Photo by Jonathan Beckley
Last night was my last show with my troupe All The Kings Men (ATKM) for what might be a very very long time… we’ll see. It was a solid show, we’ve been together for 12 years now. That’s a lot of performance art with a small group of brilliant people under my belt. It’s been the longest relationship I’ve been in aside from family.
We started out as a drag troupe, and drag is technically a large part of what we do, but really I’d say we’re a troupe that plays with pop culture and status quo ideas of gender, sexuality, and lifestyle, and who mixes a strong dose of satire and truth into the concoction. A lot of our work peers under the covers of a character to let the audience get a better idea of what “really” turns them on… We play men, women, super heros, animals, kids, townies, clowns… you name it, but we play these characters with a lot of heart and a lot of intention.
I take this troupe for granted. I forget how the ideas we’re playing with are dangerous and shocking to some people. I forget that a portion of our audience is hungry for our work because they are hungry for acceptance in their own lives too. We’ll make you laugh at how simple and stupid life can be, we’ll make you question what you thought about “that type of guy”, we’ll remind you what it was like to be in love for the first time, we’ll break your heart, and we’ll turn you on.
Live theater is raw power and sometimes I forget that the room full of people who gather want to be entertained by my sweat. I belong to my audience: every inch of my body, every vision in my imagination, every muscle triggered in the storytelling, every emotion rolling across my face. Pure and simple, this work is service. I do it for my audience, I do it for my sanity, I do it because I have to; even in topping a room full of viewers, I submit.
To Breath and Being,
~ Karin
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~Thank you.
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