Maria Glanz
Writer and Performer, See Me Naked, Bumbershoot, Saturday, 7-8 pm, and Monday, 6:15-7:15 pm, Theatre Puget Sound Stage

Why are you doing See Me Naked instead of your new piece, And the Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon, which made such a splash at the recent FringeACT Festival? It's the one Bumbershoot picked. It's a striptease that goes terribly wrong, then turns into a meditation on nakedness--with a story woven into it. I've performed it a number of times, but a lot of people still haven't seen it.

I haven't seen it myself. Maybe you'll take off your clothes for me!

There's audience participation? Absolutely. But it's relatively gentle.

"Relatively"? People seem pleased to participate, usually.

"Usually"? In Montreal I had a front row of middle-aged men who wouldn't even unbutton the top button of their shirts. At the end of the show, someone's usually naked--usually me, but sometimes not--and at the end of that particular performance, I asked all of those men to close their eyes as I undressed. It's a vulnerable act, and they hadn't given me anything, so why should I give anything to them? And they did! But then I let them open their eyes at the conclusion. The rest of the audience that night was so sympathetic, I think they would have all taken their clothes off at the curtain call.

Interview by Bret Fetzer.