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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2005)
40 jUSt OUt » aprii 1. 2005 DIVERSIONS .................▼................. <lïcXV extraordinary flora 1019 nw 11th ave p 503.228.1558 egon Camera Everything Photographic We have a knowledgeable, friendly staff helping you find the right camera, binoculars, or photographic accessories. A ‘family’owned and operated business since 1997. SSZSWM ub A vcmc Corvallis. OR 97333 (54D7S3 2C53 www.orcfOKascra.com \________ __________ _____________ / Ove/7fn/ Cycle (/Works Comfortable Blkeo Recunibento a Specialty/! (COME SEE WHY!) Open Tuesday-Sunday 230-7723 2025 SE Hawthorne Visit us online at: www.reyreece.com or schedule your appointment 503-256-3700 1-800-283-0592 REY REECE DEALERSHIPS VOLKSWAGEN-MITSUBISHI-USED 122nd & East Burnside www. reyreece. com Sorting out Triangle's Sordid Lives Glimpse fresh new work right in the studio A dancer can pack a lot of movement into For its farewell show of its 15th and final eight minutes. Want prixif? Check out subscriber-based season, Triangle Productions Body Vox’s First Impressions show. says sayonara to the status quo with a comedy This 70-minute showcase is composed of about speaking up, coming out and passing on. several short works, each no more than eight Sordid Lives is riotous Southern-fried minutes long and created by a different chore Americana in which playwright Del Shores ographer. The tight format allows a variety of roasts the most unconditional love in a most dance artists to bring their ideas to the stage, unconventional pit—red-faced Texas. Three women (Cecily Overman, Nicholette Reid and and to an audience, all in one pnxluction. “It’s a venue for our dancers who are newer Oregonian columnist Margie Boule—or, to choreography to try out material in an April 21 to 23, Michael Teufel) try to hide their recently deceased family matriarch’s affair from the man’s revengeful wife (KATU-TV’s Helen Raptis). But more shame than mama’s is put to rest when the funeral brings them face- to-face with openly gay son Ty and cross dressing Brother Boy (Pageant beauties Ammon Morris and Timm McBride). One sensitive yet funny tension lies between Brother Boy—committed to a hospital for believing he’s Tammy Wynette—and old friend Wardell, played by retired cop and real estate broker CW Jensen. “My character,” says Jensen, “is a homo- phobic redneck who turned against his best friend because he found out he was gay many years before. Fie has to confront that moment 1 11 F. I ONG ARC OF J US I 1(1 .1 I SHI «. U M\HHI M.I . IQI *1113. ISO HU. II is and decide what he will do with his future. RK Il \RI) I). MOHR Does he make amends, or just take the easy road and go along with the status quo?” This is his third play with director Don Horn. “He always picks me to be kind of the big, bad, dumb, straight guy who either gets his shit together or gets booed off stage,” remarks Jensen. These characters, however, “start out as | stereotypes but change throughout the play in some neat ways. Here in Portland, we have seen gay couples married and then rejected by a organized, theatrical setting,” says co-artistic director Ashley Roland. Flic various choreographic styles—and music choices ranging from Boccherini to Moby—make for an eclectic evening. But according to Roland, the performance as a whole is still unified. “It’s not like a recital,” she says, “it flows together.” The BodyVox studio, tucked into a mazelike building with BridgePort Brewing Company, is transformed into a white box theater for the show. In this small space, the performance is definitely up-close and personal. “The audience gets to sit almost on stage with the dancers, to see the pieces almost from the inside,” says Roland. “It’s a beautiful per sonal invitation into these new works.” This season’s pnxluction—this is the fourth Ex-cop CW Jensen plays a homophobic installment of First Impressions— features pieces redneck in Sordid Lives. by BtxlyVox members Lane Hunter, Eric vote in the most liberal county in the country. Skinner and Anne Egan, plus a short film. The It sends a message that even Oregon liberals company’s directors, Roland and Jamey don’t feel comfortable with equal rights for gay Hampton, are each doing separate pieces and and lesbian couples. This play goes to that are giving a sneak preview of their full-length issue. What does it take to accept someone for work debuting this fall, Civilization Unplugged. who they are?” Guest choreographers Minh Tran and Preconceptions aren’t the only thing that Roxanne Steinberg are also contributing. gets shed by this large cast of 11. “Clothes do Portland dance buffs will already be familiar come off,” promises Jensen, “if you like a little with Tran’s unique movements and Asian sen or, in my case, a lot of skin.” sibility. Roland describes Steinberg’s abstract But it’s the script’s richness of “white trailer” style as full of imagery. “Her movement comes characters that Horn loves. “It really is a gay from a very internalized place,” adds Hampton. positive show, and it allows us to see that par First Impressions gives the B<xJyVox dancers ents come around and love their children for a chance to demonstrate their versatility. who they are.” “Our dancers are amazing," says Roland. Sordid Lives nins April 8 to May 7. “They work in every choreographer’s genre Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. with great ease and maturity, while managing Fridays and Saturdays and 5 p.m. May 1 at to have a lot of fun.” Theater Theatre, 3430 S.E. Belmont St. First Impressions vol. 4 will be performed Tickets are $ 17-$2 3 from 503-239-5919 or 7:30 p.m. April 13 to 17—with a late-night TicketsWest. (Wear your tackiest outfit to the show 10 p.m. April 15 and a matinee 2 p.m. April 10 performance, an afternoon of fun filled April 17—at 1300 N.W. Northnip St. Because with prizes, fixxJ, drinks and more—all benefit tickets are going fast, BcxlyVox just added per ing Equity Foundation.) formances 7:30 p.m. April 22 and 23. Tickets —Timothy Krause are $25 from 503-229-0627 or www.fxxlyvox.com. A collection of BtxlyVox photo images by Blaine Truitt Covert is on display through April 11 on the concourse level atrium at Pioneer Place. Visitors to the exhibit can enter to win a pair of tickets to First Impressions. —Rebecca Ragain Mohr than meets the eye Richard D. Mohr has been watching Portland like a hawk. The University of Illinois-Urbana philosophy professor believes same-sex marriage is the hottest issue in the queer rights movement, and he can’t wait for the Oregon Supreme Court to decide if the unions performed last year are legal. Mohr, who grew up in Eugene, discusses same-sex marriage, gays in the military and other subjects in his new kxik, The Long Arc of Justice: Lesbian and Cay Marriage, Equality and Rights (Columbia University Press, $22.95 hardcover). An engaging and challenging blend of poli tics, ethics and philosophical discourse, Arc is a must-read for anyone who’s even remotely interested in where the queer rights movement is going and where it has been. Mohr swings through town April 14 to promote the book. Asked about the tricky topic of queer nup tials in a recent phone interview, Mohr said, “We’re going to see a dividing of our nation over gay marriage.” He supports civil union leg islation as a stepping stone to full marriage rights and believes all the blue states will embrace civil unions. No such luck with the red states, he said. Frequent references to pop cultural candy like The L Word and Six Feet Under help make The Long Arc of Justice reader-friendly. Naming some highs and lows for queers in the media, Mohr said Tarnation, Jonathan Caouette’s revealing autobiographical film, should be mandatory viewing for everybody. But he laments the motif in television com mercials where two men freak out when they realize they are having an intimate moment with one another. “This implies that being gay is horrifying,” Mohr said. In his book and in the interview, Mohr said the most harmful stereotype about gay men depicts them as predatory child molesters. He’s happy to say, however, that the Catholic Church sex scandal has switched the spotlight from queers to priests. Melissa Ferrick calls her fans "lifesaving" for supporting her through a drinking problem and a panic disorder.
