Dito van Reigersberg is a man — and sometimes woman — of many talents.
An accomplished actor, dancer and teacher, he is also a founding member and co-artistic director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, an innovative, award-winning performance company here in Philadelphia. He is a Barrymore Award recipient, a nominee for Best Actor in a Musical and has been named a Pew Fellow and a Knight USA Fellow. But most of us in the LGBT community know him as Martha Graham Cracker, the world’s tallest and hairiest drag queen. Martha, who performs monthly at Queen Village cabaret L’Etage, sings repertory songs. We spoke to van Reigersberg as he was beginning rehearsals for a Fringe Festival performance of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” Pig Iron’s twist on Shakespeare’s play where gender confusion and mistaken identity take center stage.
PGN: Tell me a little about yourself. DVR: I’m originally from Washington, D.C. — well about 20 miles from D.C. proper. I came to this area for college. I went to Swarthmore in the ’burbs. Then I moved to New York for a bit because, like every actor, I was curious about that. I started acting at a place called the Neighborhood Playhouse before all of Pig Iron — which began with a lot of Swarthmore grads — decided to move to Philly.
PGN: We have something in common. I read that you did some training as a clown and I used to work with Bozo the Clown. DVR: Oh, you’re kidding. That’s fun. I got my training secondhand. A bunch of the Pig Iron Theatre people went to Lecoq where they studied that clown tradition and I learned it from them.
PGN: So what were you like as a kid? DVR: I was actually a very shy child. My mom is always amazed that things turned out the way they did because when I was a kid, during that awkward phase we all go through around puberty, she would say, “I don’t think he has any friends, he doesn’t seem to want to socialize in any way.” But then — and I think it was in great part due to my high-school drama program — I just started becoming sociable. I hung out with all the weirdos that do drama and that changed everything.
PGN: How did you get involved? DVR: I just tried out and got cast in “Grease” and “Gypsy” and “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Midsummer’s Night Dream” and “Romeo and Juliet,” and all those high-school classics. It was funny, when I started going to Swarthmore, things changed again, because in high school we’d done all that sort of mainstream theater but in college I was exposed to much more boundary-pushing work. It got me excited about theater in a totally different way. That’s when I took my first modern-dance class. It really expanded my mind a bit and Pig Iron has been a result of that “learning where the boundaries are and then breaking them.” For example, this production of “Twelfth Night,” it’s a well-known, reliable classic script that we bring a lot of ourselves to. We brought a lot of our physical theater training to it so when you watch it, I hope, it will feel like something we invented. Fresh. Like we brought the play to Pig Iron rather than us going to it. If that makes sense …
PGN: It does. DVR: We make a lot of our shows from scratch, so it was already a departure for us doing a piece that already existed.
PGN: From what I’ve read, I’m sure you guys will put your own spin on it. So other than being a shy kid, I want to know more about little Dito. Did you have siblings? DVR: I did, I still do. I have an older sister who’s not into theater at all but was very encouraging. We’d put on shows for our parents, puppet shows behind the couch, etc. But it was mostly me. When we were alone together she’d say, “Dito, put on a little show for me” and I’d make something up. So she was like my first producer. Even though I was shy, I loved singing and dancing and musicals. We listened to the soundtrack of “Grease” ad nauseam.
PGN: And what did the parents do? DVR: They’re interpreters. They both speak several languages — Spanish, English, French and, in a pinch, a little Italian and Portuguese. That’s why we lived in D.C., because there are a lot of international events and conferences. My mom worked mostly with the State Department so she’s worked with various presidents along the way.
PGN: Pretty cool. Did you get to hob knob with Washington big wigs? DVR: Not really, though my sister did get to go to Amy Carter’s birthday party. Amy was very shy as well. I understand she read a book during the party.
