A Very Gay Play

Auditions for Allentown Production

2008-10-28T08:12:00.002-04:00

OPEN AUDITION FOR
“THEIR TOWN”
By Paula Martinac

Time:	Saturday, November 22 from 1PM – 5PM Sunday, November 23 from 2PM – 5PM
Place:	Metropolitan Community Church of the Lehigh Valley 930 N. 4TH Street, 1ST Floor, Allentown, PA
Auditions will consist of readings of scenes from the play. You may bring a prepared monologue, but is is not required. A resume and photo are requested, but also not required.
Performance Dates:	Friday, February 6 at 8PM Saturday, February 7 at 2PM & 7PM
Rehearsals will be weekends only, starting the weekend of December 5th and held each weekend up until the February performances, as follows:
Friday evenings:	7PM – 9PM
Saturdays:	11AM - 6PM
Sundays:	2PM – 6PM
Rehearsals will be scheduled by scenes so that you will only be there for your scheduled scenes. There will be no rehearsal the weekend of December 26-28. For more info: http://rainbowplayers.mcclv.org/

New Production for "Their Town"

2008-10-08T07:52:00.004-04:00

I'm happy to report that Their Town will get a brand-new production in Allentown, Pa., in February 2009 as part of the National Freedom to Marry Day celebrations. I was thrilled when Dean Hiatt found out about the play at my MySpace page and contacted me, asking to read the script. In just a very short time, he's put together a new theater company and is mounting a full season of exciting work, beginning with The Big Voice: God or Merman? next month. Visit the Rainbow Players Theater Company website for more on what they're up to, and to watch for updates on the upcoming production of my play!

2007-06-24T19:27:00.000-04:00

"The End of the Run"

The play ended its short but lovely run this afternoon, and now the hard work of trying to get it picked up by other companies starts. This is much harder than it sounds. It's already been rejected by a few companies that said things like "We enjoyed reading it, but ultimately decided it wasn't for us." That, of course, is like saying, "We're just not into you," and can be interpreted any number of ways. I know it's not badly written so... what? Too big a cast? Too gay? Playwright's last name isn't Kushner or Vogel? You wish they'd give you more, but they never do - a very frustrating experience that, as a writer, I have never gotten used to.

2007-06-24T19:25:00.000-04:00

"So Maybe Elizabeth Edwards Should Be President"

Read this.

2007-06-21T08:22:00.000-04:00

"Critical Thinking"

The reviews for Their Town are in from two local papers, and, although they aren't raves - every writer's fantasy - they were exceedingly fair (at least to me) and helpful. Here they are: reviews in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and in City Paper.

Amazingly, one loved the inclusion of a statue come-to-life of Thornton Wilder and wished I'd used him more; the other hated it ("nonsensical," in his words) but admitted that the actor played the part well. I can't resist noting that the critic who hated the statue also hated my short play in which a character popped out of a TV set... maybe he doesn't like magical elements on stage.

I tend to agree with both critics that a bit more revision would strengthen the play. I thought it during rehearsals, and the actual performances have underscored certain weak transitions and unclear character points - things the actors wondered about when reading the lines. After the festival, I'd like to put the script aside for a little while and digest before attempting any changes.

Actually, this is something playwrights do all the time - revise a play after it's been produced - but that novelists don't. Well, novelists actually can't, because the thing's been printed, but I'm pretty sure they would if they could. I, for one, have given readings from my novels and cringed at the sound of something or even changed it on the spot, while I'm reading, so it "sounds better."

2007-06-16T08:37:00.000-04:00

"Curtain Up…"

Well, if there were curtains in theaters anymore, Their Town's is officially up. We opened last night - good crowd, wonderfully receptive, thrilling that they actually laughed at the jokes! As one of the actors, Leah Klocko, and I discussed after the show, you get so close to the material and lose so much perspective during rehearsals, you forget that the play is funny.

