Afrodite :: always on target

Whether foil or femme fatale, actress Afrodite hits her mark every time.

Her latest role is no exception: As Karen Richards in the Ryan Landry's Gold Dust Orphans holiday show All About Christmas Eve, Afro sets in motion the cat fight of all cat fights in a deliciously funny moment that has her good angel bickering with her devilish side. Should she intervene so that her best friend, the actress Margo, misses her curtain thereby allowing the ambitious (and devious) understudy Eve to go on in her place?

"The bad Karen eggs the good Karen on," explains Afro. The exchange happens at a machine gun pace: a pre-recorded tape plays the debate the character is having in her head, while Afro, mouth closed with her head moving from side to side, convincingly acts out the internal argument.

Not only is Afro a comedienne born of the great vaudeville tradition of those mesmerizing performers who can sustain laughs without dropping their character -- she also has another persona.

Voila, Afro!

That's Andre Shoals, who every night in the dressing room metamorphosises into Afro. He is an expert dancer and choreographer. With co-actor Michael Wood, he created the sensational dance interlude for All About Christmas Eve, "No, No, Nativity!" that moves so fast the audience is agog.

"Ryan wanted a production number," explains Shoals in a suppertime interview at Burton's with EDGE prior to a rehearsal for All About Christmas Eve. "The play has little to do with Christmas and he wanted something to give the show the holiday cheer it needs.

"Ryan fits the dance into the story-line as a glimpse of Eve in a production that was once Margo's at the Ramrod Center of the Performing Arts (where All About Christmas Eve actually takes place). It's Eve's (Penny Champayne) big production number. (Other principals in All About Christmas Eve are Ryan Landry as Margo, Gene Dante as Karen's husband Lloyd Richards, Chris Loftus as Margo's finance who Eve tries to snag, and Olive Another as Margo's maid and confidante Birdie.)

’This queen is crazy!’

"Everyone knows the story," continues Afro, "so there's no need to slow the production number down, so I picked "Frankenstein," a four and a half minute dance rock song.

Shoals has danced to acclaim with a contemporary dance company in his native Minnesota, as a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane company, and for such independent choreographers as Jane Comfort (Stephen Sondheim's Passion, Public Theater's Much Ado About Nothing), and Susan Marshall who has three Bessie's for Outstanding Choreography to her credit.

He admits, however, that the complexities and speed of No, No Nativity "posed a lot of challenges to actors who aren't dancers (which they rise to impressively)."

Afrodite met Ryan Landry in the drag queen scene in New York, "at the Pyramid Club. "I saw him perform in a white outfit coming through a hoop of fire. I remember thinking, 'This queen is crazy!'"

The 5' 11" ex-dancer, who'd developed the persona of Afrodite, became one of the founding members of the Gold Dust Orphans, whose productions, are inventive take-offs of popular plays, movies or television shows that have a gay following.

In the intervening years, Afro has played Ann Wells in Valet of the Dolls, Shade in Of Mice and Mink, The Gentleman Caller in Plexiglass Managerie, J.C. Penney in Silent Night of the Lambs, the title role in Cleopatra, and the Mother in The Bad Seed, to give some examples. Later in this year's season, Afro will have the title role in Phantom of the Oprah and will, perhaps, play Tiger Lily in Peter Pansy.

He believes Landry's secret to success comes with shaping the characters to the talents of his actors. "He writes characters he knows will work for us, that are within our range. That's half the battle." Afro adds, "the colors of the characters come from our own personal experiences.

"The greatest thing about the Orphans as a group is that we're all about the same age. As kids we watched the same TV. In rehearsals what I love most is how we start with an idea and build on it. We put a play up in six to eight weeks only but we're able to do that because we know what we're striving for," Afro said.

The characters are exceedingly well drawn and played for their depth, Afro believes. "Through Ryan's writing and the acting, they're vulnerable, they have strengths, they can be cunning, all of that. It's a shame that reviewers only talk about us as a drag show, but we aren't just men putting on dresses and make-up. To me we are actresses. It's the persona we have who plays the role, Afrodite, not Andre."

Afro says that the process of becoming Afrodite happens for him in the dressing room. "In a moment I go from Andre to Afro. And I think that's true of the other Orphans as well.

"It's a moment you can feel. For some it's when you put on lipstick. For someone else, it's when they put on their wig. For me, it's the eye lashes."

All About Christmas Eve continues through December 27, Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm, Sundays at 5pm.