Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps
August 23, 2008 at 8:00 pm by Curt Holman in A&E
Earlier this year, 7 Stages‘ first production of Scott Turner Schofield’s one-man show Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps sold out two performances on Super Bowl Sunday. That impressive statistic begs the question, what kind of man puts on performance art during the Super Bowl, anyway?
Schofield’s show provides answers that are at once engaging and incomplete. “Becoming” a man may be more of a journey for Schofield than for most guys, as he happens to be an actor, writer and female-to-male transgender person (not necessarily in that order). Becoming a Man offers a playful, kaleidoscopic evening of Schofield’s observations, memories and even some physical acrobatics that correspond to Schofield’s balancing act as he transitions from one gender to the other.
Directed by Steve Bailey, Becoming a Man may be the least visually static one-person show I’ve ever seen. The audience enters the small Back Stage space at 7 Stages to find swaths of white and red fabric dangling in the performance area. We hear Schofield’s recorded voice, see projections of embryonic ultrasound footage and realize that all along, Schofield has been hanging in a fetal position, hidden inside the red fabric. He shifts within the material, partially emerges and “swims” in suspension, while meditating on the in utero causes of transgender issues.
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(Photo by Elliat Graney-Sauke)
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