You Should Go: NYC’s LezCab is Relevant to Your Rodgers and Hammerstein Interests
When Rachel Kunstadt and Teresa Lotz started Lezcab almost a year ago, they wanted to “produce and host musical theatre events by and about queer womyn in order to foster and support a forum for queer womyn in the musical theatre community.” Last month, as all the actors sat backstage animatedly discussing Orange is the New Black, I realized that they’ve achieved exactly what they set out to. Each of us had learned a piece of music that was gifted to us by talented new composers. Many of the composers are queer women, and those that are not had written beautiful songs sung by queer characters. Lezcab has become a place where queer performers, composers, musical theatre nerds, and people who love fun come together and create something awesome.
This song was written by Lezcab producer Teresa Lotz and sung by Erin Maya:
After the show was over, we all retired to the upstairs bar area of Duplex, which now hosts a ladies night for Lezcab (with drink specials!!!). Here we furthered our bonding as a community through alcoholic lubrication. We chatted with our friends who came to see the show, we networked with the writers, and connected even more with our fellow performers. The night was filled with discussions of future Lezcab themes, which Spice Girl we would play in a musical version of Spice World, bad okcupid dates, and a bunch of other ridiculous and amazing topics.
Lezcab has evolved into something that is innovative, entertaining, and truly delightful for all involved. I have met some amazing people backstage and in the bar. Everyone is friendly and inclusive. It feels a little like A-Camp, except we are in a cabaret instead of on a mountain. I urge you all to reserve your tickets.
The lovely ladies of April’s Lezcab
The next show is THIS SUNDAY, the 25th at 7pm and like most NY cabarets is $10 at the door and a 2 drink minimum. Our theme is “Over the Rainbow: Songs of the Golden Age”, so if you like Rodgers and Hammerstein, but feel like there aren’t enough lesbos in the waving wheat of Oklahoma! then come see our versions of these beloved show tunes. Also, you might meet some girls. If you want to meet some of the Lezcab girls before Sunday, you can check out our brief introductions on the Facebook page.
If you still aren’t convinced, you should listen to the radio show we were interviewed on. It is a little tricky to get to, but it was a fun interview with some great samples of music and a shout out to Autostraddle. To do so, go to Cityworldradio.com. After clicking the microphone, go to their archives and find “International Womens Salon Radio 7-29-13”.
Hope to see you at Lezcab on the 25th because it will be super fun!
In Attics and Cellars: Hunting Down Queer Women’s Performances at the Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh is a magical place at any time of year: winding cobbled streets, tall granite buildings that think they’re castles, all the independent shops and cafés you could ever visit and even a lingering sweet malty scent in the air from the breweries at its edges. It’s even better in August, though, when every spare space in the city is full of performers putting on shows in cellars, attics, theatres and sheds as part of the world’s arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe.
It often feels like queer women in theatre are kept behind the scenes, flicking the lights or managing the venue; not telling their stories. With a programme that profiles 2,695 shows, finding LGB performances is pretty daunting, but amongst the loud voices and big adverts there are some stunning shows — and the best thing is, you could see them all in a weekend. I tracked down these shows by asking friends, by word-of-mouth, and by hunting down companies I’d enjoyed seeing in years past — all of them are well worth a visit.
The most Google-friendly LGB show at the Fringe this year is New York parody musical Miserable Lesbians – one look at their YouTube video and there’s Anne Muffaway singing “I dreamed a dream of open thighs…” They’re not the only big company making slightly ill-advised swipes; there was a bit of a trend this year of shows plonking lesbian characters into plays in a not-very-well-thought-out sort of way, to be the butt of jokes or to add a bit of heaving-cleavage. For LGB women on stage that make you cringe in a good way, it’s best to stick to stand-up.
Anne Muffaway singing in Miserable Lesbians
Comedy is really well catered for at the Fringe by big, heavily commercial venues that tend to take on established stand-up comedians, whereas there’s less and less theatre every year; as big venues get more cautious, there’s increasingly a big divide in programming between them and the smaller ventures that offer more experimental theatre and performance. This is mostly recession logic; theatre has expensive sets and actors to pay. Increasingly, the theatre shows that do go up tend to be smaller, stripped down and with tiny production teams. This can actually be a good thing, as it provides an environment where women can write and play big, complex parts. Most of the best things I saw were one-woman shows: Ciara, Dark Vanilla Jungle, The GB Project and the The Veil are all amazing, and well worth a trip.
Unless you want to catch a really big name act, it can be a lot more rewarding — and a lot cheaper — investigating some of the less well-known venues. The Fringe started with theatre companies showing up uninvited to the city’s bigger International Festival in 1947, keen to showcase their alternative to the theatrical mainstream. The Free Fringe, The Forest Fringe, Summerhall and Northern Stage at St. Stephens keep that outsider spirit alive, and are full of incredible work. You can go to pretty much any show they put on knowing that it’ll be interesting and imaginative, staged because the venue loved it , and not because the performer’s producer turned up waving wads of cash.
via yorkmix.com
The Confessions of a Rabbi’s Daughter
This show is pretty special; you tiptoe into a cheesy, sticky-floored nightclub in the middle of the day to be met with an incredibly gentle one-woman cycle of songs. Emily Rose’s musical tells the story of an Orthodox Jewish woman who falls in love with her best friend, just as she prepares to finally achieve her dream of becoming a Rabbi’s wife. It’s a show about falling in love, struggling to find a place in a repressive community, and keeping hold of a personal relationship with Judaism through it all. It’s not the most polished, but it feels intimate and true.
If it all sounds too sweet for your taste, she’s also doing a show called Synagogue Slut, about her escapades as an interdenominational synagogue reviewer.
1:20pm, Mood Nightclub, free
via Polari Magazine
Executed for Sodomy: the Life Story of Catharina Linck
An all-female cast of three swap roles to tell the true story of cross-dressing soldier Linck, who was put to death in the early eighteenth century for lewd acts with another woman.This didn’t completely blow me away when I saw it in a wintry garage in London, but hopefully it’s warmed up over its Edinburgh run. Although the focus on her trial can make the piece feel heavy going, there are so many fascinating historical details too — like the fact that Linck’s alias Rosenstiel deliberately combined the words for flower and stem, emblems of femininity and masculinity.
6:30pm, C Nova, £7-9.50
My Pregnant Brother
The title might feel stolen from a tasteless shock-documentary, but Johanna Nutter’s one-woman show is a lot more subtle than it sounds. She tells the story of her trans* brother’s pregnancy, and the changes it brought into both their lives — in a raw, intense and completely compelling narrative.
2:50pm, Pleasance Dome, £8-9.00
Walking:Holding Portraits by Rosie Healey
Walking: Holding
The Forest Fringe is Edinburgh’s anarchic home/squat for shows that are less commercial, more experimental and political. Rosana Cade’s one-on-one performance is no exception. You’re sent on a walk through the city, holding hands with a series of strangers — volunteers of all ages, genders and appearances — in a piece designed to provoke spontaneous connections, and examine people’s reactions to different sexualities.
1-3pm and 4-5:30pm, 20th-22nd and 24th August, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, free
Fanny Whittington
Dick’s turned to Fanny, a lesbian feminist orphan, who’s seeking her fortune in London, in a queer political take on the classic English pantomime story. I’ve seen and loved Lashings of Ginger Beer Time!’s cabaret set in previous years; expect pop-cultural references, innuendo, silly songs and loads of gags, as well as plenty of politics in the mix.
8:15pm, Gryphon Venues at the Point Hotel, £7
via Gay Straight Alliance trailer
Gay Straight Alliance
Free comedy! New York comedian Veronica Elizabeth’s brought her monthly show at the Stonewall Inn (yup, that one) to Edinburgh, with a different line-up every night, and even the odd straight stand-up. There’s some great sarcastic digs at OKCupid’s cringy birthday messages, awkward straight-girl questions and a truly disconcerting take on Anne Frank.
10pm, Laughing Horse@The Phoenix free
Tig Notaro: Boyish-Girl Interrupted
Tig Notaro, a stand-up comedian best known for her role on the Sarah Silverman Program, is bringing a show up to Edinburgh for the first time. Last year, she got rave reviews for a brutally honest show that included announcing her breast cancer on stage. Thankfully, she’s now in remission, and she’s enigmatically explained that her new show will be “just me doing my stuff“.
6:45pm, Gilded Balloon, £14.00
via madman.com.au
Hannah Gadsby: Happiness is a Bedside Table
Hannah Gadsby’s comedy show is a bit darker than last year’s hit Hannah Wants a Wife, which looked at gender stereotypes through art history and time travel. She uses comments from an online troll as the starting point for the story of her weight and body image issues, and the hilarious situations they’ve trapped her in.
4.30pm, Assembly Roxy, £9.00
Take a Break!
Word of Mouth Café is a really good place to sit out a hangover in ethical comfort – they recycle, source locally and do the best veggie fry-ups in town. They also put on the odd LGBT spoken word night, so have a look out for flyers. Other great places for non-theatre-based hang-outs include gay bar The Street’s pub quiz at 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and the Hunt & Darton Cafe, which is a fully-functioning art installation with – when I went – broccoli-themed waitresses.
It was tough making this list; the Edinburgh line-up is so huge and sprawling and uncategorised that finding any path through it is a struggle. Any Autostraddlers at the Fringe this year? What have you seen that you think is worth a look?
The festival runs until the 26th August, as do all these shows unless otherwise stated. Tickets and more information on www.edfringe.com Prices vary, and there are also concessions and half price deals available.
10 Queer Spoken Word Artists For You To Get Obsessed With
I fell down the rabbit hole of spoken word a few years ago and have yet to bother climbing out. It’s warm and inviting down here, like a secret cave stocked with an endless supply of brownies and mint green nail polish. Poetry gives us the power to speak truth into existence without asking for an answer in return. We may all worship at the well-spoken altar of Andrea Gibson, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more out there to love! Here are ten LGBTQ spoken word artists you should consider crushing on (one of whom was a Straddler on the Street!):
1. Janani Balasubramanian – Trans/national
“I understand that your bodies have not always been yours,
but they have always been beautiful.
You have always had words for them.
My testosterone is now made by Israel’s largest company.
There is colonization running through my bloodstream.
Every time I take a shot, my muscles feel out of place for several days.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXFKSzNakuk
2. Denise Frohman – Dear Straight People
“Dear Queer young girl,
I see you.
You don’t want them to see you
so you change the pronouns in your love poems to him
instead of her –
I used to do that.
Dear straight people,
you make young poets make bad edits.”
3. Staceyann Chin – Speech at the Gay Games VII
“Gay
Lesbian
Bisexual
Transgender
Ally
Questioning
Two spirit
Non-gender conforming
every year we add a new fucking letter
yet every year
I become more and more afraid to say
who I am
everyday
under the pretense of unity I swallow something I should have said
about the epidemic of AIDS in Africa
or the violence against teenage girls in East New York
or the mortality rate of young boys on the south side of Chicago.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMkALDykOBs
4. Joanna Hoffman – Pride
“So when my straight friend asks me why there is no straight pride parade I tell her,
“You can’t be proud of something you’ve never had to fight for.”
This is for every wedding I watched from the sidelines,
every fairy tale with stipulations,
every it’s a choice, it’s a phase, you’re disgusting,
every swollen choke of shame I learned to coat my throat with,
every gay kid who ever believed nothing would ever make this better,
because home meant break the parts of yourself
that don’t fit into the plaster of who you’re supposed to be.”
5. Anis Gisele – Untitled
“The day she told you to never come back
you tripped, on your tin can voice.
You’ve been confused by its sound ever since.
Breathe, when you are on stage, or your body will not trust
that you won’t dissolve in the anxiety of holding up the truth.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM3W27kHZlA
6. Nicole Masangkay – My Gender is for Mothers
“When you remember that
This world was built against this gender on this body
And that the odds are against love and safety
I will trace the big dipper onto the soft canvas of your back
Watch constellations wrinkle gravity at the brimming outstretch of your smile
Catch curves folding under covers with my earthbound hands
And crumple the sky’s hemline to custom-fit your palms
When this world will not fit our safety
I will give you the universe with my fingertips
And the most gentle bends of my body”
7. T. Miller – Coming Out
“This world cares nothing about how many clocks we own.
There will never be a right time for us to be ourselves.
