Off the Wall’s ‘Sex Werque’ reveals the life of a stripper
When the burden of student loans became too much to bear, Moriah Ella Mason bared her body in clubs across Pittsburgh.
“It was a way to make extra money and have more time to make art,” she says.
She stripped part time for about two years, until it wasn’t worth the money anymore. Her experiences are the subject of a new one-woman show, “Sex Werque,” presented by Off the Wall Theater. It opens Thursday for a four-day run at the Carnegie Stage in Carnegie.
Ms. Mason, a Westmoreland County native, was 28 when she started stripping. She has an extensive dance background, including a degree in modern dance and choreography from Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y. As a performer or producer of her own work, she has worked locally with the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s newMoves Contemporary Tickets: $20 for adults and $10 for artists/students at www.insideoffthewall.com or 724-873-3576, ext. 1. On Sunday, ticket sales will be matched by theater management, staff and performer to benefit Planned Parenthood of Western Pa. Advisory: Show contains adult content and partial nudity. Dance Festival, The Pillow Project (now The Ellipses Condition), the New Hazlett Theater’s CSA series, actor/movement theaterartist Mark C. Thompson and merrygogo’sMaree ReMalia.
She knew others who had
tried stripping. In some ways, it helped her unlock new depths as a performer, she says.
“You just kind of jump in, and it’s a little sink or swim. You watch the other women who are working, how they are dancing, how they are talking to people, and you just kind of find your way.
“Stripping really taught me to learn how to ask for and even demand and then reward the viewer’s attention and be really comfortable taking up space.”
Over time, she started letting close friends, and eventually family, in on her secret. They responded with a mix of concern and curiosity, some of which she addresses in “Sex Werque.”
“People think doing something like stripping is either amazing, sex positive and feminist, or it’s a horrible exploitation of women — you’re a total victim and it’s gross,” she says. “The reality is far more nuanced than either of those positions.”
Ms. Mason, now 30, kept a journal while she was a stripper. It became “very draining,” she says. “It ended up affecting my physical and emotional health.”
That’s when she knew it was time to quit.
She’s teamed with video artist Liz Barentine to record other sex workers’ stories, which will be shared in the show. Sound artists J.F. Winkles and Eric Weidenhof, part of the Pittsburghbased band It It, perform original songs and remixes.
“I just want to humanize strippers and sex workers,” she says. “Often we’re treated as disposable because of our jobs.”