Meet your doom--maybe--with Split Britches at La MaMa

Above: Lois Weaver
Below: Peggy Shaw
Split Britches brings Unexploded Ordnances (UXO)
to La MaMa for its US premiere.
(photo: Matt Delbridge)

Unexploded Ordnances (UXO), a US premiere from famed lesbian theater duo Split Britches (Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw), takes inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's political satire Dr. Strangelove (1964). It works from a similar wackadoodle take on the threat of nuclear disaster within reach of itchy Twitter--I mean, trigger--fingers. A top-flight general (Shaw) is stationed by a desk and computer monitor where he keeps track of time and apparently takes calls from gal pals. Weaver, referred to by Shaw as "Madame Mr. President Sir," initially slumbers at a far curve of circled "Situation Room" tables. They communicate via landline phones, although sometimes the phone rings, it's not Weaver, and Shaw breaks into randy old pop songs.

The situation at La MaMa, then, is less tense than Shaw's tracking of the countdown clock might suggest. Yes, the show itself must finish by the end of sixty minutes, but Billy Ward and the Dominoes's "60 Minute Man" is one of those randy songs, and there seems to be plenty of time for studly Shaw to bop out to that. Yes, something must be done about the impending doom we're trying to track on confusing overhead monitors, but there's lots of time to field a council of elders from among the oldest of us in attendance. And, no, although lined up with other greyheads, I failed to make the cut.

Directed by Weaver and written by the pair with Hannah Maxwell, the show contains clever text aligned like precision-cut puzzle pieces (best delivered by saucy Shaw) and room for whatever unpredictables the elders might bring to the table. (One woman seemed obsessed with the mysterious whereabouts of one Tiffany Ariana Trump, offspring of Marla Maples and POS...oops, I mean, POTUS. Now that I think about it, Tiff does seem to have been out of the public eye for a suspiciously long time...hmmm.)

Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) is more chuckle-provoking and captivating than Kubrick--well, of course! it's lesbian!--with the additional benefit of encouraging the audience to determine not only how the play will go but also, you gotta hope, how the rest of our lives will go. Folks came up with some really good stuff!

Part of The Public Theater's now-closed Under the Radar Festival, and originally scheduled to end last weekend, Unexplode Ordnances (UXO) fortunately continues tonight, Saturday, at 8pm and Sunday at 4pm. For information and tickets, click here.

La MaMa -- Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street (between Bowery and Second Avenue), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Life on the Fringe: "Inexcusable Fantasies" [UPDATE}

Susan McCully

The New York International Fringe Festival

(now through August 25)

Say, do you know where you're going to be this Saturday afternoon? Specifically at 4:45pm? (Or, as I just learned, tonight at 7:30!) Well, I do.

You'll be in the East Village, at The Theater at the 14th Street Y, seeing Inexcusable Fantasies, a two-woman play written by Susan McCully and performed by McCully with Rachel Hirshorn. Inexcusable Fantasies takes up musings and memories from the perspective of an aging lesbian--one with humble charm, wired nerves and uproarious humor to burn--in a complicated relationship with her own fluctuating libido. Over seventy minutes, the tale spans several scenes, including one with a couple of rival job seekers nearly coming to blows over one's driving lust for Martha Stewart, the media empress painstakingly analyzed and finally deemed "just the perfect erotic blend of butch/femme in motion." Both actresses are gifted with deft physical and verbal adaptability--McCully, enormously so. Her total embodiment of a biker dyke trying to flex her powers of seduction is simply perfection.

This is one Fringe show that makes and keeps its promise, and I predict you're going to have fun.

You're welcome.

Director: Eve Muson

Last chance: See it Saturday, August 24 at 4:45pm. Get tickets!

WAIT, WAIT! There's a show tonight at 7:30, too!!!!

Theater at 14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues, close to 1st), Manhattan
Entrance at the big orange banner (directions)

For complete information on the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival, click here.

