It’s all About the Individual:

In his Stage Production of The Big Knife, former Star Trek Actor Robert Beltran Challenges Audiences’ Awareness of Art and Culture

Between commitments and pre-premiere preparations, Robert Beltran gave up some of his limited time to talk about his most current project: The Big Knife, a play whose political message is as valid today as it was during its premiere in 1949.

In the quiet setting of his L.A. home, in the midst of elegant décor, Shakespeare volumes on the shelves and some classical music on the stereo, the leisurely dressed, friendly actor with the roguish smile his fans dream of seems to promise a friendly chat. But quickly Beltran turns into a man whose confidence is rooted in knowing that his success as well as personal achievements come from a series of conscious decisions. He has nothing to apologize for.

Beltran is generally less concerned with adhering to unspoken rules of publicity answers and more with representing the individual he is; a stance that often leads to criticism about his being outspoken about any subject from his time on Star Trek to the war in Iraq. Now Beltran directs that criticism against the current political situation in America and plans to make people think by means of The Big Knife, a Clifford Odets play Beltran produced and stars in at L.A.’s Lillian Theater.

The greatest name recognition for Beltran, of course, comes from Commander Chakotay, a role he enjoyed for the most part but is glad he no longer is involved with. He has no regrets about his seven years on Star Trek, but to feed his soul, it’s time to go back to the theater. “I love working on stage,” he says. “It’s the reason I’ve become an actor. My enthusiasm for acting seemed dampened after seven years on television but now I’m all the way back. ”

Having spent so much time working within the different dynamics of television acting, Beltran was weary about delving straight into a heavy classic like Othello. After looking at a number of other plays he decided on The Big Knife, although it still isn’t less challenging.

“There’s nothing easy about this play,” he says. “It has a lot to say about our society, which is very similar to the society Clifford Odets was talking about. It’s a play Americans especially should see, and one that should be done more often. As much as I love the play on artistic terms, on sociological terms I felt it’s my duty as an American to wake people up.”

What The Big Knife, written in 1948, alludes to is the McCarthyism of that era, and the play traversed more than 50 years into a time where the Red Scare has been replaced by a variety of other perceived threats - most of all that of the individual.

When the play originally opened on Broadway in ‘49, critics dismissed it as the complaints of a disillusioned artist. Odets, who started out a successful east coast theater playwright, had moved to Hollywood where he got plenty of work writing for the film industry but didn’t find himself fulfilled by the work he produced there. He eventually returned to writing for the stage. After having made good money in Hollywood, The Big Knife appeared to be an apology on Odets’ behalf for abandoning his artistic visions for the riches and superficial success of Tinseltown.

The Big Knife is about Charlie Castle, an actor who has abandoned his ideals and love for the arts when he signed up for lucrative but unimportant film roles with a Hollywood mogul. The renewal of his contract is coming up and he has to choose between following the pressure put upon him by the studio boss or saving his marriage and losing everything else. While at first glance the play may seem to be about the overbearing forces of an organization out to hold on to their top actor at all cost, it also is about Castle’s realization about how he got to this point in his life.

Considering Beltran’s open criticism of experiences with less-than-stellar writing or lack of character development on Star Trek: Voyager, it is no wonder that those who follow his every move already draw conclusions about his personal experiences being similar to those of Charlie Castle: “If that’s what they get, that’s what they get,” Beltran shrugs. “The play is not about Hollywood. It’s about America. It’s about a major force working against the individual.” He can grant some similarities, though: “Charlie Castle’s personal workings got him to the place he is and my personal workings got me to the place where I am.”

Like Castle, Beltran realized at some point in his life that to make a living as an actor he had to do film and television projects but that’s where any similarities end. Using the financial security awarded by a long-running television show, Beltran now uses his time and talent to promote the importance of art through workshops and theater productions like this one and has no regrets about any decisions that got him to this point.

