Rod Harrel
Encyclopedia
Rod Harrel is an actor/writer/director in theatre, video production
and film productions. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon
.
, the third son of Audress Harrel, a journeyman mechanic
who worked at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and Eileen Harrel. He moved to Vancouver, Washington
with his family in 1972 and graduated from Evergreen High School
in 1978. While there he studied drama
for three years under teacher Jon Kerr. In college he first studied under Dr. George L. Meshke and in 1981, he received his A.A. degree from Shoreline Community College
in Seattle, Washington
. While in Seattle he studied under Morry Hendrickson and Willy Clarke.
's macabre
comedy
, Arsenic and Old Lace
. In 1985, he started producing videos with his own Orthicon Ghost Productions. Harrel made his stage debut in Portland, Oregon
playing Carl Cooper in Douglas Gower's play Daddies
at the Blue Room for Portland Civic Theatre in December, 1985. "Harrel does a particulary good job of portraying a backwoods hippie-religious fanatic without making Carl seem ridiculous-indeed, he gives Carl surprising dimension." Rod also met two longtime collaborators
: director Douglas Mouw and Cathy J. Lewis.
In 1986, he co-founded, with Cathy J. Lewis, a participatory theatre
company called The Jupiter Players which toured around the Portland area until 1988 and for which he wrote four plays. One of these plays was an early version of Trial By Error, a courtroom comedy that crossed Perry Mason
with Citizen Kane
. It was performed in actual courtroom at the Clackamas County Courthouse in Oregon City
.
, it was a modest success. The play was produced as a movie which was scheduled to have its premiere as a cablecast on Multnomah County Public-access television
cable TV on May 26, 1989. The 70 minute video didn't even make it through one cablecast when the operators stopped the tape before the end because three viewers called to complain. The story featured male nudity
and one of the comments claimed that Multnomah Cable Access was showing pornography
and obscene language.
The legal department at M.C.A. felt that "Jack" probably violated Oregon's very liberal obscenity
laws. Harrel took his case to the press and in short order, Peter Farrell
, the Oregonian
's television critic penned a column. "Most of the nudity occurs in connection with discussion about sexual politics
and values, which would seem to protect it from even fairly narrow views on obscenity," he wrote. "'I think people were upset by the male nudity,' said Harrel. "'Frontal male nudity is not seen very often.'" "Jack" then was shown on M.C.A. and eventually on Portland Cable Access and was shown as a benefit for the newly formed Stark Raving Theatre
.
which opened in March 1989 at a basement space in the Bull Ring Restaurant in northwest Portland. All three co-founders were playwrights and from the beginning SRT was a haven for producing new works. Both Harrel, the artistic director, and Westlake, the managing director, had shows produced the first season.
As an actor, Harrel appeared in such plays as his own, Trial By Error, Cold Hands written by Paul Bernstein and Beidermann and the Firebugs. Harrel's favorite role during this time was as Bill Stultz in Westlake's play, A.E., about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, which won Westlake the Oregon Book Award
in 1992. As a playwright he has had produced such plays as Jack, Trial By Error, Now Let Me Say This About That (about the John F. Kennedy
autopsy
) and The Sky Cams.
From 1992 to 1994, Harrel produced and directed a 12-part series on Portland Cable Access that was created and written by E. Lauryl Nagode called The Gingerbread Man
and starred Douglas Mouw. The controversial series about a serial killer
caused concern among Public-access television
cable TV administrators in the greater Portland area. A memo about censoring
public access
programs that was distributed to cable operators mentioned The Gingerbread Man as a production depicting, "the life of a serial killer in his rape, mutilation and murder of victims. The show is acted out by members of a Portland-area theatre company."
Harrel also produced an anthology
series from 1994 to 1996 and this was profiled in the short-lived arts newspaper Tonic in the summer of 1995. "The series draws on members of the local theatre community and the results are surprisingly decent. The individual performances may be the most assured on Public-access television, and many of the episodes do manage to invoke a ."
