Plays inspired by lives in two very different working worlds

Mike Daisey tells stories. Boy does he ever tell stories. His life is an anthology of stories. Sit down with him over a vanilla grande latte. Ask a few questions. And before 90 minutes are up, you've heard about Fort Kent, Maine, 30 years ago; Las Vegas (where he was struck by lightning) seven years ago; Edinburgh, Scotland, just last summer; and many, many times and places in between.

THEATER PREVIEWS

21 DOG YEARS @ AMAZON.COM

PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER: Mike Daisey

WHERE: Intiman Playhouse, Seattle Center

WHEN: Previews start tonight, opens Wednesday, runs through Nov. 22

TICKETS: $27-$42, $10 25 and under, $25 day of performance 15 minutes before curtain, discounts for students and groups; 206-269-1900 or www.intiman.org

FROM WHARF RATS TO LORDS OF THE DOCKS ... THE LIFE & TIMES OF HARRY BRIDGES

PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER: Ian Ruskin

WHERE: ACT Theatre, 700 Union St.

WHEN: Tonight at 7

TICKETS: $25; 206-292-7676 or acttheatre.org

"But the terms 'storyteller' or 'storytelling' are so dorky," Daisey says. "How about 'alternative stand-up?' I've been doing what is called alternative stand-up in a few clubs. It's storytelling. But it sounds hipper."

Or call it theater. Or one-man show. Daisey is best known for "21 Dog Years @ Amazon.com," a show that started in Seattle's Speakeasy Backroom nearly three years ago and has played a bunch of places since then, including New York, Pittsburgh, San Jose and Edinburgh. And now it's back in Seattle and is in preview performances at the Intiman Playhouse, where it officially opens Wednesday night.

Daisey worked at Amazon for two years starting in August 1998. He rose from customer service to business development. He experienced the highs and the lows of the dot-com boom/bust. "21 Dog Years" reveals the dark side and the funny side of both corporate culture and Daisey. In book form, "Dog Years" is, of course, available from Amazon.com ($16.10 new, $2.46 used, and "eligible for FREE Super Saver shipping").

But how did Daisey, a poet, an actor, an inspired artist, end up working 12-hour days at one of those doors-on-sawhorses desks at Amazon?

"I had a toothache," he says. "Well really, I had lots of cavities. There was no fluoride in the water in Fort Kent. I needed benefits. Specifically, I needed dental benefits.

"It had gotten so bad that I pulled out one of my own molars. I'm not kidding. Enough pain and you get desperate. I used needle-nose pliers, lots of hydrogen peroxide and lots of cotton. It bled a lot. It was abscessed. You wouldn't believe."

That dental experience helped contribute to the Daisey plan for the cultural enrichment of the United States. "Get rid of all the subsidies for the arts," he says. "Just institute universal health and dental care. It would be a great boon to the arts and artists. When you're young -- sure, I can sleep on the floor, I can write or rehearse at night and temp during the day, I don't need benefits, I'm healthy. But that doesn't last. People want to get married. They want to have kids."

Daisey has an 8-year-old daughter, Olivia, living in Maine.

Now he is married to the director of his show, Jean-Michele Daisey. "We don't have children," he says, "yet."

Being Harry Bridges

"I did my show in Hawaii," says actor/writer Ian Ruskin, "And afterward an old Filipino guy, a former plantation worker, stood up and said, 'You look like Harry. You walk like Harry. You talk like Harry. You are Harry.' "

Harry is the late Harry Bridges, 1901-90, beloved and revered or hated and reviled (depending on whom you talk to) West Coast labor leader. For 40 years, Bridges was president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Eight years ago, Ruskin happened to be one of a dozen cast members in a play dramatizing Bridges' life. "With a cast that size, it was very expensive to produce," Ruskin says.

He realized, however, that a one-man show about Bridges would be portable and inexpensive. He went up and down the West Coast interviewing people. The result was "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks ... The Life & Times of Harry Bridges," which Ruskin performs at ACT Theatre tonight.

"I've worked in union halls, high schools, churches, colleges, community centers -- I've even worked at Leisure World," Ruskin says. Leisure World is a retirement community south of Los Angeles. It has a population of 20,000. "It's not cheap to live there," Ruskin says. "I thought the people would be solidly Republican -- I mean Orange County! But they have their contingent of old-time radicals, and they were very appreciative of my show."

Ruskin is a naturalized American. So was Bridges. He was born in Australia. Ruskin, 53, got his training and early professional experience in England.

Bridges, a Marxist, was under constant surveillance by the FBI. "They kept trying to deport him," Ruskin says. "The battle went on for 21 years. But they could never prove that he was a communist, and he always denied being a member of the party."

Ruskin sees some then-and-now relevance to the Bridges saga. "In his day it was communism," Ruskin says. "American's constitutional freedoms were curtailed as part of the Cold War. Now it's terrorism. Harry opposed every war in his lifetime except World War II. He said that it's the workers who go off and get killed while the bosses stay home and make money."

P-I theater critic Joe Adcock can be reached at 206-448-8369 or joeadcock@seattlepi.com.

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