Do You Remember Your First Time? Would you be willing to share it on stage? Depending upon how the experience was, you may or may not be up to it. However, there are some who are willing to spill their stories. Look around your classroom, the SAC, the Union; how old do you think each person around you was when he or she first had sex? How many virgins are in the room?
That’s the kind of stuff I found out at a performance of ‘My First Time,’ a one-act play written, directed, and produced by Ken Davenport. It was inspired by myfirsttime.com, a site that has been around for almost ten years. People anonymously post the romantic (but most often terrible) stories of their first sexual experience.
The show takes stories from the website, but also invites the audience to share their first time during the show. Don’t worry about being called up to the stage or having your parents find out it was in their bed (whoops!). Your answers are submitted on index cards that are completely anonymous. You will be called upon to give intimate details, such as how old you were, how many sexual partners you have had, and even how long it lasted.
The audience’s statistics are then broken down throughout the show and compared with American averages. Did you know that the average age for loss of virginity in America is 15.82? In addition, by the age of 22, (college students!), the average number of partners for men is 3.3, and for women is 2.8.
Surprised? Sure, the numbers are interesting, but it is the stories people come to hear. The young cast dishes the details in a relaxed, conversational atmosphere. They bring sex to the stage, but there is nothing shocking or dirty about the way it is portrayed.
The four actors sit on a practically bare stage and talk openly about losing their virginity. The stories range from the awkward and embarrassing to the wild and absurd. Tales of being the only two people left at work after closing, insane advice about protection and birth control, as well as unexpected encounters at high school sleepovers. One girl even told a story about how she seduced her professor the week before finals (not recommended, by the way), only to be failed regardless.
The best part about it all is the people sitting around you; as they laugh you know they are thinking about their first time. At one point, the show slows down, gets more serious with the story of the girl whose brother has leukemia and does not want to die a virgin. However, the actress delivers the story so passionately that the show never loses momentum. Things like rape and serious cases of sexually transmitted diseases are hardly discussed. Homosexuality is also mostly overlooked.
Before the actors send you on your merry way, they leave room for one last question: ‘If your first sexual partner were here right now, what would you say to him/her?’ I won’t get into the details of my response, but the person who wrote, ‘You owe me child support!’ got roars of laughter. There was even a shared ‘Aww’ when the actor read the last index card, ‘It’s been 42 years and I still get a hard-on holding your hand!’
The show plays an open-ended run Off-Broadway at New World Stages/Stage 5 on 340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues. Tickets start at $25, so it’s affordable to those on a tight budget. To book tickets call Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200. For more information and group sales, call 1-888-MY1-TIME or visit www.MyFirstTimeThePlay.com.
If you’re interested in sex, or just feel like enjoying a bit of New York City’s culture, I highly recommend ‘My First Time.’ Did I mention that the first 25 virgins at each Friday night performance get in free?
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