Once
you get to know writer/singer/performer
Jade
Esteban Estrada -- the
man behind the
one-man show
"ICONS:
The Lesbian and Gay
History of the World, Vol. 1"
-- you can
easily see how his collection of monologues and
musical numbers focusing on famous gays and
lesbians (both out and closeted) came to be.
For starters,
Estrada himself is gay. Second, the San Antonio
native claims that if he wasn't doing the
theater thing, "I'd be a world history
professor," though, truth be told, Estrada
actually already enjoys a second career as a
Latin pop recording artist. Third, after two
other one-man shows that dealt with his Latino
heritage -- It's Too Late...It's Already in
Me and
"Tortilla Heaven," written by
his sister, playwright Celeste Angela Estrada --
it was time for Estrada to present another facet
of his personality.
And by tackling
six other gay personalities, both famous and
infamous, that's exactly what he does. Meet
Sappho, Michelangelo, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude
Stein, Sylvia Rivera (the seventeen-year-old
drag queen from the Bronx who ignited the
Stonewall riots of 1960s New York when she threw
her shoe at the NYPD) and Ellen DeGeneres (whose
musical number in the show is entitled
"Yep, I'm Gay" -- also the title of
the Time magazine cover story when she
publicly outed herself). Says Estrada, "Gay
history is lost history. But I didn't just want
to point out to people, 'Look at all the great
things gays and lesbians have contributed to
society.' The show is more about needing to know
your heritage, leaving a mark and having your
voice heard."
Such
progressive subject matter might leave many
wondering: Will it play in Peoria? Estrada's
already answered that question: He brought the
show there earlier this month. (It'll also hit
Cape Girardeau after passing our way.) While
Estrada admits that his audiences tend to be
more accepting of his material on the coasts, he
enjoys bringing it to the Midwest as well.
"I consider my work to pick up where Will
& Grace and Queer Eye for the
Straight Guy leave off," he says,
"making gay people and culture not just
entertaining on TV, but right in your
face."
In the Midwest, go figure, Estrada
says that audiences respond the most to and are
most comfortable with his portrayal of DeGeneres.
"It's easy to make connections with people
you understand," he says. "Oscar
Wilde, for example, a lot of people don't get
him, although they do think how he's portrayed
in the show is funny."
As the show's
name implies, an "ICONS:
The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 2" is already
in the works, with plans to debut it at the 2004
National Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival in
Columbus, Ohio. Icons slated to appear in that
show include Queen Christina of Sweden, Freddie
Mercury and Walt Whitman. As for picking the
rest, "it's like a beauty pageant in my
head between all these other candidates,"
Estrada says. May the best man -- or woman, or
man dressed as a woman, or woman who once was a
man -- win.
©2003
Riverfront Times
