Today we’d like to introduce you to Leon Martell.
Hi Leon, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As a child, I grew up on a small Vermont farm on the Massachusetts border. I always say I grew up in the 19th Century… had an “out house”, farmed with work horses… my dad had to work several jobs to make ends meet… But, I was sent to school in a college town across the border in Williamstown, and their education was imperative. We had EVERY opportunity and encouragement, 80% of the students participated in music and the other 20% were so busy doing visual art they didn’t have time for music…. and plays. Williamstown still has a world-class theatre festival so I was exposed to “respect for acting” at an early age. At the University of Vermont, the emphasis was on Shakespeare and if you had any theatrical idea, “If you want to do it… DO IT!” A UVM professor hooked me up with a TA-ship at the University of Iowa, which paid for my Grad school and there, with a bunch of other renegades, we formed “Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater”, a sketch comedy group that performed in nightclubs, colleges, theaters and on NPR and eventually on FOX Television. But while touring, I began to write my own, more serious material. I put up a couple of one man shows and got invited into Sam Shepard’s writing workshop and then the Padua Hill Playwrights group. I was both writing my own serious work, and also work for young audiences on Nickelodeon and later for the Hollywood Bowl, and always teaching. Trying to give back. I have had SO MUCH HELP along the way, and those that helped me didn’t have to say, “Now, it’s YOUR turn… pass it on.”
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
As an actor/director/writer… work is always “iffy”… projects appear and disappear. A favorite instance for me is, in ’92 I was acting for Maria Irene Fornes, representing the United States in a World Theatre Festival in Siena Italy… working with companies from all over the world, having lunch regularly with Wole Soyinka (who had just won the Nobel Prize for Literature) and his Nigerian company. Two weeks later, I was back in the United States and was lucky to be driving a trunk, crewing a trashy horror movie. (We couldn’t tell any of the rental houses the real name of the Company or they would seize the truck for past debts owed. They had to change the name of the company every movie.) I have always had to work multiple jobs, but I feel very lucky that I could FIND multiple jobs. When I was in college, summers, I worked in a tannery with my Grandfather. A documentary on The History Channel labeled tanning the most toxic, horrific job in history. The plant we worked in was so toxic it later became a Federal Superfund Clean Up site and has been completely scrapped from the earth. While we worked there, my Grandfather would say, “You like this? No.. then get your education and get out of here!” I’ve been doing that for the last 50 years…
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I really have a two pronged approach. The first, performative, and to use the old commercial phrase, “Just DO IT”. With friends, I created a sketch comedy group and made a living and performed all over the country for 15 years. From my early years, I tried to do everything involved in putting up a “show” and have at one point or another did almost every job there is. And, I teach. As I said before, I had a LOT of help and support, from my elders, from work on the farm to everything in the arts… and the unspoken promise was to pass it on. I have been teaching on and off for more than 50 years now… everything from all aspects of theater to martial arts… including Martial Arts for autistic children (They loved it) I worked for “Playwrights In The Schools” for nine years, getting high school kids all over L.A. to know they had voices that needed to be heard. I got to meet Los Angles! In Watts, Compton, Eagle Rock, Hollywood, Culver City… I got to meet THE PEOPLE. I worked for years with “The Disabled Writer’s Workshop” at the Mark Taper Forum, help differently-abled people to get their voices out into the world. They worked for many years, writing for the “Summer Sounds” world music program at the Hollywood Bowl, introducing children to the amazing variety of people and cultures here in L.A.! It was great for the children, but even more it was great for ME! I am so lucky to have met so many amazing artists from all over the world and to experience the wealth of humanity that is here in Los Angles.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Curiosity. I am interested in everything… and with that interest comes an inherent respect for whatever you are exploring. I am awed by the complexity and intricacies of life… nature, humanity. I have a degree in history as well as theatre because I can’t really tell the difference. They are both “telling stories”, except in “History”, someone says it’s “true”… but as Winston Churchill said, “History WILL be good to me… because I intend to WRITE IT.” So, look deeply… find out what is beneath the surface… have an open mind, as much as possible… Yes, Curiosity.
Contact Info:
- Email: belon@ucla.edu