PGN: My old roommate loved Jimmy Carter just because of one event, a Kennedy Honors kind of thing, where Amy sat on the floor of the presidential box coloring. She was a polite kid but a little nerdy and she thought it said a lot that her parents just let her be a kid. DVR: Yeah, even though he was not very popular back then, I think as time goes on, more people will find that he’s the president that people will want to emulate. PGN: Did you go to high school in D.C.? DVR: Langley High in Virginia, right near the CIA. I went to school with the sons and daughters of a lot of political figures. Scalia’s kids were classmates. One was a year older and one a year younger and they were both really cute, which is odd since he’s definitely not.
PGN: Your name sounds German but your parents seem to speak everything but that. DVR: It’s actually Dutch. Dutch is such an unusual language that even Dutch people have to speak other languages. My dad can understand and speak a little conversational Dutch but that’s it.
PGN: On to college. Tell me a theater story. DVR: Well, during our freshman year in Theater 101, we had a variety of people in the class — people who just wanted credit, including a lot of jocks. We were doing a trust exercise and my scene partner — I still remember his name, Jerry — said to me, “Turn around! Look at that!” And I, being the trusting fool that I was, turned and looked where he pointed, and he yanked down my pants in front of everyone! [Laughs.] Thank God the teacher tore him a new one, or that could have deterred me from a life in theater.
PGN: That goes against the grain of a trust exercise. When did you first do drag? DVR: When I was in college we had an amazing teacher, Alan Taharski, who exposed us to a lot of different kinds of performance. He showed us a video of Martha Graham’s “Night Journey” and I thought, My God, that’s so crazy, dramatic, beautiful … I want to do that in some way. Later I took some classes at the Martha Graham School and fell in love with the technique and all of its crazy, bendy, pretzely amazingness. She invented an entire dance technique that no one had ever seen before. She was a kind of lonely genius, a tiny, wizened old lady who smelled like vodka. She could be a great teacher and also say the meanest things imaginable. She was a larger-than-life diva and I was inspired by her. I used to go see drag shows with a friend and fell in love with Raven O and Joey Arias. They could be saucy and mischievous or sing and break your heart. One day joking around I decided to do drag, so I lip-synched for my roommates and that was the start. Then I started to guest sing with a friend from Pig Iron who had a band and that’s how Martha Graham Cracker was born. Originally, she had a twin named Polly von a Cracker, but she was killed off.
PGN: And what’s the joy in doing Martha? DVR: There’s a pleasure I get when playing with that gender line, breaking the rules. Martha can be both vulnerable and sexually aggressive, two things I’m not known for. It’s fun deviating from my polite, middle-class, button-down side. It’s a vacation from my usual self. And it’s funny, a lot of people tell me they feel somehow liberated just watching her.
PGN: I watched some of your videos and, in addition to enjoying the fact that in your act, you are actually singing, not lip-synching, I loved your arrangements. You did a real sultry, jazzy version of “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” which was really great. I emailed it to my brother who sings with Milan 77. DVR: I have to credit my band for that, they’re a-mazing. We do straight covers too, but we try to do at least a few songs where at first you’re like, “I have no idea what song this is,” and then somewhere in the middle you’re like, “Oh! That’s ‘Got to be Starting Something.’” I’m proud of the musical sophistication that comes with playing with such a tight band. PGN: Who are your musical inspirations? DVR: If I could live inside Aretha Franklin for a month I’d die. I’d flip out if I met her. When I’m bored I just watch old videos of Patti LaBelle and Aretha Franklin or old episodes of “Soul Train.”
