In recent days, Culture Clash’s play "Water & Power" has received a great deal of attention – including in LA Observed. Yesterday, I tracked down Richard Montoya, W & P’s author and one of the principal players, for the following micro-interview. Montoya is a resident of Echo Park.

CHICKEN CORNER: Why did you choose the Paradise Motel, on Sunset Boulevard, as the setting for most of Water & Power?

RICHARD MONTOYA: I love that place, it creeps me out, and it is strangely lovely in the rain. All that purple.

CHICKEN CORNER: If you could redesign the county seal (on Water & Power vehicles, for example) what would it look like?

RICHARD MONTOYA: It would be the manhole cover in the show graphic.
More ominous and scary.

Chicken Corner: Do you miss Carmelos, the Cuban diner, on Sunset and Lemoyne?

Richard Montoya: I like Masa [the restaurant that replaced Carmelos]. Things are going to change and the Cuban places were not that friendly. Sorry, I like that there is still a tortilla factory and should that ever change to another American Apparel I would be pissed.

CHICKEN CORNER: Which do you prefer, the Downbeat Café or Chango?

RICHARD MONTOYA: The Downbeat is closer but I like the funkiness of Chango, I meet my actor buddy Roger Smith there, and it’s fun and beautiful to walk thru the Echo - we saw an entire
family packing their Aztec headdresses into a Hugo. That is magic realism.

CHICKEN CORNER: Did the Ramparts scandal inform your creation of Power’s character in any way?

RICHARD MONTOYA: Of course it did. I am haunted by the death of Biggie Smalls as I am Elliott Smith who lived and recorded in Echo.

CHICKEN CORNER: Did you ever spend time at the Short Stop, the former LAPD hangout, which was made notorious in the midst of the Ramparts scandal, before it changed hands? Have you
been there since it turned into a hipster bar?

RICHARD MONTOYA: I liked the cop bar more sometimes.
Hipsters can be annoying, but I like the mix of them and everybody else.

CHICKEN CORNER: “Chavez Ravine,” which also was performed at the Taper, was basically a comedy-cum-performance piece-cum-history lesson with a serious message. It made use of Culture Clash’s traditional versatility with ensemble members playing multiple characters. “Water & Power” is more of a traditional theater piece. Can you talk about why you chose the different approach for this piece?

RICHARD MONTOYA: I was tired of doing the same ol, and I could not write this with the group. Its personal, and I cannot ask for
permission if I feel I want to say something. As it was I had to fight and defend a lot of work in W/P, and it gets tiring.

CHICKEN CORNER: What do you think of Ry Cooder’s Chavez Ravine CD? Do you think he should have acknowledged Culture Clash’s “Chavez Ravine,” which preceded Cooder’s work?

RICHARD MONTOYA: He should have. We saw him at a Los Lobos event, and he was a bit defensive. It’s a good album. He saw our show more than once. He could have mentioned us. He's an old hipster, and I find that that is kind of a hipster mentality, me cool, me important, me wear ipod. Ambition is talked a lot about in W/P. I am sick of all types of ambition in rappers, hipsters and Hispanics…. Ry did not know who Frank Wilkinson was til that show.

CHICKEN CORNER: Are you familiar with Don Normark’s Chavez Ravine photos?

RICHARD MONTOYA: Great book, a real source for us.

CHICKEN CORNER: Would you agree that a strong sense of place is characteristic of your writing and performance style?

RICHARD MONTOYA: Abso-freaken-lootley.

CHICKEN CORNER: Whom would you consider the mayor of Echo Park?

RICHARD MONTOYA: The statue of the Lady of Angels at Echo Park Lake. She is lovely.

CHICKEN CORNER: Do you agree with the folks who say that Angeleno Heights is a separate neighborhood and shouldn’t be called Echo Park?

RICHARD MONTOYA: It should be called Echo Heights.

CHICKEN CORNER: If you could draw a map of Echo Park what would it look like? Any landmarks in particular?

RICHARD MONTOYA: I love the Echo on Wednesday nights. It's the last truly multi-culti night in the city. The entire LA area comes to dance peaceful regae, and it is lovely. For live music and quasi French tude I love Taix for nightly music and a real French waiter named Bernard who is a man's man and a ladies' man -- old school charm.