Music: Wu Man and CrossSound

Out North's 25 year history has brought art on the cutting edge of all genres, from all corners of the earth to Anchorage. Juneau's CrossSound Festival 2010, featuring WU Man, pushes our boundaries even further.

"WU Man is one of the most amazing performers alive. Yo Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass, among many others, have worked with her. Besides being the Jimi Hendrix of the pipa, she has revitalized worldwide and popular interest in this Chinese cross between a lute and a mandolin." - Progressive Alaska Blog

In partnership with United States Artists and KNBA, Out North offers you Eastern, Western, and traditional Alaska Native instrument sounds that collide in a star-studded musical supernova. Music lovers looking for a new kind of excellence in sound,
do not miss this concert.

The Oort Cloud featuring Wu Man | Weds., June 30 | 7:15pm | Tickets $20-15 |

Buy Tickets Now

Sponsored by United States Artists, Rasmuson Foundation, Pacific Rim Institute, and the Alaska State Council on the Arts

Debutante Balls Review

Southern skin

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Southern skin

Posted: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 12:00 am

By Dawnell Smith

The one-man show “Debutante Balls” at Out North this weekend uses the tradition of young debutants coming out in Southern society as a narrative that parallels the artist’s own coming out as a lesbian, radical feminist, transgender man and even middle class performance artist.

Scott Turner Schofield’s clever, funny performance examines the variations of wearing and living in one’s own skin. He ultimately wants everyone to enjoy a gala ball celebrating their coming out as whoever they are, but he has a good time unearthing the hilarity, dogma and even beauty of the conventional debutante ball of the South in the meantime.

After all, he grew up as a girl expected to help out with all her girlfriend’s debutante balls, and that freedom allowed him to explore his own skins and coming out.

Schofield grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and now describes himself as “a lesbian turned straight guy who is usually taken for a gay teenager.” It’s easy to see why. He’s capable of wearing all these skins, yet is poignantly only comfortable in one of them.

In his last show at Out North in 2008, he focused on the legal, medical and social elements of changing gender in “Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps.”

He mines this material in “Debutante,” but also outside live theater. This month he vied for the top spot in an ABC reality show called “Conveyor Belt of Love,” (see Flashlight, page 6) in which 30 guys on a conveyor belt were given 60 seconds to woo five beauties with ample cleavage. Schofield made it to the final four – and, in a sense, the show’s set-up plays into his ongoing study of tradition and assumption, identity and acceptance, and the simplicity and complexity of human beings.

As for “Debutante,” well touches on many of these ideas through a delirious story of his coming out as a lesbian teenager and later as a transgender man. In a way, you could say that “coming out” is a performance artist’s mission, and Schofield does it admirably. His personable, accessible performance makes his many coming out stories real and moving, and though he sometimes points the spotlight at his audience, he never betrays them or puts them in artificially uncomfortable situations.

Theatrically, he leans on several props to link his many ideas. The set consists of a platform with a gown poised on a simple framework. He uses the gown in many ways: he hides behind it, uses it as a character, climbs under and through it, and even slides his arms into its sleeves until, finally, he dismantles its framework altogether. Representing everything from concealment to truth, the gown provides a visual conduit to his life experience. Its simplicity belies its depth.

On a more abstract level, he brings in sweet tea as the presumed beverage of the South, just as “whiteness” and “heterosexuality” make up the backdrop of life where he grew up.

Eventually, he points out, those with life experiences outside these presumptions need to decide whether to “spit or swallow.”

This notion of either being swallowed whole or having to spit oneself out returns again and again alongside the tea, the gown and the pragmatic truth that the invisibility of queer life can sometimes be an asset. To understand how and why, you’ll need to see the show yourself.

As it happens, Schofield’s Out North performances culminate his six-week stint as Out North’s guest artistic director. He has taken the show all over the country for years, and his timing and pacing show it.

