dixon place HOT! festival, 2017
In order to survive the post-truth era, AUTOPORTRAIT imagines what it would look like if we learned to float between truth and fiction as well as our enemies do — if we learned to deploy our own narratives for the greater good. The play weaves together unlikely portraits of drag queens, government officials, and East Village performance artists all trapped within a closed loop of lies and narrow thinking, eager to rebel. Beyond this destructive path is an alternative — not one of ‘alternative facts,’ but of the sublime, queer beauty of choice. AUTOPORTRAIT marshals in this new era of creative expression and individual power just beyond the horizon.
AUTOPORTRAIT had a one-night production in Dixon Place's 2017 HOT! Festival, and it was developed with support from the inaugural Leslie-Lohman Museum Space Grant.
By Zachary Small
Directed by Alex Hare
Cast: C Bain, Matthew Brown, Kristin Fulton, Tommy Heleringer, Cristina Pitter
Designers: You-Shin Chen (Set), Erin Jones (Lighting), Marc Stuart Jablonski (Sound), Iliana Paris (Costumes)
Act 2, inspired by Condoleezza Rice's testimony at the 9/11 Commission, was performed in March 2017 in Irondale Center's "Not Normal" Series (Gabby Beans as Condoleezza, Patrick Brady as William Cohen, Matthew Luke Meyer as Donald Rumsfeld, Addison Williams as Committee
Cast: Gabby Beans (Condoleezza Rice), Matthew Luke Meyer (Donald Rumsfeld), Addison Williams (the 9/11 Committee), and Patrick Brady (William Cohen). Sound design by Marc Stuart Jablonski, costume design/props by Maria Diez