Profile of David Henry Sterry - P.A.W. Print

David Henry Sterry, the author of Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent (Regan Books, 2003) and writer and performer of Chicken: A One-Ho Show, was in town for a three-day run of his show at the First Person Festival. Run by the Philadelphia non-profit Blue Sky Arts, the First Person Festival is an annual ten-day festival of memoir and documentary art showcasing work by outstanding local and nationally known artists.

Sterry's bestseller (San Francisco Chronicle, 2002), is a memoir of his nine-month stint as a seventeen-year-old gigolo while he was a college freshman. The show, based on Sterry's book and showcased in February 2003, is a sensory experience, utilizing music, lighting, props, and an actor who portrays all of the different characters. His show has toured all over the world, including the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Australia, and as part of the Sex Worker Art Show and solo throughout the United States.

Philadelphia
It's almost 11 p.m. and Sterry has just finished his second performance of Chicken at the Adrienne Theatre. We're sitting in a coffeehouse, drinking from gargantuan coffee cups. Wearing one green sock and one blue sock, still ensconced in the character of the hopelessly naïve seventeen-year-old college freshman, Sterry reminisces about Philadelphia. "My first experience of Philly as a performer was in the mid-eighties as a Master of Ceremonies for the Chippendales. I was the only person who talked and had on clothes… and roller skates." Sterry's MC role was introducing the acts amid drunken, screaming women. "It was as far from artistic as you can get."


	Sterry, in tuxedo and rollerskates, as Master of Ceremonies for the Chippendales.

His second experience with the City of Brotherly Love was the First Person Festival in June, 2004. "I think of Philly as a sports town. That's the perception of it in my mind." Imagine Sterry's astonishment at the Audience Question and Answers sessions after each show, during which, "they all listened and laughed, were attentive and responsive. I was pleasantly surprised with the really great theatre audience that stacked up to London, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam audiences." Sterry's show surprised and delighted everyone and the sophisticated Philadelphia audience amazed him.

"I wrote to save my life."
David started writing in 2001, after three years of intensive hypnotherapy. "I had to do something because otherwise I would "either kill someone or make someone kill me." After getting out of the sex trade business, Sterry was no longer a sex worker, but winks that he continued to seek the services of his former colleagues as a customer. "I wanted to cope with my addictions and stop the cycle of self-destruction, so I created art out of the worst experiences of my life," he says. Telling his worst experiences could be the best decision he made. With a bestseller and a critically acclaimed solo performance, Sterry has convinced HBO to option his book as a television series, which Sterry says he anticipates will appear in the station's 2005 lineup. The pilot is slated for 2005.


photo, Phyllis Christopher

Sterry's art may very well have saved not only his life, but others as well. "Everywhere I go, someone says they have been through the same--- usually a variation on the same experience." Through his live show, Sterry connects with people all over the world. "It's a great comfort to people to get the monkey off their back," explains Sterry, who is able to reach people along the wavelength of true, shared human experience. "I never anticipated connections with people," he continues, adding, "I assumed people would appreciate the quality of my work. But my typical experience after a show is individuals seeking acceptance from me and giving testimonials." As if empowering a survivor's group, Sterry's art has a powerful and profound impact on audience members who can relate with and hear expressed-possibly for the first time, their own traumatic experiences.

Recovery
While sharing his experiences with audiences, Sterry aims to heal himself and others. He also does writing workshops with such disenfranchised groups as prisoners, at-risk youth and others, prompting his participants to share their stories and advising them on published. "It's like the proverb, I want to teach them to fish for themselves, not just give them the fish," said Sterry, who mentions that he volunteers to speak at conferences whose goal is the ending of the exploitation of children by sexual predators. Sterry, through various agencies, also works with street children.

Sterry has also uploaded his comedic-humanitarian passion into another book, Putting Your Passion Into Print (Workman Press, 2004). An earlier oeuvre, Satchel Sez: the Wit Wisdom & World of Leroy Satchel Paige (Three Rivers Press, 2001), was co-authored by his wife, Arielle Eckstut.

Sterry can be explored and further admired at his website, www.davidhenrysterry.com. Additional information about the First Person Festival can be obtained at www.blueskyarts.org.

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