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2121 South Ave. Youngstown's Newest Show Bar

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HIGH GEAR/MAY 1977

FREE PERFORMANCE OF SOEDER'S "RITZ" MAY 18 at CCC

Dan Salat portrays a garageman from Cleveland who in an attempt to escape from the Mafia hides out in a bathhouse unaware that its patrons (Don Buzzee) are gay in the Cleveland premiere of "The Ritz" at Tri-C's Metro Theatre.

CLEVELAND -In an unprecedented gesture. Local director Fran Soeder is offering the gay community 300 free seats for a preview showing of his latest production, Terence McNally's "The Ritz" on Wednesday May 18 at 8 p.m. at Metro CCC's Campus Theatre (E. 30th and Woodland). Seats will be available on a first come-first served basis the night of the performance, and free parking is available in the underground campus lot adjacent to the theatre.

"The Ritz" is a farcical Three Stooges Marx Brothers mix of mistaken identities which takes

place in a New York gay men's bath house. Soeder says the play is markedly different from the recent movie starring Rita Moreno, focusing more on the inherent humor and less on any "distorted realism."

Soeder has consulted with several area activists about their feelings on the script and his plans for direction.

The show will be open to the general public Thursday Saturdays the weekends of May 19-28 at 8:30 p.m. Tickets for these non-preview showings will be $2.00 for adults, $1.00 for students.

Google Gomez (Patty Johnson) ponders romantic interests in private eye (Bill Crowley) in "The Ritz." For reservations call 241-5966 Ext. 293.

SAINT ANITA

By R.L. Kovach

Page 10

If any of you watched "Who's Who" on CBS-TV April 12, then you got a sample of the "circus" that I attended at First Baptist Church of Orlando on March 6th.

I was vacationing at the nearby all-gay resort "Parliament House," when I became aware that she was appearing and that about 45 guests and staff were going to attend the service.

This we did, sitting in the front row, dressed in our Sunday Best, behaving like perfect ladies and gentlemen. Most of the 800 or SO in the congregation didn't notice we were there, but all of the 75 policemen did and were nervous as hell. (suppose they thought that we were going to stone her with oranges.)

We were treated, among other things, to a pulpit rendition of the "Florida Sunshine Tree" song, the plugging of her book, her husband's various businesses and a rather hysterical, gut-wrenching "witness" of how her son was dying but recovered when she "saw the light."

Not a word about homosexuals except at the end of the service she alluded to the fact that she didn't care to take comunion with some elements in the audience. So, rather than inconvenience her, we left en

masse.

Outside we found the channel 9 cameras of the local ABC-TV station waiting for a hope-For conffrntation. It didn't materialize as Ms. Bryant didn'tt feel like meeting the media with us present so we were interviewed by ourselves.

So, on the 6 and 11 o'clock news we made our point that Anita is violating the sacred right of separation of Church and State, that the (at the time) cancellation of her Singer contract was just analogous to our persecution for our beliefs, and that California's Orange Juice is just as good as Florida's.

It should be noted that this is a big move on the southern gay community's part. They are quite far behind in both their rights and their willingness to band together and come out in the open. I get the impression that they have more or less accepted the burden of persecution.

I was happy to help them organize a local chapter of the National Gay Task Force and at the time of my departure they had elected officers, printed buttons and generally exchanged apathy for involvement.

If Bryant wins in Dade County she will go after the bill coming up before Congress. So we should watch the coming June 7 balloting very closely as it could affect each and every one of us. It is particularly interesting in light of the recent defeat of the ERA by the Florida Legislature.