Author: r.cooper

As I entered into this Independent Study of Queer Persons of Color Critiques in an Ethical Producing process I was deeply intrigued and curious about what this experience would be. I wondered what practices and from where would we draw from as ethical producing practices or resources, established or otherwise, and how to best develop, support and manage a staged reading of play written featuring persons of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Knowing that it would be unlike anything I had encountered before, I felt a combination of trepidation and excitement, to be sure, I definitely had my apprehensions. Notably, what if anything would I have to bring as relational to this project as a white, pan sexual female, with limited experience in staging a play reading or being able to present full-fledged theater performance with actors. It felt important to deeply listen, and remain open to the varying interpretations, situations and individual stories present at any moment in the room. There were some challenging themes written in this play we were going to stage as this is a piece of writing that features and highlights a community, in past and present times, of queer, transgendered and QPOC individual elements and stories. I felt it was important to approach this work with an open heart and compassionate sensitivity the the unknown, that was all I knew how to do and that I was not going to be alone when and if there were questions, concerns and challenges that we had to work through.

And then there was the play itself, which to me initially on paper, read as somewhat shallow and potentially disconnected.  As I expect with most plays, they are meant to be in active verbal representation, alive on the stage. In this work, both time periods and narrative cohesion switched at times which made it seem to be almost without reason or logic. But, once we had with our characters in the room, interacting together, the humor, nuance and reality began to show. I feel this was mainly because of the brilliance, dedication and commitment given by our beautifully diverse and supremely talented cast and my director, Zeynep. They rescued my hope over and over again, especially in that we could make sense of it both for ourselves and for our audience. There are multiple layers of important, untold and fascinating stories not given a place in the wider circles of creative expression, cultural communications, performance, and acceptable content outside what sells as the norm or the standard. But in this journey with this play, we had a taste of what that can be like.

I know that enjoyed the responsibility of success, in part only, for this final project. And, if given a second time to try again, I would have preferred to have a larger number of persons able to be with us, especially in the areas of assisting in the responsibilities, that Zeynep and I had to manage. The commitment level at times was quite involving and included various tasks that, were more time consuming than I had predicted. Specifically, I think I could have managed my ongoing awareness of personal scarcity, in learning to actively speak up, to ask for what is needed and, is a practice that I am working on continually in my professional life. I am also aware of my shortcomings, from my absence for some of the rehearsal process, and in clearly communicating my boundaries. In the end, the cost was my deep level of fatigue and emotional uncertainty.  However, the shared joy of watching the actors develop, and experiencing an opportunity for investigation, understanding, and growth were absolutely worth the effort.

I have tried to reveal most of my reflections on this journey, it has been challenging and quite rewarding and I believe we worked very well together, especially that we all collectively were coming to this project with both time and availability constraints. It was a deep pleasure to be assisting Zeynep in some of the directing, development of actors and character work, in providing feedback during and after rehearsals and, building cohesive scene transitions. I also worked with Z and Ruthie for sourcing and making some of our props, costumes, accessories and, in organizing the continuity for scene and actor transitions.  In general, I felt it was important that my focus be as present and available for numerous essential preparations for the cast and production components leading up to and on performance day. All of which built up to a heavily involved scenario which I had not imagined a stage reading process would involve. In conclusion, I personally feel that this staged reading was a successful journey of discovery, awareness and growth for our actors. I believe that it was a success also for the team that worked on it, for the playwright, and our audience because of the positive responses I witnessed from friends, colleagues and mentors.

It’s hard for me not to fall for the writings of Don Shewey, he is an eloquent, easy to follow writer whose vocabulary is filled with passion, reason, and well-balanced keen observations delivered with sublime moments of import.  He brings the reader right up against the historic past of queer theater and nudges us along into the near present, circa 2002. We ride alongside its players, writers, producers, director, cultural makers, and extraneous doers that are and were. As we journey along with them in their shaky, messy, lusty – sweaty, dusty, parched, tormented stagecoach it feels and reads like jostle of the traveling circus troupe of the not so distant past.

