Peterson Toscano's A Musing

Back in January I mentioned the Lost2Found website and art project. Started by a high school student near LA, it is a place where LGBT folks can share their experiences through art (both visual and written). The big art exhibit will be Friday June 27 (a week away). If you can make it, please do so. It should be amazing. (and they may still be receiving art submissions!)

I once heard Kurt Vonnegut say, Everyone should practice art because art enlarges the soul. Not too long ago a queer high school student from California contacted me about a project he began for school. The idea soon blossomed and he realized that more than just his peers could participant. According to the site, Lost2Found is a project that aims to shed light on the journey of coming-out as well as being out in today’s society. The project is art based, encouraging the use of any medium of art to portray the journey in all its aspects. From the hard and painful experiences, to the lighthearted and simple ones, coming-out is overlooked. If people could see what it means to an LGBTQ individual to come-out, if they can see how we feel. How we see the world and how the world treats us, we can give them a perspective they’ve never seen before. How so? Art. Art is a window into an artist’s soul, as many have described. Those who create art, put their emotions and messages into the pieces, ...

Tomorrow I premiere my newest one-person show, Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible . I don't often share about my process as a playwright, mainly because I assume most people find it boring. Lately though people have asked me about how I create and build a new theater piece. If you are interested in process, read away. If not, surf away to your next blog. I don't actually write the play, not with pen and paper or through a word processing program. In fact, I never have a script written until after the 12th performance. I find that when I script lines of dialog, they sound bulky, clumsy, wooden. I want an authentic sound. So once I have all my basic ideas in my head, with some written notes, I create my characters, and then I have fun and play. I speak as these characters and let the words form in my mouth. Sometimes I leave funny messages on friends' voice mails, or I walk around the house composing lines. This is the power of the oral tradition. For many o...

Jessica Yu , Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker and creator of the beautiful and slightly creepy movie, In the Realms of the Unreal has a new film called Protagonist. The official site for the film states, On one level, "Protagonist" intercuts the first-person narratives of four men who seem to have nothing in common except their charisma: a former German terrorist, a student of martial arts, a "formerly gay" evangelist and a serial bank robber. But this is only the beginning. For Yu, who looks on editing as "weaving straw into gold," intercuts these stories not only with each other but with several different kinds of material. She has wooden rod puppets constructed by Janie Geiser doing brief scenes from the plays of Euripides, recited in ancient Greek. She has the same puppets performing scenes from the lives of these four men. And she has a dozen or so 15-second animated moments that go with single thematic words like "provocation,...

Art by Quakers fills my life today. Some months ago Robert Batson, a member of Hartford Friends Meeting (aka Quaker), exhibited some of his work at the meeting house. The art captured my attention, and I purchased piece. Today I brought home the 18"x24" Untitled painting by Robert. I love the colors and the use of space and the emotions, some contrary, that piece expresses to me. (click on it for larger view) Then after meeting we had our monthly potluck lunch where I met a visitor, a retired high school art teacher. Sadly I did not catch his name, but he offered to draw something on my journal cover. He created this dove. Finally while sitting with Jamie Taylor, a Friend from meeting, we chatted about literature and art (and a thousand other things. A PhD candidate doing research in public policy and homelessness, Jamie embraces many interests--poetry, meditation, social justice issues, dynamics of relationships, etc. So we converse broadly) As we talked about art and the s...

This week at New England Yearly Meeting I met a wonderful new Friend, Jeanne Stern, who although a New England Quaker, currently lives in Austin, TX. A filmmaker and artist, Jeanne has a bright bright spirit. On her excellent and colorful site , she provides samples of her films, art and more. From her bio: J eanne Stern creates miniature microcosms with dioramas and film puppetry. Her puppet film "Les Malaventures de Zut-Alors," about Siamese brother and sister Zut and Alors, screened at SXSW and is currently touring with Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams Film Festival. I watched the Zut-Alors film today and marveled at the beauty, humor, intelligence and warmth in it. I especially appreciate the audio with its funky little sound effects and music. Watching the film, I thought of my dear Friend, Alex Resare , and his own journey. I think he will enjoy Les malaventures de Zut-Alors.