By day, George Weiss Vando is a researcher working on HIV-prevention projects with youth in the Los Angeles area. He used to be a professional drag queen in Seattle. In his free time he's an actor. And he's also a writer, having scripted and performed a one-man show called ManLady in California.
All those aspects of Vando's life will be on display in the Quad Cities next month, as he performs ManLady on January 17 at ComedySportz in Rock Island and then speaks the next night at AIDS Project Quad Cities' Red Ribbon Dinner & Great Art Auction. "This is the first time all my worlds are going to be fully together," Vando said in a phone interview.
The Saturday performance of ManLady will be the first time Vando has done the show outside of California.
The hour-long play starts with Vando as a child taking his Superman cape and using it for a Wonder Woman costume, beginning the journey of "ManLady," a person "walking between genders," as Vando describes it. When he became a drag performer in Seattle, Vando said, he "felt incredibly liberated and powerful."
While the play certainly captures the experience of a drag performance, it's also an exploration of sexual identity, and how that evolves for ManLady.
Drag performers are "not necessarily fully embraced in the community," he said. ManLady falls in love with somebody who likes "manly" gay men, and "it was very difficult for me and other people to see me as something other than the character on stage," he said.
Vando said that he eventually "outgrew" being a drag queen, and "I phased out a lot of night-club performances." Still, being a drag queen "helped me to grow and find out who I am as a man," he said. Before he did drag performances, his acting was often criticized as "a little too gay." But with drag, of course, "I couldn't be gay enough. It [drag] allowed me to express what I needed to express." Vando said the drag experience has allowed him to grow as a performer, now able to play more characters and in three dimensions.
EastBay Voice said of ManLady: "Ultimately, the ManLady burns himself down to his own essence, a phoenix-snake re-creating himself again and again, taking the best of each incarnation and finally assuming his most dynamic form yet." L.A. Weekly said: "Among Vando's many strengths are a warmth and enduring vulnerability."
The genesis of the play is a story in itself, as Vando began attending a weekly writers' group as a performer, acting out roles in other people's work. That inspired him to start writing poems, and "what I was writing was linked thematically," he said. That work, over the course of a year, evolved into ManLady.
The 31-year-old Vando said writing the play wasn't something he used as therapy. "I was writing about things I'd addressed and overcome," he said. He has continued to write poetry and has started a second play.
Vando's performance will be surrounded by several educational appearances, culminating in his speech at the Red Ribbon Dinner, where he'll talk about HIV prevention in young people. Vando will also speak with a group of high-risk youth and an organization for young gay men.
"Culturally we've evolved a great deal in our relationship with HIV," he said. Although treatments for HIV and AIDS are more effective these days, that hasn't resulted in young men engaging in riskier behaviors, he said.
The challenge with HIV prevention in young people is talking to them at an appropriate level. Typically with AIDS education, he said, "we either talk about abstinence or really, really adult experiences," he said - leaving out a wide range of experiences as young people deal with confusion about their sexuality and risky behaviors. "We need to give people information," he said.
Vando said he wasn't sure whether the HIV education needs of a relatively conservative community such as the Quad Cities are different than those in Los Angeles. There are certainly cultural differences between the West and East coasts of the United States, he said, but he added he wouldn't be able to make a determination about the Midwest until he talks to more people here.
The Red Ribbon Dinner & Great Art Auction will be held on Sunday, January 18, at the Isle of Capri Center in Bettendorf. Tickets are $50 through December 31, and $60 thereafter.
George Weiss Vando's will perform ManLady on Saturday, January 17, at ComedySportz in Rock Island. Tickets are $15.
Both events are expected to sell out by early January. Tickets for either event can be ordered by calling AIDS Project Quad Cities at (309)788-5698, or by visiting (http://www.aidsprojectQC.com).
All those aspects of Vando's life will be on display in the Quad Cities next month, as he performs ManLady on January 17 at ComedySportz in Rock Island and then speaks the next night at AIDS Project Quad Cities' Red Ribbon Dinner & Great Art Auction. "This is the first time all my worlds are going to be fully together," Vando said in a phone interview.
The Saturday performance of ManLady will be the first time Vando has done the show outside of California.
The hour-long play starts with Vando as a child taking his Superman cape and using it for a Wonder Woman costume, beginning the journey of "ManLady," a person "walking between genders," as Vando describes it. When he became a drag performer in Seattle, Vando said, he "felt incredibly liberated and powerful."
While the play certainly captures the experience of a drag performance, it's also an exploration of sexual identity, and how that evolves for ManLady.
Drag performers are "not necessarily fully embraced in the community," he said. ManLady falls in love with somebody who likes "manly" gay men, and "it was very difficult for me and other people to see me as something other than the character on stage," he said.
Vando said that he eventually "outgrew" being a drag queen, and "I phased out a lot of night-club performances." Still, being a drag queen "helped me to grow and find out who I am as a man," he said. Before he did drag performances, his acting was often criticized as "a little too gay." But with drag, of course, "I couldn't be gay enough. It [drag] allowed me to express what I needed to express." Vando said the drag experience has allowed him to grow as a performer, now able to play more characters and in three dimensions.
EastBay Voice said of ManLady: "Ultimately, the ManLady burns himself down to his own essence, a phoenix-snake re-creating himself again and again, taking the best of each incarnation and finally assuming his most dynamic form yet." L.A. Weekly said: "Among Vando's many strengths are a warmth and enduring vulnerability."
The genesis of the play is a story in itself, as Vando began attending a weekly writers' group as a performer, acting out roles in other people's work. That inspired him to start writing poems, and "what I was writing was linked thematically," he said. That work, over the course of a year, evolved into ManLady.
The 31-year-old Vando said writing the play wasn't something he used as therapy. "I was writing about things I'd addressed and overcome," he said. He has continued to write poetry and has started a second play.
Vando's performance will be surrounded by several educational appearances, culminating in his speech at the Red Ribbon Dinner, where he'll talk about HIV prevention in young people. Vando will also speak with a group of high-risk youth and an organization for young gay men.
"Culturally we've evolved a great deal in our relationship with HIV," he said. Although treatments for HIV and AIDS are more effective these days, that hasn't resulted in young men engaging in riskier behaviors, he said.
The challenge with HIV prevention in young people is talking to them at an appropriate level. Typically with AIDS education, he said, "we either talk about abstinence or really, really adult experiences," he said - leaving out a wide range of experiences as young people deal with confusion about their sexuality and risky behaviors. "We need to give people information," he said.
Vando said he wasn't sure whether the HIV education needs of a relatively conservative community such as the Quad Cities are different than those in Los Angeles. There are certainly cultural differences between the West and East coasts of the United States, he said, but he added he wouldn't be able to make a determination about the Midwest until he talks to more people here.
The Red Ribbon Dinner & Great Art Auction will be held on Sunday, January 18, at the Isle of Capri Center in Bettendorf. Tickets are $50 through December 31, and $60 thereafter.
George Weiss Vando's will perform ManLady on Saturday, January 17, at ComedySportz in Rock Island. Tickets are $15.
Both events are expected to sell out by early January. Tickets for either event can be ordered by calling AIDS Project Quad Cities at (309)788-5698, or by visiting (http://www.aidsprojectQC.com).