Ok, there was some questionable set stuff ("I hate that lamp post!" the director Adam Kukic told me after the show - it's some sort of big ol' Christmas candle), but hey, this is theater on a shoestring. What's more important is that the ensemble was great - I feel like I know the script by heart at this point, and they had their characters and lines nailed. Particularly exciting to me is that the character of Thornton Wilder - a statue in Grover's Corners' park - really works. Todd Betker plays him with a lot of humor and affection, and his mugging made the audience laugh. Poor Todd wears a suit and hat painted gray, gray face makeup, and gray gloves, so he's pretty hot by the end of the play. But anything for art, right? Originally, the script called for Wilder not to look like a statue, and to play various other parts, too - a la the Stage Manager in Our Town. But it was Adam's idea to have him fully "statuesque," and it was a great call - I intend to write it into the script after the run.

2007-06-14T10:12:00.000-04:00

"Actors Ready… Actors Go"

Last night was the final tech rehearsal ("q2q") for Their Town, followed by the dress rehearsal - the first time I'd really seen it all the way through without any interruptions. Rev. Janet Edwards joined me, in preparation for our conversation/talkback following the performance on June 17.

Tech rehearsals tend to be kind of boring - you just skip from lighting cue to sound cue or whatever, not running complete scenes. But still, there's something about the stage manager calling "Actors ready…actors go" that is at heart pretty exciting. The magic of theater and all that. There was lots of discussion about where to find the bush that is needed for the park scenes, with Dave, the stage manager, trying (unsuccessfully) to sell me on a large potted ficus he found in the lobby. I have caved on other small things, but I just can't give up the bush.

We got a nice preview in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning, from Christopher Rawson - check it out.

2007-06-05T08:33:00.000-04:00

"Down to the Wire"

Just 10 more days until we open, and things are coming together nicely. This week, I'm attending more rehearsals than usual, in order to be available for those last-minute tweaks and adjustments to the script.

Here are a couple of rehearsal shots, taken by our director, Adam Kukic.

Scott van de Mark as the town council president, and Jaime Slavinsky and Leah Klocko as longtime lesbian partners

Joe Stitman as Joe Hersey, the mayor, and Diana Ifft as Margaret, the town clerk

2007-06-01T13:08:00.000-04:00

"Two Weeks and Counting…"

Two more weeks until Their Town goes up, and I continue to tweak scenes and lines here and there. Nothing very serious, but a number of small things that need to be "touched up," rather like applying little dabs of concealing makeup rather than performing major cosmetic surgery. For example, I discovered at rehearsal last night that my main character, Margaret, doesn't have any reaction when the statue of Thornton Wilder tells her he's gay. All the times that I've heard those lines read over the past three years, and I never caught that - it only became apparent when I saw it staged. So I patched that up this morning. She's a polite New Englander, so luckily, didn't need much of a reaction.

The actors are a strong bunch, and since their names aren't on the promotional copy (there were too many to fit, and the play wasn't completely cast when the posters were printed), I feel the need to acknowledge them here: Todd Betker, Lou Bojarski, John Feightner, Diana Ifft, Leah Klocko, Jaime Slavinsky, Paige Spara, Joe Stitman, and Scott van de Mark.

2007-05-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

"A Theater for Social Change"

Here's something very cool: Rev. Janet Edwards, a local Presbyterian minister who united two women in marriage in 2005 and had charges brought against her, will make a special appearance at the Fourth Annual Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival, following the 7:00 p.m. performance of my play Their Town on June 17.

Rev. Edwards - a parish associate of Pittsburgh's Community of Reconciliation, an interracial, multi-denominational congregation - will participate in a conversation with me on the topic of how art helps to create social change. Their Town, a full-length comedy, imagines what would happen if a same-sex couple tried to get married in Grover's Corners, the fictional site of Thornton Wilder's classic American play Our Town.

My play takes a close look at our allies, people who go to bat for gay rights, and Rev. Edwards is a living example of that. I thought inviting her to talk about why she has actively engaged in the struggle for equal marriage rights - even putting her job on the line for it - would give even more immediacy to a theatrical work.

