by Kirby Lindsay, posted 20 March 2013
The weekend immediately before Opening Night of Moisture Festival, the Hammer Heads were hard at…well, the activities looked like work, but the atmosphere and attitudes among the army of volunteers appeared to be pure fun!
When asked why he spent weekends building stairs, and shelves, plus lugging light rigging around, Steve Clark explained, “’Cause I can.” A random sampling of the random folk that serve as Hammer Heads revealed that the ability to be of use rates high among them. They enjoy helping bring the vaudeville varieté shows of Moisture Festival to Hale’s Palladium, and beyond.
Nothing Specific
Called Hammer Heads, the large volunteer crew hammer, saw, paint, scrub, lug and sew a thousand little pieces of the Palladium. They make the enormous space clean and ready for audience members, and useful by the 100+ performers who will depend upon the stage, green room, lighting & sound to make their magic happen, sometimes literally.
“I know the value of volunteering,” explained Marci Malinowycz. She gave time – and gas and vehicle – as a driver for Moisture Festival performers two years ago. “I liked going to a lot of shows,” she said, and the feeling of immersion in the ultra-creative MF community.
Last year, she ‘paid retail’ and bought tickets to multiple shows, but this year she made a point to attend the annual volunteer’s meeting (held in early February) to find her niche for participating.
Her other responsibilities made her availability during run of Moisture Festival (March 21st – April 14th) iffy, but Malinowycz noticed that the Hammer Heads work in advance. “What sealed the deal,” she said of her decision to join this crew, “It didn’t require certain, specific skills.”
Malinowycz showed up in early March and asked to help. She’s since sewed up tears in a curtain, cleaned up the green room, and done a whole lot of painting –without previous painting experience.
Everything Possible
Mike Bailey often lends his carpentry skills to non-profits, “but this is more fun,” he said of lending his talents to Moisture Festival. In his fourth year, Bailey has joined the MF Board, yet he continues to swing a hammer. He’s built seating risers and railings, pieces of the stage and the dressing rooms. He’s also moved furniture this year, and done a, “ruthless cleaning out of last year’s debris,” he said, accepting that this year’s debris will soon replace it.
When asked why he’d chose to be a Hammer Head, Marshall Butler responded, “I can live at home, and still run away with the circus.” With experience working on the FAC Solstice Parade, the Procession of the Species, and Burning Man, he’s returned for his second year of Moisture. Last year he built a folding bar, and this year he hung twinkle lights in the green room, but Butler mostly has done, “a lot of toting and carrying,” he explained.
That puts him in the realm of Maque daVis – one of the original Moisture producers, and referred to as, ‘The King Of Schlep.’ Hearing this title bestowed upon him, daVis assented, “Others have tried, but they’ve died.” As he further clarified, he has been an avid student of, “the Art of Schlep-sophy.” As Clark described, daVis – who will take up any task, big or small – is, “the Generalissimo of the Hammer Heads.”
All From Nothing
“Some people just enjoy working together,” Moisture Festival Founder and Artistic Director Ron Bailey (no relation to Mike) explained. The crew developed in part out of the need to fix up a space generously donated by Mike Hale, of Hale’s Brewery, but quickly also proved that set building can be drudgery done alone, or delightful when done as a team.
“The first show we did in here was a benefit,” Bailey recalled of his first experience at Hale’s, “with both walls lined with kegs piled 14 feet high.” Used originally for keg storage, the Hale’s crew shifted product 9 years ago to accommodate Moisture. The partnership proved so positive that Hale’s slowly located the kegs elsewhere, and assisted the Hammer Heads in converting it into a professional performance space.
Hale’s built bathrooms, and installed fire safety equipment in the ceiling, and the Hammer Heads built the stage, the backstage, and the entrance. The Hammer Heads do, “much more than sets,” Bailey acknowledged, as this year – actually having started before the New Year – they’ve converted a basement apartment into a commercial kitchen.
“For the past years,” Bailey explained, “Peter Glick has offered the kitchen at Roxy’s Diner for washing pots & pans.” Moisture Festival feeds performers and volunteers that put on each show, usually with meals donated by area restaurants and caterers. With an on-site kitchen, the ‘food babes’ (volunteers that assemble and serve approximately 30 meals during the MF run,) can be more efficient – and no longer need to haul dirty cookware off-site for cleaning.
The conversion took major effort since the apartment/office (one time the press offices for the Seattle Seahawks) adjacent to the Palladium had 15 years of accumulated detritus to be cleared away. Hammer Heads then came in to paint, build counters and shelves, and get the ready before Opening Night on March 21st.
Enjoyed By All
Malinowycz brought sewing skills, and many Hammer Heads have carpentry and/or construction backgrounds, but they all work for free. A professional furniture builder, Clark has, in his two or three years at Moisture, attained the title of Official Stage Carpenter, he said. The title brings more responsibility and allows him to make 2 to 3 times what the other volunteers do – basically, nothing, but several times over.
Still, he joined the crew, Clark explained, because, “I was useful.” For those looking to be useful, volunteer opportunities always abound as the Festival approaches – and more folks will be needed to study schlepping under the Master for 2014.
What is needed most for the 2013 Moisture Festival are audience members. In its 10th year, audiences can indulge in vaudeville and burlesque performances at three venues – SIFF Theater, Broadway Performance Hall, and Hale’s Palladium. Purchase tickets today at Brown Paper Tickets, including two benefit shows this Saturday and Sunday at 3p.
Come – enjoy the show, and see the results of the Hammer Heads motto, ‘We make art work!’
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.