So when you leave home,
make sure your picture is just how you want to be remembered
in case you return as someone else or not at all.”
8. Ashley Catharine – Artists Don’t Make Mistakes
“Like this body you’ve given me hasn’t fulfilled its purpose,
Like it’s supposed to have wings
but my packaging has been tampered with.
Some days I can’t seem to choke out words
big enough to fit me because this larger size
often makes me feel so small.”
9. Kai Davis – Homicidal Rainbow
“I can’t hide behind bathroom stalls.
They always find me,
amongst black and white linoleum and piss.
I can’t forget they call me faggot, and fruit,
and Tinkerbell, but I thought that bitch had wings
and I never once felt like I could fly.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X9nRnKshCM
10. Shanita Jackson & Dakota Odur – Gay is the New Black/Civil Rights
“My legacy has been swept under rugs
No one has ever sung me a spiritual to lead me to the promised land
or made me rainbow cake to remind me of where I come from.
We are history’s middle children who have to wear glitter to get attention.
We are your siblings. We are not looking to replace you on our family tree,
we just want a hug at Christmastime.”
Queering the F*ck Out of Musical Theater: “Not Just Another Coming Out Story”
I was running late, as usual, through New York’s baking streets. Once I got in through the locked doors and sign-in process that I couldn’t quite figure out because I left my head in the air conditioning of the train, I found myself in a room filled with people trying to sort themselves into corners based on what draws them to another person. I felt weird and sweaty, so I didn’t jump in immediately, but I stood closest to intellect, because I can’t resist a huge brain. The diverse groups spoke animatedly to one another about why this was their turn-on. When a spokesperson from each group spoke I watched the ASL interpreters gracefully explain what one of the members had suggested as the group’s reasoning. It was a magical place where theatre was happening.
Last year I might have been as confused as you probably are about where I was and what I was doing. This year I met Maggie Kennan-Bolger and learned all about devised theatre through Queering History and then The Birds and The Bees: Unabridged. This time she is working with Green Chimneys NYC to present Not Just Another Coming Out Story. She wants to illustrate the lifelong process of coming out and the struggles that don’t magically disappear after the first time you come out as an LGBT person. Maggie has gathered the stories that people don’t always hear in the traditional coming out tale and is highlighting this in a workshop that features some of the youth from the Green Chimneys NYC program, as well as Broadway professionals.
Green Chimneys NYC is this awesome program that helps LGBT youth, most of whom are/have been homeless or in the foster care system. It helps them get jobs, learn important skills, find community, and a space to survive and hopefully thrive. On this day we were in one of their locations in Manhattan doing an inter-generational workshop. I told my stories of coming out and a kid told me his stories of the school he has to walk into every day and get harassed and beat-up. We talked about moments of revelation and times where we struggled. There were drawings of life-rivers and discussions of masculinity. We suggested themes we wanted to see in a show about coming out. These discussions, as well as thousands of surveys, will miraculously turn into a show with Maggie’s genius at the helm.
Queering History was a very similar structure as this show, in that it was devised and then read in workshop form by Broadway professionals and several of the youth from Green Chimneys NYC. That show was amazing, so I am sure this one will be of equal quality. If you are in New York I urge you to go see what will inevitably be an important and entertaining piece of theatre.
Not Just Another Coming Out Story
Speyer Hall at University Settlement: 184 Eldridge St. New York, NYTuesday, August 13th @ 8pm
Tickets: $20, discounts available
For tickets, visit the show’s website.
For more information, visit the show’s Facebook page.
NYC Play Lesbian Love Octagon Gets Six Thumbs Up From Three Of Us, All The Thumbs
This one time Gabby, Ali and Vanessa all went to The Lesbian Love Octagon, playing at the Kraine Theatre at 85 East 4th Street in New York City. This show is a camp-tacular celebration of dyke drama and its running just in time for Pride month. After we saw the show, we all got together at a bar and, over Red Stripe, hashed out some of the finer points on our feelings.
Lesbian Love Octagon is set in the 90’s on the Lower East Side of New York City, where we follow Sue, a soft-butch-esque leading lady who just lost her girlfriend to her ex, on her musical adventure to find herself post-break-up. The cast of characters is a series of Sue’s ex-girlfriends and ex-girlfriends’ girlfriends to create the Love Octagon, a structure any close-knit community is used to having. Darla leaves Sue for Jerry, Sue’s ex (a trans* man whose plot line wasn’t offensive, omg so exciting!). Chris, Wendy, Jess, Anya and Scout set about putting her back together.
First and foremost, we LOVED the camp aspect of this piece. It was fucking Camp with a Capital C. Sometimes within the queer community, we take things very seriously. This took the crazy dyke stereotypes we try to avoid (or not) and embraced them. With songs like “Ordinary Day at the Wimmin’s Bookstore,” which paints a cartoon picture of basically Bluestockings and has a refrain about a vegan soy chai latte, and “Dyke Drama and Tofu Scramble,” which is all about love drama at brunch… well, we’ve been there, is what we’re saying. We’ve been there and we want to laugh about it. This show lets us, nay, invites us to laugh about those moments where we look at our lives and just scream “Shit, that’s gay! That is rainbows coming out my ears gay,” at ourselves. It prompted Gabby to say, “But for a minute its like when you see your own ass in the mirror, its kind of like (dramatic intake of breath) ‘that’s totally my ass.’ You know what I mean?” It was fun to laugh at the ridiculous stuff, even the semi-dumb stuff, that happens in our community sometimes. Also during the Act I finale “Vibration Salvation,” they sing the names of sex toys to the audience in fully-belted power chords. This was a thing I didn’t know I was missing from my life until it happened. Seriously, kudos on the humor.
Kelly Lockwood Larson as Scout and much of the Cast, photo by KL Thomas
We were overwhelmed by the crazy-talented cast – every single person could sing and act like whoa. And what’s more, there was an immense amount of diversity – racial diversity, body diversity, gender presentation diversity – and no one was tokenized. All the cast members were a huge part of the action the entire time, and all of them were complete characters. And you guys. They. Can. Sing. They can wail. They can fucking perform. And while we loved every single performer we had the pleasure of seeing on stage, Gabby and I did have one very favorite – Ti Grieco, who plays Jess, is freaking phenomenal:
Gabby: One of my favorite books as a teenager that kind of helped me figure out that something was different about me was called Flaming Iguanas by Erika Lopez. It’s this badass tale of this Latina chick thats just, “Fuck everybody” and gets on a Harley and travels across the United States, right? So, my image of that character has always stayed in my chest. And then that actor on stage with, like, the shaved head and the mohawk?
Ali: She was my favorite.
Gabby: I was like, (gasps) “It’s like Flaming Iguanas is on stage! Oh my god!” It was, like, perfect. And there was no, like, tokenization, she was totally punk, she was totally rock.
Over beer, we had this interesting conversation about casting in New York. This cast is not small. This is a large, diverse cast with a ton of talent. And looking out over these amazing performers, we realized a thing. If any New York performance claims they don’t have a diverse cast because they can’t find diverse performers, or they can’t find a representative actor or performer that acts, sings and dances to the nines, then they are lying. It is just not a viable excuse. They just need to turn to the casting director of this show and ask where they found all these lovely humans.
Ti Grieco as Jess and Linday Naas as Wendy, photo by KL Thomas
We were nervous about the trans* storyline here because this show was written in the 90’s when a larger contingent of artists had not yet been educated on how to portray a trans * character fairly. Turns out, we didn’t have to be worried. Jerry was one of our favorite characters – again, not tokenized and well-rounded (far more well-rounded than the lead; we’ll get to that in a moment). Vanessa did some research to put our mind at ease and it turns out they actually changed a bit of that storyline and went into the production educated.
The night we were there, the production supported Trans Women Belong Here with a raffle… of a Hitachi magic wand.
Now don’t get us wrong, it wasn’t all sunshine, kittens and Ani. We had some serious issues with the show as well.
We wish we could tell you a little bit more about the main character, Sue. But we can’t tell you much, because the writer really did a “Bella” with Sue. Sue was like this blank slate that you could project onto. Vanessa disagrees with this statement, because she at no point felt like she could put herself in Sue’s shoes, but we’re pretty sure that this was on purpose. Gabby and I think Sue was supposed to be the Everydyke. And for the same reason neither one of us will read Twilight, we didn’t care for the fact that Sue was on a quest to find the depths of her own personality… and never found it.
Vanessa: Sue is so cute, you guys
Ali: But Sue is also not a character.
Gabby: We’re going to talk about that.
Ali: Sue is a black hole of things you project onto.
Gabby: Yes! Did we have that thought at the same time?
Ali: Probably.
Gabby: I was like, “this is why Twilight works,” because the main character is a fucking blank slate with no interests that anyone can project themselves on to. She’s Twilight, she’s Kristen Stewart.
Caitlin Lee Reid as Sue and Jax Jackson as Jerry, photo by KL Thomas
Oh Lord, we just want to warn you about the song “Building a Butch,” which supposes that butches get that way becomes femmes mold them into it. It is straight up not okay:
Gabby: I want to talk about the song. The butch and the femme song.
Vanessa: Oh how it was kind of –
Ali: Oh, I am with you on that.
Vanessa: But the thing is someone has said to me “build a butch” before and it sounded really familiar.
Gabby: It’s kind of like the good thing about this song – it brings out some uncomfortable things. Because I want to be like, “No, nobody built me. No, nobody built me,” but if I think about when I felt more comfortable shopping, its been with, like, a wing-femme. But also, like, the song and dance routine, where they imitated traditional Indian dance?
Vanessa: That was strange.
Gabby: That was weird.
Vanessa: That was not okay.
Ali: I literally watched it like this (covers eyes with hands).
Gabby: I felt like I was watching one of those old 1950’s movies where, like, Clint Eastwood is playing an Asian guy, you know what I mean? Like, what the fuck? It was just a low point in a really overall, like, fun sort of thing.
Basically, our verdict on this song was, you can keep the Build a Butch parts, we guess, but lord lesbian Jesus almighty, please change the dance routine. Our big round sad eyes just screamed “NO WHY CULTURAL APPROPRIATION WHY” during the entire number and we stopped paying attention for a little while.
As writers who develop characters and stories, we had massive issues with the ending/finale song, which (spoiler alert) sees most of these people coupled up without any real growth that came from their own inner being. If this is supposed to be a critique on the often co-dependent nature of lesbian relationships within a predominantly lesbian community, it didn’t land and it wasn’t funny. We would have rather the art mirrored our own lives; we wanted the characters we had come to love to actually change from how immature and messed up they were in the beginning to something a little less immature and messed up when we leave them. Vanessa made the point that she thinks it was just to make a U-Haul joke about lesbians committing and moving in too quickly, which they could have made at several other points during the show. All of us agree that only one couple on that stage actually belonged together at the end – if you’ve seen it, let us know who you think that couple is. The writing didn’t earn the other couples, there wasn’t enough substance behind them to be believable relationships, wethinks:
Gabby: I’m a hopeless romantic. You know what I mean? I don’t necessarily daydream about my wedding, but I do daydream about being in love with someone–
Vanessa: – with your person –
Gabby: Forever. Finding my person, you know? Forever, in whatever capacity that is. Like deep down inside I really think that if I do ever marry somebody then I am going to make that commitment. That’s, like, very sacred, and very special and there is a place for that. And I felt a little cheated that like the second somebody turned around in that song and said “I love you” and they didn’t even know her they were like, “Now I get to take all these romantic things and do them with you.” Someone should fucking earn that, you know?
Vanessa: I kind of feel like she constructed the idea of the octagon and then was like, “how can I fill out the octagon” instead of making real relationships.
Gabby: I think it was kind of, (Gabby breaks into song) “How do we end this?!? Na na na na na.”
Overall, though, issues included, would we recommend you go see this show?
Vanessa: Can we just say that overall if someone asks me if they should go see this, I would say yes.
Ali: Yeah.
Gabby: Everyone should go see it.
Ali: Yeah, this is cute. It’s fun. It’s funny. Good evening out.
Vanessa: Especially a queer person. Like, I think I would send my queer friends there before I would send my straight friends there.
Ali: I would send my straight friends there.
Gabby: It’s very lesbian though, I felt that. I felt there were pockets of openness for modern day queer identity, but it was very, like, lesbian.
