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Interview: Play Your Part's SEX by mae west

12/4/2020

3 Comments

 
The criminalization of sex work has been talked about more openly in the last few years. From the immediate damages of SESTA-FOSTA to the double standards of Instagram and Facebook’s community guidelines, it seems that people are finally realizing that if the machine comes for sex workers it will come for civilians next.

Play Your Part wanted to honor these and other issues and found a way to do it not through a new piece but through the modernization of a play from 1926: Mae West’s Sex.

Mae West is a cultural icon for her shameless sexuality but what many people don’t know is that she wrote multiple plays in her lifetime. Plays which many of her contemporaries thought went too far.

According to director Isabella Price “It is a fucking crime that no one is producing Mae West. Her work is still super relevant. It slaps.”

With a text that discusses the humanity of sex workers from the perspective of sex workers, Price and her team then related it to the struggles of now. Not just of sex workers to exist without censorship, but specifically black women.

“I’m reading about how Mae West released Sex and got arrested and all these reviews saying this is the decline of society and femininity...and then I’m going back to twitter and people are like ‘How dare Megan Thee Stallion talk about her pussy on the internet’. We’re having the same conversations 100 years apart.”
But the bigger challenge with bringing Sex into the modern age was not in just updating the setting. The true challenge was producing it online rather than onstage.

With a cast that sprawls across the country, the team was working in multiple time zones, having a chunk of time in the middle of the day that was not too early or too late for anyone. When I asked Price what this was like she simply said ““Hard. Very very hard.”

But worth it in the end. The team was able to pre-record some of the characters and scenes to avoid staging the entire show ‘live’. The production is a blend of filmmaking and theatre; both of which Price has experience with.

“When this project came it was such a good mix of theatre and film because we had to film so much of this production. Because we’re doing this on [webcasting] we didn’t want to rely on every actor being live streamed. It’s just too much of a...so many things can go wrong when you have 15 people live streaming at one time.”

Price is not the only one to have found joy in this medium. Amr Nabeel, who plays Agnes, also saw it as an opportunity to grow as a creator.

““It’s given me a chance to hone my skills as we move into a more digital age. It requires so much use of the actor’s imagination to give a sense of the world.”

It wasn’t just acting that the performers worried about. Due to the remote performances, each actor had to work on their own lighting, sets, costumes...all the things that actors normally don’t have to think about.

““I think as actors we can fall into a guise that you’re just there to say your lines and then walk off. And I think it’s important especially in the world we’re getting into is: what else do you want to say? When I’m getting ready and doing Agnes’ makeup...what shade do I want? What does this shade tell about this moment? Something so simple as a shade of lipstick really exercises you as an actor to make strong choices.”

Getting into Agnes’ skin was something Nabeel thought a lot about. Agnes, as written in 1926, was a female character played by a female performer. Nabeel, who is a man and who has not had experience in the sex industry, went on a journey to find the humanity in Agnes.

“I didn’t want to make her a caricature...Agnes is someone you could see in your living room.”

This is where having sex workers at the table (whether in 1926 or now) is important. Nabeel did not have his own personal experiences but Price did. Experiences she decided to share with the cast.

“This story is about the stigma of sex work. That forced me into a position where I had to tell people I know this because I have engaged in it. I went back and forth, should I tell them, how will that affect the way they view me? It’s always a thing about who are you going to tell. As the director...are they going to be able to respect me? But there was no way I was going to be able to talk about sex work without using first person.”

Play Your Part also had a community stakeholder in The Oldest Profession a history podcast which looks at famous sex workers through the centuries and which is produced by a sex worker.

This first hand experience is vital to ensuring that productions about sex work. In our pop cultural landscape, sex workers often fall into two categories: tragic victim or empowered girlboss. It is easy to see the job itself as the source of drama but Price had no interest in telling that sorry tale.

““This story is about the stigma of sex work...Margie loves sex and sex work. What she’s trying to find is someone who accepts her exactly as she is. Someone who sees her and sees the sex work and still loves her.”

The performative aspects of sex work do get to shine though, as this production features multiple burlesque acts choreographed by Sailor St. Claire.

