1964: The Birth of Gay Theater - The Gay & Lbian Review

Contents:

• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• 1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER
• STAGE GAY
• GAY
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
• THE 6 STAG OF COMG OUT AS GAY

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

[1, 2] In 1993, Diamond and lleagu performed a review of studi nducted wh var populatns and nclud that the prevalence of predomant homosexual attractn was lower than Ksey had predicted. Frd's theory attribut homosexual velopment mal to a fay un which the adolcent has a strong relatnship wh his mother and a nflicted hostile relatnship wh a domeerg father.

Likewise, Bell and lleagu nducted a study of 1500 dividuals intified as gay and lbian through tailed terviews volvg var aspects of their childhood environment, cludg parental relatnships.

1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER

Teenagers this velopmental phase may try to ny or change their homosexual feelgs; some may display outward hostily toward persons who are GLB, sometim to the pot of harassment or vlence. [8] Teenagers who ny their homosexualy or bisexualy to the outsi world (ie, " the closet") expend tremendo amounts of energy hidg and nyg their sexual clatns; some may channel much of their energi to excellg amics, athletics, or other enavors. " If a pediatrician feels reluctant or unable to ask qutns and support adolcents who are gay, lbian, or bisexual (GLB), he or she is obliged to make a referral to a lleague or another profsnal who has personal fort and experience this area.

In 1964, spe a social climate of homophobia that pervad Amerin life for the send third of the 20th century, two one-act plays prented Off-Off-Broadway at the Caffe Co revolutnized how gay characters uld be reprented theatrilly. Satirized the trial of Osr Wil sympathetilly), the Wilson and Patrick one-acts were unique that both featured gay characters set the prent time who were not only open, but boisteroly fiant.

STAGE GAY

We uldn’t jt log on to the ter or turn on the televisn to fd reprentatns of ourselv, we had to triangulate and hypothize om half-hts and sual pretory remarks by New York wrers about Greenwich Village parti and ffeeho that wh an only half-discerned arty Bohemian environment there might possibly be a ltle more acceptance of homosexuals.

GAY

In tanm wh the work of activist polil groups, which had begun anizg the late 1950s, the wrers at the Caffe Co—wh their wild talents for turng fantasy to theatril realy for their untercultural dienc—metaphorilly gave birth to the ncept of “gay liberatn. In this way, they ed the stage to shape public disurse, and the muni that rulted n perhaps be scribed as direct precsors of the Gay Liberatn Front and Gay Activist Alliance.

(In fact, Doric Wilson, perhaps the first playwright of the “Gay Theater” movement at the Co, was also a pneer of gay polil activism: he participated both the GLF and s scennt, the GAA. LANFORD WILSON and Robert Patrick were not unaware that their impulse to wre plays about openly gay characters was chartg new terrory, as wns Wilson’s “thor not” to “The Madns of Lady Bright”: “I believe the ia of the play shocked me. Openg on December 6, 1964, only a few months after “The Madns of Lady Bright, ” “The Hnted Host” has as s protagonist one Jay, a wildly funny gay playwright who has recently lost his lover Ed to suici.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS

Envisng an alternative endg for the tragic queen archetype, the play enacts a crique of homosexual inti by offerg a visn which the stereotypil power dynamic between the gay man and the straight man is verted. By reversg the prumptn of heterosexualy as origal tth, and puttg the “straight man” a posn which he mt expla his “foreign” sexualy to a gay man, the playwright language to unrme the heterosexist perceptn of realy.

Patrick’s queer theater ntributed to a nascent sense of “gay liberatn” by promotg visibily, stabilizg normative social nstcts, providg a template for dividual self-empowerment, and exposg opprsn. An ephemeral utopia for Patrick and his iends, the Co was neverthels a place where numero relatnships were built, and where gay artists uld fd the mararie that affirmed their mon terts, perspectiv, and sexual sir. Through an examatn of stage-gay, the notor practice of queer performativy on stage by straight performers the emo mic subculture, I vtigate how a rtrictive notn of “tth” discsns of queerbag n actually close off the very possibili of transformatn and open-end nfiguratns of sexualy that Alexanr Doty’s formulatn of queerns promised.

THE 6 STAG OF COMG OUT AS GAY

In the same volume, Emma Nord suggts there are two sis to queerbag—one versn has producers “htg at yet nyg queer ntent, and the other one has producers promisg gay characters yet not liverg proper reprentatn. ”3 Most of the thors Brennan’s book are fairly clear that the liberate tent of media producers is a key part of queerbag, as opposed to viewer terpretatns of queerns or homoeroticism. When nsirg emo bands’ tentns performg stage-gay, we should look to explic statements ma by band members about s purpose: not to take them as transparent statements of fact, but as performative elements the Butlerian/Fouuldian sense, which be wh other visual and dible statements to nstct a disurse of queerns.

We should also take to acunt the soc-cultural ntexts which stage-gay first me to public note: two boys kissg onstage at a hard rock ftival 2002 is an entirely different statement than the same gture ma a queer-iendly club 2020.