GayCalgary Magazine recently had the pleasure of chatting with Penny Ashton. Penny is an international performer who made the long journey from New Zealand to Calgary for the Fringe Festival. She has performed in Edinburgh, Adelaide, Perth, Dunedin, Auckland and Wellington Fringes, Glastonbury Festival, all over NZ, The World Cup of Theatresports in Germany and has toured throughout Canada.
Penny represented NZ in a Poetry Slam tour of the UK, was featured in a New York Poetry Club and won Best Performance by an International Poet at the London Farrago Poetry Awards. She will be delivering her signature sass performing her award winning comedy, Promise and Promiscuity: A New Musical by Jane Austen and Penny Ashton.
In addition to being a big name in performance art, since 2012 Penny has achieved another long held ambition: to become a wedding celebrant. Since then she has joined numerous happy couples together. She sees it as a great privilege to be the legal cement in the joyful day and writes a completely personal ceremony from scratch every time. Penny is a proud member of the LGBT community and has made the pursuit for equality her next life mission.
GC: Can you tell our readers about your background and what drew you towards such colourful productions?
PA: When I was 4 I started ballet lessons, finally I was given a legitimate reason to show off in front of people, and basically I’ve never stopped since. I have performed over 500 solo shows all over the world in the past decade and I love making people laugh. My shows are all very different in flavour, but they are all about the funny.
GC: Living in NZ, you have quite a bit of world travel under your belt. How exciting is it to see the acceptance towards the LGBT community emerging on a global scale?
PA: I really do think it’s just marvelous. Canada was really forward thinking for Gay marriage and finally NZ caught up. As an officiate I have wed 10 LGBT couples into marital bliss, and these same sex weddings were some of the most triumphant and heartfelt I have performed. I still get a little rage spiral going on with the less tolerant countries, and with Russia’s sliding backwards and FIFA awarding the World Cup to countries where homosexuality is illegal, but you look at the States of the US falling like big rainbow dominoes and that’s very heartening.
GC: What have been some of your most exciting travel experiences?
PA: I am really looking forward to the Jane Austen Festival in Bath in September; it’s going to be like Star Trek conventions but for ladies. I loved being in the NZ Team for the world Cup of Improv in 2006 in Germany, and I just love Paris.
GC: You are no stranger to Canada; can you tell readers about some of your past, and upcoming ties to our beautiful country?
PA: My first trip to perform here was for the Improvaganza in Edmonton in 2003, and this was my 4th Fringe Tour, but first fringe in Calgary. The thing I love most about this tour is the fantastic people you meet, not just the performers, but the audiences who are so giving and complimentary and come and see so many shows. People’s dedication to fringing is incredible. On a scenic note I love Vancouver as it is so like Auckland and it always makes me think of home when I get there. I am looking forward to seeing Calgary, I was there for one night in 2008 and that’s it!
GC: Can you tell readers about your production in this year’s Calgary Fringe Festival?
PA: Follow the fortunes of Miss Elspeth Slowtree as she battles literary snobbery, her mother’s nerves and Cousin Horatio, all armed with a superior wit, blushing countenance and generally being quite bright... you know... for a girl. Balls are attended, crosses are stitched and manners are minded, all with not one ankle in sight. Classical music has words added to spice up this one-woman multi-character tour de bonnet.
GC: What sparked the idea for this production?
PA: An improvised Jane Austen musical our improv troupe did that went very well. That and watching loads of BBC’s adaptations of Austen’s books.
GC: What are the greatest rewards about performing and sending a positive message to the LGBT community?
PA: Knowing that we will be on the right side of history.
GC: Where do you see yourself in five years?
PA: Marrying more gays! And much of the same, but probably forgetting more people’s names.