“Debutante” never lulls, yet offers the audience plenty of time for contemplation, and though the material may seem outside of “normal” to some folks, it really just centers on an age-old message told in parables, folk tales, poems, films, songs and books: Just be yourself.

Soon, Schofield will do just that in New York City, where he will study and write.

Debutante Balls will show tonight through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $20 atwww.outnorth.org, 279-8099 or at the door. Find out more about Schofield’s work atwww.undergroundtransit.com.

Southern skin - Anchorage Press: Arts:

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The Conveyor Belt of Love

Trans man Schofield pops up on dating show

By Mike Fleming | Jan 8, 2010 | 9:12 PM

1

Color us floored yet not completely surprised that writer, performance artist, trans man and Atlanta homeboy Scott Turner Schofield rolled past on ABC’s “Conveyor Belt of Love” reality dating show on Monday, Jan. 4.

One the one hand, we were floored because you don’t expect to see someone you know while surfing through ABC’s mindless Marry Me Monday lineup that also includes the new hottie on “The Bachelor.”

On the other, we weren’t really surprised because we’ve come to expect anything from Schofield (photo), whose introspective, articulate works include successful touring productions and repeated Atlanta runs of “Underground TRANSit” and “How to Become a Man in 127 Easy Steps.”

Schofield was also a 2009 Lambda Literary Award nominee and a 2008 Atlanta Pride Grand Marshal.

For a taste of this incredibly intelligent man’s viewpoint and sense of humor, his website describes him as “a man who was a woman, a lesbian turned straight guy who is usually taken for a gay teenager. A former debutante and homecoming queen coming out in the Deep South…”

ABC describes “Conveyor Belt”: “Five women take a shot at finding love when 30 men are given the chance to impress them as they pass by on a moving conveyor belt.”

We’ll just say it. The show sucks, but we were tickled pink that Schofield’s gender status was never mentioned to the contestants, and that he rocked the fast-paced interview portion. Four of the women declined to put him on their “maybe” list, but one was intrigued. She later chose another guy—presumably born male, but who knows?—from the bunch for a date.

Better luck next time, Scott.

While we were picking our jaws up off the floor, PopEater.com was the first to catch Schofield’s identity and cite it as a victory for LGBTs everywhere in a Wednesday post. They also had this to say:

‘Conveyor Belt’ never disclosed the full story on Schofield, but ABC has a decent track record of representing the LGBTQ community, even casting transgender actor Candis Cayne on the brilliant but canceled ‘Dirty Sexy Money.’ Looks like this only adds to the network’s growing portfolio.

Well, PopEater almost gets that right. They seem to have forgotten November’s hubbub over Adam Lambert oddly being banned/not-banned from the network after his American Music Awards performance, and the allegations of homophobia and gender bias in the matter.

We forgive PopEater completely, though. “LGBTQ” just ain’t their everyday beat, and besides, who can fault a media outlet for total support like that? Extra credit for even knowing about the “Q.”

Schofield did tweet during the show’s airing that he “never thought this would air.” Apparently, he can’t talk about it in detail due to contractual obligations.

PopEater reached out to Schofield who declined an interview due to contractual obligations. “I have nothing to hide about myself, hence my decision to participate in a prime time reality TV show,” he wrote in an e-mail.

That’s OK. We’ll snag him the next time his shows roll him through Atlanta, and in the meantime, you simply must watch this video of his appearance on “Conveyor Belt of Love”:

Trans man Schofield pops up on dating show — Project Q Atlanta:

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Under :30 Sweet 16 2010

We made it on time to Out North last night for Under 30. (Under 30 refers to the time (minutes) of the performance, not the age of the performers. It seems they now spell it Under :30 which I thought was a typo, but now see it's trying to clarify the meaning.) Last week we got to Santaland Diaries a few minutes late and it had already begun and was full, so we weren't allowed in, although we had purchased tickets in advance online. We were able to transfer our payment to this show. So we got there early enough this time to check ou the retrospective exhibit of the Under 30: Sweet Sixteen Archive Exhibit.



