From MGW News, Sacramento, CA
THEATER PROFILE - Jerry Rabushka
- MGW News Posted: 9/6/2005
Playwright and actor Jerry Rabushka is no stranger to the fast paced hustle of touring. With an extensive writing and performing background, there is another stint on the road seems almost second nature. West Hollywood Premieres, National LGBT Theatre Festival performances, private showings in San Francisco and the “Spotlight On” Festival in New York, are just a few of the endeavors Rabushka has taken on when not overseeing his theatre company “Ragged Blade” which is based in St. Louis, MO. Now Rabushka will be touring his one-man show Somebody Else’s Life to the Lambda Players Theatre Sept. 9 and 10.
Most tour acts rely on flashy costumes, special effects or cheesy gimmicks; Rabushka takes the stage wearing a t-shirt from a paint shop he visited for his “day-job”, jeans ripped suggestively, and a pair of old red and white tennis shoes that belonged to a bag boy at the international grocery. He transforms from seasoned actor into a blond teenager named Ryan whose story is at times all too real, as he delves into what some gay youth endure.
“Ryan’s a loose combination of two guys,” says Rabushka about the character. “One is the bagger I got the shoes from, the other was a guy down south I still e-mail a lot. He told his best friend he had feelings for him, and it didn’t go well. In the show I notched up the consequences. People have come up to me hoping it wasn’t based on a true story.”
A performance in Tulsa inspired the second scene of the play, which deals with the so-called Sanctity of Marriage. “I always wondered how a gay wedding could ruin the marriage of a straight couple,” Rabushka explains. In the scene he plays several characters, from an overzealous Oklahoma preacher to an over-submissive man who needs his husband’s permission to get off the couch. There is also a straight couple: Mildred who is unable to make love because according to the preacher, her marriage has lost its sanctity. “Sanctity doesn’t belong in the bedroom,” her husband pleas. “That’s the last place I want The Lord—in the bedroom watching me make love.”
Somebody Else’s Life was directed by Greg Hunsaker and premiered in Tulsa last January; a double bill with performance artist Jade Esteban Estrada—the opening night was a fundraiser for the Tulsa chapter of Regional AIDS Interfaith Network.
Rabushka has had over 75 plays published through Brooklyn Publishers, but took time off to tour Somebody Else’s Life, and focus on Ragged Blade. “Ragged Blade’s first performance was at the St. Louis Pridefest in 1997,” says Rabushka. He founded the company with then-boyfriend Skip Hardesty. Since then it has become one of the premiere community theatre companies in St. Louis.
“We’re very glad to be able to bring someone of Jerry’s talent to Sacramento,” says Lambda Players President Tom Swanner. “It’s not often we have a free weekend to produce a touring act, but when we do, we are proud to be able to offer Sacramento the level of performance Jerry can offer. It’s an amazing show.”
