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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2001)
junel5.2QQl THEATER .......... <f--------- omen—what does your hair say about you? Your fingernails (or lack thereof)? How about the way you walk down the street? Lesbian author and performer Kimberly Dark navigates the murky waters of sexu al and gender identity in her groundbreaking work ButchJFemme Chronicles: Discussions with Women Who Are Not Like Me (And Some Who Are). This is one of two shows aimed at women as part of the triangle productions! Summer Pride Series. The show runs just three nights: June 28, 29 and 30. The dynamic performance combines stories from a variety of women and takes the audience on an emotional journey that explores many issues surrounding lesbian identi ty. Dark is also an educator, and her ideas are offered in a way that provokes discus sion and re-evaluation. Part poetry reading, part performance art, part soci ology lesson, Chronicles builds layer upon layer of shared experience until a rich texture is created. “My goal is to write the experi ences of women I know so that their voices can help illuminate issues which have arisen in my own life,” Dark reveals but has tens to add, “This text dif fers from autobiography in that, for the most part, it is not about me. It does, how ever, highlight my position and sometimes my discom- Kimberly E fort with the interactions I describe.” Dark claims: “This approach to gender pre sentation is radically different than most writing and performance on the theme. It yields a differ ent analysis than much other writing about les bians regarding the butch/femme experience.” Dark wants to point out cultural stereotypes and help us re-examine our self-images. “Peo ple experience their lives based on the way they look,” she asserts. She’s also sensitive to the many women who reject the butch/femme dynamic and labeling, something she has struggled with her self. “I focused a lot on women who had a problem putting them selves in the category ‘butch’ or ‘femme,’ ” she says, railing against a society that only seems to know one model— the man/woman het mind-set. She contends that butch behavior does not automatically equate with a desire to be male. In fact, she views sex and gender as com pletely separate aspects of an individual, which feeds into the trend in younger generations to veer away from traditional labels of any kind. ButchJFemme Chronicles surely will inspire much great post-theater debate. or a more tongue-in-cheek exploration of lesbian life, look no further than The Dyke and the Pom Star, a two-woman play about Chance, a bashful San Francisco dyke, who falls hard for Tara, a well-known pom star. (OK, so it’s not likely to happen to you, but it should make for entertaining theater.) Once the two women meet, the story unfolds in scenes of both reality and fantasy, until that distinction blurs toward ________________ the end of the play. This is about sex and desire and their roles in a rela- tionship. (Now who can’t relate to that?) As with Dark’s piece, y this material looks at the butch/femme dynamic. Chance tells the audience her cos tume—a dress worn with fetching Army boots—is “femme icing on butch cheesecake.” Full of witty dia F logue and intimacies from playwright Bayla Travis, Dyke also investigates community through the characters. “I don’t just write for a lesbian audience, though I write about les bians,” she says. “My heroes are artists on the edge who don’t clean up their acts.” Travis, who also has worked in film and television, where she felt like a hired hand, is delighted to be writing plays. “Theater is where writers are respected,” she explains. Clearly, though, Travis has a genuine funny bone. Acknowledging the autobiographical ori gins of Dyke, she describes herself as “recently released on parole for stalking some of the adult industry’s sexiest stars...this play repre sents a last-ditch effort at rehabilitation.” Explicit and honest yet also tender and funny, Dyke is at its heart a love story about a woman with a gargan tuan crush. (Now who among us hasn’t gone through that torture. Hands?) jFl High contrasts Two new shows straddle the butch/femme continuum by O riana G reen B utch /F emme C hronicles plays 8 p.m. June 28 to 30 at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 S.E. Bel mont St. T he D yke and the P orn S tar plays 8 p.m. July 5 to 28. Tickets are $19 at the door or $17 in advance from 503-239-5919 or Fastixx. The place for elegance in Portland. Out Exclusive designer gowns for rent or ale. Fashion accessories: wraps, purses, gloves, hosiery & jewelry /\re you ready Jor (Peacock^* noi SW Alder ft - Portland ^.221.4924 1