One man, one stage and a bevy of personalities

NARROWSBURG, NY — Performance artist Peterson Toscano will bring his wry wit to the Tusten Theatre in Narrowsburg, NY for two shows on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26 at 8:00 p.m. Friday’s show will be “Doin’ Time in the HomoNoMo Halfway House: How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement” and “The Re-Education of George W. Bush” will be presented on Saturday.

“Growing up in Lake Huntington, the bus ride to school was at least 40 minutes each way. In order to entertain myself and my fellow riders, I created ‘The Peter Pumpkin Show,’ a variety show of sorts with multiple characters all played by me,” Toscano said of his first calling as a performer. “Here I was, a fourth grader captivating a high school audience. What power! What fun!”

Toscano, a graduate of Narrowsburg Central School, drew courage and inspiration from these early experiences, as well as from his parents, Pete and Anita Toscano, the proprietors of Pete’s Pub in Lake Huntington. Toscano bases characters on them in both shows.

“Doin’ Time in the HomoNoMo Halfway House” is based on Toscano’s real life experiences as an ex-gay survivor. The story takes you on a tour of a Christian residential 12-step program that attempts to save men and women from the “evil snares of homosexuality” through bizarre rules, gender realignment and brain numbing reconditioning. In the story, Toscano weaves together humor, program jargon and outrageous eyewitness accounts through seven different characters.

“Employing humor, as well as shape shifting to fit into different crowds, became a strategy to keep others from targeting me with insults or worse,” Toscano recalls. “Many oppressed minorities learn to take on multiple roles and characters in order to survive. Some of the finest one-person shows were created by people from oppressed groups, shows by Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin and John Leguizamo.”

In “The Re-Education of George W. Bush,” Toscano focuses on one well-known personality. Through a series of lively lessons, he instructs President Bush and the audience about history, war, skin privilege, the environment, sexism, misreading the Bible and humanity.

Tickets for the shows, which are sponsored by Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA), cost $15 at the door, $12.50 for advanced sales or DVAA members).

For more information visit ArtsAllianceSite.org or call 845/252-7272.