A piece of art hangs on the wall. Visitors stand in front of it to look. They crane their heads to the side. They climb a ladder. They walk to the back of the theatre. They hang upside down. They close their eyes and run their hands across the canvas. They sit cross-legged on the […]
play a Day: Passing You By
A woman center stage tapping a pen on a notebook, thinking. Someone rides by on a bicycle. A couple pass by holding hands. A kid chases after an errant soccer ball. A clock on a nearby church tolls the hour.
Play a Day: Come and Go
The woman from Day 15 puts down her notepad and pencil to go for a walk around the auditorium to clear her head. Halfway back to the stage, she gets an idea. She runs back to the stage to write it down, but by the time she gets there, it is gone again.
Play a Day: Priorities
A bedroom. Stage left, a desk and chair. A large red neon sign blinks: “Art” Stage right, a bed. A large blue neon sign blinks: “Sleep” A woman stands center stage, looking from one side to the other. Sheepishly, she walks stage right, collapsing on the bed.
Review: 2015 Fusebox Festival
One of the more interesting thing about attending festivals is seeing how different performance pieces speak to one another. In their second week, the Fusebox Festival line-up included some interesting offerings at the intersection of performance and technology. Michelle Ellsworth’s performance piece, Preparation for the Obsolescence of the Y Chromosome, is a meditation on a world without […]
Play a Day: Catharsis
The stage is filled with spectators facing the audience, as if they are watching a live performance. Light from a projection screen hits their faces. Most of the spectators are in semi-darkness. One woman center stage is illuminated by a spotlight. The audience in the theatre watches her (and the other spectators if they wish) […]
OUTsider Festival: Narcissister and Gay Wax Museum
I wasn’t sure what to expect when headed to see Narcissister for the opening night of OUTsider Festival in Austin. Narcissister’s name is what it sounds like; the complication of our cultural understanding of the narcissist juxtaposed with the idea of sisterhood, and how being a “sister” relates to the identities of women of color […]
Christmas Thoughts and Fearless Women
Sometimes I think I could let myself off the hook more.
Maybe doing what I love can be enough.
Maybe I should stop worrying so much about whether what I’m doing is the most important thing I could possibly do, and worry more about if I feel alive.
I want to feel that joy and exuberance Julia Child felt when she graduated from cooking school, and again when her cookbook was published.
And if I was full of that joy, maybe I’d have the energy for something else, too.
Behind BedPost Confessions
What happens when several women writing about sex-positive issues on-line start talking to each another? In this particular case, it resulted in the long-running, sex-positive, monthly live performance event BedPost Confessions here in Austin. Co-producers Mia Martina, Sadie Smythe, and Julie Gillis all met virtually through their podcasts and blogs. Sadie knew co-producerRosie Q from […]
Review: Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn
Peter de Rome Grandfather of Gay Porn is a new documentary by Ethan Reid. It chronicles the life and work of British filmmaker Peter de Rome, who began shooting erotic gay shorts in the 1960s, at a time when homosexual sex (and pornography itself) was still illegal. What most struck me about the film was how […]