He spends every day giving socks, listening to people. He gives water to homeless people in San Diego. I felt so grateful for that.Ī.W.: What sorts of stories did you hear?Į.J.S.: One of the most meaningful is the story of a guy who’s not actually homeless. People were giving me a great deal of understanding. I started studying dialect and ending up studying humanity and using music to not only fund my travels but as a means of re-gifting. I was very impacted by the stories that people had to tell. The sounds of their voices became the most authentic when they were speaking their truth. The questions that got the dialect to come out the most pronounced were, tell me something of emotional significance, what’s important to you, tell me something from your childhood. I learned that those sounds are intrinsically tied to what’s important to the person. There is the sound of the voice, which is what I was studying at the time – the literal sounds people make. When I traveled in other countries, I tended to stay with people.Ī.W.: What sort of music would you play on the streets?Į.J.S.: I called my album “Gypsy Grass.” I identify the melodies that come out of my violin as somewhat Middle Eastern sounding.Ī.W.: What did you learn from the recordings?Į.J.S.: You certainly cannot separate the sound of the voice from the voice of a person.Į.J.S.: There are a few definitions of voice. I lived in a succession of vehicles while I was on the road here. I lived in a bread truck that was a 1964 Metro International Bread Truck. Home wasn’t always the safest place for me. My parents adopted a war orphan who was literally psychotic. A sociopathic Vietnamese orphan was my adopted brother. I loved living on the road, I didn’t have the best situation growing up. Sometimes, I would go on the PA and sing opera. It has the sirens and lights, which were fun. It had IV hook ups, so I could hang my houseplants. I lived in an ambulance for a while, which was one of my favorite homes.Į.J.S.: It had AC outlets. During a lot of my trips around the states, I had a vehicle I stayed in. There were times when I was one of them – I would spend the night out there. I was very grateful for the conversations with all of them. People who appreciated the music the most and the people I enjoyed playing for the most were people who lived on the street.Ī.W.: You were in such close proximity to people experiencing homelessness.Į.J.S.: I was in their living room. So, it started as dialect studies that I funded and supported as a street musician and voice actor.
I wanted to study the dialects and accents of spoken English all over the world. I transferred to World Arts and Cultures. I didn’t know anything about any other cultures or anybody who wasn’t like me. You learn that to be an actress, you need to be somebody that you’re not. when you go through a certain level of trauma.”Īmanda Waldroupe: What made you want to travel around the world and interview people while you worked as a street musician?Įliza Jane Schneider: I went to UCLA to study theater. There’s a depth of human understanding that you acquire. Schneider, who moved to Portland last April, said that during her travels, she often relied upon people who were homeless for directions, advice on places to stay and on places to avoid. On stage, Schneider augments the interviews with her own performance, using voice, fiddle and guitar. “Displaced,” a collaboration between Schneider and CompassWorks theater, tells the stories of the homeless people she met during her travels using the interviews she conducted. She is now using those recordings as the backbone of a new, multi-media, one-woman show to premiere in Portland at the Jan.
“It makes me feel alive to listen to strangers,” Schneider said. She met numerous people living on the streets along the way and she recorded interviews with them. She speaks with passion and nuance about a topic that South Park’s characters would spurn – homelessness.įor 20 years, Schneider traveled the world, performing as a street musician and voice actor. Eliza Jane Schneider is best known for voicing nearly all of the female characters on Comedy Central’s “South Park.”
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