Exposed (F*%k De$antis) was created by visionary Josie Nixon who hosted as her alter ego Juice the Trauma Clown. In Colorado, Juice met Orlando powerhouse Beth Marshall and together they are taking Exposed on the road. Juice acts as the hostess for the show.
The show explores what DeSantis deplores. At each of the seven performances a rotating opening storyteller will perform. I chose to go the night Michael Marinaccio opened for Exposed.
Michael presented a brief family history that outlined the Marinaccio family relationship with religion. He outlined that many ways in which religious groups break and ignore the 10 commandments. One member of his family is actually a priest for an Episcopalian congregation, but Michael’s family saw through the falsehoods often presented.
Michael took his 2 boys to The Holy Land Experience where they could get there picture taken with a cardboard cut out of Christ on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. There was a bean bag toss game and one of the targets was the devil himself. Michael’s son ran behind the devil and stuck his head through the hole. What resulted was one of the funniest pictures I have ever seen of a young innocent boy’s face poking out from the devils chest.
In one story Ella Hadley did somersaults to enter the stage. She was all high spirits and energy. In her story she fell hard for the football quarterback, who was black. They dreamed of building a life together after they escaped from the backwards town in Kansas. Her father purchased a video camera and he took it to one of the high school football games to shoot video of his daughter as a cheerleader. Towards the end of the game the hometown team scored a glorious touchdown. The energetic cheerleader leaped into the arms of her quarterback boyfriend and kissed him. Her father didn’t know of the relationship and he stormed down the bleachers and dragged her home where she was beaten viciously. Her father’s racism crushed her. Beth Marshall acted as the narrator throughout the story while Ella ignited scenes with her energetic performance.
Before the show as the audience waited to enter the theater, we were all asked to fill out a card that confesses something that no one knew about us. Juice read these cards between acts in the show. After writing my confession and handing it in, I kind of wished I hadn’t written what I did. I was thankful when my card was not read in the first set. In the second set my card was read aloud on stage. There was laughter from the women seated in front of me and several expressions of shock. It was over before I could process how I felt about it. There were confessions of being sexually assaulted and childhood accounts of horrendous situations. I was seated in an audience with people who had experienced so much trauma. My little confession felt insignificant in comparison.
Exposed is a powerhouse of a show which will leave you thinking long after you leave the theater. Tickets are $15 with a FRINGE button. The final show is on Sunday May 25 at 6:05pm in the Pink venue. Bobby Wesley will be the opening storyteller for that performance. I loved the show.