Gender bender at SUNY-New Paltz
Posted by Lynn Woods on March 1, 2012
http://www.hudsonvalleyalmanacweekly.com/2012/03/01/gender-bender-at-suny-new-paltz/The play Eugenia focuses on the love affair of a transgender Italian woman who immigrates to New Zealand in 1916 posing as a man named Jack; Jack marries a woman named Violet without revealing that she is really a woman. When Violet's ex-lover learns Jack's true identity, it drives him into a rage, threatening to unravel Jack's and Violet's marriage. The story is a play-within-a play, a device that provides a secondary storyline: the proposal by a school Drama teacher to put on the play and the ensuing uproar with the school's Board of Trustees, which results in the deputy principal's examining her own sexuality.
Eugenia, which will be performed at the Parker Theatre at SUNY-New Paltz from March 1 through 11, certainly has no lack of topical appeal, considering the current struggle to legalize gay marriage. But Anita Gonzalez, an associate Theatre professor at SUNY-New Paltz who directs the play and has long taught the play to students in her classes, said that Eugenia is above all a touching love story. "The students like it because it is a story about love, regardless of gender," Gonzalez said. While 15 years ago such a topic had shock value, "Today, they're familiar with all kinds of genders, so they're drawn to the story because it's about love and standing up for what you believe in."
