16 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE _____ Jul

eveningsout

This gang's on a mission to make queer girls salivate

by Donna Jean Troka

Columbus "Just in time for the end of the world," as their press material says, Sister Spit-an infamous gang of lady poets, performance artists and perverts, will bring their Ramblin' Roadshow to town on August 5.

Sister Spit is a group of women who perform spoken word with a ferocity that is rarely seen this side of the Mississippi. The group was founded several years ago in San Francisco by Sini Anderson and Michelle Tea as a weekly open-mike event with the hopes of creating a space for women to speak.

During that stint, girls of all genders were free to take the stage and amaze the crowd with poems, stories, naked cello playing, puppets and chainsaws. In the summer of 1997, founders Anderson and Tea narrowed the group down to a dozen fierce femmes and butch bitches and hit the road in a broken-

down van. They've continued the tour every summer since, inciting bar brawls, hurling

Their words will wow you, their delivery will dumbfound you, and if that isn't

enough for you, they have some really cool tattoos.

word grenades and leaving their audiences stunned, charmed and inspired.

Since their inception they have performed hundreds of shows to fans all over the country. They were recently featured in Wig magazine "the magazine of female expression" and were touted as "Women to Watch"

Sister Spit

by Ms. magazine. Their words will wow you, their delivery will dumbfound you, and if that isn't enough for you, they have some really cool tattoos.

As Anderson says, "We've got a lot to say and some pretty big mouths to say it with!" So wipe the dust off your journal and bring it on down to Summit Station in Columbus on Thursday, August 5 at 8:30 pm

R. A. MCBRIDE

for Sister Spit's Ramblin' Roadshow, because these ladies are sure to be an inspiration! Cover is $5. Contact Donna with questions at 614.263:6616 or donnatroka@hotmail.com.

Donna Jean Troka is a member of the H.I.S. Kings drag king troupe, which is hosting Sister Spit.

Gay Mormon actor is torn: Showbiz, or academia?

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Of all the double-edged swords in the world, fame is perhaps the most notorious. In the glamorous world of entertainment and showbiz, fame is the aphrodisiac, the much sought after state of being where mere mortals hunger for immortality. Every year, hundreds of thousands of young (and not so young) individuals flee their hometowns to seek fame and fortune in the Big Apple or the City of Angels.

Eric Brotherson, a 28-year-old actor, dancer and singer from Utah, is one of many who has made this journey and he, unlike many, has lived to tell the tale. He is presently part of the ensemble in the touring company of Fame, which comes to Columbus August 3-8.

Brotherson isn't your typical star-searching protagonist. He graduated in English literature and family sciences from Brigham Young University. According to Brotherson, he "always performed in schools and communities and was able to perform and travel” through church and church related activities.

"It took me five years to finish with school and I was burned out," Brotherson explains by way of justifying his sojourn into the world of show tunes and glitter. "The thought of doing a masters [degree] was nauseating," he continued, "and I gave myself six months in New York to get work or I would move back in with my parents and work at Blimpie's or something." But Brotherson didn't have to find out how the Blimpie's uniform looked on him because he was on to bigger and better things in no time.

"As a guy I was very lucky because I had several skills," Brotherson said, “because I could dance, sing, tumble, do gymnastics and all this helped my chances in finding work." Brotherson "moved to New York in 1997 and in three weeks all my money was gone and I thought 'I'm not going to make it to Halloween.' ”

Then the theatre angel looked kindly upon Brotherson, and he landed roles in Crazy For You and Gypsy.

On his way from Utah to New York, Brotherson got "sidetracked in Washington, D.C. for six months since I got offered the lead in Pippin and got to choreograph West Side Story."

Fame has been touring since last October and the big question has always been whether the show would ever make it onto Broadway or not. The plans have been very hush-hush and creative battles are being waged.

In the meantime, according to Brotherson, "the show is doing well in some cities and much better in the bigger cities where they

Eric Brotherson

are more connected to the show or where the ads are better." Standing ovations are not uncommon, and "the crowds are mixed with a little bit of everyone, even with senior citizens who love the show."

Brotherson is contracted with the tour till November 16, and "then I doubt I will stay, because I want to apply to grad school after taking a break at home for two months." Brotherson said that he is tired of eight shows a week. His dad always asks if he is going to go back to school. Both Brotherson's parents are professors, and their son fed their academic aspirations by graduating magna cum laude.

