Patio Playhouse Presents
Hedwig & the Angry Inch
Text by John Cameron Mitchell
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask
Directed by Juztine Tuazon-Martin
Music Direction by Jerrica Ignacio
Choreography by Audrey Ward
Produced by Shaun Tuazon, Tim Arends and Matt FitzGerald
 Patio Playhouse 2022 Escondido, CA

Art by Christina Wortman

"...while it’s a sad story, it’s anything but a sad show, thanks to that style and magnificence...  the production shares that same spirit, and makes virtues of its limitations — overhead projectors, childlike illustrations, fan-blown confetti — rather like its subject."
- SAN DIEGO READER

Director's Note

In the groundbreaking book Gender Trouble published in 1990, Judith Butler first said, “Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.” At a time when there were only hegemonic ideas of femininity and masculinity, the concept of gender being socially constructed seemed shocking to mainstream culture in The United States. Now that Butler’s concepts are becoming better understood, it is also recognized that, though gender is constructed by society, it is no less real and able to cause harm to people who do not conform.  Hedwig is the product of a Cold War area binary, where any space outside that boundary must be fought for.  I often wonder if Hedwig would still be a punk rocker if more fluid gender boundaries existed. Would music even still be the genre of choice for creative outlet? Maybe knitting would be Hedwig’s choice, who knows? What I do know- the year I first saw Hedwig & the Angry Inch on stage I also wrote an essay in high school about how I believed that I would never in my lifetime see a politician be able to publicly support queer rights, even if they believed in them. Now it seems to be a requirement of modern politics. I believe the fight John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask waged when creating Hedwig & the Angry Inch has created a chaos that got our culture listening to the queer, punk, freaks. Though Hedwig & the Angry Inch was born at the queer club, Squeezebox, as a love letter to the queer freaks of New York,  Hedwig speaks to anyone who's ever been excluded from a binary when saying, “you know you’re doing alright”.

                                                   -Juztine Tuazon-Martin, Director