After founding a Grand Guignol
-style theatre in 1997, Harrel took a break to concentrate on songwriting and returned to theatre and video
productions in 2005. The Willamette Week noted his recent work as King Berenger I in Eugene Ionesco
's Exit the King that was produced by Arts Equity Theatre in 2008 and directed by Llewellyn J. Rhoe. "King Berenger (Rod Harrel) and his court speak with thick Texas accents and Berenger himself makes apelike facial expressions and frequently lets fly a sinister airy cackle-heh heh heh-that will be instantly familiar to anyone with a TV." Since 2008 he has also worked behind-the-scenes for the Wanderlust Circus
and The Circus Project and continues to produce videos on the You Tube channel Orthicon Ghost.
Video production
Video production is videography, the process of capturing moving images on electronic media even streaming media. The term includes methods of production and post-production...
and film productions. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
.
Early life
Rod Harrel was born in Yakima, WashingtonYakima, Washington
Yakima is an American city southeast of Mount Rainier National Park and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the eighth largest city by population in the state itself. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 91,196 and a metropolitan population of...
, the third son of Audress Harrel, a journeyman mechanic
Mechanic
A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...
who worked at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and Eileen Harrel. He moved to Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
with his family in 1972 and graduated from Evergreen High School
Evergreen High School (Vancouver, Washington)
Evergreen High School is a public high school located in Vancouver, Washington. It was founded shortly after the district was formed in 1945. Evergreen was the first high school in the Evergreen Public Schools.-Facilities:...
in 1978. While there he studied drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
for three years under teacher Jon Kerr. In college he first studied under Dr. George L. Meshke and in 1981, he received his A.A. degree from Shoreline Community College
Shoreline Community College
Shoreline Community College is a community college in Shoreline, north of Seattle, Washington. It is located in a residential area east of Shoreview Park. The college contains 83 acres and continuously serves 12,000 full and part-time students....
in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. While in Seattle he studied under Morry Hendrickson and Willy Clarke.
Early career
Rod made his professional stage debut on his 21st birthday in 1981 at Seattle's Brass Ring Theatre as Officer O'Hara in Joseph KesselringJoseph Kesselring
Joseph Otto Kesselring was an American writer and playwright known best for his play Arsenic and Old Lace, written in 1939 and originally entitled "Bodies in Our Cellar." He was born in New York City to Henry and Frances Kesselring. His father's parents were immigrants from Germany. His mother was...
's macabre
Macabre
In works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace (play)
Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play was directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on January 10, 1941. On September 25, 1943, the...
. In 1985, he started producing videos with his own Orthicon Ghost Productions. Harrel made his stage debut in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
playing Carl Cooper in Douglas Gower's play Daddies
Daddies
Daddies is a brand of ketchup and brown sauce in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The brown sauce is similar to HP Sauce, but without tamarind, without tomatoes and with less malt vinegar but more spirit vinegar.-History:...
at the Blue Room for Portland Civic Theatre in December, 1985. "Harrel does a particulary good job of portraying a backwoods hippie-religious fanatic without making Carl seem ridiculous-indeed, he gives Carl surprising dimension." Rod also met two longtime collaborators
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
: director Douglas Mouw and Cathy J. Lewis.
In 1986, he co-founded, with Cathy J. Lewis, a participatory theatre
Participatory theatre
Participatory theatre is a form of theatre in which the audience interacts with the performers or the presenters. Classroom exercises often include elements of participatory theatre....
company called The Jupiter Players which toured around the Portland area until 1988 and for which he wrote four plays. One of these plays was an early version of Trial By Error, a courtroom comedy that crossed Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
with Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
. It was performed in actual courtroom at the Clackamas County Courthouse in Oregon City
Oregon City, Oregon
Oregon City was the first city in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains to be incorporated. It is the county seat of Clackamas County, Oregon...
.
Jack controversy
During the fall and winter of 1988, Harrel's new play, Jack-a trauma from hell in seven scenes, was produced by Playback Theatre with him directing. An updated tale based on Jack The RipperJack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
, it was a modest success. The play was produced as a movie which was scheduled to have its premiere as a cablecast on Multnomah County Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV on May 26, 1989. The 70 minute video didn't even make it through one cablecast when the operators stopped the tape before the end because three viewers called to complain. The story featured male nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
and one of the comments claimed that Multnomah Cable Access was showing pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
and obscene language.
The legal department at M.C.A. felt that "Jack" probably violated Oregon's very liberal obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
laws. Harrel took his case to the press and in short order, Peter Farrell
Peter Farrell
Peter Desmond Farrell was an Irish footballer who played as an a right-half for, among others, Shamrock Rovers, Everton and Tranmere Rovers. As an international, Farrell also played for both Ireland teams - the FAI XI and the IFA XI...
