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by Jim Farmer
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November 25, 2011 00:00 |
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As the holiday season gets underway, local theaters bring out their heavy hitters, many sure to appeal to LGBT audiences.
At the perennial top of the Christmas must-see list is Horizon Theatre’s “The Santaland Diaries.” Openly gay actor Harold Leaver returns for a 13th time as the sarcastic main character, who becomes a department store elf to earn some money one holiday season. It’s based on gay writer David Sedaris’ own experience, as told in his “Holidays On Ice.”
According to Leaver, for whom the role has been career-defining, it’s a production that has stayed snarky throughout the years – and kept its gay sensibility intact. A few years ago, “The Santaland Diaries” lost its original director Clint Thornton (with Jeff Adler taking over) but it’s kept on charming audiences, with the cast and crew finding ways to make the comedy fresh.
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by Jim Farmer
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November 11, 2011 00:00 |
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Art imitates life in the politically themed “Tea Party,” the new show by playwrights and couple John Gibson and Anthony Morris, known for their long running play “Peachtree Battle.”
“Tea Party” is a political satire where the lives of two strangers collide. Preston Miller (Truman Griffin) is a political newcomer from Connecticut who simply wants to make the world a better place. Clarissa Cannon (Tonglia Davis), the wife of Mississippi congressman Thurgood Cannon (Patrick A. Jackson), is dead set on getting into the White House.
In an attempt to appear more white to Tea Party folks, the African-American Cannons hire Preston, but only to re-do their image. Preston thinks he has been hired on merit, unaware of the real motivation.
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by Jim Farmer
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November 09, 2011 12:55 |
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Gay performer Tim Miller can always be counted on for a healthy dose of theatrical activism. His brings his politically-charged “Lay of the Land” to 7 Stages this week.
The one-man show, slated for Nov. 10-13, deals predominantly with marriage equality and queer citizenship — the status of being gay in America right now. It came about shortly after Prop 8.
“For me, the big prompt is always about what you can’t make peace about and for me, it’s my state – California,” Miller says. “For five joyous months we had marriage equality followed by this endless and visible battle and eventually it was declared unconstitutional.”
In previous shows Miller has talked about immigration laws, which is especially relevant as that his partner since 1994, Alistair McCartney, is an Australian that he is not allowed to marry. The couple has had to deal with threats of deportation for many years. Miller admits they face an uncertain future, as do all LGBT couples in the country.
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by Jim Farmer
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October 28, 2011 00:00 |
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The advent of a new instrument changes the lives of many in “In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play,” which runs Oct. 28 to Nov. 19 at Synchonicity Theatre.
The play, a 2010 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize nominee for Best Play, is set in the days of corsets, bustles and horses and buggies. A noted doctor has come up with a vibrator that is designed to treat women for “hysteria” but instead makes them enormously happy.
“Vibrator Play” is directed by Rachel May, artistic director or Synchronicity, and was written by acclaimed playwright Sarah Ruhl.
“I like her work – she is a smart writer but she has heart,” May says. “She reminds me of Paula Vogel in that she makes you laugh but undercuts it with social commentary. The humor works to get you into it but important things are underneath.”
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by Jim Farmer
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September 30, 2011 00:00 |
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Out comedian/director Sherri Denise Sutton has returned to Atlanta and already has a slew of projects lined up. First up is directing the comic “Gray Area” at Aurora Theatre.
It’s a farcical show, written by John Ahlin, about what happens when a New York theater critic makes an on-air crack about Civil War re-enactors as his last public statement — and is promptly kidnapped by three good ol’ boys. It stars openly gay actor Glenn Rainey as the critic, Farragut. The character is gay, says Sutton, which the kidnappers don’t know when they nab him.
“They think he is straight – they have no idea he’s gay,” she says. “The audience is in on the joke.”
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