Here's what happened: Rev. Edwards - a descendant of celebrated Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards - made both local and national news when she presided over the marriage of two lesbians, Brenda Cole and Nancy McConn of West Virginia, in June 2005. Following the ceremony, the couple placed a wedding announcement in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, noting Rev. Edwards' participation. The wedding caused an uproar among some of Edwards’ conservative colleagues, who filed a formal complaint against her.

Edwards steadfastly maintained that she had not violated church law in marrying the two women. “Marriage is a sacred union between people who are committed to each other, without regard to gender,” she said. After a year-long ordeal, the highest Presbyterian court threw out the charges against Edwards in November 2006.

The conversation will begin directly after the 7 p.m. performance on June 17 and will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. Tickets are $10 in advance (to reserve call 412-288-0358) and $15 at the door. The event takes place at 542 Penn Avenue, mezzanine level, in the Cultural District. Be there!

2007-05-18T18:41:00.000-04:00

"Wow"

This is what we're up against with regard to securing equal marriage rights.

Thanks for the link to my friend David, who seems to spend a lot of time scouring YouTube...

2007-05-16T08:49:00.000-04:00

"Promo Homo, Part 2"

Some promotional stuff for the Pride Theater Festival is coming up, which means we're getting even closer to the actual event.

On May 20, "The G Spod" will feature an interview with playwright Ryan McKelvey and his director, Jeff Simpson. The host is a Pittsburgh DJ named "G" whom I "met" on MySpace and who invited us to promote the festival on his podcast.

The June issue of Out (Pittsburgh's gay newspaper of long standing) includes a feature article about yours truly.

Also, I'm going to be interviewed for Rustbelt Radio, a local indie station - the actual taping is May 30, and I'll get back to you with the date it airs.

Rehearsals for Their Town continue at the ASH Galleries in Lawrenceville - I haven't attended any yet, but will be doing so soon (with some minor revisions of the script in hand…).

2007-05-08T09:33:00.000-04:00

"And We're Off…"

On Sunday night, we had the read-through of Their Town, which went really well - considering that we had to meet in a raw space with no lighting, so we had to speed things up before it got dark! Ah, theater.

This was the first time the cast was all together, and that I formally met them. (I'd seen a few of them at auditions, and one of them in other plays.) I didn't bring my camera, because it seemed pushy for the first time, but I will take some rehearsal photos for publicity purposes at a later date.

The read-through was a little slow and stumbly at first, but that's to be expected - some of the actors hadn't read the play before and were reading cold. But as the scenes went by, they dove into their parts, and the thing started to find its legs. It's going to be a good production, although very different from the reading we did in January, with different actors.

That, to me, is the really energizing part. You write a play, and then it is interpreted by all these other people - it can be many different things depending on the director, the actors he or she picks, or even the particular performance. And there are all the things the writer doesn't necessarily think about - for example, I realized I had never considered what the costumes would look like until Adam, the director, brought them up. His idea was to be minimalist, as with the set, which seems like a good idea. (Although, in an interesting aside, Our Town tends to have traditional costuming - only the set and props are minimal.)

2007-05-02T18:30:00.000-04:00

"Promo Homo"

Here's the brand new Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival poster, which is very cool. Just click on it to make it larger and see all the details.

2007-04-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

"Auditions!"

After the April 28 auditions, one of the plays in the festival is completely cast, and the rest are either partially or mostly cast. Here are some of the playwrights and directors making notes and waiting for the next actor:

That's playwright Ryan McKelvey in red (you can't see it, but his T-shirt reads "They're wild for vaginas in Pittsburgh," from a local performance of The Vagina Monologues); two seats to the right is his director, Jeff Simpson. Pretending she isn't aware that I'm taking pictures is playwright Carol Mullen. And at the upper right is Adam Kukic, Their Town's director, wondering how he got involved in a play that requires eight actors.

