Rebecca Kling’s 40-minute solo performance begins with her miming her way through her morning routine—shower, makeup and swallowing a comical number of pills. She repeats it over and over, the ritual becoming more and more abstract. The transgender performer’s piece returns to this motif several times, as ritual is one of the show’s defining themes (the title is a reference to the Jewish mourning ritual of sitting shiva, during which a house’s mirrors are covered). Kling’s exploration of her experience as a transgender person and her transition process meanders a bit, and as is so often the danger with the solo-confessional genre, it teeters in places on the edge of navel-gazing. Kling is a charming presence, and she explains her struggle to own her gender identity compellingly. In fact, I wish she’d do more direct connection with the audience. Bits and gags like a “build your own ritual” instructional-video sequence serve to distance us. —Kris Vire
Last night went pretty well. There were some significant technical issues with the video not coming up, but the important chunk of video did play and the rest was fine to ad-lib through (and the audience seemed forgiving). I veered wildly off script at a few points, and could see the stage manager flipping through the script to try and figure out where the hell I was, which was unfortunate. I’m taking time to majorly review my lines before my 4PM show this afternoon.
But it’s opened! The infernal beast is on its way, and I didn’t die (or have to call for lines, or cry on stage, or run out of the theatre screaming, all things I worried I might have to do).
Uncovering the Mirrors debuts a week from tomorrow. Have you bought your tickets yet?
I had a chance to speak with Behind the Fringe recently, and they’ve just posted that interview. Here’s an excerpt:
BTF: How and when did [your show] come about?
RK:Uncovering the Mirrors has been forming for at least twelve years, when I stood awkwardly in front of friends and family and had a Bar Mitzvah. Because having a Bar Mitzvah – a ceremony at thirteen for Jewish boys to become Jewish men – just sucks when what you really want is to be a girl. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to find that perfect ceremony to say, “No, wait. There’s been a mistake. See, I’m not really a boy. Isn’t there some way I can have a do-over?” But while working on this show, I realized the issue is larger than me: we should all be allowed to decide which parts of ourselves make up our identities. This show is my own contribution toward that end.
I started this blog after coming out to a friend and coworker. I was talking about my then-pie-in-the-sky ideas of creating performance material out of my experiences as a trans woman. She responded with the entirely reasonable question, “Are you keeping a written record of your experiences?”
“Um…no. You think I should?”
And thus The Thang Blog was born. I’ve always been open about the self-indulgent nature of this blog: it’s a forum for discussion, sure, but it’s first and foremost a place for me to record my thoughts, my musings, and whatever catches my interest. (Read my Comments Policy if you don’t believe me.)
But over the last three years(!!) this blog – and performing, and telling my story – has become something more for me. As my hit counter has gone from one or two (or none) a day, to a few dozen, to a hundreds of readers and visitors, as my performances have gone from a pipe dream to what I hope will be a livelihood, my perspective has changed.
Telling my story has become my activism. Telling my story has become my politics.
Two weeks from today will be opening night for Uncovering the Mirrors at the Chicago Fringe Festival. Please buy your tickets today or find it in your heart to donate!
As a teaser, here’s some text from my upcoming show:
The Land of Gender, part one
Once upon a time there was a complex and mysterious land: the Land of Gender.
Gender was a dense place, thick with hidden secrets. The terrain was unknowable, the wilderness untamed: brambly groves, swirling rivers, deep canyons, towering forests. The Land resisted any attempt to understand or define it.
Explorers embarked on great journeys to survey Gender, to make sense of its breadth and variety. Because the terrain had an infinite number of vistas – expansive deserts, lofty mountains, cresting oceans – each explorer came away from the Land of Gender with a different understanding of the landscape. But none of these vantage points proved any more complete or detailed than any other; no explorer had any better view of Gender than any other.
For untold ages, attempting to put the Land of Gender to paper, to capture its shape, was impossible. Cartography was useless, inadequate. The land refused to be charted or unified by a singular map. It continued to exist in only the experiences of those who ventured into the unknowns, their disparate accounts and partial understandings.
While most explorers were content with the mysteries and fluidity of the Land of Gender, one explorer in particular wished desperately to strip the Land of its relentlessness. Where other explorers would enjoy the mysteries of the Land of Gender, this explorer found fear and panic. And so He set about developing a map which could measure, manage, and master the Land of Gender once and for all.
A friend of mine is in the show Talk Radio, which closed today in Chicago. The show is described as follows:
Talk radio host Barry Champlain is a relic of an analog age, on the verge of a deal for national syndication. Tonight, not only is he under assault from many callers-in, but he also has digital communication thrust upon him. Bogosian meets Orwell in this commentary on the media.
I went to today’s 3PM closing, and after 30 minutes of sexism, transphobia, victim blaming, and general obnoxiousness, I walked out. So what’s the protocol for walking out on friends?
A life map is a visual representation or walk-through of one’s experiences. It needn’t be linear, though that’s often easiest, and can be an interesting way to access or discover new things about how you (consciously or unconsciously) think about where you’ve come from, where you are, and where you’re going. Here’s part of my life map, done a few weeks ago as an exercise with my director:
Check it out! From Our Town over at the Sun Times Blog:
Uncover the Art of Rebecca Kling
Sarah Terez Rosenblum (@SarahTerez) is an MFA-holding writer, teacher and Spinning instructor. She’s also the Theater Listings Editor for Centerstage Chicago. Look for her posts twice a week.
Chicago writer and actor Rebecca Kling has something many artists would kill for; having lived in first a male and now an increasingly female body, her grasp of the human experience is arguably greater than most. Trans Form, her 2009 one woman show, both educational and fanciful, “explored how being closeted [and] coming out felt as a trans woman,” but with her newest project, Uncovering Mirrors, Kling hopes to “look forward, instead of focusing on what’s past.” Part of the Chicago Fringe Festival, Kling’s show investigates “how someone who has spent a few years transitioning claims that identity and presents it to the world.”
Refreshingly idealistic, in conversation Kling projects wit and self-awareness, clearly articulating her writing process and objectives.
Comments (0) 
Themocracy