The Force is strong with this one man show

Charles Ross has been performing his one-man Star Wars show for over 17 years and in 47 different states, but this is the first time he’s been to Alaska.

“Alaska is already so unique and I know you know this,” he said, “but the chance to go to all these different spots. It's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Ross brings the show, a tightly condensed, 90-minute performance of the highlights of the entire original Star Wars trilogy, to Petersburg, Kodiak, Anchorage, and then Talkeetna this coming week. He’ll be at the Discovery Theater in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, December 1st at 7:30 pm and again on Saturday, December 2nd for two shows at 2 pm and 7:30 pm. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll want to see how this lone actor plays all the Star Wars characters without any props, costumes, or multi-media support. “Three films, one hour, no costume, no set, no props, just me,” he said.

Ross grew up in northern Canada, which has a similar climate to Alaska. The long, cold winters kept him indoors at the remote farm his family lived in. “We didn't have any TV reception, no satellite; even the radio was pretty bad,” he said. “We had a couple movies. Star Wars was the one I liked to watch the most.”

Ross’ family eventually moved south to Nelson, BC, a small, artsy town about half an hour from the US border. “I always liked kind of getting in front of people and just being a jackass,” he said. “I always wanted to take that energy and make into something a bit more productive.”

He went to University and studied theater, then was faced with the reality of getting a job in the business. “And you know there's only so many jobs to go around so I think necessity breeds innovation,” Ross said. “I tried writing a whole bunch of different things, for myself, for other people. And this was one of those things that I tried that was a bit of lark. What I had originally envisioned was doing the entire history of film as a solo show like in one hour.”

The film he knew best was, of course, Star Wars, so that’s where he started. “When I sat down at my computer to try and condense it,” he said, “it just kept going and going and going. One of my best friends — who actually ended up being the director of the show — was like, "Nah, man, you gotta do just Star Wars, just Star Wars.’ And I'm like, ‘Ehh okay.’ And he was totally right, which is great.”

Ross thinks the reason Star Wars translates well to his style of performance is that the movies are already a spectacle. “It's almost like an eight year old kid trying to re-enact (the movies) and I guess that's kind of the weird spirit of it,” he said. “We can kind of recognize that childhood exuberance that you might feel for, who knows what. It could be NASCAR, you and your friends could play NASCAR running around in circles. And there's a certain element of that to it. That, combined with the fact that I have training as an actor, so there's something that's a little bit more skillful I hope than just being the hero.”

Which of the original trilogy of films is his favorite? “If I had to watch it again I'd probably die, but I'm just joking,” he said. “Don't die. Ahh damn. I really want to be Switzerland about the whole thing. When I watch it, I tend to watch it all at one go. You don't find your favorite chapter or your favorite sentence out of a paragraph. You can find it, but it's only when it's combined with the rest of the story.”

Originally, Ross says, he identified with Luke Skywalker. “It has that greater resonance. When I was a kid the first film had a great deal of meaning to me because I identified with Luke,” he said. “I lived on a farm. He lived in a desert; I lived in the freaking snow. To be whisked away into space, it would have been totally awesome. That never did happen, but as I've gotten older I find myself going all over the bloody place still loving Star Wars.”

Now, Ross sees the resonance as more about the easy moral perspectives represented by the films. “It’s that kind of almost childlike view of world battles or just strife throughout the universe,” he said. “That you can have guys who actually win. Maybe oneor two of them suffer a few defeats or things are kind of sucky for a bit, but in the end you can defeat it. I think also just the idea that you can have no skills. You can be the least effective person in society, like Luke. You've got skills and you're a good pilot but you're not a Jedi yet, but somehow you have this magical power inside of you. And adventure comes to your front door when you least expect it, whisks you away and you learn in an afternoon or so how to be a freaking super hero. You strike a blow against the oppressive powers that be. You're the most important person at the moment in the universe. I think any person who feels like they have an ineffectual life, that they're station in life is put them where they have no influence, would love to find out that they have some kind of lineage and power to strike a blow.”

Of course, that’s not how the world actually works, which is what makes Star Wars, and the enormous flood of video games, television shows and movies that were and are still influenced by the Star Wars story, such a powerful fantasy. “It's cruel in the way that it's like, ‘Nope, it's not simple at all,’” said Ross. “You can have a person that you do not like who you get to work with every single day. And watch them be showered with praise even though they're a bastard. They keep getting promotions, you stay where you are. They throw you a bone every once in a while but that can be reality. So I think Star Wars is a bit of a release, saying, ‘Yeah I'm going to immerse myself into the fantasy.’ And I wouldn't say it's religion but there's a certain kind of calming feeling about watching that kind of a story because it makes you kind of wish for bigger things. Maybe even feel better about yourself if in fact you are a good person but you're surrounded by not so great people.”

When writing his own solo take on the three films, Ross didn’t simply transcribe the movies as he watched them. “When I sat down to start condensing at the computer I didn't watch the films, I didn't have them going and then press stop and then write something down,” he said. “I just tried to recall what I could. I used to just say that ‘Whatever I could remember should in theory be what the average person can recall of the films.’”

Recapturing the films without props is another guiding, well, force. “Not even a light saber, nope,” he said. “Yeah ,I know it's shitty, but once you start then someone can go, ‘Well I'll just have a cape. Well I'll just have a mask. Well, etc.’ And then you've got Carrot Top doing Star Wars and I didn't want that. It's the story itself, I guess. And what came to do without all these props. It also makes a hell of a lot easier to just tour.”

While Ross’ show is tightly scripted, there’s still time for him to improvise a little. “It's loosey-goosey in some ways and in some ways totally rigid,” he admitted. That sounds ridiculous and contradictory but that’s how it is. But think about jazz. I wouldn't say this is as cool as jazz or anything but you have a really strong framework, in which you have played this song many times. If you're trying to emulate a recording that you already have then you're going to do that, but if people are into it yeah you can set your legs a bit, try a little bit more. And people dig it if they dig it, and if they don't they won't know any different in a sense because know what they're getting until they see what they're seeing.”

Ross does other one-man shows, of course. “I did one man Batman — The Dark Knight trilogy,” he said. “I do one man Stranger Things, which is Season One. It will be encompassing Season One and Season Two coming up here. I do a show called one manPride and Prejudice, which is based upon a mini-series that was probably more for a feminine audience. It was made in 1995 and I do that one hour.” Ross performs a one-man original play called Sev, a “weird fantasy show of a kid who works at 7-eleven,” and a duo Star Wars-type show with a friend of his. His most experimental piece is a one-man Blank Tape, where he performs as if he were an old VHS tape that had been recorded over and over with various weird things like TV news, music videos, and movies.

“It’s a real wacked-out show,” he said. “You'll have wrestling followed by Young and the Restless, you know. I had sisters so we continually recorded over each other's stuff. Nothing's there in its entirety, it's all just a big miss mash of crap.”

Still, Star Wars is what we’ll all be coming to see this weekend. “Basically, it's three classic films — eight hours of film condensed down to one hour, but I'm not using any costume, sets, or props,” Ross said in summation. “And I’ve been given the thumbs up: I'm licensed originally by George Lucas, now by Disney, and if you've never seen the original trilogy you can see it all in an hour. or so And if you've named your kid Luke, then this is right up your alley. Get your ass to Mars.”