For Alexandra Billings–an artist capable of segueing with aplomb from acting to singing to directing to writing–2002 was a banner year. Besides performing in About Face’s Xena Live! and retooling her one-woman show, Before I Disappear, for an off-Broadway run, she made her directorial debut with Vampire Lesbians of Sodom for Broutil & Frothingham Productions at Theatre Building Chicago. Billings even shot an ABC-TV movie, scheduled to air in March, and has a regular cabaret gig every Friday night at Gentry on State.
When I caught up with the ubiquitous Chicago artist during the holidays, she was playing Ruth in her first operetta, Pirates of Penzance, at Light Opera Works. In Billings’ charmingly direct style, she asked if we could do a phone interview on New Year’s Day–the day after Pirates closed. "That way," she quipped, "I could be naked and smoking in my warm little bed."
You can’t get more signature Alex than that.
But during our spirited–and spiritually charged–conversation, Billings shared honest details about breaking into the performing arts as a transgendered person, living with AIDS, assessing her rise to iconic status in Chicago, looking toward the future and, like the title of her CD, basking in "Being Alive." I can’t say for sure whether she was smoking or naked during our interview. But Billings is rarely shy about baring her soul.
Story Continues...
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Should I call you Alex, or Alexandra -- which do you prefer?
Oh, please, call me Alex -- Alexandra has way too many syllables in it.
And can I ask how old you are, and how long you've been HIV-positive?
Sure, you can ask. Can I lie? I'm 26. Not really, I just turned 45. And I've been HIV-positive -- gosh, you'd think I'd know this -- for 20-something years.
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