I have had plenty of occasions to attend theatre for the reviews I manage here, in both this column when a play or one-man show is of a sexual nature, and as a reviewer for theatre in general for S&S. The amazing amount of live performances happening all the time, all throughout the boroughs, of all genres and theme, means lots of stuff comes across the shortandsweetnyc.com desk. We writers here have been lucky to attend off and ‘on’ Broadway’ and off-off stuff in various locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and beyond, and are always the better because of it.

It was from one of these theatres that I actually had the opportunity to create and present my “Song, Word & Deed” show last week as part of the Queerly Festival produced by the Horse Trade Theatre Company. Now generally I don’t like to expound on my deeds so much here (I have never been nor will I suddenly become a braggart) but when what I do relates to sex in the great grand scheme of the world, and I can tell of a specific adventure I had with the artisans of this great city of ours, you can bet your arse I am damn well going to give you the skinny.

If you have read this column before and/or have looked around the S&S site in general, you might have noticed I have logged-in reviews of plenty of shows that have happened at The Kraine Theatre at 85 4^th Street or “The Red Room” there, or at Horse Trades’ other theatre location ‘Under St. Marks’ at 94 St. Marks Place (btwn. 1^st and Ave A). Last Friday I was honored to present my very own show at The Kraine and to see behind-the-scenes of the Horse Trade crew and staff.

Having only ever been part of the Horse Trade audience, the recipient of their publicist’s perfectly timed emails and consistent kindness, never having spoken or met anyone else connected with the group, I had the unique opportunity to see how this crack-jack production company works, and works hard indeed for the shows they put up. I have pretty much loved all the stuff Horse Trade has been kind enough to comp me for, but one never knows exactly how off-Broadway theatre is run until one is doing a show of their own. From my initial email brainstorms with the staff, to getting in all my press materials, to actually working with their box office, bar tender and the super-dooper theatre sound/light tech for my show, I can see why Horse Trade continually presents the wide variety of high quality shows they do, and why anyone would want to work with this group again and again.

I have been involved with playing live music and been part of plenty of live performance crews, and have had my one-acts produced across the country. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly behind the flats of theatre productions, to be sure. My show was a variety hour (for want of a better term) celebrating Pride Week 2015 with pieces illustrating a gay male p.o.v., lesbian, straight hetero, all-out goofy non-sexual, with a big techno rap to end it all. We were asking our audience to help celebrate such diverse themes as well as hopefully entertaining them with our variety of topics (which I thought was our strong point going in, but could have seen us fall on our face when it was up and running), as this was the first show of its kind that I had ever mounted. From the get go, Friday night when I FINALLY got there, everything worked seamlessly even though I was running around like the proverbial chicken without a head (it took me 2 and half hours getting in from Jersey!) and had to start late.

A month-full of Thank You’s and constant kisses on the cheek to Ari especially!

It would be in bad taste to critique my show and the wonderful performers in it (though I will name them here: actors-writers Andrew Vetterlein and Mickey Craighead; pro adult industry scribe Joe Diamond; erotic writer extraordinaire Karen Taylor; provocateur, dancer/singer Yolanda Dunderdale, in her “Madam Marvelous” persona and writer, humor monologist Tom Kennedy) but I can prompt you to get out and see the rest of the Queerly Festival which runs till tomorrow and to avail yourself of all Horse Trade shows.

Get out and see the remainder of the shows of the Queerly Festival: http://www.horsetrade.info/queerly-festival-feea & all other Horse Trade Shows: http://www.horsetrade.info/.

Photo credit here and for the program of my show, Constance and Eric (who I interviewed here).