Scott Turner
Schofield is a man who was a woman, a lesbian turned straight guy who
most people think is a gay teenager. He is also a performance artist
living and working nationwide from inside the Deep South. Not surprisingly,
his work centers on contradictions and comedy.
Aside from producing the fabulous work of national gender-focused artists
in Atlanta (T Cooper, S. Bear Bergman, Athens Boys Choir, TEAM GINA),
Schofield has been touring two original solo performances Underground
Transit and Debutante
Balls to colleges, festivals, and theaters nationwide
since 2001. These autobiographical works challenge fundamental gender
assumptions with everyday stories of searching and isolation, the joy
of finding oneself, and the prizes of living your own authenticity.
They have been applauded by press, academics, activists and artists
alike for meeting queer and mainstream audiences alike with humor and
compassion.
(Except for that one time when he was censored by a venue in Charlotte,
NC, who said a transman taking off his shirt is obscene because "he
hasn't always been a man". Still, that First Amendment skirmish ended
in a great community discussion, and the audiences agreed, naked vulnerability
is powerful education, not obscenity.)
Underground Transit takes audiences underground
with an almost-Homecoming Queen turned gender renegade. This edgy yet
accessible spoken word roll through one Southerner's budding trans identity
set against the cityscape of the New York City subway features rock
'n'roll with a touch of drag, and incredible poetry that draws you in
for the ride.
Debutante Balls is a theatrical stand-up comedy
dance through the fascinating culture of the Southern Debutante Ball.
Schofield's wicked sense of self-aware humor and poetic sensibility
guide audiences gently (or is that genteel-ly?) through the many ways
he "came out" into Southern Society (as a lesbian, radical feminist,
and finally, as a transgender man), poking fun at gender roles and sniffing
the vapors of nostalgia gone-with-the-wind in these modern times.
These shows have seen over 50 full productions since 2001, at such venues
as:
7 Stages, Atlanta GA; the 2003 National Transgender Theater Festival,
New York City, NY; the Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting; the Chicago Single
File Festival, 2004; FUSE Festival : the Celebration of Queer Culture
in NYC, HERE Arts Center, New York, NY; Jump-Start Performance Company,
San Antonio TX; The National Performance Network Annual Meeting; The
National Queer Arts Festival FRESH MEAT series 2005,
San Francisco CA; The Pat Graney Company, Seattle WA; the Philadelphia
Fringe Festival; New York City's Fresh Fruit Festival; the Yale Cabaret;
and the Seen+Heard Festival 2004, Atlanta GA.
They are a wild success on the university circuit, where, in addition
to performing, Schofield has lectured and facilitated workshops on the
lived realities of gender identity at over 30 institutions.
In 2007, Schofield became the first openly trans artist to be commissioned
by the National Performance
Network for his solo show Becoming
a Man in 127 EASY Steps. This piece is the last installment
of an autobiographical performance trilogy, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
solo work combining aerial acrobatics and multimedia storytelling for
an unrepeatable evening of gender exploration. Literally: in just the
way human beings unconsciously choose how we see gender based on our
own cultural cues, audiences for this show choose Schofield's narrative
path from female-to-male, choosing what stories they will hear, step-by-step.
Since 2006, Schofield has received 3 Community Fund Grants from the
National Performance Network to raise community awareness of gender
and sexuality through art in Seattle, San Antonio, and Miami, FL. He
is the youngest-ever recipient of a Tanne Foundation Award for commitment
to Artistic Excellence, and in 2007 was awarded a
Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship in Acting.
Schofield
enjoys these accolades as well:
Young Trans
Hero, 2006 - The Advocate
"A
bright, sharp and an important new performer in this country."
- Tim Miller, Performance Artist
"A rising
light in queer theater...[Schofield] reaches out to the Average
Joe with a mix of humor, honesty, and vulnerability."
- UTNE Reader
"Schofield
managed to accomplish what only the most gifted of teachers can
do: he educated, inspired, entertained and deeply moved the students."
- Lynne Huffer, Emory University
"A
transgender, feminist performance artist with a national buzz going...
funny, revealing, whip-smart and poetic."
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"His
warmth and openness allowed for a high level of communication and a
close examination of concepts of gender, gender performance, queer theory,
performance art, and what it means to be transgender."
- Anne Guzzo, University of Wyoming at Laramie
"True
underground theater - literally and figuratively."
- BITCH Magazine |