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

Contents:

• 1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER
• CHILD STAR STGGLED TO E OUT AFTER PLAYG ‘THE GAY KID’ ‘SCHOOL OF ROCK’
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
• NEW GAY THEATER HAS MORE LOVE THAN POLICS
• BROADWAY'S GAY STEREOTYP ARE AN INSULT TO THEATER KIDS EVERYWHERE
• MATTHEW LOPEZ'S GAY NEW YORK EPIC THE INHERANCE – PICTUR

1964: THE BIRTH OF GAY THEATER

Degrassi: Next Generatn Seasons 2–7When Degrassi: The Next Generatn premiered s send season, Mar Del Rossi, played by Adamo Ruggiero, found a home and a place Degrassi history wh his role as a gay stunt who practilly went through all durg his time on the gay kids high school were fodr for bullyg, Mar found an dience through an accurate portrayal that allowed him to live a pretty normal teenage life, for Degrassi standards at Degrassi High, he found love Paige's hockey player brother, helped his iends e to terms wh their gay bt iend, and a b of everythg else that wh beg a Degrassi stunt.

Degrassi: Next Generatn Seasons 11–14 and Degrassi: Next Class 1–4For the gay kid at Degrassi, life n be tough, but Tristan, played by Lyle Lett, he at least ma his time heart attacks, anorexia, fights wh his BFF, sleepg wh a teacher, and so much more, Tristan ma his mark on the screen and the halls of Degrassi ways so few have before. Degrassi: Next Class 3–4The first gay Mlim character on the show, Rasha, played by Dalia Yegavian, gave the show a morn update while portrayg a young Mlim immigrant tryg to fd herself (like everyone at Degrassi, all the time) end up datg Zoe Rivas, another queer woman of lor, durg her last seasons on the show. 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.

CHILD STAR STGGLED TO E OUT AFTER PLAYG ‘THE GAY KID’ ‘SCHOOL OF ROCK’

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.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS

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.

NEW GAY THEATER HAS MORE LOVE THAN POLICS

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.

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.

BROADWAY'S GAY STEREOTYP ARE AN INSULT TO THEATER KIDS EVERYWHERE

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.

Here are ten of the plays that have ntributed to LGBTQ+ theatre's rich Drag by Mae WtThe Drag follows Rolly, a gay man who marri a woman to hi his sexualy, and the nsequenc of this.

MATTHEW LOPEZ'S GAY NEW YORK EPIC THE INHERANCE – PICTUR

Wh a st of exclively gay actors om a Greenwich Village club, the play was a huge fancial succs, but was wily panned by crics and shut down due to obsceny laws and never ma to Broadway as planned. It is by no means as ntroversial as many plays wh central male gay them, but has to work doubly hard bee of this lack of other lbian storyl on the stage, somethg that is dire need of changg and that Fun Home self uld In Ameri by Tony Khner The exploratn of AIDS 1980s Ameri an epic unrtakg, and Angels Ameri is a suably epic play. Hot on the heels of the Angels Ameri revival, Matthew Lopez asks what is like for the next generatn of young gay men New York, growg up and livg the shadow of the AIDS crisis.