<<{{ PRESS }}>>

HOME - PRESS - PHOTOS - VIDEO - EVENTS - LISTEN - EMAIL

A 1965 Trailer Goes on the Road, and Catskill Residents Go on the Air
By MICHELLE YORK
NEW YORK TIMES
April 9, 2006

ROSCOE, N.Y. - Just after dawn on a recent misty morning, dozens of fishermen were pulling on their waders and gathering their poles along the banks of the Beaverkill River to prepare for the opening of trout season. In a parking lot across the road, a conversation was emanating from speakers hung outside a little vintage trailer.

A woman walked by, and a voice from the speaker beckoned: "Lisa Lyons, come on in here." Ms. Lyons obeyed. She strode past red-and-white lawn chairs arranged in front of the red-and-white trailer and went up to the plastic welcome mat outside its door, remarking, "Have you ever walked down the street and heard your name called over a loudspeaker?"

Increasingly, the people of the Catskills have. One of its residents, Sabrina Artel of Liberty, is the voice from the speaker. She travels about with her 1965 Bee Line trailer to create her independent, on-location radio program, "Trailer Talk" - an unusual blend of theater, activism and broadcast journalism that, has drawn in celebrities and townspeople alike.

Ms. Artel schedules many of her guests in advance. Some, like Ms. Lyons, an acquaintance, she spots through the windows. Often, curious passers-by linger outside until she invites them in, and they become part of the show.

Once inside, she has the guest sit across from her at the small kitchen booth. Studio microphones and homemade brownies sit on the table between them. Then she interviews them, recording the conversations so they can be broadcast later on the community radio station called Radio Catskill, WJFF-FM (90.5).

Her live audiences, gathered outside where speakers broadcast the dialogue, range from a handful of people to hundreds, depending on the weather and location. Richard A. Bradley, a master fishing reel-maker and Trailer Talk guest, said he had seen the trailer around and wondered, "Who is she talking to?"

Ms. Artel calls Trailer Talk a "performative interview." Much of her work is done in the Catskills, where she focuses on events that highlight small-town struggles. But Ms. Artel has taken her trailer around the country and to Washington, D.C., for demonstrations including an antiwar protest last fall, when she used her forceful personality to persuade the police to let her little trailer stay among the network satellite trucks on Constitution Avenue.

It is easier for her to travel to New York City. She has parked her trailer outside theaters, once luring an interview from Rosie O'Donnell, who had peeked in the window, and at protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Ms. Lyons assessed Ms. Artel's role. "At first you see her as a journalist," she said, "but as you become more aware of the events she chooses, you understand her as an activist."

Ms. Artel, who declined to give her age, is an actress by training. After growing up in the San Fernando Valley of California, she moved to the East Coast to study and begin her career. "Sabrina has a gift for making people feel comfortable," said her sister, Renee Petropoulos, an artist in Los Angeles. "Whenever she was traveling and would get on a bus, she would get to know all of the stories of the people around her." But it was the experience of working with a theater artist, Reza Abdoh, from 1990 until his death of AIDS in 1995, and putting on performances in unusual spaces, including storefronts, warehouses and side streets, that greatly influenced her.

Ms. Artel bought a weekend home in Liberty, in the Catskills about 85 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan, nearly 13 years ago and gradually became more involved in the community, eventually deciding to live there full time.

She began her relationship with WJFF by working on two talk shows. About four years ago, she spotted the little trailer, which is charming in a Herbie-the-Love-Bug sort of way. "I just knew I needed it," she said. Ms. Artel added studio-recording equipment and took "Trailer Talk" on the road in 2003. As an independent producer, she pays for production through her own funds and private sponsors. Earlier this year, she received a $10,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. "Trailer Talk" is included on "Making Waves," one of her weekly radio programs, which is broadcast on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. Though Ms. Artel's ability to talk is the stuff of family legend, she was able to do more listening on her program in Roscoe on a recent Saturday. The conversations were as varied as the flies used by the fishermen downstream, touching on environment policy, the Catskill economy, race relations, the secrets of staying upbeat in later life, and "the crazy Allie" - the name Allie Phelan, at 7 the youngest fisherman in sight, gave to her homemade trout-fishing flies.

Allie did not appear daunted by the radio interview. "It was good," she said afterward, adding, "But I've been in newspapers since I was five." Later, the actor Rip Torn, who was fishing nearby, dropped by to talk about his love of fishing and how he writes a clause into movie contracts allowing him to fish when he is not needed on the set. "It's miserable be on the Snake River in Yellowstone" and not fish, he said, adding that assistants have fretted that he will fall in the water. "No, I won't fall in the water," he said he tells them. "It's in my contract."

After nearly three hours of nonstop interviews, Ms. Artel packed up and headed to nearby Liberty for her next event.

<< BACK to Press

HOME - PRESS - PHOTOS - VIDEO - EVENTS - LISTEN - EMAIL