This year’s Gotham Storytelling Festival at Frigid New York showcased a range of tales and performers, and this is my last round-up of the shows available for livestream.
For details on the festival, go here.
The Real Black Swann
“This is the true story of William Dorsey Swann. Former slave who became the Queen of Drag in the late 1800’s. Also the first queer activist.”
Les Kurkendaal-Barrett is the writer-performer in this show in which he, under the influence of hospital anesthetic, goes back in time (just like in Somewhere In Time, New Yorkers, do your homework!) and meets the Real Black Swann, in person.
I looked up Swann before watching this show. He was born into slavery in 1858 or 1860 and died in 1925. He was not only the first acknowledged drag queen in the USA, but also the first person to lead a gay liberation group. Most of the attendees at his drag balls – paving the way for the contemporary ballroom scene – were former slaves and rebels who became known as the ‘House of Swann’.
Kurkendaal-Barrett gives us both a history lesson and a story full of politics. He gives Swann a strong voice and a dynamic presence which zips right off the stage. His only prop is one dress hanging up behind him, eventually worn. otherwise everything he tells us is on us to acknowledge and picture.
The Real Black Swann is the story of Swann and of Kurkendaal-Barrett, and of other young black men who are marginalised and abused within a society led by white government agencies. It’s a powerful piece of storytelling, and a powerful piece of theatre to make you sit up and take notice.
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Big Honor Student Energy
“Kicked out of ballet lessons at 4 for being “too much,” Alisa Rosenthal has carried this same joie de vivre through her whole life.
From an ill-fated semester at clown school to unnecessarily enthusiastic job interviews with AI recruiters, she somehow always finds herself underworked and overprepared.”
Rosenthal’s Big Honor Student Energy is packed with fun escapades and honest reminiscence, delivered by a performer who quickly commands the room and includes her audience in her storytelling.
It’s absolutely clear she has trained to perform in diverse situations and harvest all that energy that might make her “too much” in everyday life.
This is a set which is more stand-up than memoir, but that isn’t a bad thing. The name of the game is to entertain, and I was thoroughly amused and engaged by what Rosenthal was sharing in this show.
And it is only just under fifty minutes, so it is my kind of fringe show that ticks all the right boxes and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
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