mister julien

the play i chose for my senior acting project in high school was the stronger by august strindberg.  i had been a dancer for a long time before getting serious about acting and i remember thinking of my scene partner as a barre for me to stretch on.  necessary, only as a set piece for me to dance around.  i could make leaps from one tactic to the next without even a blink from her.  like playing tennis with a wall.  after all, i was the only one with any dialogue.

that was the first and last time i performed strindberg, but his influence lived on in what i found attractive about art and artists and innovation in the theatre.  he was a madman, and a visionary.  i am often one or the other, but rarely both.

and so it was an easy decision to accept a photography assignment to shoot the inimitable ken roht's dancing, singing, gender-bending adaptation of miss julie.  a few years ago, i shot roht's 99 cent only extravaganza, and got some righteous shots.  ken told me i could go anywhere i wanted to take pictures, which is the most thrilling thing a photog can hear.  i joked that i could be one of the dancers and, delighted, he said Yes!  if the lead role typically played by a woman weren't being played by a man in this version, i'd tell him to watch his back...