THE PORTALS OF TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES
by Ayun Halliday
One of the portals I entered in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, took me to a truly unexpected place: Regency era England . . . though you might not be able to tell, given the voiceover. (One and done, baby, one and done.)
I was as surprised as anyone. I’ve never read Jane Austen. Never even watched Bridgerton.
I doubt this would have happened had I drawn a different slip of paper when we passed around the container in which each workshop participant had placed a question aimed at eliciting some truth-or-dare-style truths. The writer who drew my question certainly rewarded my curiosity with a banger!
My questioner, and, as fate would have it Truth or Consequences housemate, seated right beside me on a dusty Pelican Spa couch, may or may not have gotten what she deserved.
I know laughing at one’s own work is frowned upon, but I was filled with so many gleeful giggles reading it aloud to my fellow workshop participants, I was moved to try to recreate some of that performance energy back here in NYC . . . what can I say? I always wanted to be the romantic lead, but the clown shoes are a clearly better fit.
The slip of paper from Truth or Consequences appears as itself, by the way . . .
Ayun Halliday is the Chief Primatologist of The East Village Inky, the co-founder of Theater of the Apes, and the author of nine books and counting. Catch her onstage in NYC playing her washboard and improvising bluegrass musicals with The Wayfaring Strangers.