Vanessa: It felt very Riot Grrl.
Basically if you want some Good Gay 90’s Fun, put on your plaid, berks and ripped fishnets of the unfashionable lesbian utopia of yore and head on down to the Kraine Theatre. The show is playing until June 29th. You can grab your tickets here!
The 2013 Tony Awards Liveblog Feelings Situation
DAVID BURTKA AND HOST NEIL PATRICK HARRIS ON THE RED CARPET/BEING CUTE, Image via Getty Images
Hello, freaks and geeks, and welcome to our 2013 Tony Awards internet party!
Every year, Tony Awards are awarded to the best that American theatre has to offer; any show, whether musical, play or special event, that played in one of about 40 New York theatres that are considered Broadway and that opened within the last year is qualified. The awards themselves are mostly meaningless, but damn it if they aren’t ridiculously entertaining. This year’s awards will feature performances from eight new musicals as well as appearances from tons of older shows. Neil Patrick Harris, who is hosting for his third consecutive year, said that “it’ll be bigger than last year,” which is either a bizarre come-on or an ambitious promise.
It was a big year for musical theatre just about everywhere except Broadway — “Les Mis,” “Pitch Perfect” and “Smash” happened; Sutton Foster, Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Aaron Tveit all have their respective TV shows; “Glee” continues to plague us. It should be interesting to see how the beating heart of the theatre world handles a year where no original musicals were nominated for any big awards. Apparently Mike Tyson is making an appearance tonight? The night is young and full of possibilities.
Here is a full list of the nominees! The awards kick off at 8 p.m. EST/PST on CBS, so grab your favorite bionic diva and get comfortable. Comment your feelings below and/or tweet me @GraceCEllis. It’s all happening.
7:44p: I wish “60 Minutes” would just re-air their special on “The Book of Mormon” because whatever they’re doing right now is super boring.
7:57p: Apparently Jesse Tyler Ferguson hosted the non-televised technical awards! Which is especially funny because last year’s opening song included a joke about him understudying NPH. As per usual, I wish they had just shown the technical awards. Forever disappointed.
8:00p: I have almost the exact outfit that Neil Patrick Harris is wearing. #gay
8:02p: Mike Tyson! That didn’t take long.
8:04p: “On Broadway, we don’t need extreme close-ups to prove we’re singing live.” The lyrics in this opening number are kind of incredible? I would argue that they’re better than anything in “Kinky Boots,” but spoiler alert, I don’t really like that show. I find it cloying.
8:07p: Ok, that number was beyond amazing. I’ve done nothing but watch original Tony songs the last two days, and that was maybe the best. It was everything it needed to be: It had everyone in it, it was energetic, and it only had one “How I Met Your Mother” joke. The crowd is going nuts, I am going nuts, Neil Patrick Harris is going to go backstage and vomit from all the running he just did. It was like a gay explosion but not in a sexual way, unless you’re into that, which: Who could blame you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BraXq07kkM
8:10p: Courtney B. Vance kicks off the night with a win as Best Featured Actor in a play. I am 0 for 1 in my guesses so far.
8:11p: Oh gawd, characters are presenting awards. This is going to be, uh, interesting. The Newsies are endearing, at least.
8:12p: “Matilda: The Musical” opens up the performances, probably so the kids aren’t falling asleep by the end of the show. It’s so interesting to hear what a chorus of children sounds like today compared to what they sounded like when the original “Annie” was playing. These kids are good.
8:14p: This staging looks like “Spring Awakening.” Not in a bad way. There’s a reason it was heavily lauded on the West End.
8:15p: The “Matilda” cast is riding scooters! Because “Little Mermaid” stole their idea for Heelys, probably.
8:16p: Aww, all four girls who play Matilda are singing! I’m glad there are so many good roles for young women on Broadway this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evj1z3l5hco
8:21p: This play-musical mashup thing Neil Patrick Harris is doing right now is ripped right from Twitter, I just want you guys to know that. “Bring It On Golden Pond” was a good one, though. Good work, champ.
8:23p: I would like to take Tom Hanks’ mention of Julie Andrews to plug the greatest blog of all time, Julie Andrews and Cabins dot tumblr dot com.
8:25p: Judith Light wins a Tony for the second year in a row! Holy cats, that’s insane. What an incredible woman, what an incredible speech.
8:29p: Oh wow, “Bring It On” is killing it. I’m really glad Lin-Manuel Miranda has a new show — as much as I love musical theatre, there is an unforgivable lack of representation for people of color. Besides, he’s such a talented writer that everything he touches turns to gold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD3ymJl7fKw
8:30p: “That last number just described the starting of a high school GSA, right?” –Intern Madi
8:31p: Really upset at the lack of mishaps this year. I miss the good old days of 2009 where the entire show was a tribute to live theater mishaps.
8:36p: Mufasa is talking about presenting technical awards. Last year, that would’ve been a joke.
8:38p: Alan Cumming! What a babe. His bowtie looks like a prop from “Pippin,” which is AWESOME.
8:39p: Gabriel Ebert wins Featured Actor in A Musical for “Matilda,” also wins a place in my heart.
8:40p: My wish came true! The mic won’t lift high enough! YES! Good work, tech team! The tradition continues.
8:41p: Oh good, “Rock of Ages” is introducing “Cinderella.” A hint of irony would do everyone some good right now.
8:42p: “Cinderella”! This is one of my favorite shows this season. Remember when Brandy and Whitney Houston did a movie version of this show? That was cool. Anyway, the costumes are pretty much unparalleled in this revival. Laura Osnes is nominated for Best Actress in a Musical, and if that performance is any indication, she’s definitely got a fighting chance.
8:45p: Wait, do they have a camera person literally onstage with them? That seems unnecessary? Ps, the bump music they played after the performance is my favorite song in that show, “Stepsister’s Lament.” Rogers and Hammerstein could write the shit out of an ironic upbeat number, I’ll tell you what.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWFga2eqkKU
8:50p: Take a shot every time someone says the word “kinky.” Contract alcohol poisoning within five minutes.
8:57p: Diane Paulus won for directing “Pippin”! Pam MacKinnon won for directing “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”! A TWO women directors won this year! THIS HAS LITERALLY NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE! FEMINISM, YOU GUYS. It’s all happening.
9:00p: I really like the light and projection design of this “Motown The Musical” performance. Everyone is so high energy! It’s going to play for the next billion years, approximately.
9:01p: “I WANT YOU BACK” IS MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME. Little Michael Jackson is much better than I was anticipating. Kids these days, with their Broadway-caliber voices and what-have-you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBZRdrbR01w
9:08p: A commercial for the “Wicked” tour just played on my local station. That may be the most lesbian moment of the evening.
9:10p: I wish Jane Krakowski had presented that award in character as Jenna Maroney. THAT would’ve been worthwhile. Someone write that down.
9:11p: Jesse Tyler Ferguson screamed “GIRL, YOU’RE GONNA HAVE FUN TONIIIIIIIGHT,” when announced Cyndi Lauper’s win for Best Score for “Kinky Boots.” We have reached Gay Saturation.
9:12p: Cyndi Lauper is the first woman to win Best Score without a cowriter.
9:14p: “Hey, Spider-Man is an orphan, just like Annie! Wouldn’t it be awesome if an army of Spider-Men introduced “Annie”???” No. It would be weird.
9:16p: Jane Lynch is singing “Little Girls,” which is actually great casting, in my opinion, although all of America has already seen this performance since she did it on “Glee.” This is the new Most Lesbian Moment of the Evening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK838uSAyf4
9:23p: Omg omg is Andrew Ranells going to sing a duet with NPH?!?!
9:23p: Omg omg omg HE IS.
9:25p: I’m glad we’re hanging a lampshade on the fact that Broadway star’s TV shows keep getting canceled. This is cute.
9:27p: Andrew Ranells, Megan Hilty, and Laura Benanti singing that song will be the highlight of the night, I bet. Additionally, I recommend checking out Glitter and Be Glib, which Forbidden Broadway wrote about Kristin Chenoweth and the same subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVVVAbHffs
9:29p: Anna Kendrick, be still my heart. She’s got mad singing chops, I wish she would sing now. I hope she does another show someday soon.
9:31p Andrea Martin is the light of my life.
9:34p: There’s gotta be a better way to summarize the season than whatever is happening right now.
ETA: There is a lesbian kiss in that clip package! According to my friend Drew, it’s from the play “‘The Performers.’ It’s two straight porn stars, played as a joke.” The play itself is really good, though, he says.
shut it down
9:40p: Jessie Eisenberg is talking so fast because he is too famous to be here.
9:44p: “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” wins for Best Play, much to no one’s surprise. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. Shout out to the guy on stage playing on his phone right now.
9:46p: Neil Patrick Harris just made out with the dog from “Annie.” The gay agenda has revealed itself.
9:48p: Oh wow, that kid in “A Christmas Story” is tap dancing in a way would make the cast of “Anything Goes” jealous. Sutton Foster, eat your heart out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZDSDq5KtJM
9:50p: Sidenote, I really want “A Christmas Story” to win something because I love the composers Pasek and Paul. They used to write a lot of cabaret-style stuff, but you might know them from their work on “Smash” or their other musical “Dogfight.” Check, check, check it out!
9:55p: Having someone smash NPH’s phone is a good example of simple jokes and knowing your audience. Having Simba introduce “Pippin” is a good example of a directorial choice that didn’t pan out as well as they wanted it to.
9:58p: Aww “Pippin” is so much better than I thought it would be! And Patina Miller as the lead player is inspired casting. I’m gonna need a cold shower.
10:01p: Don’t you break that fourth wall, Pippin. Don’t you do it.
10:01p: They broke the fourth wall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWIjfxmZXf4
10:03p: Sigourney Weaver in a blue dress.
10:05p: “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” wins for best Play Revival. We are approaching “Gilmore Girls” levels of fast-talking here.
10:06p: Someone write a “Gilmore Girls” musical with me.
10:10p: Twenty years from now, when the girl playing Annie is all grown up, I hope she teams up with Andrea McArdle to do a revival of “Grey Gardens.” Where is Andrea McArdle tonight, actually? I have such a crush on her. I wish she were singing.
10:12p: Hal Prince’s speech was almost as long as Phantom’s run! These are the jokes, take ’em or leave ’em.
10:14p: “Oh great, ‘Phantom.'” -The audience at Radio City, before leaving to go to the bathroom
10:16p Billy Porter wins Best Actor in a Musical for “Kinky Boots”! Holy crap, I don’t even like “Kinky Boots,” but his excitement is contagious. He’s so fierce in that show. Hey, that’s the first time I’ve said the word “fierce!” That’s the second!
10:19p: I just wish “Kinky Boots” wasn’t actually about a straight dude? I’m really bored of gay stories being told via straight people. Anyway. Billy Porter is very cute, and I’m so relieved he won.
10:22p: Tracy Letts wins for Best Actor in a Play. I just remembered that he’s an actor and not just a playwright. Life!
10:23p: “In Memoriam,” starring Will Schuester’s tie and Cyndi Lauper’s mohawk.
10:25p: “Is this a tribute number or a tv high school lesbian sex scene?” –Intern Madi
10:28p: So when is Patti LuPone going to appear in a cloud of smoke? I hope it’s during the “Kinky Boots” performance for maximum impact.
10:32p: These teleprompters are show-stopping, LITERALLY. #dadjokes
10:33p: Jake Gyllenhaal is presenting because his name was drawn at the “we need to have one outrageously hot famous guy at the Tonys” reaping.
10:35p: Somewhere, someone is transcribing Cicely Tyson’s speech for Best Actress so that she can use it as an audition monologue for community theater. Incredible.
10:40p: PATINA MILLER! BEST ACTRESS IN A PLAY! I am straight-up swooning over here, y’all.
10:44p: “Kinky Boots,” doing their best Ok Go impression
10:45p: I’m sorry that I don’t like “Kinky Boots.” Forgive me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E063VozoTU
10:52p: I was kidding about Patti LuPone, but THERE YOU ARE. (Zing.)
10:53p: “Pippin” wins Best Revival of a Musical, which Patti is apparently very pleased with.
11:00p: “Welcome back to the Tony Awards. Have the gay person next to you describe what’s happening because it’s already 11:00 and the time for giving you context has long passed.”
