Book adaptation condemns destruction caused by discovery of North American continent
After the simple pouring of a glass of water, Victor Holtcamp — an assistant professor in the Theatre and Dance Department— launched into a monologue indicting the American people as a whole on charges of reckless abandonment, rape, murder and theft. The play ran on Friday and Saturday at USC's Lab Theatre.
The play began with Christopher Columbus, played by Holtcamp — sitting behind a covered desk, reading from one sheet of paper and explaining how the conquistadors pillaged villages, ransacked the lands and destroyed more than 1,000 cultures all in the quest for material wealth.
"The only wealth [the Conquistadors] could imagine is what they took," Holtcamp said, pointing an accusing finger at the audience.
As he made his way around the stage with the lights changing color and refocusing, the monologue wove its way into the present. Holtcamp made it perfectly clear that the reckless disregard for the Earth shown by the Conquistadors was not an isolated incident, but, in fact, set a precedent for an entire nation of people.
Holtcamp had been playing with the idea of doing the adaptation for a few years before he was actually able to put it on. It was only after he applied for and won the Department of Theatre and Dance's Creative Achievement Grant last semester that he had the opportunity and the excuse to put on the production.
The piece held special meaning for Holtcamp, as his early life experiences were similar to Lopez's, even though they were children of different generations.
"When he talks about his home state, his was Oregon and mine is Washington," Holtcamp said.
He said life in the two places was similar, with the men he'd spoken of — men who depended on the non-sustainable acts of pillaging our Earth in attempts to become wealthy — present in both.
"I'm interested in the material covered," Holtcamp said. "I feel really connected to the topic and his views."
Holtcamp said that besides updating a few of the contemporary references and taking out one section that was a bit more personal, the adaptation was about 90 percent Lopez's original work.
Like Lopez, Holtcamp sought to charge citizens to respect the Earth and its inhabitants, to save plants, animals and even bits of culture before they become a "tattered and diluted remnant sequestered on a reservation."