Revelations: A Celebration of Appalachian Resiliency in GLBTQ People

Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

Revelations: A Staged Reading Celebrating Appalachian Resiliency in GLBTQ People, was performed for its 17th time in Shepherdstown, West Virginia April 12, 2019 as part of the SpeakStory Series and is presented as part of our Talking Across the Lines podcast. We are available to produce it in your community with a volunteer cast over a fire day residency. Revelations is a theatrical presentation on Appalachian resiliency in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people written and produced by folklorist Carrie Nobel Kline, Spring 2001 Rockefeller Fellowship recipient and Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. In Revelations, Carrie interweaves excerpts from oral testimonials she recorded with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered West Virginians. Carrie explains, “This 13-person reader’s theatre production illuminates these West Virginians’ determination to express themselves in a way that is worthy of respect and admiration. Revealing their paths toward self-acceptance, audience members will glean a fresh perspective on concepts of gender from people who have broadened their own views through complex intellectual and spiritual journeys.” In the course of her Rockefeller Fellowship, Carrie Nobel Kline conducted a dozen interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. One interviewee is from outside the Appalachian region, and the rest are from West Virginia. The focus of Kline’s research is on resiliency, especially Appalachian resiliency. Because of the confidentiality of the field research, she chose to employ actors to read the words of those interviewed. Revelations focuses on people’s paths to hard won self-acceptance and their journeys toward a fuller sense of humanity. https://www.folktalk.org/spoken-histories/glbt-stories/