KW’s queer community has a new player. Welcome Modus Vivendi Village Players, an acting troupe that will be running a new variety show Sept. 17-20 at The Registry Theatre in Kitchener.
D. Morton, the producer of the event and creator of the Modus Vivendi Village Players, said, “The Wednesday night is going to be a typical queer variety show. We’re going to have some spoken word, we might very well have some musical pieces, we have at least one belly dancer, and [we are] hoping to get a whole pile of drag performances.
“The Thursday to Saturday show is going to be two of the locally-submitted monologues, three of the locally-submitted short plays, so they are around 10 minutes each, and interspersed between those performances will be slam poetry by the Flying Vs and a guest performer from BC, and after the intermission will be an hour-long show.”
“The content is local, all the performers are local,” said Morton, emphasizing the importance of the locality by stressing that “it would be great to have people from the existing [local] groups come together to put on this show and then take some of that back to where they are.
“Let’s give people a chance to cross-pollinate more than they have before and then they can take that back and hopefully then inspire more LGBT community friendly programming in those areas.”
With initiatives like Rainbow Reels, the queer film festival, and the Tri-Pride festival, there has been an advancement in queer events in the KW region, but as Morton pointed out, “there just hasn’t been an opportunity for people to play people like themselves … we are still in the age of the token queer person.”
Modus Vivendi Village Players welcomes actors and performers of all different backgrounds and orientations to explore the realities of queer and gender variant individuals, and although the event is centred around queer experiences, Morton noted that, “It was also important to me that this be for everyone … we’ve got a bunch of straight people who are involved and I think that is fantastic.
“What I am really hoping for is that we’ll have a number of straight people who will come and see the show and because of the way we are doing it, I’m hoping they then … will have moments where, while watching the show, they identify with characters on stage and have a moment where they go, ‘Wait a minute, I’m straight and that person is gay or potentially even trans and I can totally relate and identify with them.’”
Unlike typical queer events that tend to be political and sometimes heavy, Morton assured that, “there’s going to be something for everyone, so if people are turned off by the regular queer stuff, there will undoubtedly be samples of that but overall … this show is just going to be exciting and great and a celebration of who and what we are.”
Tickets for the event are $15.
