Transforma Theatre is Bringing MY MARLENE to HERE as Part of Their Winter SubletSeries

My Marlene is coming to HERE for a limited engagement as part of HERE's Winter SubletSeries: Co-Op performing February 12 and 13 at 8.30pm.

My Marlene is a one woman show about a cross-dressing bisexual pioneer from Hollywood's golden era: Marlene Dietrich. The play is an immersive and confessional theatre experience in which the audience is transformed into the battle-hardened soldiers that Marlene Dietrich entertained on the French Front during the closing years of World War II. With imagery evoking German Expressionism and the dynamic days of the birth of Cinema, it tells the story of Marlene's life and times. The period songs, with their acidic, cynical tone, characteristic of that Weimar Decadence, serve to highlight Marlene's status as an erotic pioneer with her gender ambiguity. Interspersed with her songs, private letters and films, My Marlene seduces the audience while bombs fall all around.

My Marlene was created as a response to gender oppression of the mainstream media's propaganda of gender stereotypical behavior. From the 50s till now women like a Kardashian, who are famous for being famous while being overtly feminine oversecualized icon, have been given more media's limelight than the real female pioneers. Female role models are crucial for the psyche of girls and women of all ages. They inspire us and remind us of possibilities; that change is always possible. Nobody could tell Marlene Dietrich who to be. She was a self-designed individual from the inside out. She dressed as she pleased, sometimes as a man sometimes as a woman, but mostly androgynous. She was loudly and unapologetically bisexual from 1920 till her death no matter how the society changed its mind or taste. She had innumerable lovers when polyamory or open relationships were not yet a politics of the day. She was a business woman, foreign troupe entertainer and a House frau who loved to cook. No single characteristic defined her. The show is an interactive theatrical tribute to this courageous individual with the goal to inspire others who don't want to be defined by the narrow categories of the mainstream media. This is a call to action to become liberated from the inside out.

My Marlene is written and performed by Tjasa Ferme, who is the Slovenian national film and theatre award winner, TMU grantee, founder and artistic director of Transforma Theatre dedicated to creating interactive theatre experiences at the convergence of science, consciousness and ritual. It is directed by Jesse Edward Rosbrow, artistic director of Theatre of the Expendable. He performed in the world premiere of the late Dario Fo and the late Franca Rame's last play, The Story of Qu, in the 2015 Milan World Expo and extensively directed throughout New York City. Music director and saxophone player is Michael Hashim. He was seen and heard on stage in the long-running Broadway musical "Song of Singapore" and Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegleman's "Drawn to Death: A Three-Panel Opera". The accompanist on the piano is Kuni Mikami, pianist for The Duke Ellington Orchestra at Birdland Jazz Club in New York City for 8 years.

This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE: Co-op, HERE's curated summer rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.

Venue:

Mainstage, HERE 145 SIXTH AVENUE, NY, NY 10013

Tickets:

$20

Dates:

Wed-Thu, 12-13 February 2020

Time:

8.30 pm (75 minutes no intermission)

Box Office:

BOX OFFICE + ADMIN OFFICE: 212.647.0202

Website:

https://here.org/shows/my-marlene/

Tickets:

https://ci.ovationtix.com/219/production/1024220

Photo credit: Jaka Vinsek