theatre spotlight by tim parks
GET “HAPPY” WITH DIXIE LONGATE
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ou could say that Dixie Longate – the drag persona of Kris Andersson – is a double threat with her knack for entertaining audiences with her yarn-spinning abilities during her shows, coupled with being the top Tupperware representative in the U.S. and Canada. Beginning in 2001, Longate turned her life’s lemons most likely into spiked lemonade, following a stint in the slammer. At the behest of her parole officer, she embarked on a new chapter of life in peddling the wares that Earl Tupper unleashed on the public in 1948.
Within six years, Longate created another way to get the word out on the preparation, storage and serving products for the kitchen and home with her off-Broadway show and solo act Dixie’s Tupperware Party, in which audience members are encouraged to purchase Tupperware, natch. As “America’s Sixth Favorite Redhead,” as Dixie claims, it shouldn’t
really come as a surprise that Longate was nominated for a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance in 2007. Alas, she lost – but more on that later. But you can’t keep a country gal down, as her show has become one of the longest off-Broadway tours in history. As if this wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Longate has been
married and widowed thrice, as well as the mother of three youngins, Wynona, Dwayne and Absorbine Jr. And even though, as the Southern adage of “trailer is where the heart is” goes, Longate left Alabama after the siren song of the road called her and it was time to tour again. This time around, it was for her sophomore show Never Wear a Tube
Top While Riding a Mechanical Bull (and 16 other things I learned while I was drinking last Thursday). That’s very sage advice! And now she is ready to make audiences forget their cares, as effectively as getting blackout drunk, with her newest show Dixie’s Happy Hour streaming via San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre from Wednesday, April 7 through Sunday, April 18. Dixie’s Happy Hour was inspired by the unprecedented times in which we live and is the definition of laughter is the best medicine in trying to find your own personal happy place. Well, alcohol helps too, as Longate mixes up drinks and pours her heart out with boisterous stories.
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ragemonthly.com | APRIL 2021
THE RAGE MONTHLY CORRESPONDED VIA EMAIL WITH THE IRREPRESSIBLE LONGATE ABOUT HER SOUTHERN ROOTS, HAPPY HOUR AND TUPPERWARE, OF COURSE.
I understand you are from the South. Tell me a little about your background and where you came from. It’s true. I am from Mobile, Alabama, born and raised. I lived with my
Momma and my Meemaw in the trailer park until I was old enough to do something wrong, do some time, get out of prison and get a trailer on my own. Longate is my Momma’s name because we weren’t quite sure who
my Daddy is. My Momma is what we call in my neighborhood, “a community development professional.” Bless her heart. She’s real, real popular.
What got you into selling Tupperware? I started selling Tupperware as part of the conditions of my parole. I got out of prison and my parole officer said I needed a job to get my kids back. Not really an incentive, except that the law makes you take them. It’s so frustrating. She thought I should do something with people since I’m so neighborly. I told her I can’t approach certain people because of the restraining orders. Dang it if she didn’t get them lifted and that opened up a whole world of possibilities for me! She suggested that I try selling Tupperware, which I thought was only for old ladies. Then I did my first party and the hostess offered me a drink. That’s
what really roped me in. Drinking at work for free and making money! There are only like three other jobs that you can do that in, but I’m not really educated enough to be a pastor or a government official, so Tupperware made perfect sense to me.
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