Life on the Fringe: "Pussy"

Maura Halloran in Pussy
(photo by Claire Rice)

The New York International Fringe Festival

(now through August 25)

Predictable double entendres abound in Pussy, a one-woman show on the ups and mostly downs of a bi-cultural lesbian affair, written and performed by Canadian-born, San Francisco-based actress Maura Halloran. Just short of an hour, the work leans heavily on character sketches and physical theater techniques, especially in the form of clever mimicking of feline behavior. Yes, an especially nosy cat--who stages one hilarious and pivotal intervention late in the story--is one of four characters the lithe and sly Halloran portrays. She also impersonates a sweet, vulnerable Canadian woman, her snobby, exploitative English lover and their watchful Russian landlady. Halloran's often uncomfortably sharp talent for the subtleties of psychic shifts and facial expressions are the main reasons to catch this otherwise modest production.






Pussy

Director: Claire Rice
Movement Director: Julianne Fawsitt

Upcoming performances:

Thursday, August 15 at 8:15pm
Sunday, August 18 at 3:30pm
Wednesday, August 21 at 2pm
Thursday, August 22 at 9:30pm

The Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre
115 MacDougal Street (between West 3rd Street and Minetta), Manhattan
(map/directions)

For complete information on the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival, click here.

"HOT" fun in the summertime

Keeping this short and sweet: Get your butts over to Dixon Place's HOT! Festival tonight for the closeout of The Loudest Show on Earth (10pm). I don't know if any tickets remain--likely not--but you have my permission to mug someone for theirs.

Loud and hilarious, potty-mouthed Lea DeLaria--who now bills herself as "the fisting consultant for Orange is the New Black"--and motor-mouthed Maggie Cassella rarely slacken the pace in this tight, roughly hour-long gallop through the personal and the political. Again, let me keep it simple: What have you and your best friends been talking and thinking about lately? Okay. You'll find all of that right here but wilder and wackier than you could ever have imagined.

But beyond the stand-ups and character sketches, there's also delicious music. So good to hear DeLaria swing and swoop her way through "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" again and to subvert her own presentational subversion with a sweet rendition of "I Enjoy Being A Girl" while looking like the second coming of Fiorello La Guardia. And later Cassella steps up to the challenge of translating DeLaria's fierce scat singing into English--yeah, right--cracking DeLaria up in the process.

Also repeating tonight on the HOT! bill: Sacha Yanow's solo performance, The Prince at 7pm.

Yanow depicts the prince as a prisoner of her own bedroom--"a fantastical palace...deep in the well of loneliness"--charmingly rendered in her own drawings, which create the set and props. Innocence and sophistication, raw vulnerability and the strength of creative imagination interact in this intimate piece about learning to take a chance on the world and yourself. Yanow has a great face for performance: Under a set of over-determined eyebrows--dashes of black face paint--and madly sculpted hair, she can fix us with a gaze of sad, pleading eyes or a flash of delight. She's a good physical comic with attention to detail and timing.

For program and ticket information about these and other HOT! shows, click here.

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey), Manhattan
(directions)

"Lavender Review" e-zine plans issue on lesbians in dance

Mary Meriam edits Lavender Review, an international, biannual e-zine dedicated to poetry and art by, about, and for lesbians, whatever might appeal to a lesbian readership. For the December 2013, she plans to publish poems and images about lesbians in dance.  

She's asking: "Are there lesbian dancers? Are there lesbian poets who write about dance? Lesbians who make art about dance? Lesbian dancers who write poems?" 

If you're interested in contributing to this issue of Lavender Review--or know lesbian dancers or poets who should be included--please reach out to Mary at lavender.review@gmail.com.

Acclaim for controversial film about lesbians at Cannes fest

'Blue Is The Warmest Color,' Lesbian Film At Cannes With Explicit Sex, Draws Praise From Critics
by Christopher Rudolph, The Huffington Post, May 24 2013

Women, spirituality, healthy relationships: a talk at BAAD

I'm happy to announce that I've been asked to give a talk at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD) on the topic of spirituality and healthy relationships, specifically for queer women and transpeople.

Sunday, February 17 (5:30-7:30pm)

Admission is free, and this informal, interactive talk will be followed by a free screening of Cheryl Dunye's film, co-written with Sarah Schulman, Mommy is Coming ("a sassy, raunchy, romantic sex comedy set in the edgy underground of Berlin where love and taboo affairs collide.")

Light refreshments will be served.

Click here to RSVP or call 718-482-5223.