11:02p: Bernadette Peters: Diva of the Century
11:03p: “Kinky Boots” wins Best Musical. A SHOW CALLED KINKY BOOTS IS THE OVERALL BEST MUSICAL THAT OPENED THIS YEAR. I’m not sure, but I feel like we can do better.
11:04p: Neil Patrick Harris is rapping! Audra McDonald is singing! My eyes have turned into hearts and are exploding into fireworks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whlsf_hISP4
11:06p: AUDRA MCDONALD WITH THE MIC DROP. TONY AWARDS OUT.
And that’s the end! Thanks for sticking with it. I correctly guessed 12 out of 26 awards, which is pretty good for me! Here is a full list of the winners. How do you feel about all of this? What was your favorite NPH moment? Why can’t I call him anything but his full name? Has anyone set up a parody Twitter for Patina Miller’s arms yet? Comment with your answers!
“Gilmore Girls: The Musical,” coming to Broadway in 2014. If you can dream it, you can live it.
‘Sontag: Reborn’ Is Really Queer and Really Good
“My desire to write is connected with my homosexuality. I need the identity as a weapon, to match the weapon that society has against me. It doesn’t justify my homosexuality. But it would give me — I feel — a license.” – Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963
Sontag: Reborn, a play being performed at the New York Theatre Workshop, explores the early life of Sontag through her journals. The play starts with a black and white image of Sontag (portrayed by Moe Angelos) dragging on a cigarette. The lights shift and 16 year old Sontag (also portrayed by Moe Angelos) sits at her desk. The surface of the desk is filmed and projected on the back wall, so the audience can observe the journal writing, listing of books yet to be read, and occasionally the actress laying on the desk in contemplation.
The piece goes on like this with dialogue between the older projected Sontag and the younger Sontag. Journals are written with words that glow onto the back wall and occasionally her words are projected onto the front screen to make the audience feel as if they are sailing through the words in Sontag’s brain. The director Marianne Weems has constructed a show that intertwines elements of live theatre and technology to create a beautiful and unique experience for the audience.
At one point in the show Sontag recalls and recounts when H, her lover at the time, took her to a gay bar in San Francisco in the late 1940’s. The women were dressed in men’s clothes and gender was confusing and exciting for the night. Images of singers are projected in a blurry fashion in front of Angelos as she recounts the tale. She points out on a map the places they went and then how they went back to H’s apartment. The stories told through this play are a fascinating insight into Sontag’s life, as well as queer history.
Sontag: Reborn, based on the books by Susan Sontag and edited by David Rieff, adapted and performed by Moe Angelos, directed by Marianne Weems, and produced in collaboration with The Builders Association is playing through June 30 at New York Theatre Workshop in Manhattan. The show has been in previews and opening night is Thursday, June 6. The theater is located at 79 East 4th Street, between 2nd Avenue and Bowery. You can purchase tickets online for $65. If you are in New York it is definitely worth checking out.
Really Powerful Theater: ‘Sans Merci’ Is Messy, Human, Incredible
Sans Merci, written by Johnna Adams, is the kind of play that punches you in the gut right at the very beginning and then doesn’t let up for the entire hour and a half (with no intermission). It’s powerful and moving and tragic and thought-provoking, but perhaps what I liked most was that amidst all of this, while my heart broke and tears streamed down my face, I felt as though the play was also forcing me to see beauty. Essentially, this play kicks the living crap out of you while asking you to acknowledge the softest, sweetest, most vulnerable human parts of this world, and then it kicks you some more. I felt worn out when the lights came up.
I loved it.
Rachael Hip-Flores and Alisha Spielmann as Kelly and Tracy in ‘Sans Merci’
copyright Titus Winters
Let’s begin with a synopsis, because if I try to explain the plot I’ll just ramble for several hundred words and then possibly start crying, which is sort of what happened when I met up with some friends after the show and they asked, “So what was the play about?” Here’s a short, not-tear-stained answer to that question.
When Tracy (Alisha Spielmann), a shy literature major, falls in love with Kelly (Rachael Hip-Flores), a political activist, their shared idealism takes them on a humanitarian mission to South America. Years later, Tracy’s mother Elizabeth (Susan Ferrara) visits Kelly with hard questions about her daughter, their relationship, and the truth of what happened on the final day of their mission.
If you plan to see the show and want to go in without knowing a single spoiler and with a 100% clear mind, you should stop reading right now. You should just see the play ASAP. But if you don’t mind knowing a few details and want to hear how those specific things completely broke my heart open and left it leaking blood and guts and sorrow and love all over the floor of the tiny theater, read on! But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
copyright Titus Winters
So this is the major spoiler, which you may have inferred from the synopsis: Tracy is dead. She was raped and killed in South America; Kelly was raped but survived. The play opens three years later, on a rainy day in LA, with Elizabeth, Tracy’s mom, paying Kelly a surprise visit. The two have never met, and it becomes apparent very quickly that the only thing they have in common is a deep love for Tracy, and an even deeper sadness that she is gone.
I think the play’s genius lies in all of its contradictions. It’s easy to instantly dislike Elizabeth – she’s a conservative Republican convinced her daughter was “going through a phase” – and it’s equally easy to try and place blame quickly — the play uses flashbacks to show us how Kelly and Tracy met and fell in love, and it’s obvious that Tracy would never have gone to South America were it not for Kelly. In a particularly heartbreaking moment, Elizabeth bluntly tells Kelly she blames her for Tracy’s death, and while the words obviously wound Kelly, she admits she blames herself, too. With this admission, the audience watches Elizabeth soften, and suddenly it’s hard to hate or blame either woman on stage.
Susan Ferrara and Rachael Hip-Flores Photo as Elizabeth and Kelly in ‘Sans Merci’
copyright Titus Winters
While the plot and writing of the play is incredible, I would be remiss not to praise the performances of the actors in this production, because they carried the words and made the play feel like reality.
Rachael Hip-Flores (who you may recognize from Anyone But Me) steals the show with her portrayal of Kelly – she reminded me of the girls I fell in love with in college, the girls who made me realize I was gay, the girls who helped me find my anger and my voice and my passion. She’s fiery and brilliant and almost narrow-minded in her never-ending belief in social justice; she’d be a caricature of a type if that type wasn’t so specific. Do you know who I mean? If you took a gender studies course in college I feel certain you do. Spielmann is brilliant as Tracy, and carries the sweetest moments of the show, including the hilarious events that led to the girls meeting in college and Tracy’s reaction when Kelly kisses her for the first time, which makes her final monologue – a diatribe against the soldiers who raped her and who eventually kill her – all the more jarring and effective. And finally there’s Ferrara, who plays Elizabeth’s character with such depth, oscillating between immense sorrow and hilarious mom-isms, that by the end of the show I loved her, too.
When the lights of the theater came up at the end of the performance, I clapped along with everyone else but my brain couldn’t really focus on the task of pressing my palms together. Now, a full 72 hours later, I’m still struggling with the story, still thinking about it. I saw the show with a friend and she texted me yesterday to say: “I still feel sad about the play when I think about it,” and I thought yes, yes exactly, yes me too. I don’t feel sad, exactly… I think I just feel. I can’t stop thinking about the story, the characters, the messy humanness of it all. It doesn’t matter that it’s just a story – now it exists in my brain. It’s real. And that’s the mark of good theater.
Alisha Spielmann as Tracy in ‘Sans Merci’
copyright Titus Winters
Sans Merci, written by Johnna Adams, directed by Heather Cohn, and presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble is playing through May 17 at the 4th Street Theatre in Manhattan. The theater is located at 83 East 4th Street, between 2nd Avenue and Bowery. You can purchase tickets online for $18.
Queering Theatre: Heartache
The experience of heartbreak is fairly universal. We have all seen a relationship with another person dissolve in front of us; whether it is a platonic or romantic connection that has ended, the feeling of absence and loss is present. The broken plans or the silent phone acts as a stinging reminder that someone isn’t part of your life anymore. It’s hard to attend a wedding after your vision of romantic love is tainted and to see two people who are deliriously happy when you are not. It is also a challenge when you have to get up on stage and pretend to be one of those people, when all you want to do is lie under the covers eating chips and feeling a sense of vengeance that now no one can tell you to stop being gross. Instead, it is your job to propel people’s unrealistic expectations of love.
Sometimes I think that playing an ingénue and falling in love with men on stage is easier when you don’t love them off stage. I can look at my costar and fall in love with a piece of his face. I can admire the straightness of his teeth or the fleck of gold in his left eye. I do not get confused in my real life, but I do bring a lot of my personal life onstage, and sometimes I wonder if it isn’t maybe a little too much.
The summer after my first year of conservatory, I returned to my small college town and its tiny community theatre, feeling all puffed up and confident. I had more theatre training than any other 19 year old in town and I knew I would beat out any competition for a role. I was determined and excited to use all of my new knowledge in the summer’s show.
The Fantasticks (author’s Image)
I booked the lead in the show “The Fantasticks,” got myself a summer job at Ross Dress for Less, and hung out with a group of friends I met through my best guy friend. He and I always dated the same girls in high school, but he had a straight and very awesome girlfriend that summer, so I thought we wouldn’t have any problems. Several weeks after I got home, I began a tumultuous fling with a former Mormon girl. She was cute and kind of into me, which was about all I could ask for in my town. That summer was filled with hookah smoke, hard lemonade, and too many secrets.
As my character, Luisa, was falling in love with a boy onstage, I used my fling to fill in the missing pieces. The butterflies in her stomach were modeled on my own feelings of relationship excitement. I thought about how I wanted things to be with this girl, as Luisa thought about how she wanted things to be with the boy. I used a lot of my real feelings in the creation of my character. I needed to pull pieces from my life to recreate them on stage and, in that moment, my fling was the closest thing I had to love.
author’s image
Just as the show opened, some of the lies that had been carefully hidden throughout the summer were uncovered. Stories didn’t line up and my childhood dream of being a detective was finally realized. My best friend got a call from his “buddy” while we were hanging out at his girlfriend’s house. He told us that he hadn’t seen this guy in a while and just really needed some alone time with him. There was something really weird about how he was acting, so like any sane teenagers, his girlfriend and I followed him.
We stayed several lengths back in the car, as they do in the movies, and it felt exciting and dangerous. He drove straight to the Mormon girl’s house. We called them both and allowed them to explain, but they both denied that he was at her house. They were so used to lying at that point that it was probably easy. Eventually, we told them that we were outside of the house and they needed to come talk to us. They told us they were in love with each other and had been sneaking around for at least a month. There were a lot of tears shed on the curb where our relationships fell apart.
I went into the show the next day and tried to be optimistic about love. After using her and our relationship as a muse, it was hard to take the thoughts of the Mormon girl out of my performance, but continuing to use her meant that I had to forgive her every night. So much of being an actor is about falling in love; every night, you have to fall in love and lend the audience your story to show them an ideal of romance. When the boy put his hands on my waist, I thought of her hands cupping my face before she kissed me. It was really painful to go back to that place of bliss and happiness and pretend that everything was good and pure, but that was the only way that I could get through the show.
author’s image
Over the years, I have figured out how to use parts of my life and then to completely isolate these things in the context of the show. All sorts of emotional personal moments are used and heightened, and then reality is forgotten. It is important to use the bits and pieces of love from life, but not its entirety. It is always interesting to pull out an old song, because the thoughts and memories that I used to create the song are tied to some girl who I am no longer in love with. Through that song, I go back to where and who I was, when I’d originally learned it, blocked it, and prepared to perform it. Sometimes, I have to rework songs or leave them alone, if they are too closely connected to my reality. It is important that they are emotionally accessible to me as an actress whenever I need them, but it is equally as important that I allow myself as a person the time I need to grieve and to heal from the personal memories the songs tap into within my own life story.
That summer, I learned a lot about separating myself from my work. There is no room on the stage for a performer’s personal problems. There are, however, cathartic elements that an actor gets while performing a show. I get to bury myself in a character for two hours and I don’t have to deal with my problems, as I am not myself, I am her, and I am focused on the experiences of that character and of being truthful and honest in my reactions to the events happening in her life. For that time, my life is on hold and I don’t have to think about the fact that my phone is quiet, because I am busy being someone else. Only a few months later, both the show and the summer ended. I severed my ties with the boy who had been my best friend and the girl who I had kissed and I flew off to New York to finish school and start my life.
