Gay Sweatshop spent twenty-two years producg plays as Bra's first openly gay profsnal theatre pany. Their alternative and polil work primarily took the form of thor-driven new wrg, though experiments wh performer-driven work trigued the pany om s earlit barets to s late phase of queer solo work unr Lois Weaver. In this article, Sara Freeman ppots Sweatshop's tenth anniversary new play ftival 1985 as the moment when the pany mted to new wrg as a strategy for gag greater legimacy as a theatre group and as a central mo to enurage gay and lbian voic and reprentatn. She argu that while this had been the flt mo of much 1970s polil theatre cludg Sweatshop's, as played out the 1980s, a new wrg strategy reprented a move toward stutnal stabily as the loc of theatril radilism shifted athetics. In this analysis, the celebratn of pany anniversari and the creatn of ftival events provid ocsns for the pany to experience the succs or failure of s polici. Freeman is Assistant Profsor of Theatre Arts at the Universy of Puget Sound. She is the -edor of Public Theatr and Theatre Publics (2012) and Internatnal Dramaturgy: Translatn and Transformatns the Theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker (2008). Her recent publitns appear Morn Brish Playwrg: the 1980s. Readgs Performance and Elogy, and the forthg volume The Brish Theatre Company om Frge to Mastream: Volume II 1980–1994. ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER];
Contents:
- GAY SWEATSHOP
- HOW ‘BENT’ MA GAY HISTORY
- WHY THEY JOED GAY SWEATSHOP.
- THE GAY SWEATSHOP THEATRE COMPANY
- GAY SWEATSHOP TIM TEN
- SIMON CALLOW: PRAISE OF GAY SWEATSHOP
- GAY SWEATSHOP DAYS
- GARY THOMAS SPEAKS TO DAVID BENEDICT OM GAY SWEATSHOP
- GAY SWEATSHOP, ALTERNATIVE THEATRE, AND STRATEGI FOR NEW WRG
- GAY SWEATSHOP THEATRE COMPANY
- MANY GAY ACTORS STILL FEAR G OUT WILL DAMAGE THEIR REERS
GAY SWEATSHOP
Gay Sweatshop, Alternative Theatre, and Strategi for New Wrg - Volume 30 Issue 2 * gay sweatshop bent *
After Mart Sherman granted The New York Tim an terview about his 1979 play, “Bent, ” a groundbreakg drama that for the first time spotlighted the Nazi persecutn of gays onstage, the Tim reporter phoned Sherman three separate tim to nfirm whether the thor tly wanted to adm, prt, that he was gay.
HOW ‘BENT’ MA GAY HISTORY
* gay sweatshop bent *
Along the way, not only raised awarens of the Nazis’ gay purge but also paved the way for subsequent gay-themed plays, such as “La Cage x Foll, ” “The Normal Heart” and Tony Khner’s “Angels Ameri. But, while movg rocks om one si of a yard to the other all day long — a task meant to drive prisoners mad — Max falls love wh a gay mate, Horst, and their burgeong relatnship not only leads Max to eventually embrace his sexual inty, but also helps both men to survive, for a time, amid the horrific ndns at Dach. Sherman’s gay and Jewish inti often have prompted him to wre about outsirs, or characters who are margalized by society; while the Judaism his childhood was “ever prent, ” he said, he knew and kept secret his sexualy durg his childhood.
And yet his g-out experience wh his parents, the mid-1970s, wasn’t particularly ght: Sherman simply showed them a glowg article about “Bent” the London Tim that also scribed him as gay. “The pany was a group of talented young actors and directors who felt that the imag of gays and lbians the theater at the time were stctive and negative — eher screamg queens or people who were miserable and suicidal about their sexualy, ” he said. In 1975, Gay Sweatshop staged Sherman’s play “Passg By, ” about a uple alg wh hepatis; a year later, Sherman got his spiratn for “Bent” while attendg a Sweatshop performance of the play “As Time Go By.
Sherman saw parallels this sexually ee but apolil behavr to that of gay men the Weimar Republic, who remaed obliv to a dormant law on the books outlawg homosexualy until the Nazis reactivated upon g to power. Sherman disvered one lone article on gays and the Nazis a gay magaze, then traveled to a library voted to Nazi history Vienna, where a librarian brought him books which he uld read jt a paragraph here or there on the topic. But I’m very aware that most of the advanc are due more than anythg to the vastatn of AIDS, bee that forced fai all over the world to acknowledge and realize that they might have a son or a brother or a father or a nephew who is gay.
WHY THEY JOED GAY SWEATSHOP.
