 "Photo: Courtesy of Teatro Luna")
A few weeks ago, I reviewed a burlesque show for PLAY and wrote, "Yes, burlesque is about sex."
I'm such an idiot.
After watching Teatro Luna's S-E-X-Oh! at the Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave., I understand what sex really means - and it's not always about stripteases or G-strings or fishnet stockings.
Those are just sexy things.
Sex, as expressed by Chicago's first and only all-Latina theater ensemble, is really about balls, placentas, love, lesbians, lice, biblical stories, pregnancies, abortions, orgasms and beautifully imperfect naked bodies. It's about a 244-pound woman who dares to bare it all, or another woman fearless enough to confront painful memories of childhood abuse.
If you can't handle the truth, don't bother reading on. Don't bother watching the show. Just stick to your flawless soft-core porn and chocolate-and-roses daydreams, and don't ever expect to get real.
Teatro Luna's six-person cast begins its irreverent and thought-provoking presentation of Latina sexuality with a medley of orgasmic "oh!" sounds, setting the tone and rhythm for the rest of the show. In the background are floor-to-ceiling posters of each cast member's naked body, scribbled with personal critiques like, "I am the shortest and chubbiest in my family, but I'm still cute," or, "My saddlebags have a life of their own." Cute feet, thunder thighs, cellulite - every inch of nudity criticized or glorified for everyone in the 80-person audience to see.
The stories they tell - performed through spoken-word poetry, short skits and monologues - are based on their own experiences. They cuss, they laugh, they scream and they moan, using the voices of empowered Latina women. Spanish trickles through various scenes - enough to remind you that the show has its own identity, but not so much as to exclude non-Latinas.
Teatro Luna's founders, "Russadorian Goofball" Coya Paz and "Opinionated Mexican" Tanya Saracho - as described in their playbill biographies - created the company in June 2000 with a two-part mission: One, to create job opportunities for people who are "marginalized" in the theater community, and two, to "challenge mainstream representations of Latina women," Paz says.
Paz says that while Latina maids do exist, for example, the important thing to remember is that they all have a back-story. "The extent of these women's lives is not just to mop up after kids on The O.C.," she says.
S-E-X-Oh! reminds me of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, but something about it feels more raw. Sure, it's about women and sexuality and, of course, vaginas, but none of it feels too distant or removed from my own female body. There are no abstract metaphors of pink seashells or flowers to describe "down there." There are no man-hating rants. It isn't just actresses on a stage, pretending to be in love with their bodies. It's real women, sharing their own real stories, believing that their voices matter - even if it means being sacrilegious or unconventional or, hell, even a little hilarious at times.
"We think we are sexy," Paz says. "But it's about how Latina women can be treated as subjects, instead of just objects."
I want to say the show is "spicy," but then I would just perpetuate all the red-hot Latin fever stereotypes out there. But political correctness aside, Teatro Luna's performance is spicy. It leaves a fiery reaction in your belly, not because the women are from Mexico or Cuba or Puerto Rico, but because they express themselves from a community they know best. Their stories hit home, even if you're not from the same place.
I'm not Latina and I don't pretend to know anything about the Latina experience, but I feel like I understand a little more just by letting the women of Teatro Luna reveal their world to me.
"You grow up being told a certain version of the world," Paz says. "It's not until you encounter something different that you know something different exists, in order to imagine it for yourself."
I now know that there are pressures that come with being a good señorita, and by the same token, pressures that come with being a macho Latino boy; catcalls, disrespect and secrecy are too often part of the territory. It's unrealistic to think that all Latina women look like J-Lo or Eva Longoria. And even though the stereotype of pregnant Latina teenage girls might be somewhat valid, it doesn't need to be that way.
Teatro Luna creates a space where it's OK to joke around and talk about how ballpoint pens or Trader Joe's makes you hot - just watch the show to see what I mean. It's cool to say "fuck" and uncross your legs, despite what your mother tells you. It's endearing that your butt crack always shows in tight jeans. And it's funny to have one armpit that stinks more than the other.
I left the show thinking, "Sex? Oh!" as though I finally got what it meant. Eureka! G-strings are sexy, but keeping it real? That's orgasmic.
S-E-X-Oh! is playing at Chicago Dramatists through Feb. 19. Tickets cost $10 to $15. Showtimes and tickets are available through (773) 878-LUNA.
Medill junior Erica Schlaikjer is a PLAY writer. She can be reached at e-schlaikjer@northwestern.edu.
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