Archive: Around Town

Kitchen Theatre ITHACA, NY: On February 23, 24 and 25, 2006, the Kitchen Theatre Company's alternative series, KITCHEN COUNTER CULTURE continues its season with Wonder Woman the musical. With comic skill and a golden voice, NYC-based writer/actress/singer Elizabeth Whitney attempts to make sense of 1970's lesbian feminism, gay-straight separatism and superheroines as cultural icons. This one-woman musical play will run for only three performances from February 23rd to the 25th (see performance calendar).

Wonder Woman resigns from the U.S. military and finds that Paradise Island has changed--or maybe it's her. In her new life on tour, she explores invincibility, invisibility, the limitations of the magic lasso, and the author's own adolescent preoccupations with amazons.

This piece is written and performed in a campy narrative style characteristic of Whitney's work, and includes added cabaret features.  "Bullet Proof Wristbands opens with a narrative reflection (told by my second grade self) on my adolescent adoration of Wonder Woman/Lynda Carter, and ponder how an adolescent-such as myself-might make sense of the conflicting queer and feminist messages relayed by the show," says Whitney.  The piece then transitions into Wonder Woman's (the real Wonder Woman, not that Lynda Carter actress-imposter) current tour, opening with an innovative cover of Helen Reddy's famous I am Woman, and moving into Wonder Woman's reflections on her close friendship with Major Steve Trevor and the homophobia of the military, lessons in coalition building, gender essentialism, and subsequent alienation from Paradise Island.  Whitney also covers other standards in unique ways (Stand by Your Butch), shares her fan letters, and responds with eloquence to the inevitable questions concerning her cleavage, affairs, and the invisible plane.

"Recently, I took a trip back to my adolescence by watching the pilot episode of Wonder Woman, a television series popular in the 1970's, and one which I was particularly fond of.  However, my experience of re-viewing the idol of my youth was somewhat painful.  I was shocked at the excessively careful liberal feminist approach that the show took, where Wonder Woman herself seemed never to be claiming more than reciprocal attention in the workforce-and as a secretary embarrassingly in love with and subservient to her (male) boss!  True, the Amazon island where Wonder Woman grew up was without men, and some of the conversations between Wonder Woman and her mother might subtextually lead the viewer toward 'subversive' thoughts.  However, after Wonder Woman's exodus from her birthplace, the show was fueled almost primarily by her love for Major Steve Trevor, and her undercover endeavors to keep her superhero(ine) identity secret from him, lest he be turned off by her enormous powers.  Ultimately, Wonder Woman relays a caution against radical feminism:  whereas a little bit of independence is alright, ultimately women should take care with the amount of power they exercise, especially around men," says Whitney.

Audiences of each performance will have the opportunity to participate in a talk-back with the artist.


ELIZABETH WHITNEY should have been cast as the original Wonder Girl, but she didn't have an agent at the time. So she got busy making her own work on popular culture, gender, and the importance of honing one's Amazonian powers. She has toured with her solo performances to colleges, theatre festivals, and gallery spaces, including Galapagos Art Space (Brooklyn), The Duplex Cabaret (NYC), Athica Art Space (Athens, GA), The Hysteria Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), The Mae West Fest (Seattle), Queer @ HERE (NYC), Bailiwick Rep (Chicago), Living Art Space (Tulsa), Single File Solo Performance Festival (Chicago), DramaRama (New Orleans), and SchoolHouse ROXX @ PS 122 (NYC).  Most recently, she was awarded "Best Fruitie Performance" for her solo piece Skinny Isn't Sexy, or Why I Never Had an Eating Disorder for the 2004 New York City Fresh Fruit Festival, and "Best Female Solo Performance" for her solo piece Pop Culture Princess at the 2004 Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival.  She holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies, and her writing has been published in various anthologies and journals. More information at www.elizabethwhitney.com.


Kitchen Theatre Company's KITCHEN COUNTER CULTURE series brings Central New York the cutting-edge, outside-the-box, bold, uncensored work of writer/performers who are fearless in their convictions and daring in their presentations.  The series celebrates new voices and diverse approaches to the act of performance with artists who are breaking rules and breaking new ground. The series opened with LA-based artists Le Van D. Hawkins and Alexander Thomas' Black Stuff and the tour-de-force solo play My Life in the Trenches by Jill Dalton.  Coming up later on this series is Alice Eve Cohen, whose performance pieces for families delight, charm and surprise, returns with The Parrot, and concludes with two weekends of poet/activist Michelle Courtney Berry's newest work, Labor.  Funded by New York State Council on the Arts and sponsored by Foster Custom Kitchens and The Jewelbox.

Performance Dates:
February 23, 2006 Thurs 8:00 pm PRESS OPENING
February 24, 2006 Friday at 8:00 pm
February 25, 2006, Saturday at 8:00 pm CLOSING

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