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South Florida has a rich history of bringing same-sex plays to the stage, but theater about the transgendered? Their glass ceiling has yet to be fully broken. Which is why a play like Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, which will be presented by Zoetic Stage this Thursday through October 21 at the Adrienne Arsht Center (1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami), is so important. This one-man show dramatizes the true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a male-to-female transgender who as a child killed her father and later survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin.
“Myself and [actor] Tom Wahl discovered, during this process, the prejudice against transgenders, even in the gay community,” director Stuart Meltzer says. “It’s been a fascinating journey for myself as a director.”
The playwright culled his story from extensive interviews with von Mahlsdorf and learned much about transgender life in the process. Wright himself is one of nearly 30 characters in the play, all portrayed by the chameleonic Tom Wahl. “Tom has a rubber quality about him,” Meltzer says. “He’s an actor that is able to encompass the humor as well as understanding the sensitivity and the horror of her story.”
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 4 p.m. Starts: Oct. 4. Continues through Oct. 21, 2012
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