A dilettante is someone who learns a great deal about a subject, but never does anything with it. The friend who had dubbed me thusly was someone with whom I shared a number of creative passions.
We’d met in college and connected via a mutual love of movies and music. He was a few years older than me, and his tastes began to heavily influence mine. We shared similar aspirations of making movies. To have found someone who was like-minded in interests and pursuits was rare. To lose such a connection in a small, north central Idaho mill town made it all the more significant.
Another memory: I vividly recall flipping through the pages of the Lewiston Tribune’s old Arts and Entertainment section, long before Inland 360 took shape, as I did every week without fail (and still do). While I can’t locate the exact article that sticks in my memory (and maybe it doesn’t exist in the form I think it does), it detailed Clarkston native Bryan Fuller’s work as writer and producer on the TV show “Heroes,” which was in its broadcast run at ABC. This was the first I’d heard of anyone from the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley’s involvement in the entertainment industry, this field in which I so badly desired to work myself.
Those who’ve been (un)fortunate enough to hear me talk about Fuller’s work know I root for him with a passion usually reserved for college football teams in the South. There’s something affirming, life-giving in knowing someone from where I live has achieved something notable. It was like Fuller carried a torch out of town and planted it where I wanted to be.
Late in November of this year, I was invited to a press screening of “The Whale,” a film directed by Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky and written by Moscow native Samuel D. Hunter. This film (expected to open in area theaters in early January) was the first time I’d heard of Hunter, a Juilliard graduate with multiple award-winning plays to his name. He’s also a 2014 MacArthur Grant recipient and, in 2015, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Idaho. “The Whale” is set in Moscow, and many of his plays are set elsewhere in Idaho, including “A Bright New Boise,” “Pocatello” and “Lewiston/Clarkston.”
How on earth had I not heard of Hunter or his work? Granted, I’m not plugged into the dramatic theater scene, but how is it that such a person goes unnoticed to so many of us when we live in the area where he’s from?
It would be short-sighted of me to assume everyone would care as much as I do about successful writers. I get it. This is what I’m into. But I know I’m not alone. I know there are others like me who need to know that, even if they aren’t making a name for themselves, someone else like them is.
And in a place where it’s easy to feel like an outsider, connections with like-minded folks are crucial. Books, music, movies, plays — they don’t get made in a vacuum. Even if someone moves away to be closer to New York or L.A., home is a training ground. Unfortunately, it seems like many small-town creatives become successful despite their hometowns, not because of them. If we want our area to be a place of which those who leave to pursue their creative dreams can be proud, we need to be a place where they feel respected for who they are — whether or not they fit the mold. Everyone needs community, even and especially the weirdos.
I assume Hunter will get at least a nomination for best screenplay at this year’s Oscars. Fuller has multiple projects announced for the coming year, including a “Friday the 13th” prequel for Peacock and his first stint in the director’s chair. I’ll be rooting for both of them. I’ll be rooting for my fellow Quad Cities folks with creative aspirations, as well. Hunter and Fuller were once like us, here at home, far from where we think the action is. Remember, we’re dilettantes until we’re not.
Thompson enjoys putting somewhat carefully chosen words in relatively meaningful order. He lives in Lewiston and is on Instagram as @theswap_quadcities and can be reached via email at lcvrecordswap@gmail.com. He has been to college.
