I like to sing. I like to dance. And sometimes, I like to act. But in just a few short weeks, I'll be doing all three on stage. All at once. And hold on to your hats and scarves because it's one hell of a show. A Hell In A Handbag Production, to be exact.
David Cerda, the queer performer and playwright who happens to be the artistic director of Hell In A Handbag Productions has a written shows that range from sCarrie! The Musical, a parody and homage ( parodage in David's terms ) of the horror flick Carrie, to his most recent work Caged Dames, a musical about innocence gone bad in a women's prison. High camp and amazingly hysterical lyrics are his forte.
Rudolph, the Red-Hosed Reindeer is a Christmas favorite penned by Cerda. It's a parody ( or parodage ) of the annual television program Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which in Cerda's hands means anything goes. Boys will be girls, Rudolph likes dresses, Mrs. Claus likes to tipple, and the elves are gayer than P-Town during Pride. Which of course is where I come in. Yes, I'm a big gay elf. OK, stop laughing.
I shall not reveal any more except to say that if you are in the mood to laugh at Christmastime and the oodles of commercialism it fosters, come out and see us. This will be the SEVENTH holiday run of Rudolph, which means there must be something to it if it's lasted this long... plus you'll get to see me trying to sing, dance, and act all at the same time.
Visit HandBagProductions.org for details, or check out the upcoming shows link at bailiwick.org for tickets. Rudolph runs every Friday & Saturday in December, but it's not for the chirrens, so leave your little cousins at home. Shameless self-promotion, I know, but who's column is this anyway?
Did you know that 67 GLBT candidates were elected to federal, state, and local offices nationwide in the recent election? 37 of them were running for their first time as openly GLBT officials. Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma elected their first GLBT state legislators, and Indiana elected their first ever GLBT official.
In Iowa, Matt McCoy, a sitting state senator, came out in his last term and was elected again, making him the first gay candidate elected to the Iowa legislature. And in Oregon, Judge Virginia Lender was elected to the Oregon Supreme Court, joining Rives Kistler, the first openly gay state Supreme Court Justice, making Oregon the first state to have two openly GLBT justices on the bench.
Combine that with the House and the Senate takeover by the Democrats, and it's going to be an interesting year until the next election. Now comes the hard part: holding our elected officials accountable to their positions. Not only is it our responsibility to vote, it's our duty to make sure our government is working for us the way we want it to. Make sure you stay aware of the news and the issues at hand. And if people start to get out of line, use your voices.
With you in 4/4,
Peter Mavrik
peter@windycitymediagroup.com