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I
forget who it was this year, Stockard Channing or someone or other.
They don’t tend to be a lot of queer celebrities I have
to say. I always like to see an organization like GLAAD, it’s
nice that they honor mainstream actors and actresses for doing
or playing gay people in movies. At the same time there’s
a lot more queer playwrights and a lot more queer stand-ups and
queer artists in the media. It would be really great for them
also to take those people and raise them up and make them more
visible. I guess that’s the last GLAAD award I’ll
be getting! (laughs)
AE:
If you ever get it (laughs). So tell me about David Schweizer.
He’s your director and has worked with you on a few shows.
MG: David is a really fancy director. He’s queer.
He’s worked for 20 or 30 years. He’s got an incredible
list of accomplishments. In fact he was just written up in the
New York Times. He directed this opera in Glimmerglass New York
which is apparently the center, the pulse of new opera, modern
opera, avant-garde opera.
He’s
worked all over the world and besides doing plays and operas he’s
also been connected with a lot of solo performers, queer solo
performers, a lot of edgy solo performers, a lot of women. He
worked with Ann Magnuson, Sandra Tsing Loh. Who was very much
in the news recently for being ousted from NPR because she said
one of those words. So she is very much part of the censorship
battle.
AE:
Words? Which words?
MG: She said “Fuck”. She thought they were
going to edit that out and it was really the editor I think who
messed that up. But anyway once that got on the NPR station in
Southern California, she was asked to leave. Which was really
stupid. Then of course they took it back but it was too late.
Anyway
so he’s worked with Sandra Tsing Loh on her shows, her one-person
shows. And some of the people the NEA went after. And this is
the fifth project I’ve done with him. At this point it’s
more cool than ever because I instinctively know what he wants
and we work together really fast. The thing about David is he
is usually working on three projects at the same time, so he doesn’t
have a lot of time to hold my hand and walk me through things.
So I have the freedom to come up with a lot of my own ideas as
far as acting and staging. And I do it because I know what David
would like.
This
show of course, from the version we did in New York to the one
we’ve done now, is greatly greatly improved. The story’s
tighter; it has meaning. In New York it was just a raunchy, cynical
hour and ten minutes. Now it’s really in the context of
a wide-eyed idealist in the queer movement who grew up to wanting
to be somebody in the queer community. And loving the attention
and all that, wanting to be the emcee of the Pride she used to
just sit at all starry-eyed and watch. And how that swiftly changed
to just being a cynical horndog that just tries to get laid at
every Pride around the country (laughs).
But
we were able to at least put the cynicism in the context of what
[Pride is] really supposed to be about, and what it still can
be.
AE:
Are you going to take the show anywhere else?
MG: I want to get a good video of it. Then I’m
not sure if I want to sell the video or not. This show is a lot
of fun to perform and people ask me if I’m tired at the
end. And I’m not, it’s like going to the gym or going
out and playing volleyball or something. By yourself. You spin
and dive and hit the ground. It’s play. But it is really
taxing. I don’t want to have my whole body suddenly altered
by doing this show. So I’d like to get a really nice tape
of it. Maybe just have it be a script that people perform so I
don’t have to do it.
AE:
What do you have planned next?
MG: After this show there’s the piece I did at
Kennedy Center called “Los Big Names,” which is going
to be a complete departure from this. I don’t think there’s
going to be any sex in it at all. But I hope people will still
come see it. In spite of the fact that there is not going to be
one orgasm, and I’m not going to touch my crotch at all
(laughs).
AE:
I don’t know about that (laughs).
MG: It’s a piece about my parents and myself, and
it draws from some of the stuff I’ve done before about my
parents which I haven’t done for years. I like to start
with nonfiction and then take liberties with it. It’s a
little tricky when you’re talking about your parents because
I have half-sisters and half-brothers. Everything I do is really
in tribute but it can’t be a puff piece either. So I go
for making them mythical people. And it’s going to be a
lot more about Latino culture. This piece is going to be produced
in San Francisco in July. Then the plan is to move it to off-Broadway.
AE:
Right on!
If you can’t get to San Francisco for your Marga fix, check
her website, www.margagomez.com,
for details about future shows, DVDs, or tapes of performances.
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