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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2003)
. October 17.2003 48 D IVER SIO N S ▼ survive this dark and piercing com edy by Portland playwright Stephen Karam. “ I came o u t...a little over two years ago at Brown University,” shares Karam, “and was overwhelmed with our country’s entire perception of homosexuality.... 1 started to see that our society hasn’t arrived at some grand notion of universal tolerance; it’s come to embrace...that it’s no longer legiti mate to unabashedly hate gay people. And there’s a huge difference.” Mister M urdery is his attempt to confront “the absurdity of accepting such glossy notions of equality" by using “an equally absurd style.... The beauty is that, in the midst of the crazy story, evePy little detail makes very precise and meticulous sense no matter how farcical the events become,” he explains. “Contrarily, our country is skilled at taking its most absurd and farcical tendencies and making a whole lot of sense out of them." Mister Murdery plays 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 8 at The Electric Company, 2512 S.E. Gladstone St. Tickets are $10 from 503-232-7667 or www.cardboardbox.org. Let’s get interactive t’s amazing what 2 Gyrlz can do when they set their minds to it. I Your Fall TV Queerview II A s you’ll no doubt recall, I just couldn’t ¿jet to the end of the long, involved process that is going over the queer TV schedule in the last issue. So this is part two— but don’t worry, you didn’t have to see the original to understand the sequel (kind ot like I M r a Croft: The Cradle of Life). Moving right along, the latest news from the Queer Eye for the Straight ( iuy set is the Fab Five are putting out a hook of hints and tips. (Of course! Oversaturation of the audience means nothing to queens or television executives.) And they’re getting sued. Remember the original culture guy, Blair? He was replaced by Jai after only two episodes and has now filed a breach-of-con tract suit. You do gotta feel a little sorry for a guy who came this close to international fanfare and million-dollar deals. The show’s producers should just cough up the measly $105,000 he’s asking instead of fighting it, which they are. You know who else should lx- pissed oft? Christopher Lowell and Robert Verdi, two gay T V decorators who broke the ground tor Queer Eye to headline The Tonight Show. OK, they’re both doing absolutely fine in their own right, bur are they on the cover of Entertainment Weekly ? No. Surprise hy Design’s Robert Verdi Maybe they’re not so was around before the Fab Five gay, you say. Maybe they’re were a twinkle in your eye not so over-the-top. Ha! Roth shows are on the Discovery Channel weekdays— Lowell actually has two. The Christopher Unveil Shini' finds him sitting down in intimate conversation with viewers and then showing befores and afters ot a room he did. In a recent episode he dis cussed “Creating Your Dreamscape Through the Use of Personal Icons.” He encouraged us to think about “what makes you feel safe, cozy and protected.” (For him, it’s a fluffy white robe.) He moved on to colors. What’s your favorite? His is lavender. It’s Christopher Unveil follows, which is a bore of a show where he plops down in front ot a studio audience and gix‘s over videos of people fixing up their mm houses using design ideas he gave them. 1 le has guests, tin), but it’s all low-class Martha Stewart. Skip it, but stay tuned because next up is.... Surjmse hy Design — a hilarious, sharp little number wherein Robert Verdi and sidekick Rebecca Cole (who actually d<x*s most of the work while Verdi sashays around giving orders) descend on a home and redo a nxnn to surprise its owner in response to a request-from a loved one or friend. The project always has a budget of $2,500, and family and friends pitch in to get the job done before the “victim” gets home, so it feels very down-to-earth and inclusive. The best parts of the show are when Verdi squeals about a crappy piece ot furniture he found at GcxxJwill for $20 (which he then turns into a stunning showpiece) and the barbs he trades with Cole, such as “ I’m the Mary, you’re the Rhoda." The designs can he a little out of control, though, to the point where you think nolxxly but Verdi is really going to like it. Recently explaining to one homeowner that he was going to turn his kitchen into “Pee Wee's Dutch French Provincial Playhouse,” Verdi is completely honest about his own self-obsession. “What’s your favorite thing in this room?" he once queried Cole after a finished project. “You,” she answered carefully. “Me tix),’’ he said. Verdi also cuts quite a fashionable figure, unlike Christopher Lowell, who could use a visit from Carson Kressley if you know what I mean. Once again I’ve blathered on— and before 1 got to talk about Showtime’s new lesbian series set to air in January. 