Also on hand were playwright/director/actor Wali Jamal and director Kim El. Wali isn't rehearsing a role here - he just had surgery on his knee and really does need the wheelchair. During some down time (of which there was a fair amount - even I considered auditioning), he mesmerized us all with a monologue from the play Pill Hill, opening at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh on May 11.

Last but not least, director/playwright FJ Hartland and playwright/actor AJ Tindall seriously (?) consider their casting options. What I want to know is, is anyone else curious about the fact that the director and playwright have eerily similar initials?

You can also see more photos at my MySpace page, by clicking on "Pics."

2007-04-24T07:37:00.001-04:00

"Show Business"

The Pride Festival is getting seriously underway now. Last Saturday, we had a preliminary meeting of all the playwrights and directors with the production manager and the festival committee chair. This coming weekend are the auditions - always unpredictable. One memorable year a young actor sat on a chair on the stage to give her prepared monologue, and everyone in the audience could see that her jeans were split. Trying not to laugh like school kids and throw her off was rough.

I've been through this pre-production stuff a couple of times before with the festival, but it's still exciting. When I was writing fiction, it was a lonely process - you sweated and typed and maybe shared your work with a small group of writers and your editor and then you sweated and typed some more - on your own. Then you turned it in. In contrast, the collaborative "let's put on a show" feeling that you get with theater is really like nothing else I've experienced as a writer.

2007-04-17T14:44:00.000-04:00

"His Town"

Today I posted an item at my other blog, "The Queerest Places," on Thornton Wilder's grave in Hamden, Connecticut - which is, coincidentally, the hometown of my brother-in-law. I'll have to ask him if he's ever been to Wilder's grave. So check it out when you get a chance.

Lots of activity coming up around the Pride Theater Festival - a meeting for all playwrights and directors this weekend, then auditions the following weekend. I'll have much more to report on soon, as we head into the real deal - rehearsals!

2007-04-16T08:11:00.000-04:00

"More Character Sketches: The Hersey Brothers"

Continuing with more character sketches from Their Town, here are brief profiles of brothers Joe (straight) and Charlie (gay) Hersey:

JOE HERSEY

The mayor of Grover's Corners, N.H. - late 20s, a lawyer and a Dartmouth graduate. Joe is a single straight guy who doesn't date much, but could, if he wanted to - he's chosen to focus on his career. He is extremely polished and confident, a good speaker, and a charmer.

Joe is a savvy politician, a Democrat, born and raised in Grover's Corners, who convinced the town to change its charter to have a mayor instead of a board of selectmen as its governing authority. Some people think he's a bit too slick, but underneath his politician's exterior is someone who cares about issues and particularly about the town. He has seen lots of people his age have to leave town because of the lack of jobs and opportunities, and he's determined to find a way to reenergize the local economy. But at the same time, he is very ambitious, and determined to use the town as a steppingstone to higher office. He is aiming to be governor of the state someday, a dream he's held since childhood - and maybe from there, on to the White House! Sometimes, his ambition can hurt other people - as when he fails to consider how his plans for Grover's Corners might affect his colleague, town clerk Margaret Craig.

Joe has had a strained relationship with his brother, Charlie, who is also a lawyer. They were close growing up and in college and had even once discussed going into practice together. But Joe was uncomfortable when Charlie came out as gay (in a "how can my brother be so different from me?" way), and he also decided he didn't want to be part of a firm that mostly specialized in family-type law. He is slightly cowed by Charlie, too, who is nine months older and so did everything first.

CHARLIE HERSEY

An attorney, specializing in wills, estates, and similar concerns for gay clients - 30 years old, partnered for six years (but in an open relationship). He left Grover's Corners for good when he went to college, having felt smothered there as a queer kid, and now lives in Manchester, where there is a visible gay community. Like his younger brother, Joe, he is personable, charming, savvy, with a quick wit. But he does not have Joe's political ambition. Also, he is to the left of Joe on the political spectrum, veering toward Socialist.

