This Blog Has Moved On!
After about three years of considering migrating to another blog service, I had a brief conversation with a
Harpo, a high school student (and serious blogger) yesterday who assured me that a migration to Word Press would be painless and easy. So late last night I made the switch!
I will no longer blog here (but I will keep this blog up with all my previous posts). You can find all the same posts over at the new site--
Peterson Toscano's A Musing.
Please update your links and visit me at the new site!
Puzzled
Last night I performed
Transfigurations-Transgressing Gender in the Bible at
Imago Dei Metropolitan Community Church in Glen Mills, PA (about 15 miles outside of Philly).
I had a diverse audience of about 45 people -- college students, Quakers, straight, bi, trans and lesbian, young and old. I took my time with the piece maintaining a gentle meditative pace.
For the ending when I reveal the identity of the narrator, I had instructed the light tech to dim the lights. Then as the closing music swelled, I asked her to raise the lights to their brigthest intensity. With the music playing, I exited.
Always (up until last night) at this point the audience applauds, I wait 5 seconds then come out to take a bow. Last night I exited and then nothing. No one clapped. They sat quietly as the music played.
I stood back stage puzzled, baffled. Now what do I do? Wait? Go out anyway? And I wondered for a moment, Did they hate it? Did I confuse them? Offend them? Bore them into a coma?
After what felt like 5 minutes, I walked out onto the stage, and the audience erupted into enthusiastic applause, so much so that I had three curtain calls (I normally do two or ony one.)
So what happened? In talking to Kody and others in attendance they said they knew the play ended when I excited.
I felt the silence helped to settle the messages and images--many new and even startling for some. In many ways I felt pleased with the audience sitting in the stillness of that moment. As a performer I wonder if I did something differently this time. If so, what, and can I do it again? The whole thing puzzles and intrigues me.
Any thoughts?
Labels: performances, tour, Transfigurations
On the Road Once again
After a few weeks of barely leaving the house except for social reasons, I head out today by train to Philadelphia for the beginning of travel that will bring me to Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD and Vancouver, BC (that's in Canada). After that I am off to Nashville, TN, Denver, CO, Boulder, CO, Colorado Springs, CO and Seattle, WA. You can see my full schedule
here.
This weekend I will be in Glen Mills, PA at Imago Dei Metropolitan Community Church about 15
miles out of Philadelphia. Tonight (Fri) I will perform
Queer 101—Now I Know My gAy,B,Cs, a play that looks at homophobia, identity and activism through the words and lives of lesbian and gay poets. I last performed this piece in April at Manchester Community College. In it I get to perform my FAVORITE scene of any of have written, the fantasy date between Chad and Federico Garcia Lorca. (Which you can see
here.)
Tomorrow (Sat) I will present
Transfigurations—Transgressing Gender in the Bible. This play is probably the hardest one I do requiring the most concentration and work as an actor. It also feels like the most spiritual for me. There is one moment of intimacy and vulnerability that that has taken me years to get to.
Alex once asked me how writing and performing this play has changed me. It's a profound question, and I have yet to fully grasp the impact of this piece on my own life. I guess that is what I like about art. As
Kurt Vonnegut repeated often towards the end of his life, "Everyone needs to practice art because art enlarges the soul."
On Tuesday I head to Washington, DC to perform
The Re-Education of George W. Bush—No President Left Behind! How exciting to present this piece at the nation's capital. There is a whole section about Russia with Vlad using an Russian folk pop interpretive dance to seduce Condoleezza Rice to see Russia as foreign enemy number 1. Of course when I premiered the play back in January 2007, Russia seemed much more of an ally than it is today. Vlad's moves are working! (That and Russian aggression and a return to Cold War politics)
From what I have scheduled thus far this presentation of the Bush play will be my penultimate performance before I retire it. :-( I am happy that I won't have to perform it anymore after the November election, but PLEASE don't make me have to write a play about McCain/Palin--Bridge to No Where and Beyond! (Goodness! I already have a title) If you live in the US, register to vote.
Have a great weekend! And if you live far from all those places where I will be the next few weeks, check out
Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House--the DVD!
Labels: performances, The Re-Education of George W. Bush, tour, Transfigurations
Marvin on the Airwaves
Since coming back
out of the closet (ex-ex-gay) in April, Marvin Bloom, a devout Jew for Jesus, has been making the rounds at various podcasts. His gay-friendly rants have been heard on
Spanking Bee Arthur,
The Flatus Show and more than once on Joe G's
Bored Beyond Belief.
