Introduction : a certain kind of successful / by Jill Dolan -- On being an independent solo artist (no such thing) / by Peggy Shaw -- You're just like my father -- Fat Lady : monologue from Upwardly mobile home -- Menopausal gentleman -- The big lie : monologue from Miss America -- To my chagrin -- Blue (song performed by Peggy Shaw) -- Must the inside story -- Eight questions for Peggy Shaw : interview by the Walker Art Center.
Summary:
Obie-award-winning performer and writer Peggy Shaw has been playing her gender-bending performances on Off Broadway, regional, and international stages for three decades. A founder of the renowned performance troupe Split Britches, Shaw has gone on to create memorable solo performances that mix achingly honest introspection with campy humor, reflecting on everything from her Irish working-class roots to her aging butch body. This collection of Shaw's performance scripts evokes a 53-year-old grandmother who looks like a 35-year-old man (in her classic "Menopausal gentleman"); a mother's ambivalent ministrations to a daughter she treated like a son (in the raw "You're Just Like Your Father"); Shaw's love for her biracial grandson, for whom she models masculinity (in the musically punctuated "To My Chagrin"); and a mapping of her body's long, bittersweet history (in the lyrical "Must", a collaboration with the UK's Clod Ensemble).
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.