junel5.2QQl
THEATER
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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
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