Main Story: There is this story of a man who came to the village where there were a lot of people contemplating already the meaning of the consciousness and being conscious. And he came to this village and you could tell he was completely different. He was dressed differently. He didn’t look like male and he didn’t look like female. He had a long hair and so everybody was very confused and everybody they broke the silence and they start whispering to each other “Do you see how he looks? What is he male? Is he female? Look at whatever he is wearing is it dress? But I think he is man.” And there was a lot of people talking about him already and so he made a circle and he left the village. And the people finally broke the silence. And the people they start telling each other. The same judgmental way of talking about him. The man who was there who was in charge of the meeting because they had a meeting he said “What did you learn? What did you see?” And people knew he was going to talk about the judgment. They said we saw something different but there was no judgment. There was nothing bad about this. They start excusing him and you could tell that they noticed he was different but it wasn’t a big deal. And the mentor. The main guy. Listen everybody. And, at the end, he say “None of you got it.” And everybody was surprised. The point was not to not care that he was different. The pure consciousness is not to even notice he was different.

Background Information: Gosia is Polish. She’s the fiancee of Glen Steele.

Context of the Performance: The story was performed in Glen’s house.

My Thoughts on the Piece: I thought this was a very interesting story. It feels incredibly modern and yet it is set in a very traditional village. It really goes to remind you that people have always been dealing with prejudice.

Main Story: There’s another great story like that about an out-of-work actor who comes home and he finds the door off the hinges and inside the place is trashed. The pots are smashed. The couch has been torn apart. Just trashed. And he sees his wife cowering in the corner and crying. And he says, “Oh my God! What happened are you okay?” And she says, “He just went crazy. He busted in here and destroyed everything. I thought he was going to kill me.” And the actor says, “Who? Who did this? I’m going to find them and I’m going to kill them.” And the wife says, “It was Ted, your agent.” And the actor suddenly brightens up and says, “My agent was here?”

Background Information: Glen Steele is my step dad. Glen was an actor for many years.

Context of the Performance: The story was performed in Glen’s house.

My Thoughts on the Piece: Glen tells really great stories and even though he doesn’t act much any more it’s clear that telling these stories makes him feel connected to that part of his life. It’s amazing to me how folklore can do that.

Main Story: So, there was this old actor who worked a lot when he was younger and then he went many, many years with just no work at all. He couldn’t work and every week he’d call his agent and he says every week, “Do you have any work for me at all.” And he says, “No. You…it’s just…nobody wants to hire you. I got nothing.” “Alright. I’ll call you next week.” A week later he calls up. “You know. Anything. I’ll do anything. I need work. You know it’s been ten years I have nothing.” “Sorry. No work. You know. Call me next week.” Calls next week. “Anything.” “Oh. No. You know. Wait. There’s this one show down on Broadway. They need someone. I know it’s way beneath your talent level. And it’s just a small little one line you know part. But it’s something.” And he goes, “I’ll take it. I’ll take anything.” So he goes, “Alright. Go down on 55th and 7th next week. And this is the time. Be there.” And so the guys goes down and the director goes “Oh, thank you so much for doing this.” So he goes “Here’s your line. When the cannon goes off ‘Hark! I hear a cannon.’” So, he goes “Okay. We’re gonna rehearse it. ‘Hark! I hear a cannon’” “Great come back. Friday night first show.” The guy comes out. The show’s going. The guy goes “Oh shit! What the fuck was that?!?”

Background Information: Glen Steele is my step dad. Glen was an actor for many years.

Context of the Performance: The story was performed in Glen’s house.

My Thoughts on the Piece: I loved this story. It was so funny. I think it’s so cool that every profession has its own folklore and jokes and stories.

Main Story: Another Scottish story. It’s about the island of Eigg. Many Scottish clans existed and a clan lived on Eigg. Another clan which I think were the MacDonalds came looking for them to attack them and kill them. But the entire population of the island of Eigg hid in a very well-disguised cave. The entire population. Hundreds. And even though for days the MacDonalds who arrived by boat. Some were fearsome. Searched the entire island they could not find the clan that had hidden. Don’t remember the name of the clan that had hidden on Eigg. They gave up the MacDonalds. They decided there’s no one here. Couldn’t find the cave entrance which was very disguised. And decided to leave. Within the cave, they had no idea what was going on outside the cave. One person decides to walk outside and see if the enemy has left. Upon realizing the ships were still in the harbor, just as the MacDonalds were leaving for good one MacDonald clan warrior thought he’d have one final check and saw the footprints because it had snowed the night before and followed the footprints to the entrance of the cave and they killed them not by fighting a war but by leaving them barricaded in their hidden cave and lighting a huge fire at the entrance which suffocated the entire population of Eigg and the folklore is that had they just stayed in another few hours and not had one guy get impatient and go out to look it would never have happened.

Background Information: Mark Burnett is my dad. His family is originally from Scotland and he served in the military.

Context of the Performance: The story was performed on the balcony of our house.

My Thoughts on the Piece: This is such a great story. It’s so fascinating that they could have had such a perfect hiding place but then a few chance mistakes get the entire clan killed. One guy gets impatient. It happens to snow. And one MacDonald stays behind to check and finds the footprints. One of the things I find fascinating is that besides being a great story this is a great example of how life lessons are transmitted. It’s a very practical story too about the value of patience.

Main Story: Another story. It’s not British. It’s a story about the end of the Second World War. It’s about the NAZIs. At the end of the Second World War, the German SS who did not fight on the mainland or were not involved in the Holocaust or concentration camps, in fact, had only fought against the partisans in Yugoslavia. But there were still SS units. The war was lost. They refused to surrender to the Russians knowing that the Russians would be certain death because of what had happened in Stalingrad. And so the German SS would not surrender and fought their way back to Germany only to discover that upon putting your weapons down to the Russians you would be killed for sure. The same reason they didn’t surrender to the Russians in the first place. That was not an option. The Germans…sorry…the Americans and the British were very similar. To surrender to them as an SS even if you were not involved in concentration camps you would be tried for war crimes. There was no way out of this. That was an uncomfortable proposition. The only other controlling power were the French and to surrender to the French there was at least a chance that the French would make deals. That many SS who surrendered to the French following the end of the Second World War were given a deal to go serve five years in the French Foreign Legion and these were the troops who were sent to Indochina which as we know were the Vietnamese and turned the war in favor of the French…completely freaked out the Vietnamese and the war was being won by the German battalions of the Foreign Legion who were really the SS in different uniforms but they were so brutal that the political tide turned and France withdrew these troops from Indochina and quickly lost the war.

Background Information: Mark Burnett is my dad. His family is originally from Scotland and he served in the military.

Context of the Performance: The story was performed on the balcony of our house.

My Thoughts on the Piece: I thought this was a fascinating story. I’ve always been interested in Operation Paperclip, the program where the Allies got NAZI scientists to come and work for them. This story reminded me of that. It’s fascinating how you think that World War II ends in 1945 but then these NAZIs are actually slipped back into society in other roles and have major roles.