Charlie considers his work as a lawyer to be activism for the gay community. He has strong opinions about the direction the gay movement is taking, and isn't afraid to voice them - in fact, he has made some statements that other activists take offense at. Most importantly, he's not a big fan of the push for same-sex marriage - he considers marriage a patriarchal, oppressive institution that gay people should not aspire to, and he would rather see gay people working for more traditionally leftie concerns, like universal health care.

But at heart, Charlie is concerned about what's best for the gay community, and that is what motivates him to step in when Joe needs a gay couple to get married. While other people in the play are using gay marriage for their own purposes - for example, Joe and Lyle for political reasons; Eliza, to hold her relationship together - Charlie has no agenda. He simply steps forward because he sees it as the right thing to do.

2007-04-13T07:33:00.000-04:00

"Festival Notes"

The full lineup for Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company's fourth annual Pride Theater Festival has been announced!

Program A (one acts):

"And a Happy New Year!" by Aaron Jefferson Tindall, directed by FJ Hartland
"The Session," by Wali Jamal, directed by Kim El
"Beyond Dirt Knees," by Ryan M. McKelvey, directed by Jeff Simpson
"Call Girl," by Carol Mullen, directed by Wali Jamal

Program B (full length):

Their Town, by Paula Martinac, directed by Adam Kukic

A couple of personal notes: FJ Hartland and Carol Mullen are pals of mine (real pals as opposed to MySpace "friends") and regular participants in the festival. And Jeff Simpson, who often works with Pittsburgh Playwrights, gave a terrific interpretation of Charlie, one of the main characters in Their Town, at a reading we did at the theater in late January.

2007-04-09T07:57:00.000-04:00

"In the News"

I read some news on Friday that means I will have to revisit the ending of Their Town - not a huge revision, but a slight tweaking of a couple of scenes. New Hampshire is poised to become the fourth state (joining Vermont, Connecticut, and New Jersey) to offer civil unions to same-sex couples - very good news for the gay community, even though it's not legal marriage. (Only Massachusetts offers that.)

Ah, the trials of writing about current events! My next play (now in the works, called The Basement) is a relationship play with no basis in politics.

2007-04-06T08:31:00.001-04:00

"Queer Theater"

In case you're interested (and since you're reading this, you probably are), I found this online listing of gay and lesbian-supportive theater companies called "On the Purple Circuit."

Of course, there are other theater companies that don't only (or specifically) do queer-themed plays, but that produce them occasionally. My research, however, indicates that these gay-themed plays tend to be the established, major-prize-winning ones - like Angels in America, Take Me Out, or I Am My Own Wife.

There are a handful of queer theater festivals out there, but I haven't located a concise listing of them. Interestingly, when I Googled "lesbian and gay theater festivals" today, I found one I'd never heard of - the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.

So, if you're writing queer-themed plays, it definitely takes some sniffing around to find venues for your work.

2007-04-04T08:29:00.000-04:00

"Queer Youth"

Their Town features a 16-year-old girl, Annie, who is trying to start a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at her high school in Grover's Corners, N.H., along with other students. (What's that I hear? The sound of Thornton Wilder turning in his grave?)

The best place to learn more about GSAs, how they work and how to form one, is at the website of the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Note that this year's "Day of Silence" (to call attention to antigay bullying in schools) is just two weeks from today - April 18.

At the reading we did of Their Town in January, a few of the actors who took part commented that Annie was their favorite character. She's one of my favorites, too - smart and sarcastic, in the way of many teenage girls. But I like her even more for her courage as a queer kid.

2007-04-03T12:37:00.000-04:00

"Marriage Is Good for Business"

In my play Their Town, the new mayor of Grover's Corners, Joe Hersey, proposes a plan to help the town economically by performing a legal marriage ceremony for a lesbian couple. His reasoning is that marriage is good for business - gays and lesbians will flock to the town, he concludes, and their support will give a boost to floundering local businesses.