If you are interested in seeing myself and other queer girls singing and acting our loving, broken, healing, open hearts out, join us at the next Lezcab Sunday April 21st at the Duplex in NYC.
For more information go to Lezcab.com.
Hope to see you there!
Feelings Atrium: Spice Girls Musical, ‘Viva Forever!’ Trailer
feature image via gay.net
The world has come a long way since the Spice Girls’ reign over pop music, a particularly optimistic period of our lives filled with lollipops, platform shoes and a staunch belief that all of life’s problems could be solved if we’d just apply a little more more Girl Power. That said, there is not a single portion of my heart that did not twitch with glee at the very mention of a Spice Girls musical, to say nothing of this trailer.
The plot of Viva Forever seems really unclear, but probably has something to do with five girls of various ethnic backgrounds, British accents and fashion senses coming together and triumphing over the odds through the power of friendship. The songs aren’t quite as magical without the Spice Girls themselves singing, though I’m frankly impressed they were able to get so much mileage out of “Move Over,” a song written specifically to be a Pepsi commercial. All that aside, I still find the music of the Spice Girls tremendously exciting, and the songs have certainly held up through the years. I’ve never been a big fan of musicals as a genre, and reviews for Viva Forever have been tepid at best, but this has not stopped me from entertaining the notion of flying to the UK just to see this production.
For those of us who still know every word to the film Spice World, this part of our lives has never actually died. I’ll still be giddy about all Spice Girls related things fifty years from now, and Viva Forever seems to be banking on this. It doesn’t matter if this show is good or bad – I’d still totally see it and shout along with every word, because GIRL POWER.
Discuss.
Queering the F*ck Out of Musical Theater: The Personal Is Political Is Art
Sometimes being an actor in New York can be a very frustrating experience. I wake up at 5 am, drag myself to open calls filled with a bunch of obnoxious people, freak out for six hours waiting to be seen, sing for 30 seconds and then go to work trying not to feel too worthless. If you happen to be wondering what, exactly, it’s like to live the open call, non-union life of a queer girl with stars in her eyes, I just happen to have a vlog about that.
After almost 6 years trying to get on Broadway by going to open calls, I realized there had to be a better way for me to utilize my skills and fuel my soul. Really, it is all about connections. I met Maggie Keenan-Bolger through an article that Autostraddle did about her show Queering History. I emailed her and she told me I could help out by selling tickets for the show, after which we grabbed a beer together. This landed me an audition for the show I’m currently doing with her, which you may have heard about, called The Birds and The Bees: Unabridged.
CAST PHOTO
This show is a devised theatre piece on female sexuality, but it’s not limited to the female viewpoint — we opened up the casting process to anybody besides cisgender men, a.k.a. anybody left out of the mainstream discourse about sexuality, which has historically been defined by cisgender men. What’s devised theatre? It means that our cast was formed through an audition process to get enthusiastic and diverse people to discuss their experiences with sex and sexuality in order to form a previously-unwritten show. Originally, we started with about 20 women and gathered information through the surveys (which some of you might have taken; THANK YOU!!!). After collecting input from our cast and the surveys, we realized that we were missing some crucial viewpoints, and were able to add several cast members including two disabled women and a trans* man.
We reached out to a number of organizations but were unable to find a trans* woman who was interested and able to commit the time — unfortunately, the traditional theatre world hasn’t been friendly to trans folks so the casting pool is pretty limited. Over time we hope to take part in changing that, and visibility for our project on websites like this one, with its diverse readership, are part of that initiative. We are hoping to eventually tour a version of the play to colleges and will continue to work to find someone (or someones) who is excited about being a part of the project and is able to provide a perspective on sexuality from the trans* female viewpoint.
However we do have trans* female representation in our accompanying visual art exhibit, so if you’re a trans* woman visual artist reading this, we’d love to see more submissions to alleviate somewhat the lack of representation in the performance piece. It is absolutely our goal in further incarnations of the performance piece to be sure that the trans* woman voice is included as well, so please contact us if you’re interested in participating! Historically trans* women are often left out of conversations about female sexuality and we know our project will be at its best when we have those voices included.
Growing up gay is a unique experience in that my interactions with sex and sexuality are very different from those of many of my cast-mates who grew up identifying as straight. There wasn’t a rulebook or very many examples of lesbian relationships, so I was forced to do a lot of research and communicate with my peers and partners on a regular basis. The perceived gender gap (Men are from mars…blah, blah, blah) was not typically an issue in my relationships and so I believed that it was possible to openly communicate with my sexual partners. Within our cast, it’s fascinating to discuss our experiences because it makes me realize just how differently-situated my knowledge on sex and sexuality is. I was interested to find out how the other lesbian as well as the trans man in the cast were feeling about their experiences and their additions to this groundbreaking show. So, I talked to Cole and Holly about their feelings on theatre and Birds and the Bees.
Cole
Where are you from and where did you receive your training for your theatre profession?
I’m from Rockaway, NJ, but I also lived in the south (Virginia and North Carolina) for a long time. I have a B.A. in Theatre and Dance from James Madison University and an M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism from CUNY, Brooklyn College.
Is theatre/acting your primary job? If not, what else do you do?
Well, I currently temp at the Kaplan Bar Review, and I am also an adjunct lecturer of public speaking at CUNY, BMCC.
Do you think your experience as a queer/trans person has influenced your interaction with theatre?
Oh, hugely. Inescapably. It’s all I do, actually, is talk/write/create about my subjectivity as a transman and how it is the lens through which I see the world. The stage is a perspective on the world, a lens in itself, so my stage is a trans/queer stage, even if I write or act straight characters. My body is queer as is my body of work. I write theory about transmasculine spectatorship and embodied practice. As a playwright, I am hyper-focused on transmen characters. The plays are never ever about their transitions or about explaining their identities to anybody. They’re just people who are trans and they do stuff that is not about being trans. Which is surprisingly revolutionary, believe it or not. As a script reader for two companies, I’m sad to say I read piles of transphobic or trans-uninformed junk. If only I could balance it out by generating tons of original plays that don’t suck! I’ve only got a few, and I’m in the beginnings of a new one.
How do you think your experiences in theatre vary from straight or cisgender identified people?
Oh wow… want to read my 50 page thesis on this? Well, basically, I believe that my subjectivity as a trans person does create a barrier between myself and the normative-studio-training expectations of the body. Dysphoria is a real thing. I have a theory about disappearing body parts, and I’ve been working on developing trans actor training that is based on an idea of fragmented resistance as opposed to “wholeness.” I can’t think of any technique that doesn’t require a sense of a unified bodily calm to even start, and why don’t ya just Google gender dysphoria? I don’t believe that having a dysphoric body should mean trans people can’t be actors. Besides, there are trans actors. Cast us, please. Stop casting cis people as trans people. ‘Preesh.
What have been your experiences with Birds and the Bees, what do you bring to the table and what are you excited about?
I get to experience a ton of anxiety! But that happens with me and actor training. I also get to experience a lot of fun, and I love watching characters and scenes materialize before my eyes. As a playwright who writes in a more or less traditional sense of storytelling structure, I am not used to the idea of a group-devised piece.
As for what I bring to the table, I bring a beard. It’s a very different experience of femaleness than the rest of the cast, and one that is always ignored because I pass as male. While others either ignore it or forget it, I have to remember every time I have to use a stall in the men’s room or on any number of other daily moment’s when my body and I are aware of each other. I may be the only cast member who is female but does not identify as one.
Cole getting born during rehearsal
Can you talk about a moment or exercise in rehearsal that stuck out to you (humorous moment, moment of discovery, etc)?
I think my favorite moment so far was a group-devised scene that acted out an entire “morning after,” in which an unfortunate toilet situation resulted in a girl leaving a bag of poop behind in the apartment of her fling, ensuring the status of the date as a one-night-stand, never to be heard from again.
Holly
What drew you to this project?
There is very limited information being given to people, especially young women, about female sexuality. I wanted to learn from the people involved in this project and help others become more aware and accepting of different points of view. With so many recent attacks on women’s rights, now is when a project like this is especially necessary. I wish I could have had a group of people like this to learn from when I was growing up.
Where are you from and where did you receive your training for your theatre profession?
I was born in Seoul and grew up in Mansfield, Ohio. I have a BFA in Acting from Long Island University, CW Post. Epic Theatre Ensemble, Roundabout Theatre Company and the New York Public Library’s Theatre on Film and Tape Archive taught me what I know for my career in theatre administration.
Is theatre/acting your primary job? If not what else do you do?
Yes, theatre is my primary job. I’m currently the Production Supervisor at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. We tape many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions to be included in the Lincoln Center archive.
How do you think your experience as a queer person has influenced your interaction with theatre?
I grew up watching, listening to and acting in theatre. As a child, I became a huge musical theatre nerd – I used to listen to my cassette of The Phantom of the Opera during recess. My career is in theatre and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Despite my love for this community, I wish queer women were better represented, both on the creative end and in what ends up on stage. I recently saw February House and Fun Home at The Public, both of which feature queer female characters. Had I seen theatre like this when I was growing up, discovering my own sexuality, and coming out would have been much easier. Theatre taught me that it was fine to be different; I wish it had shown me it was fine to be a queer woman, as well.
How do you think your experiences in theatre vary from hetero people?
Queer women spend a lot of time seeing and telling other people’s stories in theatre. Creating a complex, developed character always defaults to the character being straight (or more recently, a gay man). For the most part, you will only see other queer women on stage if they are token, stereotypical and minor characters (Legally Blonde, Hairspray). Seeing yourself constantly tokenized gets rough, but projects like this help change the norm.
What have been your experiences with birds and the bees, what do you bring to the table and what are you excited about?
I’ve loved working on this project. The devising aspect scares the control freak in me that just wants a script, but that’s probably a good thing. The people we are working with bring tremendous intelligence, humor and empathy to the table. As a queer person of color I think I have a unique perspective on how each of these factors affect my experience with sexuality. I can’t wait to see how the show turns out. We’ve had great support from those that know about the project. I’m anxious to continue the conversations we’ve been having with people that see the show. I also look forward to seeing the art installation that is a part of this project.
Do you have any funny, awkward or poignant stories of your experiences as a queer person in theatre?
In an acting class my freshman year of college, I was working on a scene from Stop Kiss, a play about two women falling in love and a brutal physical attack after their first kiss. Our Teaching Assistant was coaching us in front of the class, only half of which knew that I was gay. It was already a bit awkward for me as the material was hitting a little too close to home. At some point the TA said, “you have to imagine what that would be like, since none of you know what it’s like to have feelings for someone of the same sex.” I was mortified and tried not to look at any of my friends that knew in the silence that followed. I came out to everyone in my class soon after that.
Leslie tells Karina about her new breasts.
Our Kickstarter campaign ends on February 16th. There are all sorts of cool things that you can get by donating. For only $1 you can get the best piece of sex advice e-mailed to you, for $10 you can get a list of the top 10 books and movies about sexuality and for $25 you can get a mixed tape from the cast of boot-knocking music. Other awesome incentives include naming a character in the show, a mystery box and a VIP invitation to the show where you will have the opportunity to dine with cast and crew. Your name will also be entered in a raffle where you will have the opportunity to win a product or event from one of our sponsors. If those aren’t enough reason to help us out, consider that your donation will help us to make the world a better place by facilitating open and honest discussion about female sexuality.
The Birds and The Bees: Unabridged will have performances the last week of March (27th-30th) and you can buy tickets at our website.
Come see us, like us on facebook, visit our tumblr and help us fund our show.
Maggie Keenan-Bolger On Being A Queer Lady In Musical Theater
The holidays can be an interesting time for anyone, but I feel that it is particularly strange for queer people. Many of us have to leave our gay-mecca cities and return to towns where all the bars are named after small animals. The last LezCab was all about coming home, or out, at Christmas. It was a super festive and delightfully fun show with some singer-songwriters and pop artists thrown into the mix. The case also performed a funny and polished song from Lesbian Love Octagon. I meandered around backstage, caught up with the performers and creepily watched them from the wings. Here is a glimpse behind the scenes at the December LezCab:
Here is a clip of the song “Ubiquitous Ex-Girlfriend” from Lesbian Love Octagon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rrTbpBz-ZjU
This month’s actor experience comes from Maggie Keenan-Bolger. I’ve been working with Maggie on her show The Birds and the Bees Unabridged, which goes up the last week of March. She is a mover and shaker in the theatre world as well as the political scene. I feel that you can tell a lot about a person from their bookshelf and hers is filled with young adult novels, gender studies texts and Sarah Waters novels. I ‘ve had some awesome whiskey-driven conversations with this girl and I’m happy to have her here to share some of her experiences as a queer lady in music theatre.
