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rmThere's a certain delicious humor for me in the fact that one of the reasons Dogboy & Justine is happening right here, right now, in just this way is that I finally got the message about not waiting for permission through my thick skull. I mean, it's a show about dominatrices -- and that's a world that's all about waiting for permission.
But aside from the permission-induced giggle, there sure are a lot of other reasons why putting on a show and asking people for money are totally relevant to the world of the show. And I find it particularly satisfying that the backstage stories and on stage stories that are part of this echo each other.
In our Kickstarter video, I talk a little bit about how we see Dogboy & Justine as a backstage story, in that long tradition of musicals that are backstage stories (42nd Street and Kiss Me Kate to name just two of my personal favorites). After all, the women of Mistress Maybe's House of Sin wear funny costumes, lie about their names, and pretend to be in love with people they're not, all while working to make sure no one knows when they're having a bad day at the office. Just like theater, you've gotta put on the paint and put on a show like you haven't done it a hundred times before.
Of course though, these women are just doing an overt version of what we all do every day -- performing ourselves both in public and in private. In Dogboy & Justine we have actresses playing women playing dominatrices. But it's not like that extra layer of persona isn't present for the male characters as well -- it's just less consistent as our actors play men with private desires playing men who are trying to present a certain image to those whose services they're seeking.
Everyone, in short, both on-stage in this play and off-stage in actual life, is a whole lot of different people, and I really do hope it's that backstage story element that draws people into Dogboy & Justine's story. Not just because here is a tradition the audience understands (and so offers a balm about the potentially shocking environment of the show -- which isn't here to be an edgy gimmick, btw, it really is a world I'm interested in writing about).
Rather, I have this suspicion that backstage stories aren't just appealing, aren't just sexy, to audiences because most of us have had fantasies about being on stage or being a star or being connected to celebrity or artistry in some way. Rather, I think, we instinctually respond to the backstage story because we all have a backstage life, even if we're not performers -- or sex workers.
Everyone is someone when they get home. Someone who smiles differently than they do at the office. Someone who listens to music other than what is expected. Someone who has a different cadence of speech or whose housekeeping habits differ from how they keep their workplace desk. Everyone has a secret life, that even if it is seemingly mundane, is tantalizing to someone, because hey, secrets!
And that's the goal of Dogboy & Justine, to be tantalizing -- not because "oh hey, dominatrices" although yes, this is a show about navigating and negotiating sexualities, but because it's about persona, and stepping back through a series of public and private identities to look at who people are when they're at home and then subsequently consider which of our many individual lives we ultimately really want to live in.
I am, myself, a lot of different people. Y'all know that. I've had a lot of careers, chronologically and concurrently. I'm a girl, I'm a boy, I'm timid, and I am telling you right here and right now that anything is possible. I used to be paid, like the women of Dogboy & Justine to give people permission. And it took me going to a master class taught by an artist I admire to feel like I had permission to take the next step with this project, even if the message there was actually that the very idea of permission is a lie.
So here I am, several times a day, both saying "Fuck you all, we're putting on a show" and also down on my knees letting you know that, "Hey, without your $5, we don't actually have the logistical permission to make this show -- at least not in the way we've got it all planned out."
So it's weird. It's complicated. It's possibly even ironic. It's certainly funny. It's a whole set of perfect circles. It's a story I totally know the ending of. It's an adventure on which I have no idea what's going to happen. It's a journey that I'm going to have to coax people along on when I'm wearing the directing hat, but also when I'm wearing the fund raising hat and the promotions hat and probably some other hats I haven't thought of yet. And it's a story -- that is, the putting on a show part of it -- that I'm going to have to keep reminding myself is rightfully mine to be a part of telling.
Because no matter how much it's gorgeous when people do give you permission -- whether you're an artist with a plan or a man emptying his wallet to be on his knees -- a big part of growing up, not just as a person, but as a creator, is accepting that in a lot of arenas permission is really just a decorative accent. And you've got a whole lot to do in the meantime, preparing for a moment, that not only may never come, but also doesn't need to.
Getting away from that permission thing is hard. It's hard for me. So I'll offer you a slightly different piece of advice, although it comes from the same place and the same journey: serve yourself. You're at least as worthy as any other master or mistress you would choose. Trust me on this one. I know what I'm talking about. Up-close and personal. Onstage and off.
[ If you've enjoyed this post, please consider pledging funds to make Dogboy & Justine a reality. We need to meet our $6,000 pledge goal by December 21st or we'll receive no funds at all from the Kickstarter process. But, if you just want to hang out around here and talk theater or link other people to this post, we really, really like that too! ]
But aside from the permission-induced giggle, there sure are a lot of other reasons why putting on a show and asking people for money are totally relevant to the world of the show. And I find it particularly satisfying that the backstage stories and on stage stories that are part of this echo each other.
In our Kickstarter video, I talk a little bit about how we see Dogboy & Justine as a backstage story, in that long tradition of musicals that are backstage stories (42nd Street and Kiss Me Kate to name just two of my personal favorites). After all, the women of Mistress Maybe's House of Sin wear funny costumes, lie about their names, and pretend to be in love with people they're not, all while working to make sure no one knows when they're having a bad day at the office. Just like theater, you've gotta put on the paint and put on a show like you haven't done it a hundred times before.