“My parents often ask why I am dancing when I could have a career," he says.

Brotherson himself wants to return to academia but if he gets a part in the upcoming Broadway production of Saturday Night Fever-which he has been called back six times for-then “I will definitely take that show." He is honest about his own career ambiguity. He eventually hopes to pursue a masters in social work, because"I believe it is part of my calling in life and because I have been given a brain.”

"Not that I believe that dancing and acting and singing doesn't require a brain,” he quickly adds.

Brotherson is not only conflicted about when to leave the Great White Way but he is also awash in contradictions about his sexuality, and how it is viewed by his Mormon faith.

"I am out in an oblique way," Brotherson

confides, "but I'm a terrible role model for the gay community because I don't know what I am going to do."

"I know what I am attracted to and what turns me on sexually," Brotherson admits, "but I was also raised very middle-class, and all my middle-class sensibilities tell me that I want to have a house and kids and all the rest."

"Homosexuality is one of the least interesting things about me and perhaps my activism may come through me being like everyone else, only gay and maybe that's a cop out.”

He was engaged in college and is "very emotionally connected to women" and he is "never going to say never to anything.”

Brotherson realized that he "was gay around puberty and it was difficult reconciling being gay and Mormon but it was also no different than any other Christian denomination where it is demonized.” Brotherson's role playing abilities, like those of every gay and lesbian child the world over, began at an early age when "I had to be in the closet in school and play it straight because ninety percent of the school was Mormon." Poignantly, Brotherson points out that, "When you start play-acting from so young it becomes normalized, and by the end of college I got really sick of it and realized that honesty would be better."

According to Brotherson, his parents have been slow in coming to terms with his homosexuality, "but they're great, and they've made it clear to me that they love me. My dad's a leader in the church, they're very devout and it's hard for them to understand."

"My mom, bless her heart, gets very sentimental about my future as a husband and father." When I point out to him that more and more gay men are living married and parenting lives he patiently points out that "my mom doesn't know enough about my options."

And Brotherson himself doesn't quite know what his options are when it comes to being gay and yet staying devoted to the faith which he considers to be the "Ph.D. of Christianity." Brotherson certainly wants to participate in the church, "but I don't know to what degree I can participate as an out individual. I couldn't partake of the ordi-

nances and I don't know if I want to feel left out in that way," he concedes. "I also want to be with the church, not just for me, but for everyone else," he adds.

Brotherson describes the Mormon faith as "sheltered" and is lucky to have parents who are professors, who love the arts, and are open to discussing things.

"They are believers but they are not rigid," Brotherson says with a hint of pride. "I know a lot of blind followers of obedience and rules without knowing what they're about."

Our discussion of Mormonism and homosexuality leads Brotherson to conclude that the "church continues to be anti-homosexual because most of the out gay individuals flee, and if more people were to stay around things will get better and better."

But Brotherson knows that "maybe it will never be totally accepted." Brotherson's role may be seminal if he plans to return home and stay out.

"The leaders are still of the mind set that gay people need to see therapists or be celibate or figure out the options," Brotherson explained. "They perceive it as alcoholism and believe that one can live with it, but it is better to change."

When it was suggested that he could actually play a very valuable role by returning to Utah and staying openly gay, Brotherson said that, “I am not an activist.”

"Homosexuality is one of the leåst interesting things about me and perhaps my activism may come through me being like everyone else, only gay and maybe that's a cop out," he concludes.

Unwittingly, even giving this interview, Brotherson is silently showing hints of being an activist. In fact, every time Brotherson he out as both gay and Mormon, he is chiseling away at that monolith of heterosexually-dominated Christianity.

On tour, he says, "a lot of people are surprised that I am into the church."

Currently, Brotherson is "sort of dating this guy in Kansas City whom I met while on tour there." Michael is also a churchgoing man, but "it is very difficult to have a long distance relationship."

Fame the musical, which is not very faithful to the movie, has been rewritten with similar characters. The music, except for the title song, is all new. The touring show will be in Columbus at the Palace Theatre, August 3 to 8.

Tickets range in price from $35.50 to $56.50 and may be purchased at the Broadway Series, Palace and Ohio Theatre box offices or charged at www.ticketmaster.com or 614-431-3600.