Maggie Keenan-Bolger perfecting her inner 9-year old in a Theaterworks production of Charlotte’s Web (actual age, 28)
Maggie: Whenever anyone mentions the anomaly of queer women in music theatre, I usually reply with some variation of “Oh, you mean all three of us?” Indeed, having done hundreds of shows from the time I was 5, I have to think pretty darn hard to come up with a time when I wasn’t the only out queer lady in the cast.
Thanks to my unusually small stature, this wasn’t really too much of a problem until I hit college. My usual character age-range ran somewhere between 10-16 so it was unusual that I had to play romantically opposite anyone. But when I got to college, my professors declared that my goal for the upcoming four years was to “learn how to play an adult.” What they should have said was that my goal was actually to “learn how to play heterosexual romantic leads.”
Let’s face it; the roles for women in music theatre are pretty one-dimensional to begin with. Either you’re a pretty voice whose main objective is to support the story of the leading man, or a “quirky” character played mostly for laughs and comedic effect. These are obviously sweeping generalizations and there are some incredibly refreshing exceptions, but overall, this seems to be the trend.
And here’s the thing. I’m really bad at playing “romantic” with anyone. No matter what the gender! In college, it often seemed that no matter what I did, my own awkwardness and feelings about attraction and sexuality overrode any attempts at embodying another person. With boys, I’m so used to doing everything to avoid romantic advances, my characters turn cold and distant. With girls, I got so used to pretending to NOT have crushes on the girls in high school who I liked, as soon as the (albeit, more welcome) advances began I would start hopping around stage like a jackrabbit, terrified, excited and so, SO awkward. Now, I’ve known many a queer woman who can play romance like a pro, alas, I am not one of them. My professors did their best and by the end of my time in undergrad I could pull out “romantic lead” without getting an immediate case of the hives. That said, I missed being able to play characters who I didn’t feel like I was hiding in. Out of college, I soon discovered it was all for naught as miraculously I was still being cast primarily as teenagers in spite of my actual age. I also soon discovered that I could rarely go out for lesbian characters anyways; I was “too femme” to read queer and “too butch” to read hetero.
Maggie engaging in non-traditional casting as a father in the fantasticks
Thankfully, these days I have found a happy medium. I work with women, LGBT groups and young people around the city and we create our own characters. We devise theatre from the ground up, using our own ideas, experiences and opinions to shape the people we’re playing instead of archetypes and assumptions. It doesn’t mean it’s easy work, but at least I no longer feel like a square peg attempting to squeeze into a round hole (there’s a sexual innuendo in there, but I’m going to avoid it for now…). I’m never “too femme, butch, short, fat, blonde…” for any character, because women come in all varieties and I get to represent that instead. Ironically, I’ve been cast far more in traditional theatre since finding my niche creating out-of-the-box characters. It turns out, if you can walk into a casting room, be unapologetic about your long hair, big hips, and propensity to pass as a 16 year old, every now and then people buy into it, and decide you’re just right the way you are.
There is a certain level of ostracism that happens when you realize you are different from most of your peers, and it’s not that that can’t be played at by straight actors, it just feels even more gratifying when the actors of the characters you fall in love with have or are looking for female partners. It’s sort of like the girls obsessed with Mr. Bieber; he will not date many, if not any, of the girls who are obsessed with him, but there is that hope. They are in love with an image, but the image is based on truth.
My friend is astounded that I have read every lesbian novel and know every lesbian character on television. I feel that those two things are related, so is the fact that it is newsworthy that Sarah Paulson, a real live queer woman, is playing a queer character on television. All of these things are intertwined because it can feel isolating or lonely to notice that one is different or that one is not represented in the media the same way that others are. I read every young adult lesbian novel in the library because I wanted to see that maybe there were other girls feeling the way I did. I want to see that there are other actors out there that have dealt similar issues or maybe just want to sleep with other girls. In that search for love, there is a need to see that there is possibility and that either those girls that are like you have found love or that they might be looking for you.
Hope to see you on Sunday for the next LezCab! Here is a picture of all the beautiful ladies who will be featured.
LezCab Cast
Dusty Springfield Is Here and Queer In ‘Forever Dusty’ Off-Broadway
Kirsten Holly Smith is the driving force behind Forever Dusty, the new bio musical that follows the rise and fall of 60s British soul singer, Dusty Springfield. First, some Dusty 101. In a nutshell, Dusty Springfield (legal name Mary O’Brien) came to prominence as a “white girl singing black music” in the 1960s merging pop/disco music with R&B with her sexy, throaty one-of-a-kind voice. Dusty’s legacy has permeated pop culture over the last 30 years with film and television soundtracks (from Pulp Fiction to The L Word) regularly dipping into her discography, not to mention her direct influence on modern day British soul singers like Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, Adele and Duffy. What many Dusty fans don’t realize is just how out she actually was back in the 70s as an active participant in the underground LA lesbian scene (pre-80s era of Melissa Etheridge, KD and Ellen). Her long-term relationships with women are well-documented if you dig a bit, but it’s only now that her queerness is at the forefront of her story, in the new Off-Broadway play (co-written by and starring Smith).
The multi-talented Smith first started developing this idea back in 2006 when she received a grant from the University of California to write and perform a one-woman show based on the life of one of her heroes, Dusty. The project evolved into a screenplay and eventual musical while Smith developed her “Dusty” persona performing impersonation tribute shows (in full Dusty hair and makeup) at various nightclubs in New York and Los Angeles.
The finished product, Forever Dusty (playing Off-Broadway at the New World Stages), follows Dusty’s career from its girl-group beginnings to her astonishingly successful international solo career to her long-term relationship (with a female journalist – one of her several LTRs) and pressure from the British press to come out of the closet. I chatted with Kirsten Holly Smith to learn more about her personal road in bringing this play to the New York stage and why Dusty’s legacy remains so relevant in today’s pop culture and political landscape.
When/how did you become inspired by Dusty’s music and persona?
At first it was that voice!, the soul, the vulnerability, the raw emotion. The look, the beehive the thick black eye make-up. I wanted to know who this woman was. She just pulled me in. Where did this all come from? I began to intensely study her music, her story and to watch as much video of her as I could. As I got deeper into who she was, I knew that I had to share what I was discovering and I felt that the story in naturally leant itself to a musical format.
What connects you so deeply to this woman whose life you’ve devoted your work to since 2006?
What stands out most is her depth of humanity: her compassion, empathy and love for her fellow human being. She did not consider herself political but she made some profound choices in her life that left an impact on the world. She took a stand against Apartheid in South Africa and refused to play to segregated audiences, for which she was put under house arrest. She produced the first televised Motown revue in the UK which inspired a legion of fans overseas. I find it inspiring to tell this story for eight shows a week because it gives us all inspiration about what one person can really do if she follows her heart.
Describe your process in developing your live tribute shows into a full-fledged musical.
I started slowly, by singing her songs at open mic nights at The Gardenia Club in West Hollywood and writing monologues about her life in what I thought to be her voice. This eventually became the workshop production that was put up at the University of Southern California in 2006 and later produced by The Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, which is part of the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles. It was co-produced there by Jorja Fox. We had a great audience and critical response. I knew there was something in this story and decided to drive it forward to the final frontier for theatre, New York City, where Forever Dusty is currently running at New World Stages in the heart of the theatre district. A dream come true!
Why do you think she is such a popular icon for drag performers?
The wigs, the beehive, the eye lashes, the hand gestures: she is just a very unique talent who was larger than life in a lot of ways which I think that drag lends itself to. In many ways she is the ultimate form of femininity. I think drag often lends itself to extremes like that, whether it’s male or female drag. It’s the ability to explore gender roles and when you have someone who is an extreme example of the feminine or masculine, it lends itself to imitation, the ultimate form of flattery.
Dusty (left), Kirsten Holly Smith (right)
She’s depicted as being an active participant in the underground gay scene in the 70s. To what extent to do you attribute her demons with alcohol and drugs to be result of the British papers questioning her sexuality?
She was a very active participant in the gay scene in the 70s. I mean, I think she always had her demons, I just think that she was probably much more encouraged to explore who she was in that time. The 70s was pretty fantastic, an explosion really, especially in the gay community and she was mostly in the heart of LA at that time. I do think that her moving to LA was a result of the British papers relentlessly questioning her sexuality. It was a very dark period for her, much darker than I even explore in the show. I don’t shy away from it either but there were stories that people who knew her in LA told me that were heartbreaking. I think anytime you are using alcohol or drugs, there are extreme forms of your personality that come out and she definitely explored this side. She was an addict. She always struggled with the two parts of herself: shy Catholic closeted Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien and the public persona Dusty Springfield.
How would you say she’s influenced today’s current pop music scene?
She sparked “The Motown invasion” of the UK which was just as important to the UK as the British Invasion of the Beatles, Stones etc. was in America. She changed her name, her look from a shy awkward Catholic schoolgirl, Mary O’ Brien to a blonde bee-hived siren named Dusty Springfield. She directly influenced Bowie, Elton John, Elvis Costello and now Gaga and Madonna, all of whom made a point of creating new public personas for themselves. In the UK you can still hear the influence of Dusty with the great Adele, the late great Amy Winehouse, Duffy etc.
Do you ever perform your own original music?
I am dying to! This show has been all consuming and I am looking forward to writing again. I am working toward doing an album of original songs — stay tuned.
Who are some of your other favorite singers/songwriters, or other personal idols?
There are so many. I have very eclectic tastes. I am a huge KCRW fan, I get most of my new music from there. Voice wise: KD Lang, Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Patsy Cline, Kate Bush, Tina Turner. Rock n Roll queens: Suzi Quatro, Joan Jett, Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Nicks, Freddie Mercury. Real kick-ass musicians: Ani DiFranco, Carole King, The Beatles, Bob Dylan. New Music: Florence and the Machine, Adele. I would say that everyone on this list is an influence and a personal idol.
Are there any other individuals whose story you would like to adapt into a play?
There are quite a few stories that I have in the hopper, I’d like to keep them secret though, let them brew and see what happens. I have to say I think times have greatly changed and I respect and admire all playwrights because I do think it is a true calling. I don’t know if I am truly called to write plays but I am called to tell stories. There is something magical in seeing your play done night after night. Every night is a little bit different. To quote my Director Randal Myler, “You build an ice sculpture every night, watch it melt and start over the next day,” I love that. In the future, I would like to further explore the celluloid medium. I love the permanency of film and TV, how one has the ability and power to make your mark with a story that hopefully reaches a wider audience. Fingers crossed!
Check out Kirsten Holly Smith in Forever Dusty at the New World Stages in New York City
Actor Emily Grosland, On ‘Emotional Creatures’ and Being Genderqueer in Theater: The Autostraddle Interview
Several weeks ago, I introduced you to Eve Ensler‘s feelings-drenched new Off-Broadway play, Emotional Creature. To recap: the play chronicles what it is to be a teenage girl through a series of international stories, songs, dance and monologues and inspires girls all over the world to speak up, follow their dreams and live out loud. As I came home to research the phenomenally talented singer and dancer who embodied the lone queer character on stage, I stumbled upon Emily Grosland‘s essay, What It Means to be A Pangendered Actor, and knew the Auto-universe would develop a collective crush on her.
I chatted with Emily about scoring her dream role as Peter Pan, working with Eve Ensler, coming out as gay and later pangendered, and why Ellen is her personal hero.
Where did your roots in the performing arts begin?
My mother put my sister and I in dance class, starting at three years old, and every year my parents would ask us the same question: “Do you want to do the dance recital or do you want to go on a family vacation?” Because we didn’t have enough money for both, and every single year without any hesitation my sister and I would decided to do the dance recital and take dance classes. That’s where I really got started, and all my stage experience, it was dancing on stage in various tutus and sparkly things. I then started doing children’s theatre, I was very lucky that my home town had a great children’s theater program, The Children’s Theater of Elgin in Illinois. My first play I was a fork in Beauty and the Beast, and I wore yellow pajamas with a big silver fork attached to my head in middle school and later in high school and throughout college I did community theatre.