PGN: When did you start Pig Iron? DVR: In 1995. As I mentioned, we all went to Swarthmore College. Right after we graduated we went our separate ways for a while and then someone, it may have been a teacher, said that the best arts festival in the world was the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s the festival that Philly’s is based on. So we gathered back at college and were able to use the theater during the summer and we rented a professor’s house and created a piece based on “The Odyssey.” It’s not something I’d want anyone to see today but we did it and we got to Edinburgh. We all got food poisoning, which was a little scary, but otherwise it was great. We got a five-star review in “The Scotsman” and were able to charge for the shows, which was enough to help cover the plane tickets. We did it a few years and won the Spirit of the Fringe Award, and then heard they were starting a Fringe Fest here and thought maybe we should skip Edinburgh and perform in Philly, and maybe we should just move to Philly. Trying to open a theater company in New York just seemed too daunting. It’s expensive and there are too many distractions for an actor. On any given day, someone might be offered voiceover work or a role off-Broadway or on a film shooting; it’s hard to keep people together in a company there. And in Philly, we’d at least have a place to rehearse. We did a piece for the first Philly Fringe called “Cafeteria” that went over really, really well. It was a wordless piece about the American life cycle, so it began in a junior-high cafeteria and went to a corporate cafeteria and ended in an old-folks home. It was very poetic, almost a dance piece. To this day, it’s one of my favorite works. It was a big success and we felt that Philly seemed to want us. So we stayed and have gone through all the ecstasies and agonies of owning a small business — from keeping all the files in our bedrooms because we didn’t have an office, to when we got a little tiny office space and could actually hire someone to write our grants for us. Slowly over time, we were able to make something of the company and stabilize it. We celebrated our 10th anniversary in 2005. We did four revivals and one new production, plus a cabaret series — it almost killed us! But it was a big milestone and we wanted to celebrate it. And 2015 is right around the corner so we’re going to have to figure out how to celebrate it. We’ve now opened up a school as well, and our first-ever class of 15 graduated last June.
PGN: And what is a pig iron? DVR: It’s a block of crude iron. A counter-balance weight that is used backstage to maneuver scenery, curtains, etc.
PGN: Who would you like to do a drag makeover on? DVR: Maybe the Obamas. They’d be good sports and I think he’d make a really beautiful woman. I’d do Michelle up as a drag king with a mustache and goatee.
PGN: My beauty inspiration was … DVR: My grandmother was a kind of real-life Joan Crawford or Katharine Hepburn and I have always loved that old-time Hollywood glamour. And it’s a bonus that I can hide my wide shoulders under the shoulder pads of that era. PGN: Something I wish was still sold in stores … DVR: A Quiz Wiz, a very simple trivia game from my childhood.
PGN: Your main flaw? DVR: Doubting myself.
PGN: The holidays are coming up. Describe your best, wackiest or most memorable gift. DVR: For Christmas, my aunt gifted me the scrap of paper that we had used as a scorecard for Scrabble; it was from a game in which I finally beat my cousin, who is a word whiz. She laminated it, and I treasure it. And recently for my 40th birthday, my friends made a scrapbook for me that really hit me in the gut in the best way. It was perfect, handmade, full of private jokes and memories and ancient snapshots. Also, sometimes I’ve been given ladies’ lingerie for Christmas, for Martha. A practical gift, really.
PGN: Who would you call to be bailed out of jail? DVR: My friend Corinna, she wouldn’t judge.
PGN: Most useless unique talent? DVR: I know the entire script of the movie “9 to 5” and can recite it ad nauseum.
PGN: I love that movie! It never got enough credit. You are planning the most awesome dinner party of your life. Which three celebs, alive or dead, would you put on your guest list? DVR: Aretha Franklin, Bette Davis and Ryan Gosling.
PGN: What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done for fun? DVR: I rode on top of a friend’s hood while they spun their car in circles. PGN: What one rule did you always disagree with growing up? DVR: Always do things in the proper order.
PGN: I wish everyone would … DVR: I wish everyone would dance in a big, sweaty crowd and sing in harmony and make open eye contact and give free massages to each other.
PGN: If you could be any kitchen appliance, what would it be and why? DVR: I would be a juicer. I want to squeeze everything out of every situation and also wake you up in the morning with vitamins.
For tickets and information about “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” go to http://fringearts.ticketleap.com/twelfth-night-or-what-you-will/#view=calendar and check out Martha Graham Cracker at www.facebook.com/MarthaGrahamCracker.
To suggest a community member for Family Portrait, email [email protected].