It's not as far-fetched as it sounds - the Williams Institute, an LGBT think tank, published a report last fall on this very topic. Click here to download the report, called "The Effect of Marriage Equality and Domestic Partnership on the Economy." (You'll need an Adobe PDF reader.)

One of the many interesting factoids that I learned in my research for the play is that in 2004, when San Francisco was issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a local Macy's actually sold out of wedding rings. I used that in my play, because it's just so telling about the eagerness of many same-sex couples to legalize their relationships.

2007-04-01T10:34:00.000-04:00

"Sketching a Life"

I thought readers might be interested from time to time in a sketch of the main characters in Their Town. Let's start with the protagonist.

Margaret Warren Craig is the main character of Their Town. She's a straight woman, about 35, newly elected as the Town Clerk of Grover's Corners, N.H., basically kind of unsure of her abilities, but trying really hard to believe in them. She has a good sense of humor.

Margaret married right out of high school, and has a daughter, Annie, 16. Margaret hasn't traveled much, and has lived in the town all her life. She has been divorced from her high school sweetheart, Tom, for about two years - he cheated on her, and she is not really over it. The divorce sent Margaret, who had only had part-time jobs in the past, into a panic - although Tom pays some child support, Margaret's primary concern has been making enough money and having a stable enough job to provide for Annie on her own. That, she feels, is what will make her "a good mother." Her duty as a parent is, to her, the most important thing.

Just after the divorce, Margaret used her training as a secretary to get a job as the office manager of a N.H. granite tombstone company. The Grover's Corners economy is depressed, and this was the best job she could get, albeit one that required her to commute 90 miles roundtrip a day. She was worried that she was not home enough for Annie. When her friend Joe Hersey suggested she run as Grover's Corners Town Clerk at the same time that he run for mayor - and on the same ticket - she gave it a shot and won. Town clerks generally die in their jobs; the benefits and pay are good, for the area; and Margaret now feels like her life and Annie's are "settled," taken care of. She feels like she has finally found her footing, and the job has boosted her self-confidence.

So Joe's surprise plan to make Grover's Corners a sort of gay Mecca - by virtue of marrying a same-sex couple there - scares and angers Margaret, because she could be taken down with him. She has never really thought much about gay people or their concerns - she's someone who thinks it's not really any of her business. She knows gay people, but only peripherally. However, she's not particularly religious, and she's an adherent to the state motto: "Live free or die." Still, when she discovers her own daughter is gay, that's another matter - and one that throws her for a loop. She would just like things to go back to "normal" - whatever that is. The question Margaret ultimately has to answer for herself is: What does it mean to be "a good mother" to a daughter who's not what society sees as "normal"?

2007-03-31T09:04:00.000-04:00

"Dramatists Guild"

This morning I'm attending a Dramatists Guild event at Pittsburgh Public Theater with my friend and fellow playwright Beverly. I think we deserve big gold stars for getting up and out to a 10am meeting on a Saturday.

The event was billed as a "Town Hall meeting with Gary Garrison, DG Executive Director of Creative Affairs, Greg Bossler, DG Director of Publications, and Regional DG Rep Julie Tosh. Members and non-members are invited to attend. Garrison and Bossler will give a brief overview of the Guild, discuss plans for its future and then open to the floor for questions. Then we would like to turn the discussion to opportunities and resources for playwrights in the Pittsburgh region. Representatives from Pittsburgh theaters will talk about their programs for new works. This will also be a chance for the region’s playwrights to connect, network, learn about each other, and share ideas."

This seems to be part of the DG's effort to expand their programming outside of New York City, since many of their members live in other areas and work in regional theaters. There are apparently 60 members in Pittsburgh. I had let my membership lapse - for some reason, I couldn't justify the $95 associate fee last year - but when I saw they were actually coming to Pittsburgh, I re-upped. They do good work for playwrights, plus I've always enjoyed their publication, The Dramatist, so check out their website.

