| A Menopausal Gentleman
I don't always try to pass as a man, although people often think I am one," says Peggy Shaw, a veteran monologist and actor whose latest piece, Menopausal Gentleman, features Shaw as a suave, "Frank Sinatra type of butch lesbian" struggling with menopause.
"People say menopausal women grow beards and become dried up," Shaw says. "Well, I think that must be the definition of a man--a hairy, dried up woman." Shaw challenges the notion that menopause is the cessation of womanhood, and proves it can mark the beginning of something new and raw.
No stranger to the medium, Shaw is co-founder of the Split Britches Theater Company and has been performing and writing for the stage for more than 20 years. Menopausal Gentleman has played to packed houses in San Francisco and New York, and delighted audiences this year at the Michigan Womyn's Music
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