Vagina Monologues February 2009

This show was very eye opening even after seeing the video about the beginning of the V-Day movement. I have grown even more respect for women after seeing this production. I learned about many things that women go through or that they have had to go through in the past. The fact that they included a question and answer style meeting after the show was a very interesting ending to such a powerful evening.
The most powerful scene I believe was the one when the performer told the audience the story of the comfort women. It saddened me that people would force these young women to be their sexual slaves, having sex upwards of fifty times a day. I am glad that there has been some forward motion in these women being publicly apologized to by the Japanese government.

The most fun scenes in the play were when Annika’s character came on stage and declared that she was bringing the word CUNT back and when Emily’s character talked about making all the other women moan. The audience found great joy in yelling the word CUNT when they were asked to amongst all the laughter. Emily must have had to work at not laughing during this moaning scene because everyone was laughing about all the different moaning creations that the cast made on stage. My personal favorite was when Laura did her Catholic school girl moan, proclaiming, “Forgive Me Father!”

The guest appearance of Jennifer Dotson-Creter during the let your fingers do the walking scene was spectacular! She looked so beautiful and her entire dance was flawless. I knew that she taught dance at Stage One, but I had no clue how talented she was above the fact that she taught dance.

I loved this performance and was very glad that I had decided to go and see it with a few of my friends!

It's Just an Illusion...

I have been performing on stage for almost 7 years now and decided that I would try something new and a bit more challenging by transforming myself into something that I am not. This transformation is that I turned myself into a female persona named Emma. I do not dress as a woman all the time just on special occasions such as amateur night at the club or the major parties that are held at the club.

Although this is my first time performing in the Cookeville area it is not the first time that I have ever performed as a woman at different clubs. I have performed in the Chattanooga area twice and then in Boston every night for a week while I was on vacation with some friends. In the past I had used other names like Chloe Andrews, and Emily St. James.

The birth of Emma was this past January, when I officially decided that I wanted to perform for the first time in Cookeville at the Forbidden Tiki Bar, the alternative lifestyle club in Cookeville. Since her birth I have performed once, shopped countless hours for clothing, makeup and accessories, and listened to hundreds of songs trying to decide which songs matched her personality for the evening best. Now I own three wigs, tons of makeup, and have a few cute clothing items that I have worn at the club.

Unfortunately, I have to miss this month’s show do to a few scheduling conflicts, but I am looking forward to performing as a female impersonator in the April drag amateur night at Forbidden. Since I am unable to perform this month, it has allowed me to use my time to find new and exciting songs that Emma can perform in the future.

8 x 10

At the beginning of the semester, I had told myself that I was not going to be in any theatre productions this semester. This went strong while there was not a show that I was eligible to be in, but then I decided that I would accompany a friend of mine to the 8 x 10 auditions a few weeks ago. The show, I was told, is a grouping of eight ten minute plays that are shown one after the other much like scenes of a regular show with an intermission in the middle. I started out by just sitting quietly in the midst of all of the hopeful auditioners and decided to go for it and see if I had a chance on a new stage. Sadly, I did not get a part in the 8 x 10 production on stage but was asked to work behind the scenes for the show.

Through these past weeks of rehearsal, I have learned many things and gotten to meet many different people that are working on the production. These people include the producer of the shows at the Cookeville Drama Center, the three directors; Kim, Dave, and David; the stage managers; Michelle and Randi; and all of the many members of the cast. I have learned how to fly in curtains for the show and then helped to move props on and off of the stage between each play.

Overall, this has been a great experience to sort of experience what the Cookeville dramatic community has to offer the many actors that live in the town. I have really enjoyed every aspect of working on the 8 x 10 production and hope to perform or work backstage on many more productions at the Cookevill Drama Center while I am in school at Tennessee Tech.

For The Bible Tells Me So, Lambda Event

The Gay Straight Alliance on Tech’s campus, the TTU Lambda Association, hosted a very intriguing movie night a few weeks ago. The movie that they viewed and had discussed was called, For The Bible Tells Me So. Although this was not the first time I had seen this movie, it was still quite meaningful to see. I was able to revisit some of the teachings that had been instilled in my head by preachers on the fact that I am gay. For the most part this simple fact has caused me trouble when dealing with the church, but this movie showed how being gay is ok and that God does not condemn it.

During the question and answer portion of the event we got to here from a Crossville PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) parent that shared with us a little of his daughters story when she came to he and his wife to tell them that she was a lesbian. This story was inspiring as well as eye opening for me to see that not all families react as negatively as mine reacted. Also, the Lambda Association president, Mr. Cory Smith, shared a little bit of a personal experience that he had to sadly encounter with his father.

I believe that the movie had great success with its audience. Many people came out to view this movie and were able to voice their opinions on it and issues afterwards. I learned that there are many people in the area that are very supporting and willing to help the gay members of our community. All of the feedback was great at this event and very positive, which was a nice change for homosexuality to be spoken of on a good note. In the end, I am glad that I chose to attend this Lambda event, it was entertaining and informative.