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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2001)
• dflCBmbflf 2 1 , 2QÛ1 44 DIVERSIONS .................... ▼ Queer theater community helps out comrade S everal community theater troupes have leapt to the aid of Musical Theatre Company, which was forced to close recently after 17 years in Portland. The Broadway Rose Theatre Company, Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, Portland Center Stage, Stark Raving Theatre and triangle productions! are honoring remaining Musical Theatre Company tickets on an availability basis. Musical Theatre Company was the only locally produced musical performance group in the Portland area. Jutta Allen has been the company’s artistic director for 11 years and says she was “heartbroken” when they had to close because of a hefty increase in rent by Portland Public Schools. The school district also converted the com pany’s backstage rooms to classroom space, “which is totally unacceptable,” she insists. “Where should the actors change...on;tage?” The company was given 30 days’ notice and could not find another space in that time. Allen, who probably will not say goodbye to the arts community “because I’m not a house wife,” extends her thanks to all the individuals and performance groups who have lent a hand during the closing process. “They really helped me a lot,” she says. “Someone called me every day.” Edie hits Portland— and the silver screen C hristopher Kenney joined Ballet Oregon in the mid- 1980s right out of high He left Portland in 1988 for the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and from there went on to nia Ballet and Ballet Chicago. Eventually, he set his sights on musi cal theater and followed the call to the Big Apple. Edie was bom, Kenney explains, “in the chaos of New York.” It was Halloween when he made the transforma tion— an intended one-night-only performance in the spirit of the sea son. One drag show, however, led to a job offer. “I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no,’ ” Kenney chuckles. “It’s just Halloween. I am not a drag queen.” A few months later, the artiste decided he might just be a drag queen after all, much to the delight of queer New York, which named Edie the Best Drag Performer of 2000. Taking a break from her weekly show at the Barracuda Lounge in Chelsea, she decks the halls of Portland’s Dar- celle XV on Dec. 26. (See Page 30 for details.) “It grew slowly,” Kenney says, referring to his Edie alter ego. "I made sure it was very, very slow because, you know, 1 had to get comfort able in a dress and heels.” Edie spent part of this year playing herself in the new indie film Pot Luck, to be released sometime in 2002. Co-produced by High Times magazine, the lively comedic caper centers around a mobster who discovers the magic of marijuana. It’s being billed, Kenney notes, “as Cheech what resulted is an amazingly frank and power ful series of com mentaries by an extremely diverse group women. Actors re-create real women’s stories of sexual and genital experience, all culled from the origi nal interviews. The play bounces between hilari ous and shocking, celebratory and sorrowful. Ensler has dealt with her own experience of vaginal hatred and hat would it say? That’s one of feminist awakening. She was the provocative questions of abused physically and sexually by Eve Ensler’s The Vagina E her father while growing up in M onohgues, which plays at the Scarsdale, N.Y. Newmark Theatre Dec. 27 to Although she graduated from Jan. 6. (See Page 32 for details). Vermont’s Middlebury College in A prolific feminist playwright, 1975, she wandered aimlessly Ensler originally staged The Vagina afterward, drowning in alcohol Monologues as a one-woman show off- addiction. She began to write, Broadway in 1996. It won the covet ed Obie Award, rocketing Eve Ensler wants to get exploring the shame and confu to know your vagina si0n s^e fe|t arounc| her own body, to national and inter which helped her get sober and get to work. national attention, and is now Ensler’s brutally honest and confrontational performed throughout the world stage projects are numerous. But nothing has by various groups of women, most come close to the cultural phenomenon that is notably annual star-studded per The Vagjcna Monologues, which became the cat formances in New York City. alyst for V-Day, a global movement since 1997 Portland Community to stop violence against women and girls. Per College’s Women’s Resource formances worldwide are staged traditionally Center organized a perform around Valentine’s Day to benefit various agen ance at the Sylvania Cam cies. Proceeds from Newmark Theatre’s upcom pus last February, which ing run go to Portland’s Bradley-Angle House elicited vigorous cheers and Raphael House. and brought the audience to its feet. Although the Newmark Theatre plays host to a professional tour, two local personali ooking for an alternative to smoky bars, a ties have also been cast. bunch of fun-lovin’ gals got together and Helen Raptis of AM Northwest will be in the created Venus Women’s Dance Club. Its first party in November drew almost 200 show during the first week, women to Madison’s Ballroom, right next door and the second week will feature Z100 disc jockey to Madison’s Bar & Grill. This month the chicks are having a New Year’s Eve party there, Stacey Lynn. and they plan to keep up the shenanigans The play was con indefinitely. (See Page 47 for details.) ceived in 1994 when Ensler overheard a well- Venus looks to attract an over-30 crowd, known feminist speaking but anyone over 21 who wants to get down to Top 40, rhythm and blues, rap and retro are disparagingly about her genitalia. She was welcome to attend. Always included is free shocked and set out food and a no-host bar. on a mission to The gigs are planned for once a month and, although comfortable at Madison’s, the parties demystify and, hence, might rove in the future. For party dates and deshame the V word. Ensler interviewed locations call 503-993-9920. j n 200 women about “down there,” and Compiled by L isa B radshaw and Chong meets The Sopranos." He plays the mobster’s gay son, who happens to he a drag queen. “My father,” he laughs, “is completely mor tified and threw me out of the house.. .then I come back 10 years later.” Kenney continues to dance, now with a tap company. Edie is a dancer, too, he explains, and she’s also “very nice; she’s not bitchy, so it’s kind of different.” (Whatever could he mean?) If your vagina could talk ■ ■■ W Who would miss a chance to dance with a goddess? L <C£> <£i> <&b mmmm, tasty! get the big tub o’ com T he B usiness of S trangers Stockard Charming and Julia Stiles play, respectively, a middle-aged corporate she- warrior and her mysterious protégé. The two become embroiled in a dubious revenge scheme that opens the door to sparring, sol idarity and palpable sexual tension between them. Imagine the misanthropy and mis trust of a David Mamet or a Neil LaBute applied to a more directly feminist theme, and you’ll get an idea of what writer/direc- tor Patrick Stettner is up to here. — Christopher M cQuain N ot A nother T een M ovie It’s silly and vulgar— definitely an acquired taste— but this spoof hits all the right targets in skewering teen movie clichés. Considering the juvenile setting, the gay content is significant: The jock is the object of everyone’s affection— guys included; the “unique rebel” reads Sylvia Plath, so the obnoxious brother questions her sexuality; and the lesbian kiss from Cruel Intentions gets an intergenerational twist. —Jim Radosta T he S hipping N ews Kevin Spacey seems bored in this screen adaptation of E. Annie Proulx’s novel, and even good performances from Julianne Moore, Judi Dench (as a proud old lesbian) and Cate Blanchett are wast ed in the hands of director Lasse Hall- strom (The Cider House Rules). The film is so blandly ingratiating as to be forgettable. —C M V anilla S ky It’s the birth of Venus Women’s Dance Club! Jacob’s Ladder meets The Matrix in Cameron Crowe’s startling romantic thriller. Tom Cruise is a wealthy girl mag net (quite a stretch) who finds true love with charming artist Penèlope Cruz only to make a fatal error with his “fuck buddy,” Cameron Diaz, which changes his life in ways he, nor the audience, can quite figure out. Is he dreaming, fantasizing or just plain crazy? Amusingly, Cruise delivers the familiar “Look, I’m straight, OK?"— onscreen this time. Occasionally bogged down in sentimentality, but Cruise and Cruz make the sparks fly. — Lisa Bradshaw
