Matthew Lopez on what spired his two-part play about gay culture the wake of AIDS, and the lims of “affirmative reprentatn.”
Contents:
- WHAT N GAY MEN LEARN OM THEIR ELRS? TO MATTHEW LOPEZ, THAT’S ‘THE INHERANCE’
- IS MAR LOPEZ GAY? HIS SEXUALY AND LONG DATG HISTORY
- WHO IS TONY LOPEZ? WHO IS HE DATG? IS TONY LOPEZ GAY? B
- IS MAR LOPEZ GAY? HIS SEXUALY AND LONG DATG HISTORY
WHAT N GAY MEN LEARN OM THEIR ELRS? TO MATTHEW LOPEZ, THAT’S ‘THE INHERANCE’
Broadway is buzzg wh a 6 1/2-hour tale of gay men nnectg across generatns. Playwright Matthew Lopez talks about trailblazers, startg wh E.M. Forster. * gay lopez *
In 2018, Lopez ma his big screen but the feature film Mapplethorpe, playg gay activist Jack Frscher, the foundg edor of leather-themed magaze Dmmer and Mapplethorpe’s ocsnal lover, the new Robert Mapplethorpe bpic. “When I was younger, I was self-nsc about g off ‘too gay’, ” he told the Washgton Bla earlier this year. As gays, ’s kept safe.
Related: Disabled actor Anthony Michael Lopez talks new film ‘Mapplethorpe’ and beg an out gay leadg man. Subscribe to Queerty for a daily dose of #pri50#polics #gayagenda #random stori and more.
IS MAR LOPEZ GAY? HIS SEXUALY AND LONG DATG HISTORY
“What I was rpondg to was a nnectn wh another gay man through his wrg. Forster the story — perhaps s social nscience or s humor, for there is nothg overtly gay about the movie or Forster’s 1910 novel on which is based.
WHO IS TONY LOPEZ? WHO IS HE DATG? IS TONY LOPEZ GAY? B
Characters and plot pots have equivalents the play, but he has stretched to new them a wholly different i: a circle of gltergly wty, chumy affectnate, gay New Yorkers.
“I am tellg my experience as a gay man born 1977: the life that I’ve lived, the men I have known, the iends I have lost, the hop that I have, the fears that I’ve grappled wh, the shame that I’ve grappled wh.
’s Geffen his personal list of trailblazers, Lopez trac a le back through gay poets Walt Whman and Edward Carpenter, who fluenced Forster.
IS MAR LOPEZ GAY? HIS SEXUALY AND LONG DATG HISTORY
One was Terrence McNally, who happened to have a mil, “A Man of No Importance, ” velopment and ved Lopez to work as an retrospect, the pairg uldn’t have been more felico, bee McNally’s plays about the gay experience — pecially “Love! After he got a 2012 missn to wre the play om Hartford Stage, he and Elizabeth Williamson, who heads the Connecticut stutn’s play velopment program, gathered half a dozen men, reprentg different generatns of gay experience, and asked them to talk about issu and events of signifince to each group. The closg moments of Part 1 make this loss so palpable that theatergoers head out the doors stgglg to stnch their story centers on a gregar late 20s-early 30s uple, Eric Glass and Toby Darlg, whose gathergs foster lively nversatns among a cross-sectn of gay men.