2007-03-30T08:18:00.000-04:00

"PPTF on the Web"

A very preliminary 4th Annual Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival website is up. We're just 77 days from the opening of this year's festival, and 78 days from the curtain going up on Their Town! So check back with PPTF soon to see what's up with the festival calender, auditions and rehearsals, special promotions, and other great stuff.

2007-03-29T11:25:00.000-04:00

"MySpace"

Setting up a MySpace page for Their Town (suggested to me by an arts marketing pro) has been like a quick and painful trip back to high school.* First, I spent a lot of time carefully constructing my page - inputting my likes and dislikes, a bio, a couple of blog entries about my play - then I scrolled down the page to see what it all looked like. Of course, my eye landed on the "Friends" section, with its taunting words: "You have 0 friends."

Well, damn, don't I look like a loser. I do have friends! I even had friends in high school! But nobody on MySpace cares unless you have the pics to prove it.

My friend and fellow writer Kathy Miller Haines (who has, ahem, 104 "friends") gave me some advice about finding like-minded MySpacers. Armed with her tips, I went through the groveling-like procedure of inviting a few dozen people to be my "friends." Now I am waiting to see how many of them accept or reject me. Stay tuned for the elation or heartbreak.

I'll probably dream tonight of forgetting my locker combination or getting to my algebra test late or standing naked in the auditorium…

*Completely off-topic footnote: High school was the last time I was actually in a theatrical production - both nonspeaking roles. I was a Jet girl in West Side Story and a suffragette in Hello Dolly! But I still have fantasies about acting... no, really of winning an Oscar.

2007-03-28T09:52:00.000-04:00

"An Our Town Aside"

Our Town, it seems, was recently turned into an opera by none other than Ned Rorem, an openly gay composer. According to the press, two other queer composers - Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein - tried to get Thornton Wilder to sign on to an Our Town opera during his lifetime, but the playwright refused. (It's interesting that all these queers were enamored of such a heterosexual play.) But Tappan Wilder, Thornton's nephew and executor of his estate, gave his blessing to the Rorem opera. You can read more about it at Rorem's website.

Our Town, the opera

2007-03-27T11:20:00.000-04:00

"Read Me"

You can click here to read the first 10 pages of Their Town. You'll need an Adobe PDF reader to do this.

2007-03-26T15:13:00.000-04:00

Is There a Director in the House?

Adam Kukic, artistic director of the engagingly named Pittsburgh-based company Thank You, Felix Productions, has signed on to direct Their Town. Adam and Thank You, Felix consistently get great notices, so this is very good news for Their Town. And although he looks a little worried in this photo, I can assure you it's not because of my play.

You can read some of the raves about Adam's company here.

2007-03-26T08:08:00.000-04:00

What's It All About? A Synopsis of Their Town

Margaret Craig, a single mother who has been struggling to support her 16-year-old daughter, has recently landed a good, solid job: she's been elected town clerk of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire - of Our Town fame. At the same time, the town's new, young mayor, Joe Hersey, who ran on the same ticket with Margaret, wants to further his own career and aid the economy of his beleaguered town by garnering publicity in a sensational way - by performing a legal marriage ceremony for two of the town's lesbian citizens, longtime residents Ginny Gibbs and Eliza Webb.

But the town council president, Lyle Hawkins starts a "Take Back Our Town" movement that threatens Margaret's new job if she doesn't obey the state law against same-sex marriage. Worried about her job and certain that gay marriage has nothing to do with her, Margaret refuses to issue the license. Joe, however, devises another plan, with the help of a gay-rights attorney, to file a lawsuit against the state, using other, more "professional" couples than Ginny and Eliza. The two women turn to Joe's gay brother, Charlie, an out-of-town lawyer, to help them win the right to marry in their town.