It will certainly be an experience: once considered one of the best American playwrights, Odets has not been revived often and it remains to be seen what audiences will think. But Beltran doesn’t fret over critics or whether or not people will understand the deeper implications of the play exactly as intended by the playwright. He wants to inspire people to think, possibly even become more aware of the subtle but meaningful changes in government and society; to get people away from the short-term gratification of disposable entertainment and instead direct them toward inspiration and mind-expansion in the classical arts.

“I think our culture has become a pop culture and there’s nothing lasting about it. It’s not art. There’s very little in our culture that is not pop, that’s not momentary; nothing that will feed souls for the next 200 years like Beethoven did.”

Beltran feels this kind of diluting of art and culture has contributed largely to a general disintegration of peoples’ perception about the same: “We’re in a bad state,” he comments, “and television and movies have contributed to that.”

Beltran doesn’t dismiss film and television as a whole. That would be too simplistic a notion for a man who accepted the role of Chakotay because he felt there was a potential to develop an interesting character.

“It’s always the vehicle,” he explains. “If you do a slasher movie, then that’s your vehicle. That’s what you’re putting out there. You can choose another vehicle. You can make a movie about Cesar Chavez or Martin Luther King, something about our culture that is cautionary, and do it intelligently and in an entertaining way, so that the audience can understand it and walk away better human beings for having seen it. Nobody walks away from a rave or a hip-hop concert a better human being or having some perception opened in your mind. That’s why we’re in the position that we’re in. That’s why we’re not able to think. Our society has gradually grown dumber and dumber until we’re at the point now where we actually think that Arnold Schwarzenegger can save our state.”

It’s why The Big Knife appeals to him: “It’s about the way we perceive ourselves as human beings. Hollywood goes for the lowest common denominator: ‘What makes the most money?’ Improving or safeguarding the minds of human beings is not a priority. “

Beltran also welcomes the thought of classical theater put into film. But while he has yet to see the modernized film versions of Shakespeare, he cringes at the thought of updating classical theater to fit today’s audiences: “I have a problem with that cause if they say ‘we’re modernizing it’ or ‘we’re trying to get people to relate’, they’re not giving a great work of art any respect. They’re definitely not giving the audience any respect.” In essence: ‘Dumbing it down so a dumb audience will get it.’

Besides producing this play, Beltran holds drama workshops for a group of college-age students, teaching not just the process of classical theater but also its interpretation and how to apply the lessons learned to their own lives.

“Classical theater teaches the story of human nature,” he says. “It’s about the way we perceive ourselves as human beings. People learn to understand what it’s like to be a human being, what happens when we act like animals. That’s what a great classical dramatic piece offers people. Human beings are capable of so much, yet we hardly ever reach the potential we have.”

Beltran hopes to continue with theater projects; at the same time he doesn’t dismiss film or television: “I’m a professional actor. I want to continue in all media,” he says.

And somewhere on the backburner other projects simmer, waiting for the occasional attention as he can afford them, like an original play he’s been working on and some music compositions. The only problem for Beltran will be to find the time.

Beltran’s 23-year career goes from small parts in films like Nixon and Zoot Suit to leading roles in Night of the Comet, Eating Raoul or the 2001 release Luminarias, to name a few. His stage experience dates back to his college days when he started to get involved with theater. He also starred in Teatro Campesino productions of “Corridos” and “I Don’t Have To Show You No Stinking Badges.”

Entertaining another passion of his, he recorded a CD of Latino poetry after having been asked to read for the Museum of Latin American Art. Beltran hopes to be able to do another such reading next year and in the meantime, lovers of Pablo Neruda, Ramon Lopez Velarde or Judith Ortiz Coffer, among others, can get a copy of the CD at Beltran’s web site. (www.robertbeltran.com)

The Big Knife started November 8 and will run until December 14. Ticket price is $25. Performances are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m. in the Lillian Theatre, 1076 N. Lillian Way, Hollywood. For ticket reservations call Tickets LA at (323) 665-8587