Restaging a life-changing experience
By MICHAEL SMITH 7/19/2004
Katrina Lofgren is afraid. She feels vulnerable exposing her thoughts to strangers. "What are people going to think?" she thinks to herself.If these don't sound like ideal conditions for a one-woman show, well, don't worry about the one woman. She's been scared before, and she's been overcoming fears ever since.
It was a few years ago in Kansas City when the improv comedy troupe that Lofgren performed with conducted its after-show deconstruction at a local tavern. That night's show hadn't gone well, and things were about to get worse.
A masked bandit entered the bar. Some patrons intervened. A female customer was shot and killed. And Lofgren came to realize the delicate fragility of life, and what a precious gift it is.
Crouched behind her barstool, "I asked God to take me, because I didn't want to live. I would rather die than watch one of my friends die," Lofgren said, her voice cracking. "It taught me what kind of person I really am. I doubted my sincerity for a long time. I thought I wasn't that good of a person."
Witnessing a person die was shattering for Lofgren. But the grief allowed her to feel something new again. In essence, one woman's death changed another woman's life.
As she will tell audiences beginning Thursday at Nightingale Theater in her one-woman theater piece "Occupancy 70" -- the words on a sign in that bar -- she found her happiness by figuring out what made her unhappy.
"I wasn't living life to its full potential, and I was wishing that I could be doing something different," said Lofgren, 26, a former University of Tulsa theater student. "So I worked on myself, and I looked within, and I saw the things that were creating my unhappiness. I took steps to take them out and see what they were and push them aside. It was like a spiritual awakening."
The 45-minute show will take audiences on a journey of self-discovery that includes a recounting of the fateful night of the shooting. It's an emotional experience for Lofgren every time she tells the tale.
"I do this because I walk through this life and I look at the faces around me, and I see people completely unaware of what it is to truly be alive," she said. "I hear people complain about the things in their lives, and it's just wah-wah-wah. They haven't seen how it can be gone in an instant; they haven't been shaken to their core.
"When I did the show before (in 2002, also at the Nightingale), I had people tell me later, 'Hey, I loved your show, it was really a gift. It really opened up my eyes.' It makes people open up to other ideas and know that it really is a blessing what we have in our lives."
Performances of "Occupancy 70" are set for 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 8 p.m. July 29-31 at Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St. Tickets are $8 and may be reserved by calling 583-8487 [As of February 2007, 633-8666] or purchased at the door.