Sailor has performed burlesque for over a decade now and her biography pays homage to her academic roots. The Showgirl Scholar (St. Claire earned her PhD in 2016) gave the cast a crash course in burlesque performance. While the production originally planned to include seven pieces, that number was reduced to two solos for Nabeel’s Agnes and for the lead character of Margie (played by Amariss Harris). Aside from nudity, these pieces do not look alike, being vehicles to tell each character’s story.

“Every conversation I had with someone went in a slightly different direction based on what the piece was going to be.”

Harris’ number, which St. Claire describes as “this is her at work” took inspiration from Mae West, as well as other classic bumpers and grinders. Nabeel’s piece, a burlesque rendition of Agnes’ death, is more akin to a musical where characters break into song. It is a private, highly emotional moment.

“We wanted to offer Agnes, through a sense of fantasy, an opportunity to see herself as she wanted to be rather instead of how her life went.”

Nabeel said the process of working on the piece was crucial to his embodiment of the character.

“It was a growing moment. It stripped my character down (literally) to the core and allowed me to access a vulnerability and achieve a certain strength.”

Strength is a word that came up a lot in these interviews. Price especially spoke about the resilience of black sex workers, not just today but through history.

“Black sex workers are so integral in our society whether we want to admit this or not. They are influencing hair, fashion, music, style...It felt like no one was acknowledging that stuff. Let’s make something that is a nod to the culture.”

Indeed, any legislation that comes out against sex workers will hit sex workers of color harder. Harder still if those sex workers are also trans (one of the main reasons Agnes has been adapted to be trans in this production). These demographics are not often at the forefront of, well, anything. Except the revolution. In that, black sex workers are leading the charge and making the world better little by little even though they are often not given due respect even within activist circles.

“Taking Mae’s work and the reinterpretation has been so simple so easy. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to put more focus on my own culture, my own history as a black woman...while paying homage to Mae who is truly a hero of mine.”

By focusing on ‘this world I live in’ and the women who Price calls ‘the progeny of Mae West’ the modern setting reflects who we need to listen to. In 1926, Mae West was, according to St. Claire, “writing about people she knew and people she worked with and that was not anything that the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice wanted to see in the theatre”.

Today white sex workers have more of a voice than ever and often need to be told to sit down and let others speak. Mae West speaking out in 1926 was revolutionary, but that torch has passed; if black women and femmes are doing the work they should be given acknowledgment.

Price wants to honor them. Not just as activists and firebrands, but as full people deserving of respect and admiration. People who are not only their job but vibrant individuals.
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“This production is a love letter to black sex workers. A love letter to all the black working women that I have known. The black working femmes that have made it so much simpler for me and really broken down barriers. This is a love letter to all those women and femmes.”

Sex will open on December 4, 2020 at 6pm PST, and perform through December 19. Ticket holders will receive a link to a private website where the show will broadcast live for each performance. Tickets are a suggested donation and available at playyourpartseattle.org starting November 20. Sex contains explicit language and deals with mature themes such as sexual assault, suicide, sex work, extortion, and crime. It may not be suitable for some audience members, and is not recommended for audiences under the age of 16.
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HOW TO BE SAD AT BHOF

5/18/2017

6 Comments

 
Last year I got dumped by another performer right before BHOF. What was meant to be this grand adventure together had turned into a solo obligation. The trip was further complicated by my going viral over wearing short shorts on a plane. During this already emotional time I was fielding interviews, hate mail, and strange men hitting on me. Exhausted, I checked into a room with a king sized bed and immediately grabbed some champagne.
“Being sad at BHOF is a time honored tradition” they had told me when I begged them not to make me take the trip alone. Several friends, all BHOF veterans, agreed when I whined to them about it.
“It’s the best place to be sad. You should still go.”
“I was sad at BHOF last year and it was the right place.”
“There will be so many people there who love you.”
No one told me HOW to be sad at BHOF though. Just to go there and maybe feel a bit better. And that is the purpose of this article. BHOF is not going to magically make you feel 110%. What it will do is make you less sad. It will take you away from wherever your point of sadness is. It will surround you with people who love you. It will have slushy drinks.
But being sad at BHOF requires a strategy. It took me two days to actually start having fun and once I did I, well I definitely wasn’t better and I still sobbed in my shower, but I had my first post-breakup moments of happiness. And when every day has been a slog through depression, those first moments are really important.
Maybe your reason for being sad at BHOF isn’t a breakup. Maybe you just lost your job. Maybe someone died. Maybe you got a bad diagnosis. Maybe your pet was sick when you left. Whatever the reason, if you follow these easy steps you will manage to have some fun.

