ds to be said

may not have the courage to standalone against those cultural traditions that seek to denigrate or trivialize their human needs and differences. The special gay experience and its complimentary perspective should be expressed and defined clearly in gay theatre. The alleged connection between sexual "fidelity" and emotional committment; the meaning of "male" and "female"; the multiplicity of "selves" within us; and the distinctions needed to be made between love, lust, affection, sex and friendship are universal issues. A gay theatre that explored and included these aspects of humaness would be of wide significance-not only to the gay community, but to the heterosexual world we inhabit.

is a

Theatre consciousness-rais-

ing tool and, with the phenomenon of psycho-drama, gay theatre can breech the disparate consciousness found in the broad gay community and therefore minimize factions. Gays have always been influenced by the destructive myths that have resulted from our own ignorance of the gay experience. These myths reinforce the self-hate and homophobia that is a negative projection from the straight to the gay condition. The gay playwright must choose to examine the myths and expand gay consciousness with his perceptions.

Gay theatre is vital in that there are gay aspects to the ways humans think and act that have rarely been shown on the stage. Seeing oneself up there under the spotlights cannot fail to help one feel "real" and a part of the whole. Basically, "gay theatre" should be theatre about homosexuals (though not necessarily by or exclusively for gays) and "gay consciousness" should be the awareness of homosexuals and homosexuality. This kind of theatre, by simply existing, will publicize ways of being that have been traditionally denied legitimacy.

for

The need strong gay role mo-

dels and for showing gay love and lifestyle in the open are, theoretically, objectives of gay theatre. Gay theatre by and for gays alone runs the risk of degenerating into the instructional, with gay consciousness becoming pro-gay propaganda preached by and to the converted. No progress can be achieved by such isolationism. A broader concept is needed. With more open gay love stories for audiences to identify with, the radical disappearance of "butch/fem" role-playing will be assured. The harassment of gay transvestites and drag queens may then result as the majority of gay activists come into prominence. Gay Theatre, however, must not as a goal advocate the eradication of the old gay stéreotype-embracers while they still live and deserve the free-

dom to express their own fantasies.

The history of gay-oriented plays

on Broadway since the 1920s shows a marked progress in audience and critical acceptance. Edouard Boudet's "The Captive" in 1926 was a melodrama concerning lesbianism. Despite critical acclaim, it was closed by the New York police. "The Drag" by Mae West was the first naturalisic depiction of gays in English in the 20th century. Ms. West viewed homosexuality as a disease, but allowed her gays to speak for themselves. The play was produced in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1927, but never got backers on Broadway. "Pleasure Man," her next X-rated ( play, also contained portraits of gay men quite daring for the '20s. Her arrest and conviction for pornographic display in 1928 was a result of these two camp dramas.

Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour" opened in 1934 and ran for 691 performances. The critical concensus was that it presented an unsavory topic with "honesty and restraint," thereby avoiding being shoddy and sensationalistic. This attitude provided a critical standard for the next 20 years. If a gay-related play was "restrained" and did not replay was "restrained" and did not treat its theme openly, it had a good chance of being favorably reviewed. And it also helped if a broader theme I could veil the homosexual issuemalicious gossip, witch-hunting, suicide, etc.

The early '50s brought Robert An-

derson's "Tea and Sympathy" to Broadway. It showed so much restraint that it was hardly gay at all. The thrust of the action was to prove that the young protagonist was really straight. Although Tom "Grace" Lee goes skinny-dipping with a male teacher and intends to play Lady Teazle in a school play, he is redemed at the end by the love and sexual sacrifice of an older woman. Critics loved it.

Andrew Rosenthal's "Third Person" opened in 1956. The plot concerned a Marine captain who brought home a confused boy from his company, hoping that a few weeks of family life would "straighten him out." But the boy became possessive of the captain and nearly ruined his marrriage. The captain came to doubt his own masculinity

and feared that he had fallen for the boy. The play was considered provocative if not, at points, evasive.

In 1960, Brendan Behan's "The Hostage" contained revolutionary gay references in a song: "We're

GAY NEWS-August 1978-17

TROCADERON

1975's "Boy Meets Boy," a spoof of the romantic musicals of the '30s, wasn't to the liking of the critics

here because we're queer because we're queer because we're here," etc. The early '60s saw Shelagh Delaney's "A Taste of Honey," which depicted a sympathetic, sensitive gay youth caring for a teenaged unwed mother. In 1965, Terrance McNally's "And Things That Go Bump In the Night" introduced comedic overtones for the first time to gay drama. A British import in 1966, Frank Marcus' "The Killing of Sister George," pleased audiences. But critics dismissed its lesbian theme, preferring to see it as a satire on the BBC. In 1967, another British production by the Royal Shakespeare Company was Charles Dyer's "Staircase." It was hailed as the best treatment of homosexuality in the theatre to date. The impression it left was that gay marriages are as miserable as straight ones, only more so. The play assured straights that they were superior to the characters and that gays only want to be normal.

tion. Negative reviews also greeted David Gaard's "And Puppy Dog Tails" in 1969. Its mildly erotic gay behavior and nudity again outraged critics. In truth "Puppy" is very like a Jean Kerr comedy, like "Mary, Mary," only with gays mouthing the frivolous, quip-filled camp lines. Which only proves that there is little difference in style and writing between a good bitchy role written for a woman and the same lines delivered by a stock gay character. "Puppy" had a fairly successful run.

John Hopkins' "Find Your Way

Home" was also critically panned in 1974 and labeled mediocre. First staged in 1974 at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, Al Carmines' "The Faggot" was wellreceived by most of the critics and audiences, netting it a good run and several revivals. James Kirkwood's "P.S. Your Cat Is Dead!" bombed on

Mart Crowley's Broadway in 1975. The idea that "Boys

in

the

Band" opened in 1968 to unanimous raves. It reinforced gay cliches and stereotypes with lines like "Show me a happy homo and I'll show you a gay corpse," and "Why must we hate ourselves so much?" The drama became the model gay play-the most popular, and most widely produced -receiving national and international recognition. Once again, gays were represented as miserable, pathetic, self-hating neurotics.

John "Fortune

Herbert's

and

Men's Eyes" appeared in 1968, causing hostile critical outcries. Its depiction of prison life with blatant sadomasochism, scatology, sodomy and nudity, openly flaunted, was viewed distasteful. "Fortune" depicted more the desparation of imprisoned "masculine" emotions than the positive homosexual condi-

straights would be better off if they became gay, or at least bim was judged a "dishonest" fantasy by the critics. Kirkwood's "Norman, Is That You?," in 1976, succeeded by being assinine in the Neil Simon tradition.

"Boy Meets Boy" by Bill Solly and Donald Ward also opened in 1975 and reviews were cool, calling the cast relatively restrained. Martin Duberman's "Visions of Kerouac ran briefly in 1976. Critics seemed to prefer the image of Jack Kerouac as a drunken macho to the idea that he might have been happier, healthier and a better writer had he accepted his gayness. Though drag is as old as the theatre and at its heart, the risk of perpetrating roles as seen in Eve Merriam's "The Club" (1976) is a confusing problem: women in drag playing men playing women leaves the question of the origin of the roles unresolved.

A look at gay theatre off-Broadway, coming in the September Gay News