Godmother and her gangsters

What a cast! Even if you weren't dying to know what will happen in an hour's time this Saturday afternoon at Portland Center Stage in a play called "The Godmother," you have to want to see these fabulous actors in the following roles:

Tomboy McCorkle, Godmother by Jessamyn D. Rae

Corker McCorkle, her sister-in-law by Dierdre Atkinson

Billy McCorkle, her brother by Miles Thoming-Gale

Charles Uppity Jones, mobster by Shoshana Maxwell

Black Walnuts, mobster by Jerry Bell

Daniel, mobster by David Loftus

Ernie, mobster by Greg Alexander

Paddy, consigliore by Alan Hakim

Chee Chee di Mayo, crime boss by Patric Callahan

Juanita, call girl by Megan Skye Hale

Blondie, Hottentots girl by Victoria Blake

Sally, Hottentots girl by Stephanie Blair

The director is the talented, skillful and creative Andrew Wardenaar. Come and bring your peeps.

Some of the participants on January 23rd

Jessamyn D. Rae IS the Godmother Tomboy McCorkle. Her nemisis? Patric Callahan plays Chee Chee di Mayo. Brother Billy is played by 16 year old Miles Thoming-Gale; Sally by Shoshana Maxwell. Watch this space for more names in coming days. The full cast will be named very soon!
See a picture of The Godmother in the current of Just Out magazine, Portland's GLBTQ newspaper, where Fertile Ground made the cover for January. Fertile Ground will also be the cover on this week's A&E section of The Oregonian. We are the happening event of the month, people! Over 50 events, including world premieres of full productions, staged readings, dance productions, music, you name it baby. Come get out of the cold, see what's H.O.T. Buy your pass for ALL of it, or tix for The Godmother HERE: www.tinyurl.com/tomboygodmother

movies, new movies

Every year at about this time, I saturate myself in new movies, trying to anticipate which ones will be nominated for Academy Awards: best film, best director, best actors (male and female), best supporting, best screenplay (adapted and original), best sound, best costumes, all that. I have a grand time. I never see them all, of course. I've seen "Precious," "Up in the Air," "Blindside," "Invictus," "Nine," and I have a very long list to see. Some just because I want to have fun. The Men Who Stare at Goats. That looks like fun to me. There were movies that came out that seemed like they couldn't fail, then got such horrid reviews I didn't even go: Fame, for one. Really? How could you mess up Fame? Apparently they did. And I was sooooo disappointed in "Nine." Like how I use and don't use quotation marks? I'm fickle that way. The story was dismal, the songs were forgettable, even the choreography left a lot to be desired except for Fergie's number and then it was hard not to think of how difficult it must have been for the dancers to deal with all that sand all day. sigh. I love movies. I want them to love me back. Entertain me. Knock my socks off. Give me that old Busby Berkeley treatment, or film noir, or Alfred Hitchcock. I did like Precious. Just wish they'd had more money to spend on it so Precious could have had million dollar fantasies. And Invictus was the feel good movie of the year for me. Mandela was a man of his convictions, and a true leader. Now if only we could make a movie out of The Godmother that would equal or top "Chicago" I'd have something to write home about. mmm.

First reading of The Godmother

oooh, delicious! I heard the play read aloud last night by a table full of actors, playwrights, the director and other readers. Tomboy, Corker, Black Walnuts, Uppity, Billy, they all jumped to life right there in the director's dining room. Scary, funny, and exciting all at once. I will tweak the script a bit over the next 10 days before the next rehearsal so the cast will have a clean script going into the days before performance of the staged reading. I hope we have a standing room only audience and just pack that mezzanine full of folks ready and waiting for this sassy young butch lesbian taking over her crime family as well as the stages of first Portland and then -- who knows?

It's a New Year, will prohibition end?

Tomboy McCorkle has just taken over the reins of the McCorkle crime family in Kansas City, Missouri. It's 1928. Prohibition is in full swing, but the Pendergast family has a stronghold on the police, District of Attorney's office, and the entire Justice Department, so the speakeasies are lively and jazz rules. The McCorkles operate out of the back room of The Hottentots Club where white lightning is served alongside home brew. The girls are hot, the jazz is hot, and the booze flows like the Missouri River. Trouble brews between the McCorkles and the di Mayos because older brother Bobby "The Slapper" McCorkle wanted to get into rum-running from Canada (di Mayo's turf), and within the family because Tomboy is female, and a lesbian to boot. She's gonna have to show everybody who's boss. You might as well come and see it for yourself. There will be blood. There will be music too. Come on down to Portland Center Stage and see for yourself. January 23rd, 12:30pm. Lunches can be bought by the box and carried up to the mezzanine and munched while you watch. Tix can be purchased online: https://robot.boxofficetickets.com/800-494-TIXS/WebObjects/BOTx2005.woa/wa/inspectProgram?id=88145&passKey=2b42b57e5f

Godmother anxious about appearing in public

What with her brother being whacked just a short while ago, and things bein' so tense between the McCorkles and the Bolostreres and the di Mayos, Tomboy is naturally a little twitchy about this upcoming public appearance on January 23rd. That's why it's gonna be in a public place in the middle of the day. All out in the open like. Weapons checked at the door, everybody havin' to pay to get in. No riff raff. She'll say what's she got to say in front of everybody and that'll be that. We hope there won't be no one gets hurt, but we ain't makin' no promises. You get me? Bobby got whacked, and Paddy ain't no where to be found. Things could get ugly dependin' on what happens at this here public meetin'. Bring your own drinks and snacks. They'll be sellin' em right downstairs in the lobby. Get in cheaper if you buy one of them Festival buttons for three bucks, or free altogether if you buy a Festival pass that gets you in free to about everything for 10 days -- like a big shot. go to http://www.fertilegroundpdx.org/Passes_%26_Buttons.html and check it out. If you go to the calendar page, you can buy tix for this here event only. That's in case you're a mug who's only interest is the "family" related stuff like this one.

The Godmother is coming to town!

Okay, I've commited to a staged reading of my new play. The Godmother will have appear in public for the first time at Fertile Ground New Works Festival at Portland Center Stage as part of their Down and Dirty lunchtime series. I've snagged the choice spot at 12:30pm on Saturday January 23rd. We'll likely get only 45 minutes, so be prepared to be left wanting more ... that's only about half a play, but it's a good half. This is a play about the Kansas City mob in the 1920's during Prohibition. Tomboy is running the McCorkle family. She's a young butch lesbian in deep conflict inside and outside the family.