submitted by
Houston Robertson

Here is another Rogue 2015 performer article. We will be posting several more over the next 2 weeks until Rogue opens. After it opens, you will also find many Rogue show reviews. To learn more about this year’s event check out our Rogue 2015 preview article, and check out our Rogue Performer event page to learn about more of the performers this year. You can find all of the Rogue articles as they go up in our Arts & Entertainment section.

Victory for the Recycled Virgin, a solo show written and performed by Houston Robertson, is full of surprises – including the age of the performer. Houston grabs you by the heart with all her 78 years as she romps through the fearless and funny episodes of her delayed adolescence. Her opening line “I’ve come here to tell the truth” is the truth. The show radiates with honesty and wit. This solo performance piece was developed with and directed by Mark Kenward, an icon of solo performance in the San Francisco Bay area. He says of Houston, “Houston performs with an engaging presence and riveting energy. She is a force to be enjoyed.”

Houston Robertson

In Victory for the Recycled Virgin, Houston exposes her roots as a 1950s virgin bride and the lies that she and her husband have been living. When a sudden revelation on the cusp of their 21st anniversary launches the painful collapse of the marriage, Houston catapults into a delayed adolescence that triggers her blossoming into a sexy, independent woman. “Or am I a take charge bitch?” she wonders. This solo play embraces the usual adolescent quests for self esteem and independence – dating, drugs, and clowning around. You’ll meet a few of the men featured in her midlife madness, and receive a few tips for parenting your own mother through a delayed adolescence. An audience comment provides a useful summary: “A riveting humorous tale about the moments that changed a woman’s path.”

This wise, wild and witty show invites gasps, laughter, and cheers and includes the “best on stage orgasm ever,” according to Kenward. Audiences like Houston and the show: Kick ass funny. Houston rocked the stage. A bold, courageous, sexy, fun, heart-wrenching, truthful performance! You touched my heart.

Houston, an active member of the San Francisco Bay Area solo performance community and a participant in Rogue Festival 2015, will perform at Fulton Street Art, 1118 N. Fulton, Fresno, on Friday, February 27 at 7:45, Saturday at 8:00, Sunday at 4:30 and the following Saturday, March 7 at 1:45.

Houston Robertson brings to her solo work her experience as a writer, storyteller and motivational speaker and her dream. “I’ve wanted to be on stage ever since my senior year in high school in 1954 when I appeared as Olivia in Night Must Fall. It just felt like I belonged on stage. One of the freedoms of my aging has been to discover that dreams may wrinkle but to unfold once again.” Houston is a member of the Storyteller’s Association of California and is the recipient of two advanced Toastmaster awards. Houston uses storytelling from folk traditions, fiction, and biography to trigger reflection and conversation in her motivational Talks and Tales for the Renaissance Years that promote a developmental view of aging. She has always been a force in her community and in 2013 received the Solano County (CA) Living Legacy Award for Community Service. You can learn more on her website.