MARLBORO — Honoring the victims of Armenian Genocide and championing gay and lesbian identity may seem issues far removed from one another.
However, a theater piece at Marlboro College written by and starring Lousine Shamamian finds a way to weave both into a compelling one-woman show, Shake the Earth.
“People come up after the show and tell me that, although they would not have believed it possible, combining sexual identity and genocide now makes total sense,” says Shamamian.
On Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 3:45 p.m., in the Serkin Dance Studio at Marlboro College campus, Shamamian will bring to light the injustice of the Armenian Genocide inflicted on her ancestors, as well as her own struggles with her lesbian identity, in the 60-minute solo play.
Shake the Earth had its world premiere at the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2015 with a sold-out run at the festival and rave reviews. Shamamian is now taking the show on a college tour, beginning with Marlboro, which will be the first presentation of Shake the Earth outside of New York. A question-and-answer session will follow the show.
“With a story that touches on immigration, sexual orientation, refugees, and conflict in South West Asia (typically referred to as 'the Middle East'), Shake The Earth can be the starting point for some very interesting discussions,” she writes at the Marlboro College website.
Hinging on the tension between Armenian and gay pride, and driven by the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Shake the Earth is an explosive tale of survival, resilience and freedom.
Shamamian combines a coming out story as the daughter of Armenian immigrants from Yerevan to Brooklyn, with her grandparents' remarkable story during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Deftly moving back and forth between the two stories and locales, she ties together two different forms of oppression.
The first half of the show concerns Shamamian as a high school student when she is accidentally outed when her mother reads her private diary.
The second half is about her great-grandfather Georgi, who loses his entire family during the massacres that the Turkish government carried out against the Christians of the Ottoman Empire. The acts claimed the lives of some 1.5 million Armenians and at least as many Assyrians, Pontic Greeks, and Alevis.
Shamamian was born in Armenia, but moved to Brooklyn when she was two. She has an active career as a stand-up comedian and has performed at prestigious comedy venues including Gotham Comedy Club, The Stand, and New York Comedy Club.
Wearing many hats, Shamamian wrote, directed, performed and edited the comedy web series “Lousine: Lesbian Matchmaker to the Straights.” She also was featured in an episode of MTV's web series “Inside Joke.” In addition to all this, she has had a successful 15-year career as a television editor for programs including VH1's “Mob Wives,” Bravo's “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” MTV's “True Life,” and PBS's “History Detectives.”
Nelli Sargsyan, Marlboro College's professor of anthropology, connected Shamamian to the region.
“Nelli and I met at an Armenian Gay and Lesbian Association event years ago and have kept up contact,” says Shamamian. “After my successful run of Shake the Earth at the New York International Fringe Festival, she encouraged me to take it to her college in Vermont.”
Shamamian says Shake the Earth should be especially relevant to college students because it deals with issues they are concerned about.
“Things like how to deal in our age with coming out, the conflicts between identity and shame, how does one fit into your family, and the whole issue of coming to terms with your cultural identity,” she says.
Not that Shamamian limits its appeal to college students.
“The show also can also mean something to kids in high school,” she says. “In fact, we are making a video of the performance at Marlboro which Nelli will show to area high school students.”
Shamamian has a passion to tell the story of the Armenian genocide to a general audience since she was young. During discussions after performances of the show, many people, “even intelligent seeming people who you would think knew better,” tell Shamamian that they have never heard of the atrocity.
“Older people may be more aware of the event than the those younger, but too many in America think Turkey is not part of world history,” she says. “However, the genocide was real and had a historical impact.
“A recent article in The Daily Beast linked the Armenian genocide to the Holocaust. It argued that after the invasion of Poland, Hitler proclaimed that it didn't matter what the Germans did with the Jews because the world did not care about what had happened during the Armenian genocide in Turkey.”
As an Armenian herself, Shamamian feels a responsibility to remind the world of the genocide.
“Turkey has worked hard to repress the story so it would not get into historical accounts,” she says. “Although Armenian lobby groups work hard so the tale can be heard, it is an uphill battle. Turkey puts sanctions on those countries which recognize the genocide. When Obama ran for office he said he would have the United States officially recognize the genocide, but that never happened.”
Many of the people who escaped the genocide, ironically, went to live in Syria.
“From there, Armenians emigrated all over the world,” explains Shamamian. “Considering what is happening in Syria today, the story has a contemporary resonance. In fact, Turkey is using the crisis in Syria to kill Kurds in its southeast.”
Shamamian explains her decision to juxtapose her family's history with her personal coming out as a lesbian.
“Both are clearly stories of oppression. One reason Shake the Earth came about at all was when some progressive people in Armenia saw my comedy web series “Lousine: Lesbian Matchmaker to the Straights” and encouraged me to do a show about my Armenian heritage. They told me that if you can successfully create something light and funny that people go for, why not expand to something with depth and value.
“Gay intolerance is still very strong in Armenia, especially for men - women remain too marginalized to even worry about. I am doing this show out of responsibility for my Armenian gay brothers and sisters.”
Shake the Earth has been shaped by Shamamian's background in stand-up.
“A one-person show is a lot like stand-up,” she says. Furthermore, particularly in the first half, she adds levity to her story. “I very consciously wanted the show to be funny,” she adds.
Shamamian finds it interesting that people have told her that they have been moved by her show because it so cinematic. “I always wanted to do something with this material, perhaps make a movie,” she says. “But a film needs so many resources that are expensive, whereas a show like this is much more manageable, giving me more license and creative freedom to tell it exactly as I want.”
Shamamian is especially pleased when audience members have said that they feel as if they actually were there in those place, with those people she talks about.
She says with pride, “My goal was to give my audience travel and experience through the sheer use of words in performance.”