“Uncovering the Mirrors” at Butler University, Jan. 25-26

By Marc Allan
Butler University
http://www.butler.edu/

Rebecca Kling

Butler Theatre presents Chicago-based performance artist Rebecca Kling in her solo show “Uncovering the Mirrors,” at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, and Thursday, Jan. 26, in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall.

Admission is free for Butler students, $10 at the door for everyone else. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (http://srlp.org).

“Uncovering the Mirrors” is a solo performance in which Kling travels from her first explorations of gender at 6 years old, naked and uncomfortable in her body, to the bar mitzvah that gendered her as a “man,” from the hormones coursing through her blood, to a future as fragile as glass. Kling’s confronts the gender policing we all experience in our day to day lives, and asks how to live with regrets, push beyond mistakes, and look in the mirror each morning without flinching.

Kling’s multimedia productions question gender, self-expression and what it means to be at home in one’s own body. Kling has performed her material all around the Midwest, including the 2011 Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival. She has been praised by NUVO, The Indianapolis Star, The Chicago Tribune, TimeOut Chicago, Newcity Stage and Centerstage Chicago. Kling regularly speaks at high schools and universities to educate on topics of gender, sexuality and identity.

“I feel it is part of our responsibility to explore and share work that challenges hard questions in artistic ways,” Butler Theatre Chair William Fisher said. “The stories we tell ourselves, in this case relating to identity, help us develop as human beings. When Ron (Caltabiano, dean of Butler’s Jordan College of Fine Arts) and I saw Rebecca’s work, I had the notion that it would fit our (mis)taken Identities season. Her work is a personal, serious exploration, full of generosity, humor. She comes at you from every direction at once.”

For more information, call 317-940-9659.