When I went into college at Washington University in St. Louis I kind of decided that I wasn’t going to perform anymore,mainly because I’ve never been the best – the star of the show.I was always the fork in the background.Within two weeks I saw a posting for auditions for the school musical and I couldn’t help myself and I went. And I got cast in it, I was one of two freshman that got in, and that kind of sealed my fate actually.
How did you wind up with your first big role as Peter Pan?
Every time I enter an audition room — I could be auditioning for Romeo and Juliet — the people behind the table will be like, “Oh my gosh, have you ever played Peter Pan, you’d be the perfect Peter Pan.” I think that’s what automatically pops into people’s head when they see an androgynous female. So I just felt that Peter Pan is sort of my place. You know how most girls in musical theater are like, ‘Oh, I’m going to play Lori in Oklahoma, etc? That’s never been what people see in me. So I guess we’re sort of a natural fit. If I could play Peter Pan for the rest of my life, I would.
Starring in Peter Pan, The Grinch & Emotional Creature
What led you to audition for Emotional Creature?
When I first moved to New York three years ago I was auditioning for everything, and trying to fit in with the other girls at auditions. I would put on my little dress, do my hair and my makeup, and stand in line and try to be on par with everyone there. Then I started taking classes with a wonderful woman, Jen Waldman and she has just really inspired me and made me very comfortable. After a while I began bringing in audition pieces that I never thought I would realistically be cast in, but things I dreamed of being cast in — like Dodger in Oliver. I was kind of expecting her reaction to be like, ‘well that’s fun, but its not going to happen’, and it wasn’t. And everyone else in the room was encouraging and supportive of these unconventional male/female roles as well. There was something that shifted in me, having other people see what I really want to do and actually be OK with it, and not think I was a crazy person. It made me sort of realize the thing about me that I felt like I had been trying to hide in auditions, because I thought it was the thing that made me not right for specific female roles, was actually the thing that I think it is my strongest suit. I think that the thing that’s quirky about me, I think that this is true of all actors and people in general, is the thing that I thought would keep me from getting work, it was the the thing that actually is what makes me stand out, and it’s what gets me work.
I had that epiphany right before auditions for Emotional Creature took place. I had already started going to auditions in my full-on “boy” getup and the Emotional Creature character description stated “androgynous to feminine girls between the ages of 16 and 19” so I really fit perfectly! I didn’t have an agent so I wound up going to an open call and at like my 5th callback I show up there’s Eve Ensler, one of my heroes and I have to do her monologue in front of her! I did the audition in my vest and my button down and my tie and my spiky hair with ukulele and they liked it!
How would you describe Eve Ensler?
She’s just an incredible human being and I think that’s the thing that I’ve taken away from knowing her, is her bravery. I love how when we’re in a middle of a rehearsal, and you have an idea of a crazy thing that should happen on stage and you suggest it to Eve, a lot of times playwrights or director’s will hesitate, “Well, let’s think about that, maybe this will happen, maybe that would happen” but Eve’s response almost always is “that is so brilliant, let’s try it. Go.” Everything is “let’s try it”, and if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work and we move on, but she is so willing to go for it, and she believes so much that what she’s doing is important and that she’s going to change the world and its going to save people’s lives and it s going to move people, and its going to start a movement. It’s not that she’s unrealistic, it’s just that she’s willing to leap off the cliff and make a mistake. And that is so inspiring. I think the greatest lesson I’ve learned from her, is even if you are afraid to do something, you have to do it anyway.
Starring in Emotional Creature
Have you seen The Vagina Monologues live?
Yes, I was part of — I designed the set actually — for a production of The Vagina Monologues in college. It was in our church on campus, and our church had stained glass windows on the outside, so my set was a giant stain glass window of a vagina, it lit up.
Amazing. How did you feel about the Vagina Monologues when you were first exposed to it?
Up until that point, I had been exposed to much more musical theater than anything else, and in the musical theater canon, the roles are pretty standard, there’s a girl in a dress and she’s falling in love with the boy in the cowboy hat, and a bad guy who wants to ruin it. Sometimes there’s a wise old lady, that’s usually the standard. And I don’t really fit any of those people… The part that I usually fit in standard musical theater is the comedic sidekick on the side. But, The Vagina Monologues was one of the first times that I really felt I really experienced that sort of connection to characters and roles that I felt like really were describing me. The production that I saw, the production that we did at my school, there was a trangender MTF person in the show, and she was the first experience I had ever had with any transperson and I was just so incredibly moved by her willingness to just be 100% herself in front of everyone. The fact that she didn’t apologize for it, and the fact that Eve had written a show that she could fit into it.
With her Emotional Creature co-stars
What do you identify most with your character in Emotional Creature?
You know, when received my first audition monologue in the show called “The White Rug” I was pretty blown away. I had never met Eve Ensler before, but reading it I was literally thinking, “How does she know me? How does she know my voice?” It’s a hard question to answer because I developed the character around who I am, so to me the character is a younger version of myself. Back when I wasn’t as sure of who I am and what I am. My character knows that she’s gay although, like me, she doesn’t really like labeling it. She’s still sort of figuring out the gender thing. I personally identify as genderqueer and my character I feel is sort of on the way figuring that out.
I’d love to hear your coming out story.
Okay! Well, after dating a guy throughout high school (who is also gay and now one of my best friends) I fell ridiculously in love with a girl freshman year of college. I went about experimenting with my feelings in sort of an unusual way… At the time I was dancing all the time and taking a choreography class so I actually choreographed various a pieces on figuring out who I was. My first piece was about her and we became really good friends. This was a very liberal arts college! I know it sounds like I’m a crazy person.
No, that’s so fascinating!
It was like how I admitted to myself, and I choreographed this piece and I kind of realized it was about being in love with her. And I was like, “Oh my god I’m in love with this girl, I am totally gay.” I then wrote a second piece that was about telling everyone, which I then proceeded to do. I told my parents, they were wonderful about it, I was just so lucky. My coming out story is so much better than anyone else I had ever heard. I figured out freshman year and within a few months, I had told everyone, I mean it was really fast. Then I dated a girl in college, for about a year and half, my first relationship, we met at gay straight alliance, and then I proceeded to date boys and girls off and on a little bit. I believe very strongly that my sexuality is not black and white, just like I believe my gender is a panorama of identities, I think that my sexuality is as well. And although its been a long time since I’ve been attracted to a guy, I still reserve the right to be bisexual if I want to be. I did a lot of marching when I was living in California for Prop 8 and that was really the first time I had really felt what it was to be hated for being gay. I felt it firsthand, walking down the street and actually have someone holding the hand of their child on the other side of the fence yelling horrible things at us. It made me really realize how lucky I was, that I had been raised on the other side of that fence, that I had grown up with supportive people and I had grown up in the community theater world and, I just didn’t have that internalized homophobia that so many people have and I don’t know if I would’ve been strong enough to overcome it like some people struggle with.
And how did you come to write the piece about being genderqueer, was that your second coming out, or does that kind of go hand and hand with being gay for you?
It’s funny because when I wrote it and put it up there, I didn’t even think anything of it. Because I always been kind of been a tomboy but I kind of go back and forth. I can be the girliest of girls and wear my little sundress, but I also am more comfortable wearing my sweater-vest and tie. I love my short hair and I walk a little more masculine than most girls, and I have always identified with being the white knight and not being the princess. Everyone knew this about me, it was never a secret.
So when I wrote the bio piece for my website, I didn’t think it was going to have any reaction… so I was a little surprised when my mom read it she was like ‘so what is this pangendered thing?’
I realize now that it’s so engrained in peoples minds what is male and female. I’m continually surprised by that, and so when I do tell people I’m pangendered or genderqueer, it has more affect on people than I thought it would. I think because it’s so important to people what color blanket the baby has on them, and it just seems arbritary to me to be honest. As far as making it public, I want to make it clear to casting directors that this role in Emotional Creature and roles like Peter Pan are the ones I want to be playing. I’m perfectly happy playing the girly girl as well, but I think a shift happened in me and made me want to work in a way that I feel like I’m doing something, that I’m representing something important, and I just felt like putting that on there puts out to the professional world, that thats important to me, and hopefully that will lead me to jobs that I also feel strongly about personally.
Who are some of your biggest inspirations or someone you greatly admire?
You know this is going to be so cliche, and I know that every lesbian out there is going to roll her eyes at me, but Ellen DeGeneres. I used to watch Ellen, the sitcom with my mom but we never talked about Ellen being gay. It was just something universal that my mom and I could enjoy and laugh at together and the fact that Ellen was gay was beside the point. I think that’s how I was raisedto be accepting and open-minded. So Ellen had a special place in my heart because of that, because of when she came out, watching that, and not even knowing that was who I was, I just knew that I loved her, I just knew that I identified with her, I didn’t know why, and growing up as she had a talk show, and her mom wrote a book called Love, Ellen, that I wound up giving to my mother after I came out. I think what I now appreciate about her as an adult is the fact that people from everywhere love her, like people who hate gay people love her, and I notice that part of it that pisses me off on some level, but on another level it’s a stepping stone. I think the fact that she is who she is, in the public eye, she doesn’t apologize for it, she doesn’t make it her main identifying factor, it’s just a part of who she is, I think that’s the best thing that she could do, for the gay movement.
So, our readers will be dying to know… are you single or taken?
I just got engaged! Her name is Nell and we met out in San Francisco. We actually met on match.com and we’ve been together for 6 years. We’ve lived in San Fran, LA together and now we drove across the country together for New York. We actually each proposed to each other and gave one another rings at two separate times. One in Berkeley by the beach where I first said I loved her and then again in Minnewaska State Park upstate New York in the fall. So we kind of got engaged twice.
What does your fiance do for work?
Nothing even remotely related to theater, she works in a laboratory, she’s a science nerd.
Do you have wedding plans?
We’re kind of positive that we don’t want a big wedding…we’d rather save the money for a down payment for a house, or something practical. So right now we’re enjoying being engaged and at some point we’ll elope or get married in my parents back yard or something like that.
Check out Emily in Emotional Creature at the Pershing Square Signature Center (42nd Street and 10th Ave) in New York City
Follow Emily on Twitter @EmGrosland
We’re Queering the F*ck Out of Musical Theater, Wanna Help?
Dreaming of a place filled with singing lesbians.
While the other lesbians in my high school were playing softball, I was the girl who did every show, headed the drama club, and sang in the halls. Essentially, I was Rachel Berry, but less abrasive and with a lot more black in my wardrobe. I rented documentaries on Broadway from the library and dreamed of the day I would get to be up on that stage. I was excited to go off to college with my tap shoes in tow, where I was assured I would meet girls like me: girls who lived for musical theatre and wanted to make out with other girls.
Upon arriving at conservatory, I was excited to be around so many out queer people. I felt happy hearing all the boys talk about the other boys they wanted to date. “You guys are just like me!!!!” I would have said, if anyone had stopped competing for the spotlight long enough to talk to me. After several weeks, I figured out that I was pretty much the only self-identified lesbian in the whole school. I had entered a field that was seemingly devoid of lesbians.
This lack of lesbians has led to some interesting experiences over the years. I have repeatedly stayed in the closet because of assumptions that I don’t correct. I’m never sure how to respond in these situations because my personal orientation has nothing to do with the work I am doing. But at the same time, all of my work is based around sexuality. Most of the work I am doing is pretending to fall in love with men. There is an assumption that women in musical theatre are straight. Sometimes I correct it, but sometimes I’m standing in front of Sutton Foster and 50 other workshop students and it just doesn’t seem like a great time to come out of the closet.
Not a good time to come out.
When Rachel Kunstadt, along with co-creator/producers Thirza Defoe and Teresa Lotz, came to me and asked if I would be interested in performing in Lezcab, I jumped around in excitement for a bit before wondering why nobody had ever done this before. I am so excited to be part of something that recognizes, showcases, and celebrates queer women in musical theatre. It’s nice to actually do a song without having to flip the pronouns in my head — I get to do what I love without having to face assumptions about my sexuality. I wish that I had this as my confused and lonely adolescent-self, which is why we’re bringing a little piece of queer lady musical theatre to those of you not able to visit it in person.
