Buddy Wakefield delivers a riveting special performance of The Gentleman Practice at the Sunset Temple Theatre for Innermission Productions.

The Gentleman Practice Tour Poster,
with information added by Innermission Productions.
Used for educational purposes.

his past Friday, January 28th, Innermission Productions (sponsored by Planned Parenthood) kicked off their V-Day benefit production of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues with a special show by Buddy Wakefield, stopping by the Sunset Temple Theater for his Gentleman Practice Tour.

Buddy Wakefield is a two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion featured on NPR, and the BBC, signed to Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records and now writing the eponymous book of his present tour for Write Bloody Publishing. In 2004, supported by Norman Lear, he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In 2005, he won again and has gone on to tours with Derrick Brown and Anis Mojgani, as well as tours with Ani DiFranco.*

After a rousing chant of the c-word at the end of the excerpt performance “Reclaiming Cunt,” Buddy Wakefield took the stage, admitting it was an unusual overture for his show about masculinity and authentic identity. After asking the audience to breathe, reminding us that air “is the good stuff, and all we need,” he launched into a two hour tour-de-force. The charm of the relaxed tone of the show amplified the power of Wakefields’ deft skill in words.

The proceeds of the entire production, which will include the original Vagina Monologues, as well as the companion piece A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer and the all-male response MENding Monologues will benefit playwright/performer/activist Eve Ensler's V-Day, a campaign seeking to end violence against women by spreading information and engaging the arts in events throughout February across the world.

San Diego/University Heights V-Day 2011 by Innermission Productions has also selected a local beneficiary: San Diego’s very important Center for Community Solutions, which among its countless services for abuse survivors has San Diego’s only Rape Crisis Center.

“Forgiveness,” Buddy Wakefield explained patiently, “is giving up all hope for a better past.” It is accepting what happened in order to move forward. Eruptions of agreement punctuated the rapt peace of the attentive patrons of the Sunset Temple Theater tucked behind Claire de Lune."We are not tragedies," he insisted, on human resilience.

Wakefield, a poised man with a resounding rich voice and a wit that flows instantaneously, comments frequently on letting go, but earlier work reveals a long struggle with the Why. “Yeah if you ever wanna come inside just knock on the spot where I finally pressed STOP,” he expounded, exasperated, “playing musical chairs with exit signs. I’m gonna cause you a miracle when you see the way I kept God’s image alive.”

Wakefield’s strength is his entire person. He has an active, physical presence, and a verbal carte blanche that at times gushes incessantly like the uninhibited clamor of a best friend. The effect of the ebb and flow, the entreaties for mindfulness mingled with the sharp observations of our condition, emanates into the inspired resonance that is Wakefield’s profoundness.

His insights, his command over his own poetry that he delivers with thespian carriage, meshed with humorous quips and anecdotal tangents, held the audience spellbound in the sentimental, empathetic, and challenging material.

Being helped along by audience volunteers—a woman piano player, a man on the ukelele, and a man with flowing hair who plays a twelve-string guitar named Josh that he humorously at first called “Moon Unit”—the show is a kinetic experiences that ambles gracefully through earnest pleas and critical tirades that portray Wakefield’s forgiving and kind worldview juxtaposed with a weary awareness of personal pitfalls. Wakefield admitted that he is ready now for a bit of “stillness,” on several acres of land with a man he is “very much in love” with.

Gentleman Practice closed with an unfinished love poem, being built throughout the days on the road in mobile phone self-texting from gleams of inspiration, that reveal how much his love is on his mind. But that fragmented piece, unpolished, delivered choppily, bore the most sincere and solemn joy of the show, leaving many in tears. Gentleman Practice—retrospective of a decade of pain and joy—ends upon the advent of love.

The whole show is, one realizes, actually a grateful, gorgeous ode.

Please see all of Innermission's excellent performances of the monologues this coming season. The coming dates are: The MENding Monologues conceived by Derek Dujardin and directed by David Kelso - 2/9 and 2/12 @ 8pm. A Memory, A Monlogue, A Rant and a Prayer edited by Eve Ensler & directed by Kym Pappas - 2/10 @ 8pm & 2/12 @ 2pm. And last but certainly not least, The Vagina Monologues directed by Carla Nell: 2/8 and 2/11 @ 8pm, 2/13 @ 2pm. All events from now on will be at the Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd, San Diego CA 92116.

Buddy Wakefield // Center for Community Solutions // Innermission Productions: VDAY 2011 // VDAY.org

*Bio information supplied at buddywakefield.com