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| Photo by Russell J. Young |
The Gender Issue
This production of a World Premiere is written by David
Valdes Greenwood and directed by Sacha Reich.
It is playing at the Milagro space, 525 SE Stark St., through April 14th. For more information, go to their site at www.milagro.org
God must have had an extremely delicate and difficult job
when creating. Observe the intricate
make-up of all living things, from the massive inner structures of giant beast,
to the miniature make-up of cell creatures…to the plant life, birds and
fishes…and finally to the complex labyrinth of human beings—body, mind and
issues of identity and sexuality, which seems to dominate the news today. The Bard has said, “we are such stuff as
dreams are made on…” and those dreams should be of happiness, not nightmares!
A “mermaid hour” is that magic time between the
transformation from fish to human (and back again) when both aspects of one’s
being can be fully appreciated…and so, this idea relates to trans individuals,
those who may have the outer body of one sex but the inner longings of the
opposite sex. Keep in mind that we all
have had gender identity issues of some sort.
Most of us grew up with Moms telling girls to wear dresses and play with
dolls, and Dads nudging boys into their roles as sportsmen. Choices of gender issues are taken away from
children and we feel we must comply with them.
I applaud those willing to break the mold and fly (or swim) free!
The story is chocked full of ideas which could easily be
overwhelming but in the author’s artistic hands, have been streamlined to some
extent, for a clearer understanding of the issues. We have a family, consisting of Bird (Jed
Arkley), an optimistic skeptic, and his wife, Pilar (Nelda Reyes), a nurturing Mom,
who are the parents of a 12-year-old trans girl, Violet (Jaryn Lasentia), and wants to get hormone suppression shots so
that she can pursue her natural instincts and become a woman. Her best, most intimate friend, is a gay
male, Jacob (Kai Hynes). But his mother,
Mika (Barbie Wu), is not quite so accepting of the relationship between the
two. After some missteps, which could
have led to tragedy, an understanding social worker, Crux (Michael Cavazos),
gives them some guidance. This is only a
thumbnail sketch but some discoveries need to be left to the audience.
This story, I’m sure, might be familiar territory to those
searching for answers, both as Youth and parents, and could be considered an
educational tool, as well. There are
many different locations for this tale but are solved with some clever lighting
(designer, Kim Williams) and a very savvy director, who understands the subject
matter and has a very talented cast. The
most illuminating part of the play for me was the long monologues, very
naturalistically delivered by the father (Arkley), when he talks of how his boy
changed one day at a baseball game from a son to daughter. Very poignant. In fact, the whole cast is super, all giving
revealing and believable performances, especially (as mentioned) Arkley, and
Lasentia, in the key role as the daughter.
A final thought—in our Constitution it begins with “We, the
People…” a phrase that seems to have been forgotten in recent months. It does not
add, except for people of color, or other cultures, or religious beliefs or
trans, et. al. That item has been
trampled upon recently by the powers that be, and it is about time that our
future generation, The Youth, are currently the models of what this country
could be and, I believe, will be soon.
“Bless the Beasts and Children!”
I highly recommend this play. If you do see it, please tell them Dennis sent
you.
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