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

Contents:

• THE GAY AND LBIAN THEATRIL LEGACY
• 1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• TRIANGULATNS: LBIAN/GAY/QUEER THEATER/DRAMA/PERFORMANCE (SERI)

THE GAY AND LBIAN THEATRIL LEGACY

” —Broadsi: Newsletter of the Theatre Library AssociatnThe Gay and Lbian Theatril Legacy llects a sgle volume bgraphi of more than one hundred notable figur whose reers flourished the years before the 1969 Stonewall Rts marked the begng of the gay and lbian civil rights movement the Uned Stat. The Gay and Lbian Theatril Legacy llects bgraphi and portras of fluential actors, playwrights, posers, directors, signers, dancers, producers, managers, crics, choreographers, and technicians who ma their mark on the Amerin theater.

In this chronologil list of semal events and selected theatril landmarks, you’ll fd a wi variety of gay, lbian and transgenr characters and stori – om gay men New York stgglg wh self-loathg The Boys the Band to a young lbian North Carola proudly facg her fay The Cake. 1975: The Rz by Terrence McNally(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3f, 14m) Terrence McNally managed to be both a tradnalist and a pneer wh this uproar 1975 Broadway h; he set his tradnal door-slammg farce a gay bathhoe.

1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER

1978: Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierste(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2f, 4m)In 1978, gay “clone culture” was on the rise; many gay Amerins tried to assiate by appearg more “straight, ” and Amerins beme more faiar wh imag of butch gay men. ) “At the height of the post-Stonewall clone era, ” wrote playwright Charl Bch a 2002 article for The Advote, “Harvey [Fierste] challenged both gay and straight dienc to champn an effemate gay man’s longgs for love and fay.

1981: March of the Falsettos by William Fn(Full-Length Mil, Dramatic Comedy / 1f, 3m, 1 boy) Two years after his experimental mil In Troers troduced a gay character named Marv ntemplatg the women (and men) his life, William Fn expand Marv’s universe the one-act mil March of the Falsettos, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons on May 20, 1981. Wrten before AIDS reached the public nscns (and premierg jt two days after the first published report of what was later lled AIDS) Fn’s nrotic, lightful mil celebrat gay fai, therapy, Jewishns and personal growth wh no ht of the panmic to e. A barely fictnalized acunt of Larry Kramer’s life experience as -founr of GMHC and ACT-UP, the play ncerns Ned Weeks, a gay activist enraged at the difference of public officials and the gay muny.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS

Through several further llaboratns, cludg Brave S: Another Lbian Tragedy, The Secretari, Bris of the Moon and Oedip at Palm Sprgs, The Five Lbian Brothers ntued to create and perform over the next two s, a time when news of gay men and AIDS often overshadowed stori of lbian liv. 2004: The History Boys by Alan Bent(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1f, 11m)First prented by the Natnal Theatre at the Lyttleton Theatre London on May 18, 2004, and subsequently prented on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on April 23, 2006, Alan Bent’s The History Boys subtly explored gay them s pictn of life among an unly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form (senr) boys a Brish boardg school 1983. A kaleidospe that ternnects to portray growg up gay and black, Bootyndy tells the story of Sutter, who is on an outrageo odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms, and even nursg hom.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

2013: Fun Home Mic by Jeane Tori / Book & Lyrics by Lisa Kron(Full-Length Mil, Drama / 4f, 2m, 1 girl, 2 boys) Nearly a half-century after the birth of the morn gay rights movement, Broadway fally weled s first mil wh a lbian protagonist. In s portra of a lbian artist and her memori of her closeted gay father, the groundbreakg work brilliantly and heartbreakgly picted, the microsm of one fay, the ntrast of generatnal experienc the LGBTQ+ muny.

2015: Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4f, 3m)Inspired by the te story of the earlit stirrgs of the gay rights movement, Perfect Arrangement merg madp s-style lghs wh provotive drama as two closeted U.

Reachg back over 60 years before s premiere, Perfect Arrangement addrs the prediment gay and lbian cizens faced pre-Stonewall Ameri, turng a harrowg perd Amerin history to a rto but thought-provokg edy.

TRIANGULATNS: LBIAN/GAY/QUEER THEATER/DRAMA/PERFORMANCE (SERI)

Set Uganda, a untry subjected to severe anti-homosexualy laws, The Rollg Stone is an timate yet explosive fay drama about two brothers at odds – one a gay man a clanste relatnship, and the other a church pastor who fervently rails agast the liftyle his brother is forced to nceal. 2017: The View UpStairs by Max Vernon(Full-Length Mil, Drama / 2f, 8m)Des after the birth of the morn gay rights movement, this ntemporary mil, which opened off-Broadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre on Febary 28, 2017, revised the 1973 UpStairs Lounge arson attack and the ensug s of gay history. 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. 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. 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.