“Girl Shock:I Dressed As A Girl For Halloween And She Took Over My Life”

By the book of the same name, “Girl Shock” The  Musical, debuted right before Pride, for two days to packed audiences at Pangea. The timing couldn’t have been better.  Because you see this is Maria Konner’s story…a brilliant entertainer, composer, pianist, guitarist, singer, explosively passionate and raw, and yet somewhat shy, and now somewhere along on her transgender journey, with her male alter ego “Dude” brilliantly played by the mega talented Jackson Sturkey,  who is the other creative collaborator on this show.

The musical, which is a work in progress is much like Maria. The complexity of the music she writes, along with lyrics by Jackson Sturkey, created a piece so layered in words, and melody,  that it had me wishing for a sing a long sheet so I could read those words again when I got home and examine their meaning. Because you see, Maria takes us from  her marriage, the annoyance, nag of a wife, symbolically represented by a muppet (controlled by the hilarious characterization created by actress Jessie Bangarang Atkinson) a marriage plagued with heteronormative expectations, and disgust at the monoculture virus that Maria was expected to live up to, and ultimately moving from a straight life in the suburbs all the way to San Francisco two blocks away from a Trans Bar (the Universe at play here)  after leaving this suffocating marriage. And along the way Maria finds a cure for the monoculture virus:Kink….and so begins Maria’s quest for her own truth from the Orgy Dome at Burning Man where she was “outslutted” and the realization that “no man can change the world, what about a woman”. The discovery of the joy and power of being a girl. But what about that male alter ego “Dude” played by Jackson Sturkey, always there as a reminder of the guilt, of knowing who you once were, but no knowledge of what’s next,  but a burning passion to find out! What will life be like when the outside matches the inside and will a boob job be the answer? And there’s the complexity again….
“Girl Shock” defines the personal journey of transition. Of the yin and the yang, of the whole choice or the parts of a choice. And which side in this gender contest will win or will aspects of who you once were exist with who you are now?

And the music!  Shout outs here to Omar Kabir, on sax trumpet and flute, turning those instruments into an organic living backround to the stories that were shared on stage, along with Bernice Bellows on accordion, punctuating moments in the story, with Rachael Kaufman on piano while Maria played guitar.
Thank you Maria Konnor for your brilliance and honesty. Your show is a piece that clearly defines how personal a journey transitioning is. Through the music and musicians, the characters you developed and the actors who played them, your audience took that journey with you. And we can’t wait to see what happens next. All aboard….