Here is a clip of the amazing talented Marie Eife singing “Never Neverland” by Scott Alan from the first LezCab. Maggie Keenan-Bolger will also tell you a little bit about her younger days.
Rachel on starting Lezcab:
“I started LezCab because I’ve been involved in musical theatre my entire life, and I’ve witnessed a huge community of gay men in musical theatre, yet there’s very little representation of queer women in musical theatre. People always talk about how open and accepting (and queer) musical theatre is, but I’ve found that it’s geared towards men. I thought that there has to be a group of us out there, and seeing as the community structure didn’t exist, I decided to create it. I approached Teresa and Thirza, who are classmates of mine at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU/Tisch, and they were on board.
Being a queer writer in musical theatre, I definitely see a lack of material out there. There aren’t many female musical theatre writers to begin with, and so just seeing women writing is amazing. While the industry has many queer male musical theatre writers, which has been the case for a long time, there is not much as to queer content in musical theatre, male or female.”
I was super excited walking into rehearsal. These girls were so talented and cute and queer! If we’d all been in an audition room with 500 other girls up for the same role, we would’ve blended in with the masses, so it was nice to realize that I wasn’t alone. I don’t yet know if my experiences mirror any of the other performers’, but I do know this is fairly new territory and we finally have a venue where we can explore questions.
One of the performers I’ve been singing alongside is Holly Marie Dunn, who’s so talented and has an amazing fiancée who records all of her performances, which mean you guys get to see them. Isn’t that cute? Here’s a recording of Holly singing “Expectations of a Man.”
Because we don’t all have amazing fiancées who record our singing, Lezcab is looking for someone with an awesome camera and some skills to record future performances. If you’re in the New York area and think this might be you, please contact lezcab1 [at] gmail [dot] com. Otherwise, we hope to see you at the next “Lezcab” on Dec. 16th. RSVP here! There’s an after party, so if you want to get your drink on with some cute girls, you can RSVP for the party here. If you’re far away, don’t worry! You can send us good vibes and wait for some more stories and cute singing girls in video form.
“Tales of a Fourth Grade Lesbo” Tells It Like It Was
Ah, elementary school. Fingerpaints, class pets, pudding cups. Enough Nicoles that you had to move to last initials. Very political cafeteria seating decisions. Fighting with your boyfriend because you kept putting your arm around him. Getting boilingly angry when student council election results fell along gender lines. Kissing your fellow softball second-basewoman in the batting shed on a triple dare and then feeling oddly good about it. Uh. Anyone? . . . anyone?
Remember this game? {Photo by Erica Rae Brown}
If this sounds familiar, and you live in the Los Angeles area, get thee to the Carrie Hamilton Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse this weekend, December 8th and/or 9th, for Gina Young’s hilarious and moving Tales of a Fourth Grade Lesbo. There you will find, finally, a theatrical representation of 90s childhood that doesn’t shy away from the hard questions, the many subtle types of bullying, the frequent dance routines, or the weird Barbie sex. You’ll find a diverse cast of twelve women who “had a blast buying sneakers together” and are great at playing kids savvy enough to make some keen observations about fourth grade culture but cute and realistic enough to still embody it. And you’ll find a poignant argument against limiting self-expression for people of any age. (Honestly, if none of that rings a bell, go anyway – you’ll laugh regardless, and you’ll learn a lot.)
Naserin Bogado plays Billy, who is just misunderstood. {Photo by Erica Rae Brown}
Writer/director Gina Young remembers the queer elementary school experience as “a complex navigation of land mines” – sleepovers, for example, and labels, and nosy little sisters. In a series of overlapping stories, Young’s characters weave through the resulting explosions, with varying results. Help comes in the form of repurposed pop culture touchstones (queer Grease!!), the wisdom of hindsight, and the power of imagination. When one character says to another, after a definite Thing, “We can’t actually talk about this. It’s not a thing. There isn’t even a language for it?” it’s heartbreaking, but since this is a play and not actually my life, instead of brooding in the backseat of a red Minivan for six hours, the stage directions call for the scene to “gradually escalate into a full-on, over the top S/M parody with spanking.” It’s theatrical catharsis at its finest.
Nadia Vazquez as Penelope, also misunderstood. {Photo by Erica Rae Brown}
Tales of a Fourth Grade Lesbo was born in the bejeweled adolescent brains of Young and her co-writer Amanda-Faye Jimenez – there’s “a kernel of our actual experiences” in each of the show’s vignettes, says Young – and grew along with them until it finally reached the stage this June, in a sold-out run at the Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. After that, it planned to rollerskate directly to the Pasadena Playhouse for some summertime shows, but hit a rough patch when a higher-up there was uncomfortable with the title. Luckily, the local queer and arts communities threw their collective weight behind an e-mail writing campaign, and the show is going on. Young says she’s “thrilled we were able to come to an agreement that allows us to present the show in Pasadena,” and promises that the show will be “all the better” for the delay.
The Bedroom Girls. If you look closely, you can see their imaginary Skip-Its. {Photo by Erica Rae Brown}
You lucky Californians can buy tickets here. If you can’t make it, and you’re as sad as I am about that, never fear – a DVD release is in the works. Find out more by hitting up mastermind Gina Young at www.ginayoung.com; gina@ginayoung.com, or on Twitter @ohginayoung. And Californians, pull a couple of ponytails for me.
The Birds and the Bees: Let’s Talk About Sex With Maggie And Rachel!
Ali’s Team Pick:
Maggie Keenan-Bolger is at it again! And this time, she’s teamed up with another creator of theatre, Rachel Sullivan. They’re busy creating The Birds and the Bees: Unabridged. It’s a play about female sexuality that explores themes like sexuality throughout life, discussions surrounding female sexuality and representations in the media. When asked why now and why this subject, Keenan-Bolger and Sullivan said:
We believe this is a very important topic to discuss right now for many reasons: the current political battles/war on women; a lack of positive representations of women’s sexuality in the media; the fact that female sexuality is largely defined by men; the need for comprehensive, accurate sex education; the limited knowledge young people and adults have about their bodies; and the list goes on and on.
This is a devised piece, which means they are not starting with a script but are rather creating the play with the input of everyone involved. And with a hugely diverse cast of 20 women from around New York City with ages ranging from 20-70, this piece of fine theatre is almost certain to have something for everyone. Some of the women talk about sex and sexuality for a living, others not so much. Each actor and co-creator has completely different life experiences. And you can add your experience to the mix!
As with Keenan-Bolger’s last piece, there’s a survey. It’s totally anonymous and open to people of all gender identities and expressions. Their goal is to hit 1,000 surveys by January (right now, they’re a little over 600.) Can we help them reach their goal, Straddlers? You bet we can! In the name of sex, theatre, queer artists, representation of women in the media and women in general, let’s all take this survey! (I did!)
rehearsal photos by Marielle Solan
Keenan-Bolger and Sullivan will be posting more on the show’s facebook page regarding their upcoming Kickstarter campaign in January, so be sure to follow along. They will also be announcing the show dates and location, performances to be held in March.
Girls Have Feelings in Eve Ensler’s “Emotional Creature” Off-Broadway
Eve Ensler changed the world with The Vagina Monologues, her stage show based on interviews with women from around the world discussing their bodies, sexuality and the violence they have encountered in their lives. Since its inception in 1996, the play has been performed in thousands of cities from NYC to Cairo and was the inspiration for V-Day, a global activist movement to combat violence against women and girls.
Today, Ensler expands her voice for women and girls with Emotional Creature: the secret life of girls around the world, a musical theatre piece based on her 2010 bestselling book that chronicles what it is to be a teenage girl through a series of new stories, songs, dance and monologues,obvs. The multi-ethnic cast comprised of six talented actresses (Ashley Bryant, Molly Carden, Emily Grosland, Joaquina Kalukango, Sade Namei and Olivia Oguma) more than hold the stage as they each morph into different personalities across a variety of countries and cultures over the course of 90 minutes. The issues are all over the place, ranging Facebook profile pic obsession, to body image and eating disorders, to sex and abortion in a religious family. In an early memorable and lively scene a girl recounts how her parents made her “fix” the protruding nose she was born and content with. Later, a young woman in the Congo confesses in a series of showstopping scenes how she coped and maintained spirit while being forced into sexual slavery. There’s a bit of emotional whiplash, but this is an Eve Ensler script after all and the overall feeling of community among women is palpable.
Emily Grosland is striking as a babygay rocking an alternative lifestyle haircut and queer skinny jeans/vest outfit reflecting on kissing a girl, more than liking it, and her feelings of betrayal when the other girl ignores her at school. Her melancholy performance is full of the daydream longing we all experience as we fall in unrequited love for the very first time. I was especially drawn to this actress (who identifies as pangender) so look for an interview with Emily next week!
If you are visiting NYC over the holidays this is the perfect thing to take your mom and little sister to. Emotional Creature at the Pershing Square Signature Center (42nd Street and 10th Ave).
You Should Go: LezCab New York City
If you’ve been craving a Broadway fix of the Sapphic kind, you’re going to be very excited to learn about LezCab, a monthly cabaret by, for, and about queer women. And if now you’re thinking, Hmmm, LezCab sounds familiar, it’s because the brand-new monthly event kicked off its awesomness during International Autostraddle Meetup Week, when Autostraddle’s very own risen star Haviland Stillwell performed and all proceeds went toward this very website and Unicorn Plan-It. This may be a brand new event on the New York City entertainment circuit, but it’s one you’re gonna want to get to know really fast, trust me!
Mary Kate Morrissey performing at LezCab October 2012
via Tracy Wise
The ladies behind LezCab are all MFA students in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts: there’s Grammy Award winning artist Thirza Defoe, librettist/lyricist and Autostraddle bruncher extraordinare Rachel Kunstadt, and composer, playwright, and musician Teresa Lotz. In their own words, the creators of LezCab say that the program “seeks to produce and host musical-theatre events by and about queer womyn in order to foster support and a forum for queer womyn in the musical theatre community,” but the vibe is super inclusive at the same time. “We’re creating a community here, not an elitist cult,” the FAQ page explains in response to a query about having to be a queer woman to participate. “If you’re an ally, you’re a part of this! We might not be singing songs about you, but you’re just as important to us!”
The inaugural LezCab boasted a packed house and was hosted by Maggie Keenan-Bolger. She will return to host November’s LezCab, which takes place next Monday, November 26th. That performance will feature In The Heights and Bring It On’s Stephanie Klemons, as well as many other talented queer women in the musical theatre community, from seasoned Broadway professionals to up-and-coming talent. It’ll be like Glee but with more openly queer characters, less horrific plot lines, and absolutely zero Ryan Murphy — plus it’ll be real life not teevee! Which is to say, it will be perfect. Have fun!
LezCab takes place next Monday, November 26th at The Duplex Cabaret and Piano Bar, located at 61 Christopher Street in the West Village. The performance begins at 9:30pm. Reservation required: call 212-255-5438 or visit www.theduplex.com. For more information, visit the LezCab Facebook event page.
‘5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche’ is Theatre of the Absurd in New York City
5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche is the legit title of a little off-off Broadway show now playing at the Soho Playhouse in New York City after a successful run at the NYC Fringe Festival last summer.
The plot goes something like this: It is 1956 and somewhere in middle America the “widows” of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein (played by Caitlin Chuckta, Rachel Farmer, Megan Johns, Thea Lux, and Maari Suorsa) are having their annual quiche breakfast. Why quiche? Well, as the leader of the society tells the audience, “The egg is as close to the Lord Jesus as a piece of food can get.” Everything is peachy until an atomic bomb hits and all of a sudden the women are facing possible starvation with all but one of the quiches locked on the outside of a self-sealing door.
Although 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche feels like an extended Saturday Night Live sketch, it somehow manages to be simultaneously absurdest parody, socially conscious, touching and totally original. It also is darkly comic as the characters parody the stereotypes of repressed 1950s women, literally taking a nuclear attack to force the ladies into coming out to themselves and each other. The playwrights (oddly, two men) have an interesting way of desensitizing the word “lesbian,” with randomly chosen male and female audience members declaring “I’m a lesbian” from their seats in the final minutes of the show. I told you it’s weird, but worth it.
5 Lesbians is running at the Soho Playhouse through November 20. I guarantee you will never look at a quiche the same way again.