The exhibit has a wall length time line of the Under 30 programs from the beginning. And then there were these various props from different shows over the years. We've been to a fair number of them and they are always interesting, and usually there's at least one performer we know.










The last page of the program has a recruitment ad for next year's Under 30.

Many of the performances over the years have been done by people who don't normally do theatrical work.  It seems like as good a way as possible to work on and present something important to the world.  A lot of the work is still in the development stage.  This is the first public showing and gets important feedback for the next stage, if the person wants to go further with it.  Some manage to work well even at this stage. 

There's a more complete proposal description on their website.

The performances were introduced by Scott Turner Schofield who is a visiting performer who will be putting on Debutante Balls Jan. 14 -17. He seemed totally comfortable onstage and I'm sorry we're going to miss his show, but we leave for Juneau on the 11th.










Given that taking pictures in the middle of the show is often forbidden I'm filling in with these pictures from the exhibit.

All four performances last night kept my attention, though for me the third one - Jonathan Lang's "Radio" - worked most fully. It was a retrospective of radio in Alaska, starting from when Jonathan's family arrived in Alaska through his days on radio in Anchorage. The juxtaposition of taped 'radio' in the background, some props on stage, and probably the relatively uncomplicated content, made it the most complete and unified piece for me.



Van Le's "Letters to Ho Chi Minh" represented, perhaps, the most ambitious work, as she tried to articulate her family's experiences as refugees who survived smugglers, pirates, refugee camp in Malaysia on the way to the United States and the cross generational conflicts of children who want to know what happened and parents who want to forget. Some of the obstacles she still has to work out in the piece are technical ones - jumping back and forth between different time periods. Others are probably more emotional - I think more reenactment rather than telling of the stories would be more powerful. I got to meet Van Le when she was volunteering for the Anchorage International Film Festival and so it was particularly fun to be able to see how she put this together. The photo was taken after her performance, but before they moved things off the stage for the next performance.

Don Decker's piece  integrated video into the performance.  I liked a lot of the parts - particularly the extreme closeups of the lines in the videos.  And he had some audience members laughing almost non-stop.  I just didn't follow how all the pieces came together as one coherent statement.  But maybe that wasn't intended.

Mark Muro's monologue started shakey, then got into gear, and then seemed to veer into different directions.  Mark's done the Under 30 thing four times before according to the program and he could talk off the top of his head and it could be interesting and provocative.  And I've heard him do that more effectively than his piece last night - but then last night he had to carry it off for thirty minutes.  But Mark took the challenge and stood up and did his thing.

That's one reason people should go to the performance this afternoon at 3 or next weekend.  The challenge is out there for next year's Under 30.  This is something anyone could actually do.  The only thing different from those on stage and you and me is that they put in their proposals.  So, being in the audience is also a personal challenge.  What do you have to say and how could you say it so it would keep an audience's attention for 30 minutes? 

This post originates at: What Do I Know?: Under 30 at Out North

"under :30" 2010

adn.com | Not-so-average Alaskans focus on self in 'Under 30':

Quirky 'Under 30' monologues are more akin to lectures

NOT THEATRICAL: Use of notes by actors was a bit too distracting.

By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com

Published: January 2nd, 2010 09:27 PM 
Last Modified: January 2nd, 2010 09:28 PM

The current round of "Under 30" continues Out North's 16-year tradition of quirky and personal performance pieces written and performed by local folks. While a few of these short works -- the title refers to the expectation that each "act" will run no more than half an hour -- have featured ensemble acting or choreography over the years, most have been soliloquies. In the case of the "Under 30" presentations that opened on New Year's night and continue through next weekend, all four are monologues.

These are not theatrical monologues, however. The word "lecture" is more accurate. There seemed to be a lot of reliance on notes, sometimes built into the script, sometimes to the point of distraction, and only the most rudimentary non-verbal elements.