Currently you can hear Marvin on
Episode 81 of Mila and Jayna's
Trans-ponder. In fact, you will also get to hear me too since in his new segment,
Moments with Marvin, he interviews me.
In other news, I have a boyfriend, and he is not Marvin.
Labels: Marvin Bloom, media
Assorted Goodies
So much good stuff out there that has come to my inbox recently.
- Candace Chellew-Hodge, the creator of Whosoever.org, has a new book out, Bulletproof—A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay & Lesbian Christians. You can hear a public reading here. Check out what Desmond Tutu has to say about the book.
Gay and lesbian Christians are constantly demoralized and told they are not children of God. In Bulletproof Faith, Chellew-Hodge reassures gays and lesbians that God loves them just as they were created and teaches them how to stand strong, with compassion and gentleness, against those who condemn them. -Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
- Allyson Robinson gets quoted in a great piece that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post, Ruling Inspires New Hope for Transgender People.
But for transgender women such as Robinson, the County Council's passage of the law was a key reason she chose to live in Montgomery when she moved to the area this year from Texas to take a job at the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and transgender civil rights organization. Before settling on a townhouse in Gaithersburg, Robinson and her family sought to rent an apartment. She worried, unnecessarily as it turned out, that the landlord would want to pull out of the lease upon meeting her. Until the law took effect this week, Robinson said, the landlord could have rejected her application because she is a transgender person.
In the past, Robinson has also worried about taking her four young children to public restrooms at restaurants, because she fears that someone will identify her as a transgender woman and call security. "You find yourself on guard, and mentally and emotionally prepared for that," Robinson said. "You just never know. For many of us, this kind of thing we fear happens rarely; for others it happens constantly, and the fear of it is very real."
- Over the weekend I got to hang out with poet Karla Kelsey. She has done collaborative work with her partner visual artist Peter Yumi. You can see samples here.
- If you go in for the whole debate thing, check out Opposing Views, which includes polar opinions on politics, religion, money, health and more.
Labels: Christian, ex-gay, media, poetry, transgender
Bitch Needs You!
I adore
Bitch Magazine, which provides a feminist approach to pop culture. I've been a subscriber for the past two years and never fail to learn something each issue. Well written, funny, insightful and at times outrageous, Bitch provides an excellent resource for creatively exploring women's issues, gender and the media.
In the current edition,
Loud, they offer a bunch of great topics including an article about women in comedy, the untold story of the
beauty secrets the cosmetic companies don't want you to know, and a piece about
New Jersey 4 with the injustices faced by a group of young lesbians of color who responded to a hate crime against them and ended up incarcerated
.
Bitch serves a well needed purpose and speaks directly to the inconsistencies and injustices that women face.
I received a call tonight from the Bitch offices. They need money to keep the magazine afloat. If you want to receive an excellent magazine and help out a worthy cause, visit
the Bitch site. If you have more than enough subscriptions, than get it as a gift for someone (I'm giving Christine a subscription for Columbus Day, shh, don't tell her!) or just give a donation. Think about how much fun it will be for you or your friend to sit on the bus or a plane or in the doctor's office with your nose in Bitch as you read and learn and grow.
In other news, I just heard that I was recently featured on the nationally syndicated queer radio program,
This Way Out and will be on again this week.
Last time on "This Way Out", ex-ex gay activist and performance artist PETERSON TOSCANO gave a rousing description of the once-a-decade LAMBETH CONFERENCE of ANGLICAN bishops. That mid-August gathering in ENGLAND was expected to be a make or break event for the worldwide Anglican Communion. The 2004 consecration of openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson and the blessing of same-gender couples in Canada and the U.S. have been the main targets of schism-threatening conservatives in the Church. In the conclusion of his conversation with "This Way Out" correspondent HEATHER KITCHING [CITR/Vancouver, B.C.s "Queer FM"], Toscano shares more about the human approach that transformed a potentially explosive situation [www.beyondexgay.com]
They don't have a podcast yet, but you can find out
here where and when you can listen.
And speaking of women, comedy and feminism,
check out Tina Fey and Amy Poehler spoofing Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live.
Labels: media
My Faith Odyssey--Oh the Places You Will Go!
My religious trajectory began in the Roman Catholic Church and landed me in many of the Christian religious movements of the past 30 years.