BAAD
841 Baretto Street, The Bronx
(map/directions)

Time to get "Writeous"

Writeous! 

Friday, January 11 

(7:30pm; doors open at 6:30pm)

at the Brecht Forum

An evening of readings, performances, and music celebrating Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice's Lesbian Writer's Fund and supporting its Global LGBT Arts Fund.

Featuring the words of Urvashi Vaid, Lenelle Moise, Staceyann Chin, Jacqueline Woodson; the music of Imani Uzuri; and beats by DJ Tikka Masala

$20 (No one turned away for lack of funds)
Food and WitchesBrew drinks available for purchase

Venue is wheelchair accessible through ramp in rear courtyard. If you need any further information about accessibility, please email development@astraeafoundation.org

For tickets, click here.

Brecht Forum
451 West Street (between Bank and Bethune Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Margaret Morrison's "Home in Her Heart"

Margaret Morrison and Ericka L. Hart in Home in Her Heart

Home in Her Heart, a new play by Margaret Morrison--better known for her sharp and personable tap dancing--deals with the complexities of race and queer identity in a particularly fraught time for the world. It is 1939. Hitler's shadow looms over Great Britain, and two popular American entertainers based in London--a singing, tap dancing male-impersonator and her gifted pianist--face a wrenching decision. They must evacuate. Still, as difficult as it will be to leave secure careers, that may be the least of their problems.

Both women, they are deeply in love and, quite clearly, in lust. One is white and Jewish (Morrison), the other, Black and Christian (Ericka L. Hart). The dilemma of returning together, openly, as a couple to their segregated homeland and, in the case of the pianist, a potentially homophobic family, cause the lovers to painfully confront assumptions they have made about their individual lives and choices, their treasured, private relationship and how they relate to the outside world.

Someone told me that, since its initial showing in April at the 2012 Left Out Festival (created by the play's director Cheryl King), Home in Her Heart has been reworked to beef up the characterizations. After all, a two-character play--and one addressing issues of this magnitude and consequence--really needs to have characters with depth and plausibility. This enhancement, with more backstory for each character, occasionally makes the evening feel protracted. Luckily, the two actresses make it work.

Morrison brings her fine-tuned physical expressiveness and sincerity to every single moment, even if her personality sometimes projects a bit too much for King's tiny Stage Left Studio. Hart with her more understated gleam, her blend of gentleness and contained pride, seems better suited to the closeness of the studio's space. Claire Hicks (Hart's character) is a formerly straight, proper, church-going widow who likes to insist that the dynamic, devoted Jimmie LeRoy (Morrison) seduced her. The pair's erotic chemistry is frank and believable.

If all that's not enough, throw in a few brief tap routines for Morrison in a man-tailored stripe-suit, for which the great Brenda Bufalino was choreography consultant.

Cynthia Hilts contributed the soundtrack of piano solos.

Home in Her Heart continues at Stage Left Studio on November 2, 10, 13 and 27, December 4, 11 and 17 at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Stage Left Studio
214 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), 6th Floor, Manhattan
(map/directions)

Karma Mayet Johnson's "Indigo"

Karma Mayet Johnson

I should have figured that Karma Mayet Johnson's Indigo: a Blues Opera--featuring her text, composition, lyrics, choreography, direction and charismatic performance--would bring out almost everyone who's anyone in New York's vibrant Black lesbian community...and anyone who's hip in the Black arts community and then some...and then some more...and then everyone else.

I should have figured, too, that since Dixon Place comps press but does not reserve seats for press--an unnecessary holdover from the old, informal setup at Ellie Covan's tiny Bowery loft--I might end up, for the very first time, stuffed into a corner of the theater's balcony, even though I showed up early--or what would normally be early. Lucky to have that rail-side seat, though, since there were people dragging chairs they managed to find somewhere to sit behind me a couple of rows deep.

I regret it if you were not one of the roughly half-million smart people crammed into Dixon Place last night, for Indigo was a one-night-only affair. Unfair.

Can we meet up again, some time-traveling time, with handsome Bell (Ashley Brockington) and honey-sweet LizaSue (Karma Mayet Johnson), two brave, uppity women in love taking the Underground Railroad to freedom? I want to go there again and take you, too, to experience this very different slave story. If the Dixon Place sound sometimes muffled details of speech and singing, enough emotion and narrative were conveyed by carved, gestural movement and bluesy sensuality.