Don Decker's "Fear No Fear" opened with the speaker at a lectern, talking about things people fear, like death and public speaking. Answering the question "Where do we draw the line?" was a video of Decker doodling silently on a dry-erase board, making lines, loops, squiggles, designs, employing time-lapse techniques to create animation effects. This was probably the most beautiful part of the night; I was reminded of Alexander Calder's "Circus."

This was followed by another video, in which Decker donned phoney googly eyes and gums, pretended he was a night club comic -- a profession with no obvious fear of public speaking -- and delivered a series of unspeakably lame jokes like: "I wanted to get my G.E.D., but I couldn't spell it." This segued into an imagined encounter with Jesus on an airplane and a series of questions: "Are there really harps in heaven? Or is that just string theory?"

In "Letters to Ho Chi Minh," Van Le expanded on the intensely personal memoir about her family's escape from South Vietnam, initially developed for "The Women of ..." at UAA last February. Details of indignities dealt to her mother and father by the conquering North Vietnamese, the horrors of escaping the country by smuggler boat, being looted by pirates, refugee camps, eventual asylum in snowy British Columbia and subsequent visits back to Vietnam were interspersed with (pretty) songs and Le's questions to the long-dead revolutionary leader.

Why did he wage a war that left the people he claimed to be helping poorer, less educated, sicker, displaced and dead, she asked. Who were these officials for whom bribery trumped ideology? Why was liberation followed by such repression and enslavement?

In the end she has exhausted herself, venting her anger to a "ghost," unable to continue struggling over historical events that she can barely remember. On the other hand, she notes that her mother still considers the war worth fighting.

Jonathan Lang's "Radio" also addressed his personal formation -- but instead of war and exile, his touchstone was the more pleasant device of Alaska broadcasting. He spoke of living in Valdez when Anchorage's KBYR was the only station received in that town. The peculiar messages of "Caribou Clatters" on Glennallen's KCAM. He recalled the excitement of KWHL signing on. Herb Shaindlin's "Desperate and Dateless" show on KFQD. The cautionary tale of KMXS disc jockey David Taylor, shot by listener Kathy Hodnefield whom, Lang reported, Taylor married before she had completed her prison term.

In a sense, the piece was a pretty plain love song to music radio in the pre-digital days, with a flurry of quick hits and three-minute segments, but no distinct point, a bit like the medium itself.

Mark Muro's "Apocalypse When I Get Around to It" or "Civil War III, Part 1," was simple storytelling. It began with a description of how economic signals can be read in toy airplanes and morphed into the comic report of a recent road trip on which Muro and his politically opposite brother attempted to reprogram one another.

Those attending this year's "Under 30" presentations who have seen previous shows may want to take a look at the exhibit of photos and memorabilia from former "Under 30s" on display in adjacent gallery space.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2010/01/02/1077063/quirky-under-30-monologues-are.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

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Out North's New Artistic Director

Out North’s art launch

Jamie Lang photo

Posted: Thursday, September 9, 2010 12:00 am

By Dawnell Smith

When Scott Turner Schofield took over as the new executive artistic director of Out North, he listened first, acted second. He began by holding a meeting with artists to find out their needs and desires, passions and ideas. They he worked with others to figure out how to make things happen.

Artists say they need opportunities, he says. “To that end, we are offering several new programs for artistic developments: Brand Spankin' Drama, Fresh Film, Thought Current, The Sound Stage, and DJ Days,” and much more, not just to offer something for artists at every level and in every genre but also to allow them “to practice, develop and collaborate.”

A performance artist previously based in Georgia, Schofield knows the rigors and rewards of making art. He first came to Alaska as a performer who spent time working with kids at McLaughlin.