1 guess you’ll have to tune in next time tor Fall Queerview 111. Ha, ha, not really, I’d probably get fired, but do keep checking Just Out tor more into on this lesbo show. jn Portland’s 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts presents the second annual Enter- active Language Festival, 30 days of art— performance, visual, auditory, interactive—around the theme of lan guage in its endless and enduring forms. The organization’s queer name sakes, Lisa Newman and Llewyn Maire, have upped the number of fes tival offerings this year and have col laborated with even more communi ty groups. “EL-fest is about communi cation and, therefore, in many ways, collaboration,” explains Maire. “The artists and other groups participat ing...are working with the basic theme that art equals language.” H ence all events are titled with what language they are speaking: Language of Terror, iMnguage of the Ancestors, Language of the Body, etc. For instance, p:ear gallery, a nonprofit that works with hom e less youth, will be collaborating with artist/m usic association A modem-dav Marquis de Sade, Jean-Louis 36 Invisibles for Language of Youth. Costes collaborates to provide L a Langue du “Those participating take the Culte: Porno-Social R itual, part of 2 Gyrlz central theme of the event and Performative A rts’ Enteractive Language Festival create work...around it. This is not only the core of the festival, but also one of the things that make it so unique,” says Maire. Although there are several events ot queer interest in the he creator and original stage and screen star ot Hedwig and plump Oct. 30-Nov. 29 schedule, a tew are of special note. La the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell, will be in Jackpot Umgue du Culte: Porno-Social Ritual is an extreme, sexually Records, 203 S.W. Ninth Ave., at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 23 to sign explicit event with queer French perfonnance artist Jean-Louis copies of the just-released Wig in a Box: Songs from and Inspired Costes, who appears to have litigation issues around his art in hy Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Europe. Expect various forms ot live sex and blcxxJ (well, it The album, conceived and pnxJuced by Chris Slusarenko, lcxiks like bhxxl anyway) at this graphic Oct. 31 show you will owner of Portland’s Off Records and Clinton Street Video, contains probably not want to bring the kiddies to. the best work money can buy (except it was all donated): tracks by Language of Silence (=death), a revolutionary adaptation of Rufus Wainwright, Sleater-Kinney, Imperial Teen, The Breeders, the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, is on The Polyphonic Spree, Mitchell himself and many others. Nov. 20. “ It’s an international vigil tor victims of violent mur The album is a fund-raiser tor New York’s new Harvey Milk ders based on being perceived as transgendered,” says Maire, School for queer students. who will perform at the event, along with Portlanders Lori Slusarenko admits to not being queer (we’re making him an Buckwalter and Nine and San Francisco trans activist Rocco official member anyway) but still obsessed with “the whole Kayiatos, also known as Katastrophe. Hedwig phenomenon. I loved the show, and it was one of the iMnguage of the Paradox with noted trans activist Kate first times I’ve ever seen rcxrk music done right in a theatrical Bornstein is Nov. 21 and 22. “Obviously it’s an honor to bring mcxJe. Usually it makes me cringe.” Kate Bornstein back to Portland,” says Maire, who explains See the Nov. 7 issue of Just Out for a complete story on the Bornstein and Kayiatos will perform with kids from the Sexual album and the project. J H Minority Youth Resource Center. See the Nov. 7 issue ot Just Out for an interview with Compiled hy LlSA B raiishaw Bornstein and more queer-oriented events. For a complete schedule of all events, locations and prices, visit www.2gyrlz.org. Hedwig in Portland T Who’s killing the lesbians off Citytown? ust when you thought it was safe to be a dyke, Cardboard Box The atre Company comes up with Mister Murdery, a new play about Citytown’s p<xu lesbian population— stalked by murderous hands! It’s Nurse Cherry’s first night at Citytown G ener al Hospital, but will it be her last? With only a (rather disturbingly inde pendent) radio for com pany, two nurses— one of them a man— attempt to J Cardboard Box Theatre Company presents Mister Murdery through Nov. 8 at The Electric Company
