Trans actress Delia Kropp is glad to be returning to the Chicago theater scene, particularly in Pride Films and Plays' upcoming world premiere of Raggedy And. That's in large part because gay playwright David Valdes Greenwood stipulated that he prefers a transgender actress to star in his drama, which is centered round a poet named Ondi Rivers and her diverse family.
"First of all, my character is transgender," Kropp said. "But—and it's a lynchpin of the whole play—she began the process of transitioning right after high school which would be 1983 for her, and pretty much cemented her female identity with hormones and so on in the late '80s with the help of her lesbian and female partner."
Kropp said since her character has identified mainly as female rather than as transgender for so long, conflicts arise when Ondi is chosen to write and perform a poem for a presidential inauguration. Ondi must weigh whether the privacy for herself and her loved ones is more important than the potential good that can come out of such a high-profile artistic honor, especially with all the risks inherent with the international media aggressively nosing around her life and background.
Playwright Valdes Greenwood hit on the idea of the inaugural poet of an instance when a largely private person would be thrust into a worldwide spotlight. He described it as both tantalizing and nerve-wracking. The short turnaround from the poet selection to performance of the poem also factors into Raggedy And's drama.
"The character of Ondi is not somebody who has been seeking this out—she's not running for office where she would be putting herself up for this kind of scrutiny," Valdes Greenwood said. "But then here's something that comes to her that puts two things she wants at odds. One, her identity, and this enormous platform that validates who she is as a poet."
Valdes Greenwood was inspired in part to write Raggedy And when he learned that his former college roommate transitioned to female in her 40s. As a writer, Valdes Greenwood hoped that he could help share some of the gender identity complexities of his former roommate's experiences and others whom he interviewed in the creation of his play.
Raggedy And was first performed as a reading as part of Stage Left Theatre's Leap Fest in 2014, and it was later workshopped in London. In 2015, the play came onto the radar of Pride Films and Plays founder David Zak, who specifically invited Kropp to perform in further developmental versions of the script and to become a company member.
Kropp acknowledged these Raggedy And readings as a twofold audition for the play to receive a full-scale production, and for her to star as Ondi.
"This will actually be my first featured role where I'm not sitting behind a music stand post-transition," said Kropp, citing a date in June 2011 when she officially registered her name and gender change with the state of Illinois.
Kropp only recently returned to acting last year, largely via readings like an aborning project by Kelli Simpkins for About Face Theatre on LGBTQ youth and seniors. Kropp was also hired as an understudy for multiple female roles in the Gift Theatre's recent world premiere of David Rabe's Good for Otto.
"I have to explain why I got out of acting while I transitioned," said Kropp, whose many past acting credits include performances with the Goodman Theatre, Lifeline Theatre and the company that would be renamed Redtwist Theatre for her final pre-transition performances during the 2005-06 season. "It was a very exposed time of my life—and a time when I really need to keep myself from who I was. And 'actor' was a big part of who I was."
Kropp said anyone transitioning has to reassess and reevaluate who he or she was before and how much to take on and adjust afterwards.
"It's much more than just the clothes," said Kropp with a laugh. "I was keeping an open mind about whether acting, which is very much about identities, was really something I wanted to pursue or needed to pursue now that I was much happier with myself. Did I have to be somebody else? And the answer to that, which actually is one the neatest things about this whole last year, is that an actor builds upon who they are. They don't shove everything aside and escape from themselves. They use themselves and use that as the building materials."
Pride Films and Plays' world premiere of David Valdes Greenwood's Raggedy And runs from Thursday, March 10, through Sunday, April 10, at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, 5779 N. Ridge Ave. Tickets are $15 for previews and $22-$27 during the regular run; call 800-737-0984 or visit www.pridefilmsandplays.com .