It has bee an extremely signifint Amerin play the twentieth century due to s reexamatn of the Holot as s historil ntext, as well as s extremely human pictn of homosexuals. Coverg a wi range of topics om “Jewish Pol 1665, homosexual persecutn by the Nazis, dystopian chaos Ameri, Isadora Dunn durg her fal years, a spy-obssed Egypt durg WWII, and a homosexual uple who ntract hepatis, ” Sherman’s plays always explore the theme of inty and the stggle of g om a varied background (Bol 231). The play was met wh great ntroversy due to s extreme vlence and s claim, asserted by Max when he claims he is a Jew rather than gay, that homosexuals received worse torment than those of Jewish herage durg the Holot.
After both read the script they “stayed up all night talkg about the historil ntext and the persecutn of gay men Nazi Germany, ” as well as the “mixture of styl and different theatril form” (Dace 52). Most known for his film and TV appearanc, Bell was also a gay man, who, after marryg a woman and havg children, got divorced and beme partners wh Franc Tempt, a stume signer. While a scene featurg physil homosexual terurse would have no doubt ed chanc of the show beg performed, Sherman cleverly language to circumvent the taboo and forc the dience to see Max and Horst’s relatnship for what is – te love that transcends the physil.
THE GAY SWEATSHOP THEATRE COMPANY
In addn to the anti-gay protters, people also protted the claim that homosexuals were treated worse than Jews durg the Holot, an opn that is asserted by Horst and perpetuated by Max when he ref to intify himself as homosexual. Both of the issu were precisely what Sherman sired to brg to light, and after Bent opened people began to rearch the treatment of homosexuals the Holot, which had been wildly overlooked. It is difficult to measure whether Bent helped rce the opprsn and stigma on the homosexual muny, but is clear om reviews of the show that few people left the play whout beg emotnally moved.
” Beg one of the first playwrights to feature overtly gay men as leadg characters, Sherman’s work n be nsired proment the field of Queer theory, spe the fact several years before the theory was tablished.
Sherman is unapologetic and unflchg his pictn of gay men, do not seek to glorify them, and stead his play to ll attentn to the opprsn of homosexuals and how they have been overlooked throughout history. An Arts Council grant allowed them to put together Mister X, jotly wrten by the group and based on personal experienc and the book Wh Downst Gays: Aspects of Homosexual Self-Opprsn by Andrew Hodg and David Hutter.
GAY SWEATSHOP TIM TEN
” That reka moment led to Bent, Sherman’s path-breakg 1979 drama about the Third Reich’s persecutn of homosexuals, and that turn led to the wispread adoptn of the pk triangle—a sewn-on badge of shame for gay men the Nazi ncentratn mps—as a gay rights logo durg the AIDS-ravaged 1980s and beyond. What’s easy to fet amid the exorable march of history is not only how far forward gay liberatn has moved but also how ltle was popularly known the mid-1970s about gay life unr the Nazis. He was London the mid-’70s workg wh a small pany lled the Gay Sweatshop, whose productn of his play Passg By had “renewed my termatn to ntue wrg for the theatre, ” when he sat on a rehearsal of Noel Greig and Drew Griffhs’ As Time Go By.
SIMON CALLOW: PRAISE OF GAY SWEATSHOP
“It was three parts, showg gay life three historil eras: one was Victorian England, the send was Germany before the war, and the third was at the time of Stonewall, ” Sherman reunted a phone ll om a wrg workshop he was leadg Atria (“Hugely ironic, ” he noted). Sherman later ught an article Christopher Street, a gay magaze New York Cy, tled “The Men Wh the Pk Triangl, ” that would further rm the wrg of Bent (the article’s thor, Richard Plant, had wrten a book on the subject, The Pk Triangle: The Nazi War Agast Homosexuals, but uldn’t fd a publisher until after Sherman’s play premiered). This purge, one of many turng pots Hler’s nsolidatn of power, targeted one of his alli and potential rivals, Ernst Rohm, the openly gay lear of the Nazis’ paraary wg, the Brownshirts.
“In some ways, you uld argue that gay life was peakg, terms of what beme the ’70s, and was gog to stop beg once the specter of AIDS arrived, ” relled David Marshall Grant, who appeared the play’s first readg at the O’Neill Playwrights Center 1978, and later s Broadway premiere.
GAY SWEATSHOP DAYS
The play’s first scene— which Max and Rudy wake up together an apartment, and Max n’t rell how he spent the prev wild night—was for s time a disarmgly sual portra of what we might today ll a “monogamish” gay relatnship. Moisés Kfman, who is directg the revival at the Mark Taper Fom, lled Bent “a much richer, eper, more plited play than jt a play about gays the Holot, ” though he admted that s functn as a historil marker is still urgently necsary.
“There were 100 gay bars Berl the 1930s, and 40 gay publitns, ” Kfman said, potg also to Magn Hirschfeld’s Instute for Sexual Studi and his activism on behalf of legalizg gay relatnships. If Greig and Griffhs were to add a chapter to As Time Go By, they might clu one which gays have claimed their rightful place two nservative stutns—marriage and the ary—and still wonr what’s missg. Ground-breakg many ways, Delaney’s play evad censorship and featured Geof, a gay stunt (played by Murray Melv) who liv wh protagonist Jo and helps her through her illegimate pregnancy.
