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San Francisco, March 24, 2009. Fauxnique, the alter ego of performance artist and dancer Monique Jenkinson—and the only woman ever to be crowned Miss Trannyshack— will perform in Faux Real over three weekends, starting April 23 and ending May 9 at the Climate Theater in San Francisco.

Dates: Thursdays – Saturdays, April 23 through May 9
Time: 8pm
Location: Climate Theater; 285 9th Street, San Francisco (Corner of 9th and Folsom)
Tickets: $15-$20.00 / www.climatetheater.com/tickets

Glamorous women have a long history of dressing up. They use clothes to communicate status, express mood, reveal vulnerability, send a warning or poison an atmosphere. Yet, drag is ironically often the ultimate boy’s club.  Performance artist Jenkinson—and her drag queen persona Fauxnique—crashed that club a long time ago, and she now counts herself as a card-carrying member.

Some might say, a “gold card” carrying member: Fauxnique’s selection as Miss Trannyshack 2003 generated controversy since never before (or since) had a biological female won the title. “Women and the idea of women have inspired and served as role models for generations of males to transgress, elaborate and entertain,” says the so-called drag-queen-trapped-in-a-woman’s-body Fauxnique. “Yet,” the response I often get when talking about what I do is, “a real woman who is a drag queen? I don’t get it.”

In Faux Real, Jenkinson reaches into her drag bag for some answers to this vexing question (plus a few others) and pulls out some favorite performance gems. Part transplanted nightclub act, part meditation on artifice and authenticity and part dress-up play date, Faux Real revels in the tension between the glamour of performance and the intimacy of its living, breathing moment.

Audiences should be prepared for stunts in high heels, hero worship, music, makeup secrets, ballerina fantasies, '20 albums that made me gay,' and the fact that in live theater, well, sometimes people get kicked in the face. “This show” says Jenkinson, “is an invitation for audiences to take a close peek into Fauxnique’s soul.”

Among the Fauxnique gems that Jenkinson is stringing together are:
   
    Mimicry & Flaunting – a ruthless piece inspired by Maria Callas that brings us back to the true meaning of those now abused terms, ‘fierce’ and ‘diva’ (First SF performance of this since 2001)
    Poses - features a magazine collage costume and the music of one Mister Rufus Wainwright
    Shanti Ashtangi  - does Madonna really do yoga and chew gum at the same time?
    Queen - a drag number with music by the Melvins
    Dress – what girl doesn’t want to get dressed up to PJ Harvey?
    The Tale – it is indeed a rare spectacle when new music pioneer Meredith Monk makes it into a drag piece

For those who never made it out to see Fauxnique onstage during those deservedly legendary Tuesday night midnight shows at Trannyshack, this is your chance to do so.
 
For those who did, this is your opportunity to enjoy some old favorites in a new context before its too late. Yes, the rumors are true, in order to make way for a brand new collection of Luxury Items to come this Fall, these performances are soon be packed away in steamer trunks and hauled into storage.

In November 2009, Jenkinson will perform a completely new work entitled Luxury Items, as part of her Artist-in-Residency at ODC Theatre.

Fauxnique channels her dance floor diva in the music video for Lipstique  here 

High Res Photos available

Monique Jenkinson is a performer and a maker of performance with roots in strict dance training and choreographic practice. She presents her work in theaters, nightclubs and museums, and seeks to explore connections and tensions between art and entertainment, between contrivance and 'the moment,' and between freedom and limitation. Her earliest training is in ballet, but her education and art practice spans myriad physical and theatrical disciplines, including classical ballet and postmodern improvisation, camp and the absurd, queer and feminist.

Local and international appearances include performances at ODC Theater, CounterPULSE, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the de Young Museum, and Trannyshack in San Francisco; Danspace Project, Howl Festival and the Stonewall in New York; the Met Theatre in Los Angeles; the Coachella music festival; and in Reykjavik, Iceland.

A 2009 ODC Theater Artist-in-Residence, Jenkinson's ongoing performance projects include drag queen persona, Fauxnique, a lens through which she magnifies her artistic concerns: process, glamour, technique, physicality, difficulty, and femininity. Born out of the scene at Trannyshack, the San Francisco nightclub performance institution, Fauxnique typifies and expands a particular evolution of drag-based performance (the Cockettes, General Idea, Leigh Bowery) that is by turns dirty, smart, degenerate and transcendent. Going beyond camp show-tunes into the realms of punk rock, horror, high drama, and total gender subversion, Jenkinson’s creation Fauxnique was, and is, the only biologically born female to win the coveted Miss Trannyshack title. For more information at

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