Posted: 01 December 2008 at 11:50pm | IP Logged

National redhead as queer icon

Anne Made Me Gay show explores what may have been behind those bosom friendships

Anne of Green Gables, a queer fable?

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beloved red-haired girl's debut in literature, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre is launching its own cheeky exploration of the plucky, independent-minded scamp from Prince Edward Island.

"It's definitely an homage. There are some among us who really fervently hope and wish that Anne was, in fact, a lesbian," said Rosemary Rowe, who has written a thesis suggesting works about Anne and other female heroines of the late-19th and early-20th century, contained "coded messages" for lesbians suggesting friendships that went beyond, ahem, mere friendship.

"There are an equal and probably greater number of arguments to be made that (Anne) wasn't. But she certainly did enjoy very passionate, intimate and romantic friendships with many of the women in her life, as did her creator (Lucy Maud Montgomery)," Rowe added.

The all-woman show, called Anne Made Me Gay, will include songs, Sapphic poetry, performance art – including an aerialist "cat's cradle" – and some "hot girl-on-girl tableaux vivants," a Victorian art form featuring women in still images with subtle erotic overtones.

"It's a celebration of the whole concept of romantic friendship ... with images of (female) intimacy, the intimacy that we share that could be erotic but isn't necessarily," said Buddies associate artist Moynan King, who is co-producing.

"I think (Anne) is deeply embedded in our culture and people do debate her and her sexuality. We're not saying she is gay, we're saying she made us gay," King added.

"The whole show gives us an opportunity to pay homage to Anne, but also to all those wonderful characters in Little Women and to Laura Ingalls Wilder, all those characters that pique the imagination of a young lesbian," Rowe said.

The idea that Anne Shirley was hetero-flexible was first raised in 2000 at an academic conference in Edmonton, Rowe said, noting the subject has spurred some genuine academic interest.

Despite touches of academic tone, which will permeate the show, it's mostly meant to be edgy fun, King said.

www.artsexy.ca

Posted: 03 April 2009 at 2:09pm | IP Logged

Happy Endings Are Extra

Posted: 23 April 2009 at 4:21pm | IP Logged

"VGL 5'4" Top"

Cruz Henry Turcott is an actor, director and company member of TMC. This is his third directing credit with TMC, and he is delighted to be presenting it at the LGBT Center. Past work with TMC includes one-act contributions to Three Nights and Singles Awareness Day. Other work includes assistant director to Jean Randich for NAATCO's Antigone. Cruz holds a BA from the Eugene Lang division of The New School, with a concentration in Theatre. He has studied at The British American Drama Academy and the Seattle Children's Theater.

May 1 - 3, 2009   ~ 8 pm, New York
The LGBT Community Center (www.gaycenter.org)
Produced with the Mekka Collective (themekkacollective.com)

Posted: 07 September 2009 at 3:32am | IP Logged

July 15 to 26, 2009

ALTAR BOYZ
 Are you having issues with your soul? If so, Altar Boyz wants to help. The 2005 Off-Broadway smash tells the tale of a Christian boy band that tries to bring the number of troubled souls at their concerts down to zero. “It’s really Fringey and really gets the audience involved,” says director Kayla Gordon. The band has a closeted member, Mark, played by out gay actor Joseph Sevillo. “He’s got a secret,” says Gordon, “and a deep faith in Cher.”
 
MOVING ALONG
 Chris Craddock, the genius behind Fringe hits BoyGroove and Bash’d, is back with a semi-autobiographical one-man show that explores “organized religion, my sexually confused childhood and a relationship with a man that I thought was famous.” If Moving Along sounds familiar, it might be because Craddock has done it before. But he swears he’s added “new exaggerations and grossly one-sided opinions.” One thing remains the same: he performs the show from an “electro-chair” which he uses to manipulate lighting to reflect his roller-coaster emotions.

STOP KISS
Stop Kiss is a drama about two young women who get bashed after they share their first kiss. Originally produced Off-Broadway in 1998, the Winnipeg version is being directed by 19-year-old theatre student Tatiana Carnevale and stars Carnevale and four friends. She picked the show because she loves the central characters, Callie and Sara. “They’re relatable,” says Carnevale. “They start off as friends, then develop feelings for each other. They could be anyone you know.” Fun fact: Stop Kiss’ original New York cast included Sandra Oh before she made it big on Grey’s Anatomy.
 
ZOMBIE PROM
Fringe veteran Connie Manfredi, who produced last year’s Barista, says her new show is “like High School Musical, but with a leather jacket and a tattoo.” Zombie Prom, an Off-Broadway hit from the 1990s that was turned into a low-budget film with Ru Paul, is about a teenager who throws himself into a nuclear power plant, comes back to life and fights discrimination. “It’s got great energy,” Manfredi says. “I wanted to do something animated and bubbly.” Her young, 16-member cast is made up mostly of University of Winnipeg theatre students.
 
BRAZIL NUTS
Even under President Obama, the U.S. government still doesn’t recognize same-sex couples in its immigration process. Susan Jeremy satirizes this outrageous policy in Brazil Nuts, a one-woman show about a New York lesbian who convinces a gay go-go dancer to marry her lover so the two women can live together in the States. “It’s based on hilarious stories of friends and what they’ve done to get green cards,” says Jeremy, who played a gay substitute teacher in the 2004 Fringe hit P.S. 69. Jeremy promises you’ll leave the theatre barking with laughter. She plays multiple roles, including dogs named Madonna, Britney and Paris.
 
DON’T MAKE FUN OF JESUS
Writer/performer/lesbian Sherri D. Sutton grew up gay and Baptist in the Deep South, where she tried to exorcise her homosexual demons by joining a cult. Eventually, she made it to Broadway, came out, became a stand-up comic and opened for acts like Roseanne Barr. “Sherri has crazy cult stories,” says Tara Brodin, the director of Don’t Make Fun of Jesus. “Her life story needs to be a feature film.”
Instead, it’s a Fringe show that scored standing ovations when it premiered in Sutton’s adopted hometown of Edmonton last year. “You’ll laugh your head off,” promises Brodin, who doubles as Sutton’s real-life wife. The two tied the knot earlier this year.