Visit This Is Karma, and keep watch for the possible, desirable reappearance of LizaSue and Bell.

Have you read Lisa Cohen's "All We Know"?

Read This Book: Lisa Cohen’s “All We Know”
by Hilton Als, The New Yorker, March 12, 2012

"All We Know" by Lisa Cohen
by Courtney Gillette, Lamda Literary, July 10, 2012

***

Well, to answer my own question, no. At least, not yet. But last night, I went to a dramatic reading by its author, Lisa Cohen, two brilliant theater performers--Moe Angelos and Camelita Tropicana--and renowned makeup artist Dick Page.

All We Know: The Passions of Esther Murphy, Mercedes de Acosta and Madge Garland--directed by Sarah Krohn and presented at Dixon Place--has inspired me to seek out Cohen's All We Know: Three Lives (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2012), the biography of three queer modernists encircled by illustrious friends. Nearly two hours, intermission-less and intricately dense, the reading's effectiveness as theater only came in variously witty fits and starts, and I'm convinced the book will be much more fun. I found Page (the non-actor, reading as British Vogue fashion editor Madge Garland) the most intriguing in that way that happens when a soft manner and British accent force you to lean in to catch half-muffled words and meanings. Not until Angelos (Murphy), Tropicana (de Acosta) and Page, to our surprise, got sprung from their historical roles, free to be themselves, did the evening take off as they launched amusing, if garrulous, monologues dealing with experiences of failure. Just as each of Cohen's subjects could have merited a book of her own, each of these striking personalities are a joy to look at and listen to at length--maybe not all in the same evening, though.

Lisa Cohen on Tumblr

Purchase All We Know: Three Lives

Connect with Dixon Place here.

Una Noche de Prosa y Poesia

Las Buenas Amigas joins Bronx Acadeny of Art and Dance to promote the creative expression of Latina Lesbian and Latina Queer women with a creative writing workshop.

Una Noche de Prosa y Poesia (A Night of Prose and Poetry)

June 28, 7-9pm
Admission: Free

All works will be displayed and the installation shared with community members. In order to create the dynamic of Woman Space, this will be an exclusive workshop for Latina Women, Cis-Gender and Trans-Gender. Refreshments will be served. 

Noche de Prosa y Poetry para la Latina Lesbiana y Identificada Queer, Junio 28, de 7PM a 9PM. Este Taller de Poesia es exclusivo para Mujeres Latinas Cisgenero y Transgenero. Las esperamos! 

Abre las puertas a tus talentos creativos y artisticos.  Este es un Taller rico para Todas Nosotras en la comunidad!

BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

841 Barretto Street, 2nd Floor, Bronx
Information: 718-842-5223

(directions)

Your next read: Jeanette Winterson

This book sounds fantastic!

Jeanette Winterson’s ‘Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?’
by Dwight Garner, The New York Times, March 8, 2012

Dixon Place presents Diana Crum and Katy Pyle

The Don't Miss of The Week

Kim Brandt--curating Dixon Place's Brink program--has the winning entry in this week's just-made-up-out-of-thin-air Don't Miss contest!

With everything popping on the dance scene lately, it's easy to overlook some interesting work getting a little less publicity--like Katy Pyle's gender-blurring, species-blurring take on The Firebird with its cool, lyrical ballet and hot romance. Word-of-mouth should help, though, since this is a natural for THE Dyke Date of The Week (another contest I should launch, maybe?). The considerable charms of this queer fairy tale--with Pyle as the Lesbian Princess and Jules Skloot as the Firebird--will lift your spirits.

if I tell myself I have enough time, then I can be with you, Diana Crum's duet for Erin Cairns Cella and Kathy Wasik, opens the evening. The brightly-costumed dancers move like Crayola calligraphy across DP's white wall and gray floor to the textured drone of Peter Kerlin's guitar. Even with eyes closed, even stumbling, they appear to be lucid and in confident control. The work plays with ideas of parallel but rarely synchronous times sliding past one another and sometimes intersecting. Its concept might be a touch too subtle--"the layering of experiences presents viewers with opportunities to both witness and exist inside of different time scales, perhaps even simultaneously," Crum's publicity tells us--but the clean, clear performances are a pleasure.

