Actor Blake Hackler portrays multiple roles in Theatre Three’s I Am My Own Wife
(Photo by Jeffrey Schmidt)
RICH LOPEZ | A&E Writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf is a part of queer history many of us may not know about. But it is a story well worth knowing: Von Mahlsdorf was able to survive under the Nazi regime in Germany as a trans woman.
Her story comes to life at Theatre Three in I Am My Own Wife, which opened Thursday, Oct. 15, and runs through Nov. 1.
Basing his play on her true story, Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright (as well as queer Dallas native) Doug Wright follows von Mahlsdorf through her life of collecting and preserving German antiques while also living on her own terms.
The one-actor show stars Blake Hackler and is directed by Garret Storms. The show is the first of T3’s newest season in its Theater Too space. And given that we are in a turbulent time for trans people right now, this is an inspired selection for the company.
“First and foremost, it’s just a great piece of theater, especially when performed by such an accomplished actor as Blake Hackler,” T3 Artistic Director Jeffrey Schmidt said in a press release. “Add to that a director like Garret Storms, whose attention to detail and refined storytelling is unmatched, and you have a thrilling night of live performance.
“Also, it’s been a while since T3 has produced and celebrated Doug Wright who spent some of his early career at T3.”
Storms found the play to be a unique piece of theater for a variety of reasons.
“I think Doug Wright really stumbled onto something very singular when he wrote this play in terms of the way he decided to tell the story,” the director said. “One actor portrays all these different roles where the plot actually surrounds the playwright character who is named Doug and is interviewing Charlotte about her life and growing up as a queer person while surrounding herself in this museum of turn-of-the-century furniture, music and phonographs and antiques.”
As he prepped for the show, the director posited how this play reveals a quiet corner of queer history. Outside of the play or a documentary and other published materials about her, how many queer people are aware of von Mahlsdorf?
“She’s just sort of an astonishing figure and not somebody that, certainly in America, we would know about,” Storms said. “We have these shadowy corners of queer history that we don’t always get access to, and it’s so important to know there are queer people who’ve done extraordinary things around the world.”
And in this case, her story is told by another extraordinary queer person.
Storms finds that Wright’s story gives deserved focus to one for their unique advocacy and their survival.
Blake Hackler performs multiple characters in the show, but, notably, the playwright and Charlotte.
As Storms and Hackler worked on the character, they determined how to deliver a compelling Charlotte with an already-compelling story. The two looked at her everyday life.
Storms said he did all the obvious, informative dramaturgy. But he wanted to go deeper than what was already presented. In this show, he wants to honor her and what is written in the play.
“We’re drawing on her as a human being, and she was a curator,” he said. “She is somebody who curated a safe space for herself to exist.
“This preservation holds memories, and so it’s not just furniture to her; she’s saving these people, sort of, and giving herself a safe place.”
Storms added that she not only carved out a space for herself but for other queer people to come in and be safe within her own place.
It’s a delicate notion that resistance isn’t always out loud.
“I’m always interested in how we tell queer stories in an unconventional — or queer — way. It’s not this patriarchal narrative structure even though there’s all the usual elements; it’s more how we can explore the relationship between fact and truth which don’t always align, and that gray space is where humanity lives.”
Much like Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.
For tickets, visit Theatre3Dallas.com.
Season of the Witches
A new women- and queer-led Dallas theater company will debut its first full-length production this month. Taming: A Folk Tale is a gothic twist on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Appropriately serving Halloween vibes, this romance centers on vampires and superstition.
Set deep in the Virginia pines of Appalachia in 1908, the show keeps Shakespeare’s original text but moves the story into a Southern Gothic world, where Kate and Petruchio’s whirlwind romance becomes a story of vampirism, superstition and a community ready to turn on anything it doesn’t understand — all with a bloody twist.
“We live in a scary world right now, but the sad thing is, it’s not a story we haven’t heard before” Cheyenne Haynes, who directs the show, said in a press release. “Much like in our ‘folktale,’ we have seen people use propaganda to paint a group of people as monsters or villains, and it’s always easy to say ‘Oh, that could never be us.’ Yet, we see it repeated in our history over and over again.
“We are unraveling how a community can be influenced while also exploring who the real monster is,” Haynes added.
On Halloween night, the lobby will feature a vendor market with works by DFW artisans.
Since its inception earlier this year, Witches 3 Productions has been dedicated to fostering community through low- or no-cost events such as monthly classes and workshops in a wide variety of disciplines like stage combat, improv, SFX makeup, voiceover acting and more.
Katie Wetch stars as Katarina and Harris is Petruchio in this production. The original score is composed by Justin Locklear and performed live by Eric Talamantes, Sarah Rogerson and Rowan Gilvie.
The creative team includes Haynes and Jae Payne (direction), Isa Flores (special effects, gore and makeup), Jenny Barrett (lighting design), Katelyn Jackson (costume design), Brandon Wetch (fight direction), Hannah Alyea (choreography) and Claire Fountain (intimacy coordination).
Learn more about the company and purchase tickets at Witches3.com.
— Rich Lopez