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DIVERSIONS
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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
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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