PRINTThe missing act?
Columbia's stages lack LGBT roles
April 24, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Is theater a true reflection of the nature of human beings? In Columbia’s theater companies, there seems to be an element of human life that is missing from the stage. For the LGBT community, few plays performed explore issues pertaining to its members’ own lives and few roles exist for actors who want to play roles showcasing the life of a gay man or a lesbian.
Stephens College’s upcoming production, The Man Who Came to Dinner, will be performed May 2 to 3 and 7 to 9. It features a gay character role, but it is not exactly a performance that will push boundaries and explore issues of the gay community.
The 1930s play includes the supporting character Beverly Carlton, based on the gay playwright Noel Coward. In the production, Carlton’s sexuality is not the focus of his character’s role, and the fact that he is gay is only subtly hinted at. The play has little relevance in exploring issues in the LGBT community because it was written before many of the current concerns affecting the community came to light.
Geno Carr, a Stephens College assistant professor of theater and the actor portraying the part of Beverly Carlton in the production, sees the stage as a space for diversity and awareness. He believes the point of theater is to promote social change and create dialogue within its audience. “It’s important that theater reaches everyone and deals with every part of humanity, no matter what ethnicity you are, religion you are or sexual orientation you are,” Carr says. “Theater needs to speak to the fact that we all have experiences that are valid.”
Act I: Getting the part
Actor and playwright Whit Loy says he is disappointed with the lack of gay character roles in Columbia’s theater productions. As a self-described “effeminate guy with a kind of high-pitched voice,” he is “a little frustrated with the shows that are being done in Columbia. I don’t see a lot of plays that I’m just taken with in general. Certainly there are very few roles where gays and lesbians can play gays and lesbians.”
The lack of diverse productions in university and community theater is mostly because of artistic directors considering family audiences, Loy says. Works by Oscar Wilde and Tennessee Williams might be performed, but these playwrights’ works are so much a part of mainstream culture that the audiences no longer are attuned to the fact that Wilde and Williams were gay men.
“You have to consider your audience,” Loy says. “Not to say that there aren’t people who are in the Midwest who aren’t progressive and willing to enjoy a play about people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. But I think on a whole, people think, ‘Oh, I want to see Sound of Music or Hello, Dolly!’”
Columbia Entertainment Company’s performance of The Laramie Project in April 2006 was the last play performed in Columbia to explore issues of homosexuality and hate crimes. The Laramie Project, by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project, is the story of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., who was targeted because he was gay. The play focuses on news reports and interviews with community members following the murder.
CEC’s production was MU senior Kevin Kelley’s first non-musical, or what he calls a “straight” play. “The director created a very welcoming atmosphere, and it was a really positive experience,” Kelley says. “There were times when I was really tired of language. The F-word is used a lot and just a lot of hate speech. But I was really wanting The Laramie Project to be the first straight play that I did, because I could have been Matt.”
Act II: Writing the part
Loy, like many gay authors before him, makes it a point to always include LGBT characters in his work. He is currently working on a play to be performed before the end of May and is in the process of adapting his musical comedy, A Socialite in the Slammer, from a one-man show to a production with an ensemble cast. A Socialite in the Slammer is based on Loy’s own 10-day experience in the Boone County Jail.
Loy’s been involved with other projects that promote diversity, including Voices Made Flesh: Performances from the Life and Literature Workshop, which was performed at MU’s Corner Playhouse in February 2005. He describes it as involving “every issue of marginalization,” including such topics as AIDS and racism.
Act III: Revamping the parts
MU graduate student Kevin Babbitt combats homophobia through interactive work that includes a project dealing with issues of heterosexism and homophobia on campus. Babbitt’s project began after his involvement with the MU Interactive Theatre troupe, which discusses issues of race and homophobia. His creation is a combination of a play and a workshop in which audience members eventually become involved in the scene and are encouraged to try to intervene when derogatory comments are aimed at an actor playing a role of a lesbian.
Babbitt notes that usually when a gay man or lesbian character is written into a script, the part is based on stereotypes. “More often than not, they are portrayed as a caricature and not really based in reality.”
If the goal of theater is to mirror its audience, then Columbia’s production companies need to bring more performances to the city that explore issues of not only homosexuality but also race, ethnicity and religion. Although there have been attempts, they aren’t done in a university atmosphere or on a consistent basis. “I don’t see a lot of the risks being taken in this community by the larger theater companies and the universities that they should be taking,” Loy says. — Ameena Mohammad
