by Alice Bloch - SGN A&E Writer

PRELUDE TO GAYBARET
VASHON CENTER FOR THE ARTS
November 21 @ 7:30pm

GAYBARET
VASHON CENTER FOR THE ARTS
November 22 & 23 @ 7:30pm
November 24 @ 2pm

You might already know that Vashon Island is a hotbed of LGBTQ life. According to the two most recent census counts, Vashon has the largest number of same-sex couples per capita in Washington state. And the hotbed has been especially hot this year.

The currently featured exhibit at the Vashon Heritage Museum (10105 SW Bank Road, Vashon WA - vashonheritagemuseum.org) is "In and Out: Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island." Curated by Ellen Kritzman and Stephen Silha, the interactive exhibit (which visitors enter through a closet) celebrates the long history of Vashon's LGBTQ community. The exhibit and an accompanying Queer Film Festival will run through May 1, 2020.

The weekend of November 22-24 would be a particularly good time to visit Vashon, because a talented gay couple, David Mielke and Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, will be performing the premiere of their innovative "Gaybaret" at the Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA) (19600 SW Vashon Hwy SW, Vashon WA - vashoncenterforthearts.org). The show expands on an original performance by Pruiksma and Mielke at their 2018 wedding, when they shared their story and delved into its deeper aspects, using a cabaret form that combined storytelling, original songs, and theatrical magic.

Both men are accomplished actors, musicians, and writers, so the polished version of Gaybaret, developed with support from 4Culture and presented in collaboration with VCA and the Vashon Heritage Museum, promises to be worth attending. It will be performed on Friday and Saturday, November 22 and 23, at 7:30pm, and on Sunday, November 24, at 2pm in the Kay White Hall of VCA.

The weekend of performances will be preceded by a panel discussion, "Prelude to a Gaybaret: A Historical Panel on the Art of Transformation," on Thursday, November 21, at 7:30pm. Five panelists - Jami Sieber, Latosha Correll, Leo MacLeod, Matt Baume, and Timothy White Eagle - will discuss how art helps us know ourselves more fully, how rituals offer possibilities of healing, and how to make sense of change in our own lives by acknowledging both the curses and blessings of the past.

For more information and for tickets to Gaybaret ($10 student, $16 VCQ member, $18 senior, $20 general in advance - $23 at the door) and the panel discussion ($10 suggested donation - proceeds to the Vashon Heritage Museum; free for youth 18 and under), see https://vashoncenterforthearts.org/kay-hall-events/