Strip tease inspires bad-girl playwright

As a teenager June Morrow used to spend her nights watching the movie Grease, and dreaming of growing up to be just like Olivia Newton John.

That is, the leather-clad, cigarette wielding, bad-girl persona, Newton John turned into at the end of Grease -- the 1970s classic, also starring John Travolta.

Morrow is the playwright behind Miss April Day's School for Burgeoning Young Strippers, a production playing this week as part of the 2007 Calgary Fringe Festival.

"I think that growing up, I knew that stripping was always something I would try. I was probably eight years old when I first saw Grease -- I always wanted to be that girl in the leather at the end of the show," says Morrow laughing.

"I always wanted to be the bad girl -- I probably practised my strip tease moves as a teenager in my room."

At the age of 23 Morrow put the fantasy into action and took part in an amateur strip night at local club in her home town of Ottawa.

"I did pretty well -- I was pretty naive though; I thought the whole thing was going to be like some old Mae West movie ... It wasn't. The girls in the clubs were actually really scary," she says.

Morrow became a professional dancer a few years later when she moved to Toronto and went to college to pursue both theatre studies and journalism.

"It's not always the most empowering job, but it's also very addictive because it's quick cash in hand -- and you get a lot of positive praise from men," says Morrow.

"There's also a lot of really silly things that happen, such as making up your stage name and dealing with all sorts of bizarre customer requests."

It's those "silly moments" that inspired Morrow to write her one-woman play.

Miss April Day is a semi-autobiographical combination of humour and drama about the years she spent stripping. Morrow decided to stop stripping when the job began to wear on her.

The 60-minute production is directed by Dave McKay and is rated mature content (audience members must be over 16 years old).

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MISS APRIL'S DAY SCHOOL FOR BURGEONING YOUNG STRIPPERS

Today at 6:30 p.m. and Friday, 8 p.m.

Theatre

Calgary Lobby

www.calgaryfringe.ca

© 2007 Sun Media Corporation. All rights reserved.

Illustration:
• photo
• Miss April Day's School for Burgeoning Young Strippers is a semi-autobiographical story by June Morrow, a dancer turned playwright who grew up with fanciful dreams of stripping.

Idnumber: 200708150069
Edition: Final
Length: 378 words