I was giving my brother a book for his birthday about a sea captain to whom we might or might not be related. I skimmed through the pages and was stopped by this account.
After the death of both parents, and some other losses, I felt compelled to write a storytelling/solo performance show titled Ashes to Ashes: A Tragicomedy. It’s an exploration of my ability to land on my feet after adversity, and how I’m able to reinvent myself time and time again. In 2013, I wrote a solo performance show for the Rogue Festival that was in response to a series of misfortunes I had experienced the year before.
I’m very excited to reactivate my frequent flyer account and make my way across the continent to the Rogue Festival. (For my eighth time!) It’s still winter here in Brooklyn, but there will be flowers blooming in Fresno. I have no allergies. Let’s do this.
I am returning to the Rogue Festival with a revamped version of my show The Real Black Swann Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen. This is the story of William Dorsey Swann, former slave, who became the “Queen of Drag” in the late 1800s. She was also the first queer activist of record.
My latest solo theater work, my fourth, I believe isn’t something that you will see very often. It’s a dog story.
You may ask, but what is it exactly? Is it that you love your dog? Is it also that your dog loves you? Or is it also that the dog makes your life more interesting because he brings you in contact with other people?
I am nearly 35 years old and have been doing acrobatics since the age of four. I started with gymnastics, like many four-year-olds. Then, at six years old, I started going to SF Circus Center for acrobatics classes, and that was the real beginning. I am American, born and raised in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. But I was trained in Chinese acrobatics, a distinct style that was brought to America by the world-renowned circus trainer, Master Lu Yi.
It is once again time for the Rogue Festival, which runs from March 3-11 in Fresno. This is one of the highlights of the Fresno arts scene each year and it takes place in the Tower District. Recently we chatted with Jaguar Bennett, who is board president and lead producer of the Rogue Festival this year, to learn more about this year's event.
I’m glad to be coming back to Fresno for my tenth Rogue festival! I have not been here since 2019 when I was performing my solo show Behind Every Great Mariska Hargitay Is a Great Kurt Fitzpatrick in Marcel Nunis’ Tent o’ Tales. Since then, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma – a form of cancer that attacks the lymph nodes. Which brings me to my current show, The Jester of All Maladies, which is the story about my cancer journey from diagnosis to remission.
Most of us have seen one-person shows. Whether it be stand-up comedy, a dramatic monologue, or a musical presentation, it would appear that producing and performing in this simple form of entertainment is a piece of cake. You write and memorize your lines, jokes or songs, practice (maybe in front of your friends and family), then walk onstage to thunderous applause.
There is a black box theatre performance space on Van Ness in the Tower District that has hosted many different groups and gone by several different names since I started covering the arts in Fresno. Last year, something new started there called The Labyrinth Art Collective and recently we chatted with one of the people who run it, Alicia Rodriguez, to learn more about what they do. She runs it together with her partner Matt Comegys.