1) Go to the pool.
If you follow one point on this list, make it this one!
Aside from the basic scientific explanation that there’s sun and fresh air, the pool is also just the center of relaxation and day time socializing. If you don’t want to talk to people, lay in the sun or chill in a cabana. If you do want to talk, most of the people are there. There’s snacks. There’s sympathetic parties willing to buy you slushy drinks. Let them buy you a slushy drink if you drink. They come in an Orleans sippy cup and they taste like Jolly Ranchers. On Sunday I took mine back to my hotel room and drank it in the shower and cried. It was the best. I mean, it sucked to be crying again, but there was something about how ridiculous that moment was that I felt more at peace with it. Then I took a selfie and thought ‘in a few weeks this picture is going to be hilarious’ and it really was!
Also at the pool: the pool. Do you know what people can’t see when you’re in the pool? Tears.
On Sunday I got my now yearly tarot card reading from Electra Mourning. If you’re going through something I highly recommend stopping by on years she is there. Electra will not sugar coat anything but she will deliver hard truths in the kindest way and inform you of some any work you need to do. If you’re like me, you’ll hate being told to do work and then you’ll cry about it. Luckily, this all happened by the pool, so I just walked over and jumped in. And I was free to cry surrounded by people. I was able to just let tears fall down my face while talking to people and the next thing I knew I wasn’t crying anymore. I was even kind of having fun.
Then the conga line started. It is impossible to not have fun during the conga line.
The Orleans pool is magical and it’s way better to mope out there than in your overly air conditioned hotel room.

2) Do NOT room alone
This was my mistake on my first night. I was in my room ten minutes before I realized what a mistake it was. I slept there the first night because I had already paid for it but the next morning I checked out and moved onto someone’s couch.
Look, I understand why if you’re a couple you would get a room to yourselves. But if that ends before BHOF and you can avoid rooming solo, DO IT. Sure, a couch isn’t as comfortable as a bed, but if you can sleep on a couch you should. There’s also often people with a spare bed spot. Roommates means it’s harder to curl up in bed and stay there. It means you have to socialize. It means people making you drink water and dragging you to DuBarry’s. It means if you break down crying on the last day there are people there to hug you. It’s just better, okay?
Also it’s cheaper. Your sadness shouldn’t cost a fortune.


3) Remember to drink water and eat. If you can’t eat, drink more water.
Drinking water is one of the de facto BHOF survival tips. It goes double for if you’re sad because chances are you’re crying and not eating as much. You might also be drinking more than you usually would. All of these will dehydrate you faster, which will give you a terrible headache on top of your emotional pain.
Have a water bottle with you at all times and deputize people to make you use it.
(Sign up for Scarlett O’Hairdye’s Shark Mom Texts)
Also, tip for eating. The new steakhouse has the most amazing free bread ever. It’s complimentary with meals but I went back to get some and they just gave it to me. It’s got chocolate and nuts in it and it’s soft enough to be easy to eat but tasty enough that it’s a treat.
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Pictured: Fun   Not Pictured: Water
4) Tell people you’re sad
This goes along with having people help you take care of yourself. It’s also because most people at BHOF have been sad at some major burlesque event and know how much it sucks. You don’t have to tell everyone your entire story, but a lot of people respond well if the answer to ‘how are you enjoying the weekend?’ is ‘I feel kind of shitty but I’m here’. 
I broadcast my sadness on social media to cut down on having to explain why I was sad. I refused to pretend I was happy for anyone but the Legends (because I don’t want to ruin their party). 
Being open about my sadness also had the added bonus of finding the other sad people at BHOF. Suddenly I wasn’t sad alone. I had my #cryfemme crew and they all shared new and exciting ways to be sad. For example, did you know there’s an arcade at the Orleans and one of the games is manual one where you just punch ducks? And you win tickets and can exchange them for candy or silly toys?
WELL THERE IS. 
And if you go to the arcade with the other sad people, you can all be sad together. You can take turns listening to each other’s woes and not feel like you’re spoiling anyone’s fun because, hey, you’re all already bummed. And helping others is a good way to take your mind off of your own problems for an hour. 