, the Oregonian
Oregonian
Oregonian may refer to:*Oregonian, a resident or native of the U.S. state of Oregon*the Oregonian , a train operated by the Oregon and California Railroad*The Oregonian, the daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, United States...
's television critic penned a column. "Most of the nudity occurs in connection with discussion about sexual politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and values, which would seem to protect it from even fairly narrow views on obscenity," he wrote. "'I think people were upset by the male nudity,' said Harrel. "'Frontal male nudity is not seen very often.'" "Jack" then was shown on M.C.A. and eventually on Portland Cable Access and was shown as a benefit for the newly formed Stark Raving Theatre
Stark Raving Theatre
Stark Raving Theatre was a theatre company in Portland, Oregon that operated from 1988 to 2006. Unlike most other theatres in the country, it was dedicated to premiering new works.-Starting up:...
.
Later career
In 1988, while working in the box office for New Rose Theatre, Harrel met E. J. Westlake. Along with Robin Suttles, they co-founded Stark Raving TheatreStark Raving Theatre
Stark Raving Theatre was a theatre company in Portland, Oregon that operated from 1988 to 2006. Unlike most other theatres in the country, it was dedicated to premiering new works.-Starting up:...
which opened in March 1989 at a basement space in the Bull Ring Restaurant in northwest Portland. All three co-founders were playwrights and from the beginning SRT was a haven for producing new works. Both Harrel, the artistic director, and Westlake, the managing director, had shows produced the first season.
As an actor, Harrel appeared in such plays as his own, Trial By Error, Cold Hands written by Paul Bernstein and Beidermann and the Firebugs. Harrel's favorite role during this time was as Bill Stultz in Westlake's play, A.E., about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, which won Westlake the Oregon Book Award
Oregon Book Award
The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts, Inc. for "the finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers literature." -History:...
in 1992. As a playwright he has had produced such plays as Jack, Trial By Error, Now Let Me Say This About That (about the John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
) and The Sky Cams.
From 1992 to 1994, Harrel produced and directed a 12-part series on Portland Cable Access that was created and written by E. Lauryl Nagode called The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Man Thegingerbread Runner is the anthropomorphic protagonist in a fairy tale about a cookie's escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. The Gingerbread Boy makes his first print appearance in the May 1875 issue of St...
and starred Douglas Mouw. The controversial series about a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
caused concern among Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV administrators in the greater Portland area. A memo about censoring
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
public access
Public Access
Public Access is a 1993 American drama film directed by Bryan Singer in his feature film debut. Singer also wrote the screenplay with Christopher McQuarrie and Michael Feit Dougan. The film was shot in 18 days for US$250,000. It was screened at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, where it was...
programs that was distributed to cable operators mentioned The Gingerbread Man as a production depicting, "the life of a serial killer in his rape, mutilation and murder of victims. The show is acted out by members of a Portland-area theatre company."
Harrel also produced an anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
series from 1994 to 1996 and this was profiled in the short-lived arts newspaper Tonic in the summer of 1995. "The series draws on members of the local theatre community and the results are surprisingly decent. The individual performances may be the most assured on Public-access television, and many of the episodes do manage to invoke a ."
After founding a Grand Guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
-style theatre in 1997, Harrel took a break to concentrate on songwriting and returned to theatre and video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
productions in 2005. The Willamette Week noted his recent work as King Berenger I in Eugene Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...
's Exit the King that was produced by Arts Equity Theatre in 2008 and directed by Llewellyn J. Rhoe. "King Berenger (Rod Harrel) and his court speak with thick Texas accents and Berenger himself makes apelike facial expressions and frequently lets fly a sinister airy cackle-heh heh heh-that will be instantly familiar to anyone with a TV." Since 2008 he has also worked behind-the-scenes for the Wanderlust Circus
Wanderlust Circus
Wanderlust Circus is a theatrical circus troupe based in Portland, Oregon, which began in 2006 and since 2009 has had a branch in San Diego, California. The two organizations collaborate to produce shows up and down the U.S. west coast.- History :...
and The Circus Project and continues to produce videos on the You Tube channel Orthicon Ghost.