first festival of plays "more for your money" and I was looped into the fold. Michael soon became my proxy in show after show and film projects on the side. Ideas would go through him. Projects would need his interest. His jäger-induced extremes would forever color the tapestries of my memories of New York and its west village. By the end of the show I was able to call him my friend. 

What characterized Michael singularly was self-direction. He was notoriously hard to pin down, hard to define, hard to get to come to meetings, hard to get to buy into a show. But when he did, he was lightning in a bottle. 

Many millions of gallons of water under the bridge. I moved away from New York, settled in San Francisco. He moved away from New York, into Texas. His girlfriend, Teresa, has just finished a residency at the Headlands institute and the show is a YBCA. He has an hour to grab a drink. Done. 

We went to Jillians and sat in front of the great wall of sports TVs and drank pilsner and well tequila (my choice) and talked about my shit. Divorce. New relationships. Layoff. New opportunities for personal work. Little films. Creating every day. Then bud light and fireball (his choice) and Teresa - two months together in Texas coming up - an acting award for his work as Stanley in Streetcar, and a new project - a children's illustrated book. 

He was newly bearded and I complimented him on it. "Teresa hates it," he said, "But I said to her, baby, if I cut off this beard because you wanted me to, I wouldn't deserve you, or the beard."

Something about Michael reminds me and reinforces in me a sentiment that I have been struggling to understand as I've separated from my ex and now this job. "Demonstrate independence from her opinion." Act despite disapproval. Act without permission. Act because it is true in you.

The "her" might be Teresa, or a job, or the internet. The World. I must do work because I want to do it. Because I feel it's important. Independent of opinion.

Below is my tone piece I shot with Michael a few years ago for my Feature project about the last man on earth. Take a look:

Good to see you, Michael.
Find him at https://www.facebook.com/aztececonomy?fref=ts
and http://newyorkisdead.net