Also, seriously, the arcade. It’s also not the place most BHOFers will be so you’re out and about but also get some space if you need it. Also DUCK PUNCH. 

6) Feel Your Feelings
This one comes straight from Legend Velvet Ice. 
I don’t normally imbibe much but I drank and got high a lot at BHOF. I had just hit a point where I didn’t want to feel sad and was trying to find anything that would either numb me or pick me up.
Then at the airport on Monday I burst into tears again. Luckily there were people from my city there. One of them offered me half a xanax and we were weighing whether or not it would help (I’d never had one). Then Velvet said very pointedly ‘or maybe she should just feel her feelings’. I declined the xanax. 
Once I started just feeling my feelings I found they didn’t last as long. While I didn’t hide my sadness at BHOF, I did hold off on crying in the lobby before shows or in the middle of Fantastik. I’m not saying you should cry-scream during Best Debut, but you shouldn’t tamp things down with alcohol or the idea that your feelings will disrupt everything. BHOF is way bigger than your feelings so unless you’re clinging to someone and letting your mascara stain their dress, you’re probably fine. And if you do need to have a knock down, drag out cry, remember that you have friends at BHOF who will hopefully assist you with that in your room. You can be as loud as you want in there. 
And on that note, be easy with the substances. By all means, imbibe if you want to, but know your limits on things or you may end up sitting in a hallway alone at 2am REALLY feeling your feelings and be too busy coming down to process them. 

(Note: This is not to say medication is never an option or that drug use is inherently bad. But medicate and intoxicate responsibly. Don’t just decide to start downing pills or trying new things in the hopes it’ll fix you. And if you do choose to be irresponsible, deputize a babysitter or two who always knows where you are and what you took.)

7) Only eat ONE brownie
You either know what brownies I’m talking about or you don’t. ONLY HAVE ONE THE WHOLE WEEKEND. 

8) Experiment with your look
Make peace with the fact that you will cry and ruin your makeup. So why not go bigger? Try smudgy/smoky looks. Paint mascara tracks on preemptively. Don’t fill in your invisible eye brows. Literally draw a smile on your face. Say fuck it entirely and don’t wear anything. 
Or do what you normally do and treat your face like a mandala. You did it perfect and over the course of the evening it will be destroyed and returned to the universe. When you wipe it off think of wiping away some of your sadness. 
Don’t just stop at your face! Try accessories you’ve never tried instead of doing your hair. Wear that easy breezy jumpsuit you thought was maybe too casual but is oh so comfy. Rhinestone your glasses.
This is your phoenix in the ashes time. What are you gonna look like after it’s over?
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Take a cue from raccoons and experiment with a bold eye and covering yourself in trash
9) Drink Water
So important it gets said twice!

10) BHOF will always be there
You can always go back. You can always do it again. BHOF this year may be rough but BHOF will not be ruined forever and always because you were sad at one. There are countless people who can tell you about their bad year. Or years even. 
If you miss the shuttle or the bowling tournament or something don’t beat yourself up. If all you do is lay by the pool that’s good! If you hit up every single event so that you are exhausted every night that’s good too!
Live moment to moment while you’re there. Don’t worry about sticking to plans (unless you’re performing) or running on a strict schedule. You can always hit the photo safari next year. 
(That said I was so sad I missed out on meeting Satan’s Angel last year. Do not apply this logic to meeting Legends. You go see them now.) 

11) Make memories
Pose for photos. Take selfies (#cryfemme #feelshittylookpretty). Do the red carpet groups. You do not look as bad as you think you do and you do not want there to be a blank space later. Those photos will help you remember that good things happened to you during a dark time and when you start pulling out of it you’ll be able to see proof of the support you have and of your ability to survive. One of my favorite photos of myself ever is from Sunday in Du Barry’s. I was hungover, cried out, and nauseated. But I look effortlessly cool. Looking at that picture later on down the road made me realize that if I could look that good when I felt like shit, then I was gonna be even better when I was on top of things. It also made me realize that maybe things weren’t as insurmountable as I thought they were. They rarely are. 
You will get through this. 
I believe in you.
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Photo by Heather Schofner 
12) Always let Heather take your photo
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