Rafael Aparicio in Vagina Monologues. “My intent is to give the transgender community a voice, one of better understanding, acceptance, clarity, and beauty." Stacey “Colt” Meier in Vagina Monologues. A scene from HGO's Billy Budd.

THIS ISSUE > ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT > OUT IN THE ARTS

Since it premiered in 1996, Eve Ensler's celebration of female sexuality, The Vagina Monologues, has been performed around the world. Her stage work has even spawned V-Day, a global action to stop violence against women and girls. Now an unusual production brings a different twist to the show—a trans-gressive cast of transgender women and men and one man that performs as a drag queen. (Audience test: you figure it out.)

The director is Joe Watts, whose Theatre New West company has played a pivotal role in history of culture in GLBT Houston. After mounting the first play dealing with AIDS (One) and many shows both comic (Fruit Cocktail and others) and somber (including a noteworthy production of Bent at Holocaust Museum Houston), Watts has tackled what may be his most innovative project.

“When I watched a documentary of a Los Angeles production that was presented with transgenders, I became passionate about producing a production in Houston,” Watts says. “My intent is in no way to sensationalize the transgender community, but to give them a voice, one of better understanding, acceptance, clarity, and beauty.”

The trans-positive production of Vagina Monologues will be performed on Fridays and Saturdays, May 9–31, 8 p.m., at the new home of the Montrose Counseling Center (401 Branard). Tickets are $20. Reservations: 713/522-2204, theatrenewwest@att.com. A May 8 preview performance is a benefit for the center. Tickets for the benefit are $35 (which includes two drink tickets).

V is for: The trans-positive production of The Vagina Monologues , performed this month, stars (clockwise from top left) Stacey “Colt” Meier, Georges Zemanek, Rafael Aparicio, Jasmen Pierce, Julia Oliver, and Jenifer Pool.
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THE DIVINE ST. A.

Tenor Kenneth Gayle (“In Tune With Houston,” August 2005 OutSmart) performs the title role this month in the Houston premiere of Fragments from St. Augustine the Saint, a musical drama by Beverly Grigsby, a pioneer in electronic music. Rothko Chapel hosts the May 21 and 22 production. Former Houston Ballet star Lauren Anderson also performs. Details: www.rothko.org.

Augustine, an intellectual and something of a rake before he transformed into a highly quotable father of the early Christian church, may be popularly remembered for his prayerful plea, “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.”
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ON THE FRINGE

Gerald LaBita, founder of the innovative, always gay-positive Theater LaB Houston, has written to announce that he is coordinating theatrical events for the 2008 Houston Fringe Festival, organized by the FrenetiCore Performance Space in the East End. The festival will take place during the weekends of August 15 and August 30, followed by an event called “Anything Goes” on August 31.

FrenetiCore is seeking film, music, dance, and theater events for juried competition. For the theater component, LaBita is seeking 30-minute and 60-minute works. The deadline for submissions is May 15. Mail submissions to FrenetiCore, 2008 Houston Fringe Theater Festival, 5102 Navigation, Houston 77011.
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The Real ‘Billy Budd'

When most of us were schooled in Billy Budd during senior year, we probably were taught the short novel along the standard high school English themes: good versus evil, light versus dark, the Christ figure versus the satanic. Bollocks. Even a gayling novice reading Billy Budd can recognize that Herman Melville's stark, beautifully written tale drips with homoeroticism. After all, the all-male cast is packed with working-class blokes. The main character is a young, handsome sailor pressed into service. Though beloved by his fellow crewmates (who nickname him Baby Budd), the innocent Billy is confronted by a dark-hearted older officer with terrible consequences.

I know. That reads like your early visits to the Ripcord. More artistically speaking, the great gay composer Benjamin Britten transformed Melville's posthumously published story into one of the classics of modern opera. The closeted gay novelist E.M Forster co-wrote the libretto, and the first production in 1951 featured Britten's long-time spouse, the tenor Peter Pears, as the officer who seals Billy's fate.

If you hurry, you can catch the Houston Grand Opera production of Billy Budd, which is on stage through May 9 and launches a multi-year celebration of Britten's work. Houston Grand Opera Studio alum Daniel Belcher sings the title role. Details: www.houstongrandopera.org.