Neal Izumi
Ben Moffat plays 10 different characters in his autobiographical show.
After Ben Moffat’s father came out as a transgender woman in the early 1980s, Moffat’s experiences became the basis for a short theater piece. Now Moffat is performing in a one-man show, Imperfect Gentlemen, which will play at Trinity United Methodist Church on Aug. 11 and 25.
The play, co-written by Moffat and Bradley Wayne Smith, is largely based on events from Moffat’s life after his father decided to transition. It asks questions about the forces that shape identity and the plasticity of personality.
“Since I was a child I have acted out stories as a way to understand and explore experiences, so it was very natural for me to turn to theater to tell this story,” Moffat says. “Originally I created a short piece about my father’s anger. My wife saw it, and as we worked on it, it became clear that the show needed to be about my father’s discovery in the late 1970s that he wanted to live as a woman. I next turned to my collaborator, Bradley Wayne Smith. We’ve been refining the script for Imperfect Gentlemen over the last four summers.”
Moffat is a California native who worked as a theater professor in Hawaii for much of his career. He currently splits his time between Hawaii and southwestern Wisconsin. He bills himself as an actor, clown, puppeteer and stilt-walker, and describes Imperfect Gentlemen as a blend of storytelling and physical theater, augmented with movement, props, and projections of family photos. He plays 10 different characters using a narrative style of theater that is imaginative, playful, and engaging.
“People come to understand things by categorizing them,” Moffat adds. “They tend to put all transgender people into one box. But each transgender person’s story is unique, as is the experience of each individual family. I feel this story is especially important because it shows how individuals in one family react to a surprising, shocking revelation.”
Moffat originally approached Proud Theater about co-sponsoring the production of Imperfect Gentleman after friends at Trinity United Methodist Church referred him to the organization. “The folks at Trinity thought the subject of the production might be of interest to us,” says Brian Wild, co-artistic director of Proud Theater, a Madison-based theater organization that works with LGBTQIA youth.
“This is a theatrical work that explores, through personal storytelling, the difficulties of coming out and how it not only affects the person who comes out, but those friends and family around them,” says Wild. “We aim for well-rounded storytelling in our own work, and this production brings a facet to the community we don’t always get to explore.”
Performances of Imperfect Gentlemen will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 11 and Aug. 25, at Trinity United Methodist Church. The show is recommended for ages 14 and up, due to strong language and adult themes. Tickets will be available at the door. Proceeds benefit Trinity United Methodist Church and Proud Theater.