“I’ve Changed My Sex. Now What?”

MDC Live Arts presents a One-Transgender Person-Show like No Other

Miami, Jan. 19, 2017 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) MDC Live Arts explores issues of gender and identity with Scott Turner Schofield’s Becoming a Man in 127 EASY STEPS, running at the MDC Live Arts Lab from Thursday, Feb. 9 through Saturday, Feb. 11. The irreverent and dynamic performance provokes both the deeper questions and the locker-room jokes about what it means to (literally) become a man.

Moving beyond the transgender narrative that focuses on the experience of transition, Schofield’ stories explore the drama and hilarity about living a new life as the opposite gender. His playful storytelling, provocative stage antics, and audience participation format have been hailed, “Funny, revealing, whip-smart and poetic,” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“We are proud to present trailblazing artist Scott Turner Scofield in this thoroughly well-told story about transgender identity,”  said MDC Live Arts Executive Director, Kathryn Garcia.  “As part of our In Focus series, this work offers MDC students and the community the opportunity to go beyond the news headlines to explore topics of relevance in our society through an artistic lens.”

In addition to the three public performances of Becoming A Man, MDC Live Arts will present a daytime show specifically for MDC students, on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 11:15 a.m., and will host Schofield in a number of residency activities including: a LABChat Trans-Community Forum; a Teen workshop on Gender and Self-Esteem; and a Master Class/ Artist workshop titled ”Who am I? Inviting In, Instead of Coming Out.”

Community partners are playing a great role in these presentations and activities. Each of the public performances will have a Q&A with special guest moderators, including Reading Queer, Pridelines, and the Betsy/Unity Coalition.

MDC Live Arts’ In Focus series features powerful programs tackling today’s pressing topics. Next up is Trigger,  a community-built oratorio about coming of age in the age of guns on Friday, Apr 21 at the Lehman Theater. Trigger is a work under the project umbrella (Be)longing—a series of linked events asking how we recover from violence and prevent its recurrence.

ABOUT SCOTT TURNER SCHOFIELD

Scott Turner Schofield is a writer, performer, and educator creating theater about gender and sexuality in the Deep South. He is also a man who was a woman, and in his own words, a lesbian turned straight guy. Not surprisingly, his work centers on contradictions and comedy. Schofield has been touring his original solo performances to colleges, festivals, and theaters nationwide since 2001. These autobiographical monologues challenge fundamental gender assumptions with stories of searching, embarrassment, pride, and the joy of finding yourself on your own terms.

Scott Turner Schofield studied in Theatre at Emory University, but his gender expression at the time prevented him from being cast in traditional plays. So he wrote his own one man shows, and began a national tour to critical acclaim before he even graduated. He has gone on to sell out some of the biggest theatre venues in the world. His career highlights include: a Mainstage performance at Festival d’Avignon and season-long tour with National Theatre of France;  Princess Grace Foundation Acting Fellow; National Performance Network Creation Fund recipient for “Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps”; Best Off-Broadway Performance, Fresh Fruit Festival for “Debutante Balls” (Time Out New York Editor’s Pick);Tanne Foundation Award for Commitment to Artistic Excellence; and Atlanta’s Best Local Artist, Southern Voice.

Schofield was the first openly transgender actor on daytime television, and the first female-to-male person in a major recurring role on broadcast TV, as “Nick” on CBS’s The Bold and the Beautiful.  He hopes to transition to the silver screen as film’s first leading (trans)man.

ABOUT MDC LIVE ARTS

MDC Live Arts is Miami’s most eclectic performing arts series.  Created in 1990 as Cultura del Lobo, MDC Live Arts has a celebrated history of bringing extraordinary national and international performing artists to Miami. The annual series presents today’s most exciting artists and designs meaningful engagement between these artists, the students of MDC, and the greater community. MDC Live Arts seeks artists from across the globe who push boundaries and honor traditions relevant to Miami’s diverse community, and aims to offer audiences opportunities to discover new ideas, perspectives and forms of expression. For more information, please visit www.mdclivearts.org.

The Programs of MDC Live Arts are made possible with the generous support of: Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council; the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; the National Endowment for the Arts; the City of Miami Beach Department of Tourism and Cultural Development, Office of Cultural Affairs; the Miami Beach Mayor and City Commissioners; Miami Dade County Cultural Passport in partnership with Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and the Foundation for New Education Initiative; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts; and National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund. MDC Live Arts is a Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). Major NPN contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

WHAT:              MDC Live Arts Presents Becoming a Man in 127 EASY STEPS

WHEN:             Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10, at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m.

WHERE:           MDC’s Live Arts Lab, Building 1, Room 2160
300 N.E. Second  Ave.

To purchase tickets and learn more about the 2016-17 MDC Live Arts Season, please call 305-237-3010, or visit mdclivearts.org.   TICKETS: $30 / MDC students $10.

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MDC Live Arts Contact: Alexa Burneikis, Marketing Manager, 305-237-7733, aburneik@mdc.edu;
Publicity: Lisa Palley, Palley Promotes, 305-642-3132, lpalley@bellsouth.net