Of course though, these women are just doing an overt version of what we all do every day -- performing ourselves both in public and in private. In Dogboy & Justine we have actresses playing women playing dominatrices. But it's not like that extra layer of persona isn't present for the male characters as well -- it's just less consistent as our actors play men with private desires playing men who are trying to present a certain image to those whose services they're seeking.
Everyone, in short, both on-stage in this play and off-stage in actual life, is a whole lot of different people, and I really do hope it's that backstage story element that draws people into Dogboy & Justine's story. Not just because here is a tradition the audience understands (and so offers a balm about the potentially shocking environment of the show -- which isn't here to be an edgy gimmick, btw, it really is a world I'm interested in writing about).
Rather, I have this suspicion that backstage stories aren't just appealing, aren't just sexy, to audiences because most of us have had fantasies about being on stage or being a star or being connected to celebrity or artistry in some way. Rather, I think, we instinctually respond to the backstage story because we all have a backstage life, even if we're not performers -- or sex workers.
Everyone is someone when they get home. Someone who smiles differently than they do at the office. Someone who listens to music other than what is expected. Someone who has a different cadence of speech or whose housekeeping habits differ from how they keep their workplace desk. Everyone has a secret life, that even if it is seemingly mundane, is tantalizing to someone, because hey, secrets!
And that's the goal of Dogboy & Justine, to be tantalizing -- not because "oh hey, dominatrices" although yes, this is a show about navigating and negotiating sexualities, but because it's about persona, and stepping back through a series of public and private identities to look at who people are when they're at home and then subsequently consider which of our many individual lives we ultimately really want to live in.
I am, myself, a lot of different people. Y'all know that. I've had a lot of careers, chronologically and concurrently. I'm a girl, I'm a boy, I'm timid, and I am telling you right here and right now that anything is possible. I used to be paid, like the women of Dogboy & Justine to give people permission. And it took me going to a master class taught by an artist I admire to feel like I had permission to take the next step with this project, even if the message there was actually that the very idea of permission is a lie.
So here I am, several times a day, both saying "Fuck you all, we're putting on a show" and also down on my knees letting you know that, "Hey, without your $5, we don't actually have the logistical permission to make this show -- at least not in the way we've got it all planned out."
So it's weird. It's complicated. It's possibly even ironic. It's certainly funny. It's a whole set of perfect circles. It's a story I totally know the ending of. It's an adventure on which I have no idea what's going to happen. It's a journey that I'm going to have to coax people along on when I'm wearing the directing hat, but also when I'm wearing the fund raising hat and the promotions hat and probably some other hats I haven't thought of yet. And it's a story -- that is, the putting on a show part of it -- that I'm going to have to keep reminding myself is rightfully mine to be a part of telling.
Because no matter how much it's gorgeous when people do give you permission -- whether you're an artist with a plan or a man emptying his wallet to be on his knees -- a big part of growing up, not just as a person, but as a creator, is accepting that in a lot of arenas permission is really just a decorative accent. And you've got a whole lot to do in the meantime, preparing for a moment, that not only may never come, but also doesn't need to.
Getting away from that permission thing is hard. It's hard for me. So I'll offer you a slightly different piece of advice, although it comes from the same place and the same journey: serve yourself. You're at least as worthy as any other master or mistress you would choose. Trust me on this one. I know what I'm talking about. Up-close and personal. Onstage and off.
[ If you've enjoyed this post, please consider pledging funds to make Dogboy & Justine a reality. We need to meet our $6,000 pledge goal by December 21st or we'll receive no funds at all from the Kickstarter process. But, if you just want to hang out around here and talk theater or link other people to this post, we really, really like that too! ]
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 10:43 pm (UTC)I am a lot of different people; more than a few of them work in nightclubs.
Date: 2010-10-21 08:17 pm (UTC)My friend and I both did things with theater in college, but not really since then, so I'd love to be able to ask you all sorts of questions about whether theater in the real world can actually work the way we want it to, and how we'll need to change things when it doesn't. There are probably questions that I don't know I should be asking. Do you know any resources we might look at?
Re: I am a lot of different people; more than a few of them work in nightclubs.
Date: 2010-10-21 10:34 pm (UTC)Please feel free to ask me whatever you want (I used to "industry beta" on the sly for RPF). I probably don't have time to read actual text and look for problems, but if you have paragraphs here and there that you need to send with the questions, I can totally do that.
Just like I like seeing real stories about the real New York; I like seeing the world I love portrayed well too. So yeah, ask away.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 10:28 pm (UTC)In Dogboy & Justine we have actresses playing women playing dominatrices.
You inspired me!
(Sung to the chorus of "Girls & Boys" by Blur)
Women who act
who play women who act
as they're doms who sex work
like the sex is not work
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 10:42 pm (UTC)There's going to be a weekly theater post, and a weekly dominatrix related post (that'll be wednesdays) and my partner in crime will be doing a post about music on Mondays.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 04:10 am (UTC)If it's in your power to do, it's within the realm of possibility. If it's not within your power, borrow some power.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 04:12 am (UTC)OH GOD IT ALL CONNECTS.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 04:15 am (UTC)It's all part of the service! (Heh. Service.)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 04:17 am (UTC)Oh, and Foxy's in our Gally room is Marci can't make it.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 04:29 am (UTC)