www.gay-sd.com


FROM PAGE 18 JACKSON


“Michael always had male


backup dancers,” Gregory said. “This gives it a little bit more of a feminist twist. The whole way I got into doing the Michael Jackson thing was (asking), ‘Well, if men can be drag queens, why not women?’” One of the toughest things


for her to master, she said, was Jackson’s “dynamic energy.” “He moves like nobody else, so I had to pretty much undo all my dance training,” Gregory said. “He doesn’t turn the way a ballet dancer turns; he turns more like a skater. His posture’s not always straight up; it’s kind of curved over. “He also has the ability to split himself in half where his lower body will be doing one thing


and his upper body will be doing something completely different,” she said. “That stuff’s tricky. But once you learn the moonwalk, you just practice it. I teach it to people all the time.”


Getting Jackson’s essence just


right was no moonwalk either, Gregory said.


“He was such a unique spirit,”


Gregory said. “It’s not just his tal- ent and his music, but the energy that he gave off. This is really what turned me from being an admirer to being an absolute fan.” Perhaps one of the more


exhilarating things Gregory has done in her quest to capture the pop star’s essence was taking a stroll through the grounds of Neverland Ranch, in character. During one of her trips to the Santa Maria courthouse, while Jackson was on trial for child molestation charges, the music legend opened his sprawling


ARTS


grounds, theme park and zoo to the fans who believed in his innocence.


“I was wearing a bright red


shirt,” Gregory recalled. “I had the glasses, the wig and um- brella. The giraffe was like way on the other side of the enclosure and he sticks his head up and he sees me and he comes running across the enclosure directly towards me.” After a few sniffs, Gregory


said, the animal could tell she wasn’t the real deal and walked away. Back then, Gregory was


sporting Jackson’s straight-haired look. For her performance this month, she will don the Jheri curl-look of Jackson’s “Danger- ous” tour. Gregory said it takes about an hour and a half to get into charac- ter, between the wig, makeup and the costume.


“I have freckles so I have to


August 13-August 26, 2010 FROM PAGE 8


GAY SAN DIEGO


completely cover my natural skin, and you know he was pretty pasty white, so it’s just a really, really thick stage makeup,” she said. “There’s makeup techniques that I learned years ago when I was a ballet dancer [and from] drag en- tertainers because the men have to cover up their beards.” Gregory said she was in


shock the day Jackson died, which happened while she was changing residences. On the day of his televised memorial, she was scheduled to appear as Jackson at a minor league baseball park in Long Beach, for a halftime tribute. “I sat and cried the whole


morning in front of the TV and then got dressed and went up and performed,” she said. “I never got to meet him … but his mother saw me at Neverland. She was driving by in a limo and she stopped the limo and leaned over to her driver and, like, whispered something and then looked at me and then looked at the driver, and then she drove off.” Gregory’s uncanny likeness


not only psyched out a giraffe and the woman who gave birth to him, it also led to her being chosen for a gig over Jackson’s own brother, Jermaine. It was a party for about 150 women in the rural town of New Hampton, Iowa. “When I saw that job come


“It just started to occur to me that it would be a really interesting idea to have Michael Jackson done by a woman, and that was my ‘a-ha’ moment,“ Devra Gregory said. (Courtesy Devra Gregory)


New Village Arts gets a 10th anniversary ‘Itch’


By Cuauhtémoc Kish | Theatre Critic Daren Scott, a long-time


member of New Village Arts Ensemble, takes on the lead role of Richard in a vintage—those were the days!—production of “The Seven Year Itch,” and does credible work.


He plays a happily-married


guy who is left alone in his Manhattan apartment to work while his wife and child enjoy their summer holiday outside the city. He’s distracted by a falling plant, which gets him an introduction to a visiting upstairs neighbor who is disarmingly shapely. This character, The Girl (a dizzily straightforward Jacque Wilke), pushes both his libido and his fantasy button, and Richard begins to hear cautionary


advice (damn that conscience!) and other sound bites from his wife, past paramours and others. Director Amanda Sitton had


the good sense to assign these fantasy sessions to a trio of well- dressed and coiffured females (Lisa Dempsey, Kelly Iversen and Melissa Fernandes), who enter and exit Richard’s mind in a far more entertaining way than intended in the monologue written by George Axelrod. Some will find this classic American comedy sluggish and dated while others will enjoy the walk back in time (to 1952), and simply laugh at the distance between then and now. Many theatergoers will remember the successful movie starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell (though the couple never consummated their affair in that


The Seven Year Itch Through Aug. 22 New Village Arts 2787 State St. Carlsbad


newvillagearts.org (760) 433-3245


Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m. Sundays, 2 p.m.


screen version). None of the other characters have much to say, but most seem to have a jolly old time of it as they parody invented affairs of the heart and flesh. Scott owns the show, and sweats up a fine performance—an especially challenging feat with such limited material.


Susanna Kurner provided


The cast of New Village Arts’ production of “The Seven Year Itch.” (Courtesy Adam Brick)


appropriate and fun ’50s costumes while Tim Wallace’s box set served the plot adequately. It’s worth the drive to Carlsbad to enjoy the “Itch” while—at the same time— helping New Village Arts celebrate their 10th anniversary season. Bravo!


on one of the gig sites, I said, ‘You have to hire me. You don’t want a man at your all-woman party,’ so I got the job,” Gregory recalled. “I said, ‘What are you going to do with Jermaine?’”


SOUTHERN


become more self-aware and aware of everything around us, including our fellow human beings,” he said. “It’s not just a one-time thing. It’s a continual (process).” Harry takes appointments for


kayak rentals and group tours. You will find more information at ChulaVistaKayak.com. He encour- ages other business owners to take advantage of networking opportu- nities offered at South Bay Alliance mixers, as well as the opportunity to showcase their business at the South Bay Pride & Music Festival. In addition to great businesses


like Chula Vista Kayak, we are privileged to have such support- ing organizations as the Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Bay, which you will hear more about next month, as well as others making a positive impact in the South Bay.


If you know of an individual or


organization in the South Bay that you would like to introduce our readers to, please contact me at Marci@SouthBayAlliance.net. For more information on details


about South Bay Pride on Aug. 21st or to volunteer, visit South- BayPride.org.


—Marci Bair is a Certified Financial Planner and owner of Bair Financial Group. She resides in Chula Vista with her family, where she is active with the South Bay Alliance, the Women’s Network- ing Group of Chula Vista and the Greater San Diego Business Asso- ciation. In her spare time, she serves as a Little League baseball coach.


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