But in the meantime, Margaret is drawn deeper and more unwillingly into the issue by a personal crisis that brings home the political issue of equal marriage rights. Leading Margaret in her coming-to-terms process is a statue come-to-life of Thornton Wilder, author of Our Town and creator of Grover's Corners - who was himself, Margaret learns, a closeted homosexual.

2007-03-24T09:45:00.000-04:00

On Thornton Wilder and His Closet

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was born in Madison, Wis., a town of only 18,000 residents at that time - the typical sort of "our town" he later immortalized in his Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Thornton Wilder performing as the Stage Manager in Our Town, 1950

Financial difficulties (Thornton's father was part-owner of an unsuccessful newspaper) drove Wilder Senior to seek a new, more lucrative career, and in 1906, he succeeded in persuading President Taft, an old college friend, to appoint him consul general of Hong Kong. The family moved there briefly, but Thornton's mother didn't like life abroad and moved back to the United States with her children. Thornton spent the rest of his adolescence in another small town, Berkeley, Calif.

Young Wilder attended Thacher, a boys' boarding school, where he was taunted by classmates as a "freak." At Thacher, Wilder discovered his love of the theater and delighted in the school's dramatic club. But when he was cast as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilder's father - fearing the meaning of his son's effeminate ways - stepped in and forbade him to play female roles. Painfully aware of his difference from other boys, Wilder early on described himself as "a queer pupil" with a "queer walk."

As a teenager in Berkeley, Wilder began writing stories and plays. He confessed dramatically in his journal that if he wasn't writing he had "no right to breathe." In college, he continued to pursue both writing and the theater, first at Oberlin, where he wrote poetry to a favorite male professor, and then at Yale, where he became infatuated with a young actor. "Sheer genius and poetry," Wilder wrote to describe Gareth Hughes. "And when his glasses are off the divinest thing to look upon that I have ever seen."

In the way of many closeted queers, Wilder was intensely homophobic. He once commented to Gore Vidal that "a writer ought not to commit himself to a homosexual situation of the domestic sort" because it would damage his career. As a result, Wilder's love life consisted mostly of infatuations, often with actors (including the young Montgomery Clift), and brief sexual encounters (most famously with writer Samuel Steward). Wilder would have hated my play Their Town, which addresses his sexuality. He believed that to speculate on the sexuality of famous writers was simply to "whip up a prurient oh-ha! in millions of people."

2007-03-22T09:30:00.000-04:00

How I Decided to Write Their Town

...And Why You Should Care

I wrote the first draft of my play Their Town in late 2004, after reading and re-reading a lot of classic American drama, including Thornton Wilder's Our Town. In the past, I had written fiction and nonfiction exclusively, and was just starting to dip into playwriting.

Doing some online research on Wilder's play, I learned that Our Town is produced on some stage in this country every single day of the year. It struck me as ironic that the most-produced play in the U.S. - considered so quintessentially "American" that many of the productions are in high schools and small-town theaters - was written by a closeted gay man. (More on Wilder in another post.)

At the same time that I was re-reading Our Town, the straight mayors of San Francisco and New Paltz, N.Y., were making headlines on same-sex marriage rights; the clerk of Sandoval County, N.M., began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples; and Massachusetts became the first state to extend marriage rights to gay people. There were numerous news stories about how (heterosexual) town clerks suddenly had to deal with unforeseen problems - like creating gender-free marriage licenses, readying their offices for a possible barrage of marriage license requests, or having to follow a law they personally didn't agree with. The situation seemed ripe for drama. I wrote the play first as a one-act of about 20 pages, called "Our Town 2," but my very smart peer writing group, SPEC (short for "Screenwriters and Playwrights Eat and Critique"), said it needed to be much longer. And that's how Their Town was born.

Three years ago, I remember feeling an urgency to finish the play and get it "out there," thinking that the topic of same-sex marriage would be stale in a short time. But here we are in 2007, and marriage rights are still a hot-button issue. Massachusetts remains the only state to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.

This blog will chronicle the path of Their Town as it moves closer to its first production in June 2007 at the Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival, a program of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.