“The experience of making art in a context like McLaughlin's showed me something I knew but had never articulated, “ he says. “Art has the power to truly set a person free, free from your past and the problems of the present, free to express in positive, constructive, life-affirming ways the part of ourselves that is entirely individual and uniquely powerful.”

When given the chance to come back as acting artistic director in December of 2009, Schofield saw it as an extended vacation with lots of opportunity for professional growth.

“I really thought I would only work for six weeks, have a great time, and get back to making art,” he says, “but Out North and the community of audience and artists around it—who are among the most intelligent, supportive, and talented I have seen in eight years of touring—stopped me in my tracks. I felt like I could have an even more powerful artistic experience here than on the road doing my own work.”

So he stayed on. Who knows whether his stint will turn into years or decades, but you can bet he won’t leave without making a mark. His artistic work includes one-man shows that explore transgender identity, such as “Debutante Balls” and “Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps,” both of which showed at Out North.

The community-minded art house cultivates art and artists by bringing performers like Schofield up, and by coordinating local productions, and partnering with schools and other nonprofits. A performance season always includes workshops, monologues, plays, readings and other events by local, national and international artists.

Out North is gearing up now with an art show and several events where you can meet Schofield and find out more about the coming season.

First, check out the quirky, homey art exhibit and fundraiser, “Redux: An Installation of Re-Emerging Art,” on Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. This collection of retro-art ranges from wildflower paintings and Alaskana to 1960s furniture, a drinking glass installation, old toys and even a gold fish.

The show opens with a Mad Men-era costume party with fondue and drinks. The show’s art pieces range in price from a few bucks to over a C-note, and the furnishings cost about the same. As Schofield pointed out, the frames and matting make some of these pieces a steal, even if the art doesn’t sing to you.

The proceeds will benefit Out North's emerging gallery exhibits, of which Hope Studios and Begich Middle School are major partners.

The day after, Out North will host auditions for one of its 2010/2011 season productions, “Reefer Madness the Musical.” Monologues, cold readings and singing will take place from 1 to 3 p.m., followed by the dance auditions. Rehearsals begin a week later and the musical’s run begins the first week of November.

The following Thursday, September 16, Out North will hold its Season 26 Opening Party and fundraiser with previews of the upcoming season, along with beer, food and a silent auction. Tickets cost $30 and help fund Out North’s arts and education programs. This year, the art house will sell season tickets in three genres: theater, film and cultural exploration.

And finally, perhaps most exciting to some, Out North will host community-wide auditions for Out North and Perseverance Theatre from 5 to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, September 22. Local performers will get about ten minutes to introduce themselves to Schofield and Art Rotch, the artistic director of Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, along with Anchorage directors Jon Minton and Christian Heppenstall.

Turns out that Perseverance wants to start an Anchorage-based company. Yep, I buried the lead, but only because it belongs down here after all the hard work of listening.

Anyone who wants a part in Out North’s 26th season should show up for the community-wide auditions or forever hold their peace. Find out more at www.outnorth.org.

Out North’s art launch - Anchorage Press: Arts:

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Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps review

The Rice Thresher > Entertainment

Thoughts on Schofield's gender-bending Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps

By Andi Gomez

Published: Thursday, February 26, 2009

Updated: Sunday, March 20, 2011 18:03

Nudity, beer chugging, acrobatics and an explosive, menstrual pad-launching rendition of Hedwig and the Angry Inch's "The Origin of Love" - sound interested?Everyone should be. If more people started going to shows like Scott Turner Schofield's Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps, the world would be a more accepting place. We would see a society in which we seek to understand rather than to exile, and more people would be prepared to accept and help fellow human beings in their struggle to figure out who they are, regardless of sexuality and gender differentials.

Schofield is an award-winning performer and transgender activist who has toured around the country since 2001. He has performed two other solo acts: Debutante Balls and Underground Transit, and his book Two Truths and a Lie has been nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards. Last weekend he was at Houston's DiverseWorks with his newest performance, Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps.