Brink featuring Katy Pyle and Diana Crum closes tonight with a performance at 7:30pm. For information, cick here, and for ticket reservations, click here.

Dixon Place

161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan

(directions)

Black lesbian films before "Pariah"

Black Lesbian Films: Before Pariah
by Salamishah Tillet, The Root, January

A new spectrum of Black identity in film

‘Pariah’ Reveals Another Side of Being Black in the U.S.
by Nelson George, The New York Times, December 23, 2011

Queer "Community Action Center" video needs you!

Community Action Center -- a video by A.L. Steiner and A.K. Burns

A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner's Community Action Center is a 69-minute sociosexual video incorporating the erotics of a community where the personal is not only political, but sexual. This project is a unique contemporary composition, an archive of an intergenerational community built on collaboration, friendship, sex and art. Burns and Steiner worked with artists and performers who created infinitely complex gender and performance roles that are both real and fantastical, set to a soundtrack of music by Chicks on Speed, Effi Briest, Electrelane, Chateau featuring K8 Hardy, Lesbians on Ecstasy, Light Asylum, MEN, Motherland, NGUZUNGUZU, I.U.D. (Lizzi Bougatsos & Sadie Laska), Kinski and Thee Majesty (Genesis P-Orridge), and featuring original compositions by Justin Bond, Nick Hallett & Sam Greenleaf Miller, Ashland Mines & Wu Tsang, Sergei Tcherepnin and Tri-State Area with AV Linton.

We would like to compensate the collaborators who worked with us to realize the project, as well as plan a tour of Community Action Center to LGBT centers across the U.S. This work has been created with the generous support, time and creative energy of more than 50 visual artists, performers, musicians, composers, PA’s, advisors and technicians. Our fundraising effort will provide honoraria to these people, without whom this work would not have been possible.

We view this work as an important political gesture regarding feminist politics and expanding the vocabulary of queer sexuality, thus our other primary goal is to be in dialogue with LGBTQ communities throughout the country. We will be screening the video at universities, film festivals, museums and galleries internationally who can independently fund our presentations, however there are thousands of additional members of the LGBTQ and extended communities whom we can reach via local screenings, but whom cannot fund our presentation. We screened Community Action Center at The LGBT Center in NYC last year, and the success of that powerful and empowering event highlighted the value of a series of screenings + live discussions in smaller urban and rural communities.

We feel deeply that this pivotal portrait gives voice, body and historical context to vibrant and viable queer communities.

For more information on this project and how you can help, click here at USA Projects.

Barbara Grier, Publisher of Lesbian Books, 78

Barbara Grier, Publisher of Lesbian Books, Dies at 78
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, November 13, 2011

A special screening of "Pariah"

Back in March, I posted my review of Pariah, a wonderful new film by Dee Rees about the life of a young Black lesbian. Now here's an invitation to join the Brooklyn-based Black and Women of Color lesbian organization Circle of Voices for a special screening in support of this important film:

Wednesday, October 5 at 8pm

Universal Screening Room
666 5th Avenue
(between 5th and 6th Avenues; entrance on West 53rd Street; 6th Floor) Manhattan (map)

A world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the contemporary drama Pariah is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees' award-winning 2007 short film Pariah. Spike Lee is among the feature's executive producers.

Adepero Oduye, who had earlier starred in the short film, portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) and younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. She has a flair for poetry, and is a good student at her local high school. Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of her best friend, out lesbian Laura (Pernell Walker), Alike is especially eager to find a girlfriend. At home, her parents' marriage is strained and there is further tension in the household whenever Alike's development becomes a topic of discussion. Pressed by her mother into making the acquaintance of a colleague's daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), Alike finds Bina to be unexpectedly refreshing to socialize with. Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity--sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.

Check out the trailer.

To attend the screening, you must RSVP to Wellington Love at wellingtonlove@15minutespr.com.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to type this code--Circle of Voices--in your Subject line.

"Circumstance": forbidden love in Iran

‘Circumstance,’ Directed by Maryam Keshavarz
by A. O. Scott, The New York Times, August 25, 2011