The author also recognizes the plentiful histories and losses of queer theater and of theater as a whole of which collectively, are parts numerous. From the raging health crisis of AIDS that was and is, to the lack thereof or delayed recognition to its formidable contributions to both the mainstream theater and Off-Off Broadway productions. All the while plugging along with its partner, known with familiarity as vast machinations of underwhelming funding sources that choke its existence. Nothing much has changed here.

The ambitions of Charles Ludlam being of particular significance to the article, here we find a certainly palpable sense of deep respect and tragic loss of this formidable artist, a man, who made numerous works, shared incredible ambitions, writings and inspired a timeless legacy of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company. He and his amalgam finding refuge for themselves in the arts, a type of religious practice, with sacred ritual and particulars of the most methodical assembly of various elements that make theater. Queer theater, is birthed from a raw belief in the power of truth, honesty, and allowing the best parts of anyone have the opportunity to exist freely and with abandon. Guided by passion into a place of full exposure, chance, connection, challenge and little if any monetary remuneration but a wealth of possibility. Born from the promise of, if you can conceive it you can achieve it.  As Shewey contends,  “…the pioneers adhered to no coherent aesthetic, form, style, or content. They made theater that was outrageous and artistically ambitious…nowadays virtually all pop culture quotes other pop culture. Then it was a subversive strategy, cultural critique, and identity formation disguised as child’s play” (p. 129).

The ways of queer culture seem to be existing and constantly changing, as does everything, in relation not necessarily as a reaction to the world.  The art of theater making as important, respected, and accepted as means of understanding our journey here as humans in a place we must share, like it not. Shewey mentions that great queer theater has at times been known to be antagonistic, opposing, but that it does can exist as harmonious and even consensual. And that when it is all over, just like any journey, we are deeply engaged in and transformed by its truths. Yet the author remains true to his wish of being sensitively aware of tendencies to romanticize or idealize queer theater as but he also succeeds in not portraying exclusivity in practice.

This is evidenced for me personally by the way I was transported into a familiar and comforting world that is the art of theater and more. To a place that feels somewhere along the lines of longing for what childhood is, now long passed. A kind of nostalgia, and sense of belonging, yet for some of us, just on the periphery. It feels, sounds and smells of that longed affirmation of near totality in experiencing life. Mired in a universe of emotion, physicality, guiding in part by our mind heart engines, and in part by our desires, sexual and otherwise in a raging, stretching, seeking, pulsating rhythm that drives us onwards and upwards into the vast galaxies of imagination. Practicing a craft, of any kind but especially theater, of any genre, hurtles us constantly towards meaning, self-expression, acceptance, family, community and, at times serenity and escape from the blundering pain of life in the normal grind of everydayness.

It is for me about acceptance and community.  Queer theater is that too, without consciously attempting to make itself other than that, an alive presence. Not only a political tool, antagonist to the norms, or as some would like to justify, an outlier of any human spirit and sociopolitical statement or situation. More to exist as an utopia performative, and to captivate and empower, as Jill Dolan contends, “…through the power of the performers’ presence, not to insist on authentic experience, or pre-modern primitivism, but to see, for a moment, how we might engage one anothers differences, and our mutual human-ness, constructed as it is in these brief moments together” (p.31).  The queer theater and the essence of humanity comes out of a raw belief in the power of truth, honesty and allowing the best of anyone to shine through. Leaving room for the spaces between what is seen and not. Making places where the light can come through.

References:

Dolan, J. (2005),”Introduction: Feeling the Potential of Everywhere.” Utopia In Performance. University of Michigan Press: p. 1-34.

Shewey, D. (2002),“Be True to Yearning”, The Queerest Art: Essays on Lesbian and Gay Theater. NY: p. 124 – 34.

Film: After Louie by Vincent Gagliostro – March 31, 2018. Limited run at Cinema Village on E12th St, NYC. Post screening Q & A with the director, writers, producer and two cast members.

Director: Vincent Gagliostro

Producer: Lauren Belfer, Alan Cumming, Vincent Gagliostro

Writer: Vincent Gagliostro, Anthony Johnston

Runtime: 1hr 40m

Cast: Alan Cumming, Zachary Booth, Sarita Choudhury, Patrick Breen, Wilson Cruz, Everett Quinton, Anthony Johnston, David Drake, Justin Bond and Joseph Arias.