As I drove over to DiverseWorks last Saturday, I had no idea what I was about to experience. I had no idea I would be watching a woman-turned-man get naked in front of me on a stage within the first 10 minutes of a performance. (He only stayed naked for about five minutes.) 

I like to think of myself as a very accepting person, but I'm ashamed to admit that before this show, that mental image may have made me squirm a little.

But after it happened, I was actually really surprised by how, well, natural it felt.

Hilarious, emotional, explosive - and just a bit heart-wrenching at times - Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps is so successful because you not only feel like you are witnessing someone's private transgender experience, but you actually feel like you are inside of the experience with him.

The key to the success of this performance is its intimacy. From the set to the audience participation to the conversational ingenuity of Scott's portrayal, everything about his performance invites the audience into his world while forcing us to question the mainstream culture that surrounds us.

I'll start with the set, because it strikes me as magnificently effective at constructing an atmosphere in which the audience feels like it's being let in on something personal. Simplistic but intimate, a stripped mattress lays on the floor and above it hangs what looks like a crimson cloth cocoon. Three triangular white drapes hang at the foot and sides of the bed; a screen is placed at the back. The audience sits on three sides of the stage.

All of a sudden the cocoon starts to move and Scott comes out, weaving his body up and down and around the symbolically blood-colored cloth that now flows to the center of the mattress as a recording of his voice narrates the moment of his conception. Finally, Scott jumped to the floor. He addressed the audience, throwing the white drapes to all three sides of the stage, bringing everyone in the room into what he calls his fort, much like the ones he used to make as a kid. He asked the people in the last rows to pull the drapes back so that they form a straight line, cracking a joke about how "tight and straight is what we value in this culture." He explained that the fort is a safe place to sexually explore and then promises to the audience that "once we're in the fort, I'll tell you everything."

The title Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps refers to a decoder ring that is projected onto the screen at the head of the bed. Something like a pie chart, each chunk of the decoder ring is identified with a number and holds heavily-loaded word such as "butch," "gay," "stealth" and "feminine." Scott explained that when combined, these numbers and their words tell about 127 little bits of his identity. He has a story for each one. However, the title is slightly deceptive, as he does not have time to tell 127 stories but rather has the audience request certain numbers and he responds with many stories as he can within his hour on stage.

Scott's stories range from downright comical, to shockingly painful, to thought provoking. Story 47, for example, combines the words "man" and "stealth" and he muses over what penis he would have genetically inherited had he been born with a male body. Then he pulls out three soft packs (attachable penises that create a bulge under pants) of different sizes. He begins to walk around the stage, juggling the three penises. He stops, turns to the crowd, gives a mischievous smile and states, "I'd be a shower, not a grower."

Towards the end of the show this character, who for the past hour had awed the audience with his charisma and humor in discussing such a complicated topic, reveals his insecure side. We hear some recordings of a phone conversation in which a friend of Scott's explains to him that it is all right to not know how to be a man because the "idea of being a man is just an idea" and that "you happen any way you choose." The room gets a little darker and Scott quietly explains, "My body tells my truth. but sometimes the story is so big I have to lie just a little, and it hurts just a little." We get an image of him sitting in the dark with a syringe, "morphing" himself as he continues to describe the concern he has to live with: that the hormone injections he takes regularly may have negative health implications in the future.

The show closes on an open-ended note, as he says, "I haven't figured out the end. . All I can do is be a man, and know when to leave."

I can't express the impact this performance had on me. It has certainly made me ponder what constitutes gender, acceptance and how the constant evolution of the individual in personal and public spaces is something that we all go through in our own ways, yet we tend to shut off the process of understanding evolutions different from our own.Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps was only showing in Houston last weekend, so I wish I could have shared this earlier, but I recommend that you go see him if you ever get the chance.


Andi Gomez is a Lovett College Senior.

Thoughts on Schofield's gender-bending Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps - Entertainment - The Rice Thresher - Rice University