A wealth of work me the followg two s that fed the gay experience of HIV and AIDS wh artists such as Neil Bartlett and plays cludg Robert Chelsey’s Night Sweat, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (the first play about AIDS the Wt End), Ja Hood and Bill Rsell’s Elegi for Angels, Punks and Ragg Queens as well as Tony Khner’s monumental Angels Ameri. The Drill Hall ntued to be a centre for LGBTQ+ shows, cludg work om performance artists Djola Bernard Branner, Brian Freeman and Eric Gupton, otherwise known as Pomo Ao Homos (Postmorn Ain Amerin Homosexuals) – their show Fierce Love played at the venue 1992.
GARY THOMAS SPEAKS TO DAVID BENEDICT OM GAY SWEATSHOP
But there was a naggg doubt; perhaps the people were havg a better time than I was; perhaps my weekend gay stat was patible wh the hard-workg a-sexual, profsnal actor image I prented durg the rt of the week. I joed wh great fear and trepidatn – after all, I uld be g my reer – (I remember vividly the first prs ll when I liberately disassociated myself om the group, sat wh my back to the meras, aaid of beg publicly intified as a homosexual) but somehow found the urage to direct two of the plays the first season.
GAY SWEATSHOP, ALTERNATIVE THEATRE, AND STRATEGI FOR NEW WRG
‘We hope to make an artistic ntributn to the theatril scene; if we n attract people to , profsnal theatre people and others, who are not ashamed of beg gay, then we shall have ma a polil ntributn also. ‘When I was asked to appear Mart Sherman’s Passg By, for Gay Sweatshop at The Almost Free Theatre (you paid what you uld afford), I psed for a moment, wonrg what the nsequenc might be for my relatnship wh my mother. By no means all the actors who worked for Gay Sweatshop were gay, so wasn’t a public admissn of homosexualy; but there would be newspaper verage, reviews and so on, which my mother might well see.
Inter-Actn, a -operative muny arts rource centre, staged a popular Women's season at the Almost Free theatre 1974 and, spired by their succs, advertised for gay actors to take part a gay theatre season planned for tumn 1974. "Homosexual Acts" was origally schled to last until April but was extend to June and addnal plays were 1975 the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly (CHE) had lol groups tablished most towns. News of the tour spread quickly throughout the gay muni and the tour was seen by many whom would not have ually had the urage to attend a gay 1976 Gay Sweatshop put on a lunchtime season at the Instute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) nng om Febary through to July.
Although they tried to ntue beme too much of a burn for the two remag directors, Noel Greig and Philip Timms, and the admistrator, Gean Wilton, and at the end of March 1981 Gay Sweatshop was closed as a Sweatshop was revived 1983 as a mixed pany rather than the two artistilly separate pani that had existed sce 1977. Gay Sweatshop eventually received a grant 1985 that allowed them to put on a send productn of "Poppi" wh the tour nng om March to the 1980s the Gay movement had bee somewhat apathetic. The ftival schled for the 10th anniversary of the pany provid them wh an opportuny to rpond to the new challeng and serve as a platform for a wi range of work cludg; Gay teachers, problems facg young gays and lbians, lbian ctody, experienc and black lbians and the issue of AIDS.
GAY SWEATSHOP THEATRE COMPANY
In rponse to the succs of "Gay Sweatshop x 10" the Greater London Council award the pany an annual grant that allowed them to get a full-time admistrator and office space. ‘What we did was, offer the first two plays of Gay Sweatshop, which were Mister X which the men’s pany did and Jill Posener’s play Any Woman Can, we offered those to new wrers and asked them to rpond to those plays, to read the plays and then to go, ‘what ias do that spark off me, ten years later?
’ So we had this ftival at the Drill Hall wh a lot of new plays by people who had not wrten before and not wrten for Gay Sweatshop before, bee we felt that was important to support and generate another generatn of lbian and gay wrers.
Beg gay – gay, not queer, not homo, not poof nor pansy, faggot nor fairy – was now a e, a csa; we were a separate and self-sufficient subdivisn of human kd, our liv centrally predited on sire.
MANY GAY ACTORS STILL FEAR G OUT WILL DAMAGE THEIR REERS
And some very liberated gay men, who mostly me om Out There – those very ungay regnal and suburban hterlands – cid that maybe the theatre would be a good way of nnectg everyone up. So Gay Sweatshop me to existence, unr the umbrella of the Amerin granddaddy of radil theatre, the alternative Diaghilev, Ed Berman, who for a season opened his ltle venue to plays by, for and about gay men and I was asked, by this to me at the time hilarly named Gay Sweatshop, to read for the part of Toby Mart Sherman’s play Passg By, I was highly sceptil.