- OTHER MEDIA
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- Clark's one-woman show blends comedy and chaos
- SF Chronicle October 29, 2009 (Alexandria Rocha)
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- On her 13th birthday, Aileen Clark received a piece of advice from
an older, more experienced cousin: "Whatever you do, Aileen, do not
have sex unless you're in love."
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- That's some bittersweet advice, Clark thought. But like the good girl
she was, she listened. Then she went to college, met a boy and said to
hell with it.
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- t wasn't exactly true love. And, yes, she regrets it.
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- "It's a reminder for me to hold true to what you've been taught:
that your family gives you good advice and that they're always looking
out for you," said Clark, 26.
- It's stories like this - with which Clark is constantly entertaining
friends - that led to her one-woman show, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Lost My Virginity," which she likens to the solo shows of actor
John Leguizamo.
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- I really want it to feel like we're in a living room, and I'm just
telling stories," Clark said. "I want the audience to feel like
they know me before I make a horrible decision so then they're like, 'No,
girl, don't do it!' "
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- Clark chronicles her life's stories of love, loss and growing up in
a multicultural family. She portrays 21 characters - her 95-year-old Nicaraguan
grandmother, Scottish father and Jewish British uncle, to name a few -
in three languages with nearly no props. The older, wiser cousin and Clark's
"first" also make appearances.
- "How I Learned" bounces from hilarious to heartbreaking and
lands somewhere in between. And that's fitting, as it's one of the main
themes of the play: finding your place in the middle of chaos.
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- Born in San Francisco, Clark was whisked to England, then Australia
as a child because of her father's work as a metallurgist. By 12, she was
living with her parents in Brazil, and it was then that her mother was
diagnosed with cancer and needed treatment in San Francisco.
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- Nine months later, Clark went back to Brazil with her father. Suddenly,
it was just the two of them. Because he had spent so much of her childhood
away at work, they were like strangers. It didn't help when he started
dating another woman.
- At 15, Clark left to live with an aunt and uncle in Nicaragua.
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- "The play is kind of about him and me. It's me going through life
and having experiences, having a love life, learning to be a woman, but
he's always in the background," she said.
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- Along the way, there are plenty of misadventures. Like when Clark chases
a guy to Alaska to proclaim her love for him only to get a shrug and an
"Oh, really?" in return.
- And then, of course, there's Dona Pepa, Clark's 95-year-old grandmother,
who last year unintentionally inserted herself into one of Clark's plays.
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- It's a pivotal scene and Clark's character is on the verge of an emotional
breakdown. Suddenly Clark hears her grandmother's voice filling up the
small theater from the front row.
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- "Aileen, Aileen, I'm bored. Vamonos. Let's go."
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- Clark was mortified - but, of course, loves her grandmother all the
same.
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