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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 2006)
ÆLjUSt|Ç>Ut WLMBEñ 3.ZQQ6 theater EVERETT STREET The Iron Curtain Call o AUTOWORKS Wade McCollum prepares to portray another infamous transgender German DOWNTOWN PORTLAND 10% OFF ANY LABOR or by Aaron Scott $19.95 LUBE, OIL AND FILTER with this coupon I Expires December 2006 • Applies to most vehicles • up to 5 quarts of oil 503-221-2411 NW 5TH AND EVERETT 509 NW EVERETT PORTLAND OR 97209 WWW.ESAUTOWORKS.BIZ I’mAVAILABLE,,, whenyon are! ” Aaron Scott: How would you describe Charlotte van Mahldorf, the character on which the play is based? Wade McCollum: She’s kind of like a huge, ancient, 53- r<x>m museum-mansion. There’s a lot to her, partly because of her age, partly because of her intense history. Each nxim is so detailed, and things are placed in their perfect place. But you wonder as you wander through the rooms, did she just arrange all of it the ways she wants it to kx>k, or is this really the way it all happened to make her who she is? There’re lots of contradic tions with her story and the way she tells it. If there’s one word to describe her, it’s “ambigu ous." Is she a man, is she a woman ? Is she a gixxl guy, is she a hail guy? She totally defies dualistic anything. Dualistic labels. She’s in between it all. Careful and energetic handling of all your home financing needs MORTGAGE J Advocates 6700 SW 105th Ave., Suite 200 Beaverton, ()R 97005 T< >11 Free (877) 82(>9900 F. lx (.503) 297-0821 E-Mail: colk'enw^iinlgadM xates.com www.mtgadvocates.com Colleen Weed Office 503«297»9900 i Cell 503»780»1561 D avid W. O wens P.C. & ASSOCIATES serving the community since 1975 A ttorneys at L aw Serving Oregon & Washington 503 224 3100 DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS ADOPTIONS • ESTATE PLANNING WILLS • TRUSTS • ADVANCE DIRECTIVES POWER OF ATTORNEY GUARDIANSHIPS AND CONSERVATORSHIPS www owens law com «101 SW MAIN, SUITE 700 • Portland, Oregon 97204 • Parking Validated hether a transgender rock star from East Berlin, a bat boy tabloid darling or a modern-day incarna tion of Buddha, Wade McCollum has brought to life some of the most colorful characters in recent Portland theater memory. First gaining notoriety as the title charac ter in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a role for which he won a Drammy and Los Angeles’ top three the ater awards, McCollum has become the local actor equivalent of a rock star, both critically acclaimed and cool enough to draw nontheatergoing masses. In 2002, he co-founded Insight Out Theatre Collective and proved himself just as gifted of a producer and fund-raiser. One, an ambitious musical he wrote, produced and starred in, played to 12 sold-out nights and paid every cast and crew member—all 50-plus of them—a livable wage, unheard of in Portland. Preparing to move to New York City, the 28- year-old has one last challenge: the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning I Am My Own Wife. Based on the true story of a man in East Berlin who openly lived as a woman through both Nazi and Soviet rule to become a German hero, the one-man play offers Portland audiences a last chance to delight in McCollum’s extraordinary talent for characters before he makes it big on Broadway. ZZI AS: She’s a lot like Hedwig then—a bridge and a wall. There’s a certain absurdity in you playing both roles; how many plays are there about trannies from East Berlin, after all? WM: I know, it’s weird. I think there’s something about stories about Germany at that time. Whether it’s the division and pain that came from the wall or the horror of the Nazis, it feels like Germany was deeply wounded for such a long period of time that it represents a very dramatic moment for history. And out of all that pain and torture and tumult come these fascinating characters, which aren’t men or women but lie in that third space of being in between, that represent the bridge between one reality and another. Whether it’s the Weimar periixl in Germany when everything seemed so good and then post-World War II or post-wall coming down, these people somehow bridge us in a way. AS: You will play 35 characters in I Am My Own Wife. How do you keep them straight, both in your head and for the audience? WM: There are lots of tools to create differen tiation. You’ve got voice, dialect, face, body. It’s definitely a challenge. We’re only halfway through rehearsal, so there are still moments where 1 forget who 1 am or who I’m talking to. It’s like doing the work of a big cast, but it’s one person. And it’s a lit tle bit lonely up there. Me and all my other people in my head. 1 feel like I’m in an asylum at certain points. But its challenges are easy to deal with because 1 feel driven and inspired to tell the story. AS: Would you say it’s the most difficult piece you’ve done? WM: 1 wouldn’t. It’s a very challenging piece, OWEN CAREY J
