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.
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’
* 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.
IS MAR LOPEZ GAY? HIS SEXUALY AND LONG DATG HISTORY
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. “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. 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. 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.
WHO IS TONY LOPEZ? WHO IS HE DATG? IS TONY LOPEZ GAY? B
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. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMatthew Lopez on what spired his two-part play about gay culture the wake of AIDS, and the lims of “affirmative reprentatn.
IS MAR LOPEZ GAY? HIS SEXUALY AND LONG DATG HISTORY
” Calme for The New York TimTheatergoers of different generatns have had passnate rpons to “The Inherance, ” Matthew Lopez’s two-part play about gay culture and the legacy of AIDS. While many have found the show ordately movg, others have cricized a lack of diversy the central st and narrow reprentatn of ntemporary gay life. Forster’s “Howards End” — g three generatns of gay New Yorkers to explore class, muny and the legacy of H.
” Somehow a gay Puerto Rin kid om the Florida panhandle was able to see some part of his experience reflected back the story of the Schlegel sisters. I wanted to wre a play that was te to my experience, my philosophy, my heart as a gay man who has enjoyed opportuni that were nied Forster. It was my attempt to expla myself to the world as a gay man of my particular generatn.
What I was attemptg was an examatn of class, enomic equaly, and poverty wh the gay muny — issu I have rarely seen picted theater. I believe that wrg hontly about my experience as a gay man, I have also ntributed one more example of what means to be a Puerto Rin man. There are no openly gay NBA players.