The year is 2050 and contrary to popular belief, Judy Garland did not die in 1969, but rather, after several liver transplants, she has lived to the grand old age of 138. Re-embracing her real name, Frances Gumm, she becomes a feminist scholar working on her PhD and writing her thesis on a little-known gay Canadian playwright Dash King, whose career ended in drugs and promiscuous sex. Frances is obsessed with King’s antiquated notion of gay politics, and his tragic story triggers her own meditations on what it means to be an addict. This is the intense communication between Frances and her PhD advisor in a dystopian future that holds more than a few surprises. Included in these digital missives are musings on everything from the merits of post-structuralism, the future of queer theory, and a passionate monologue about the past and the future by one of the premiere divas of our time.
close this panelSky Gilbert is the cofounder and former artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, North America’s largest gay and lesbian theater. He is the author of the novels Brother Dumb, Guilty, I Am Kasper Klotz, and St. Stephen’s and the collections of poetry Digressions of a Naked Party Girl and Temptations for a Juvenile Delinquent. He is a university research chair in creative writing and theatre studies at the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
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