Never judge a bearded lady until you've walked a mile in her A-mok-assins
The greatest political theater troup to come out of New York is back
A bit late into the tour i’m posting this, but that’s Ok. I first saw Jennifer Miller and her gang of intelligent theater monkeys perform at the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Risk Taker of the Year awards many years ago, where my dad was being honored. Taken by both the physical virtuosity and progressive depth of message communicated through awe and zowie!, i’ve been in love with the bearded lady for some years now.
There was a film made in 1992 about her, Juggling Gender, which is where she her got famous. Since then, she’s been training performers to do some of the greatest and most meaningful street theater this side of the French Revolution.
And now they’re doing stuff in NYC for the first time in a little while, all through september and maybe beyond. Check them out, the shows are free, most are probably even in your daily work pattern, across four of five boroughs. Then tell me if beards aren’t hot.
http://www.circusamok.org/
Here’s an interview with a Tami Gold, filmer of Juggling Gender, about how she got involved, and what her trip is. Susan Monhagan wrote a book with six portraits of different artisits, a long discussion of Circus Amok, what it does and how it means . a nice piece with Jen talking about gender issues etc., aaand, tangentially, Here’s an interview from a year ago with a totally different but still cool Jen Miller, author of “seeds of Peace.” It’s insightful!