When Tim Miller’s Charged Bodies mentorship program at Links Hall fruited several powerful performances in 2008, I was once again enTHUSED about the work being created in Chicago. One of those mentees, Rebecca Kling, has expanded her 20 minute piece about her life as a trans woman into an hour-long theater event entitled Trans Form, December 11th-13th at Links Hall. A recipient of the Critical Fierceness Grant, I’m interested in what she’ll add to an already personal deep-share. The work in progress was filled with understandible anger – her descriptions of the invasive questions people try to pass as small talk were as telling as they were familiar. When strangers assume rights to your personal space and private life, it makes you wonder why our culture translates freedom of expression into an excuse for dehumanizing those who openly express themselves. The work in progress did contain a triumphant fierceness in its final moments, and I’m hoping this expanded version will rely less on the literal and play a little more with nuance.
Trans Form will run at Links Hall, 3445 N Sheffield Ave, Chicago. It’s between the Belmont and Addison stops on the Red Line, and right next to a 22 bus stop. Tickets available at Brown Paper Tickets.
