Mark Kater was always determined to follow an unconventional path. As a teenager in Naperville he decided against college, which carried serious repercussions in the late 60s. “I was prime meat on the hook for the draft board,” he says. After receiving his draft notice in 1969, he enlisted in the air force and became a radio and television production specialist. After a year in Texas making training films, Kater was sent to the other side of the world: Tainan, Taiwan.
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In 1972 Kater was reassigned to Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. He got a civilian job at a local radio station and worked as a cartoonist, photographer, and writer for the base newspaper. Military regimentation had made him long for open spaces, and after his discharge in 1973 he moved to Colorado, then to Champaign to study dance at the University of Illinois. There he met Liz Malecki, and the two married and formed a small company that performed religiously influenced work.
and then sit in front of everybody and tell it. That was very frightening, but also very free.”
Kater, who says he never tells a story the same way twice, combines the rhythm and inflection of his voice with an animated, physically expressive style. “There’s another tradition in storytelling where the storyteller sits in the chair and just tells the story. There’s no characterization or stylization.
and channel them.”
