I am the individual standing in the center of the modern city, yearning for a connection. Any connection. To you. To her. To him. To you. To you. As a body, my type fits the mold of the Hollywood scene and I can, from a space of privilege, move in and out of the places deemed hip and hot. I have seen Hollywood from the inside of privilege and lack, moving from the glamorous to the streets of Skid Row. I have seen friends courted by millionaires and listened to the sounds of fucking in the porn warehouses. I enter the spaces in Hollywood that many people do not wish to go.My sexual history is a collision of sexual trauma, failed relationships, and sexual objectification.
I struggle personally with sexual interaction; have had lovers in and outside of the Hollywood scene. Here, I write about all of these encounters honestly, provocatively, as well as theoretically. I am not afraid to write from a space of vulnerability and reflexivity. I am an Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge where I am also the Director of the Performance Ensemble. As a member of the theater scene in Los Angeles, I work closely with directors, actors, and producers on the outskirts of the entertainment industry. Theater is often times seen as the seg-way into the mass entertainment sector of Hollywood and a nostalgic place the more famous members of the entertainment industry wish to return. These connections offer more fodder for my research.
Amber Lynn Zimmerman is a critical-cultural communication scholar with specific interest in performance methodology. She received her Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University in Speech Communication with emphasis in performance art and queer feminism. She is an Assistant Professor in the Drama and Speech Communication program at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.