At age 17 I left Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Lake Huntington, NY with its tinny sounding organ and hymns sung in impossible keys through the noses of old ladies, and I began to attend
Gospel Tabernacle, a fundamentalist Bible Church in Honesdale, PA. This church encouraged their youth to attend Word of
Life Bible Institute and
Bob Jones University (Also known as BJU). After I graduated from high school, I opted for what my pastor considered a liberal institution,
Nyack College, a Christian and Missionary Alliance school. While there I attended an independent Evangelical church in nearby New Jersey. They talked about grace and provided gourmet coffee in the Fellowship Hall after service.
Following a stint with the Evangelical mission
HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, I moved to New York City where with hands raised and feet stomping I jumped into
Glory Tabernacle, a non-denominational Charismatic church that put the happy into the clappy. We railed against principalities and powers, and in ancient pagan fashion regularly drove out evil entities ensconced in every corner of the city. (
And to the god of the North, I bind you and in the mighty name of Jesus I command you to depart with your evil minions!)
Right before this Holy Ghost-filled church fell apart because of a sexual scandal between the young charming pastor and his children’s nanny (a result of The Enemy attacking The Man of God, who apparently failed to build a strong enough hedge of protection around himself or else inadvertently opened a door to demonic oppression or quite possibly both), I moved onto
Times Square Church. With services held in one of Broadway’s premiere theaters I sang in their rocking Gospel choir and sat under their teaching, seasoned in a Pentecostal/Holiness tradition with a prophetic punch brought on by senior pastor
David Wilkerson (He regularly warned us that North America would fall because of homosexuals who would then roam in homosexual gangs. Apparently it is part of our agenda)
Through my connections with people in the Manhattan-based L.I.F.E. Ministries ex-gay program (and unemployed Broadway actor support group), I also occasionally attended Household of Faith Ministries (now
Christian Cultural Center) a word of faith non-denominational church in Brooklyn that adhered to the teachings of Kenneth Copeland, Marilyn Hickey, and Kenneth Haggin. Oh the things I claimed in faith!
Through Times Square Church I became acquainted with a small house church in Yonkers, NY called the New Testament Missionary Fellowship. Without a pastor or Sunday program, the congregants of this small assembly needed to produce the ministry themselves, which included prophecies, spontaneous original songs, dancing in the Spirit and Bible lessons.
From there I moved to the UK and Zambia where I mostly attended non-denominational charismatic churches. After my world fell apart in Zambia, I attended a small charismatic church in England that bought into the
Toronto Blessing with full-blown laughing in the spirit. At one Toronto Blessing-inspired conference I endured, “God” tried to minister to me through animal noises and grunts. All very entertaining (and terrifying) but I struggled to grasp what “God” was trying to tell me. During that time in England I also attended Wednesday communion services at the local Anglican parish.
When I returned to the States to attend the Love in Action ex-gay residential treatment facility in Memphis, TN, the program leaders forced us to attend Central Church, an Evangelical mega church with a mega choir and a theater-like atmosphere that dazzled us week after week in a giant round building resembling an abandoned space ship. As a struggling ex-gay, I attended the Men’s Sunday School class and Promise Keepers while avoiding the many rest rooms. We learned by experience about the a reputation for spontaneous gay sex during the service. Those crazy straight Evangelicals and their toilets!
When I could elect to go to a church of my choosing, I attended an Episcopal church led by a husband/wife ministry team that taught conservative theology with a sprinkling of Charismatic hands-on ministry and a failed attempt at the
ALPHA Course (which I guess one could term as a success of sorts.)
When I came out as gay, I attended the monthly meetings of
Integrity, a gay Episcopal group in downtown Memphis and latter became an officer in that group. On Sunday evenings I walked a half-block to a campus Episcopal church led by Samson, a Kenyan pastor who created a community feel to our services and organized gorgeous pot-luck dinners afterwards.
In 2001 I moved to Hartford, CT and soon after 911 I entered a Quaker meeting house and have been a
Quaker ever since. So far I have found a home of sorts among "Friends" as we call each other. Quakers are big time pacifists. I have discovered that Quakers don't get violent, just passive aggressive. My favorite part has to be all the quiet we practice during our weekly meetings (and I have to say, for me it requires practice.)
In an upcoming post I write how some of my current Quaker experiences mirror some of my earliest Roman Catholic ones.
What about you? What does your faith odyssey look like?
Labels: faith, Personal, Quakerism
