Act 1 Summary

In the first five sections of his one-man show detailing the life of celebrated and reviled transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, Doug Wright explores all that went into his discovery of his play's subject. As the play opens, the audience is introduced to Charlotte. She is a man of about sixty-five and wears a black housedress, a scarf over her hair and a strand of pearls. She enters, leaves and returns carrying a large antique Edison phonograph, which she sets on a small table.

This has all been in preparation for the first scene, appropriately entitled "A Lecture on the Phonograph." The audience first hears Charlotte speak in her broken English, with a German accent. Charlotte begins her lecture by explaining some history on Thomas Edison and his invention of the phonograph. She then details the makings of a record and says that at...