Synopsis: After Louie explores the contradictions of modern gay life and history of the AIDS health crisis in the 1980’s through the eyes of a disillusioned visual artist and former activist, Sam.

The story of my accidental offsite event exploration goes a little something like this…

It was my birthday dinner on a Tuesday evening, New York City, late March. The location is this fantastic Italian restaurant, on the corner of Spring Street directly north of the Here Arts Space. Here in this beautiful relaxed and elegant place, with some of my closest friends, our decisions made about our food and drink. This fantastic waiter, Anthony, has been taking care of us with a casual yet personable flair, while gently steering the meal along. I am contently having a blast at this celebration, every moment is going along so deliciously. We have shared some appetizers, a couple bottles of wine, there have been commentaries back and forth peppered with boisterous laughs and great conversations. We are about to have a small dessert and, another friend arrives. Alystyre, she’s a documentary filmmaker / photographer rushing here after teaching yoga. Tea is ordered and Anthony presents the dessert slice. He then mentions that he is signing off and lets us know about a film, After Louie, his film is being screened this week at Cinema Village. Well, as things go, Alystyre strikes up a brief conversation with him and it is revealed that she was an extra on set and likely is in the party scene of his film!  Coincidental but not unusual so afterwards we discuss a plan to go see it over the coming weekend. Leaving the restaurant, a few of us decide to grab a last drink at a nearby bar. We walk into Soho Room and, upon stumbling into the back area we notice Anthony, our waiter, sitting with a friend. In jest with announce that we are following him…he smiles and we wish him well and then find a corner area and settle in.  The evening soon ends and I arrive safely home, falling into a satisfied slumber, a slight hangover greets me in the morning but with no regrets.

A few days later…

It’s a rainy Saturday night and I am at the Cinema Village with Alystrye. We watch the film and sure enough, she is in the party scene near the end. I well imagine that it must feel pretty amazing to see oneself on the big screen. We decide to stay for the Q & A shortly after. It was a very interesting and informative session because we had the opportunity to hear first-hand about the life and journey of activism, expression and identity in the 1970’s & 80’s with the director, Vincent, who experienced, observed and has written about these encounters. We also heard about becoming a co-writer for this project by Anthony, the fantastic waiter, and talented actor. He was eloquent and generous, it was amazing to have established this coincidental connection. Present also was Lauren, a producer, and the actors Joseph and Patrick.

Later in the theater lobby, I had the opportunity to speak with Anthony and Vincent. They are humble and lovely people, truly thrilled to be presenting this film in this particularly relevant neighborhood and, especially at this time in this country’s political status of uncertainty. I also discovered that this film opened in California a month before coming east and, will continue to be seen in various film festivals in cities world-wide over the coming months. The film is also available to view through live streaming channels.

The main themes of this film are centered around self-examination, authenticity, and multi-generational queer identities. It is a fictional story, based loosely on truthful events, of a man named Sam Cooper. He is an aging gay man, an artist and retired activist, who is seeking to honor the legacy of his departed friend, Louie, a fellow activist in the early years of AIDS/HIV health crisis in the 1980’s. We watch Sam as he brashly lives his solitary, angst ridden and alcohol imbued lifestyle, and enters quickly into a sexual relationship with a younger man who later becomes his friend. It is this encounter and the ensuing tangles of human relationships, that Sam is opened into another deeper self-examination of what it means to be ‘out’ and expressive in the world today.

This film and the journey we are on in this story is relevant to the topic of the political power of art and ethical producing of queer persons because it dives into the changing aspects of multi-generational queer identities alongside the legacy of our collective human existence in our ability and desire to explore, identify and potential to express and explore our sexual preferences and gender identification, or to choose not to identify with established norms. The experience of watching After Louie requires us as the viewer to think about and examine the ways in which we as humans stay true to where we came from while continuing to look forwards into who and how way may be ourselves. While at the same time this work also illuminates the importance of honoring the legacy of the various histories of the LGBTQ community when considering multi-generational and multi-gender tensions in today’s communities.

https://twitter.com/cinema_village/status/980510643345338368

Here is the link to the twitter feed & photo of post screening Q & A that we attended on Sat March 31, 2018!