June, 1989

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE Page 5

Theatre

Continued from Page 1

Eisenstein is creating the music and, like Malpede, is one of those rare artists who is articulate in more than one medium. She is as articulate with words as she is with music (remember Last Red Wagon Tent Show?). Her plays and music have pleased audiences around Ohio and elsewhere for some time, and her remarkable abilities seem to be developing even sharper edges against Sappho's sturdy strop.

Eisenstein and Malpede describe Sappho as a "rich play, rich in ritual and in the music of people and emotions.” They stress that the play "is not a musical," but that it reveals "exquisitely beautiful growth" with language that "flows naturally and gracefully through the ritual of images." And those images "which float on a sea of music."

We already know that images in good plays mirror life, and we are familiar with drama's currently prevailing concepts that produce a pattern of "something's wrong/fight against it/triumph over it (or die trying)" structure for most plays. Malpede seems to think this structure is more masculine than feminine and that it's high time the theatre showed us more of the feminine realities in our lives.

Perhaps by seeing these images, she hopes we can stop primping and preening in front of theatre's magic mirror and learn to appreciate more our abilities to do things with one another instead of against one another. That's more feminine, reasons Malpede, and that's more of how things work in Sappho and Aphrodite, which she calls a "female play."

If a play with a strong protagonist opposed to a strong antagonist is truly masculine in nature, then Sappho and Aphrodite is truly feminine. It gives us characters who resolve their own internal conflicts without doing much of anything except experiencing their feeling. This is dangerous in drama because drama's very nature is that somebody must be doing something we can see. Not only do we not see characters think or feel, they cannot themselves think or feel anyway. After all, they are imitations of human beings; they are not actual people. Somebody "created" them by giving them something to do (did you see and understand The Purple Rose of Cairo

Building Project

Continued from Page 4

WBP for the last seven years. Though affiliated with the WBP, it is an independent organization. As such, its rent has never been subsidized by the WBP.

The Gym has seen many women come and go as they investigate weightlifting as a possible choice in a health plan. Few women make a long-term commitment to weights. But it has been a safe entry for many women into the community and given women a choice to explore weightlifting in a supportive women's environment rather than a macho gym. It is a worthwhile, positive part of the community.

The Gym pays rent from the monthly fees collected by the participants. If it is so lucky as to make more than the rent, the excess subsidizes the months that don't. Many month's rent have been supplemented by Sally Stohlmann, who owns the equipment. No personal profit is made from the Gym.

Due to changes at the Civic, rent is to be raised for the Women's Fitness Center. In the months to come, this may

Since 1984

at the movies?).

But conceptualized, internalized activity has its validity. If the images of such activity are clear enough, powerful enough, we can experience those activities fully enough from the safety of our theatre seat to reap the rewards of recognizing ourselves in the characters' behavior. If the images are blurred or impertinent, no amount of brilliant dialogue, no amount of conceptualized bravery or emotional integrity can rescue us from an evening that will be bewildering, bothering or downright boring. Witness Hamlet performed with strict attention to little more than its powerful, beautiful language, and you have trouble staying awake unless you're a "Hamlet freak." It's like watching a mummified corpse sacrificed on the altar in the Church of Culture. People who belong to that church get some pleasure simply in watching the sacrifice, but most of us prefer something more pertinent to the miraculous thrills and delicious shivers that good plays can give us.

Malpede's script satisfies the reader immensely. Sappho's poetry is interwoven with great skill within more prosaic language, and the ideas fairly leap off the page clothed in clarity and precision. And it's clear that people are not so much against each other as they are for each other, even as the main character suffers through her various trials and tribulations. Each character functions as a necessary member of the community they live in, where each woman interacts with each other, finding their community much more significant in their concerns than some single hero or heroine could be.

But since we don't take a script and

Even in the script for the reader, it is clear that the language of the play is not the usual dialogue of ordinary plays. Yes, it is poetry in some places, but it suggests poetry in action in more places. If these places become concrete images for us in the theatre, and if we open ourselves to receive them, we may enter the world of Sappho and Aphrodite and discover it to be unlike most others we've ever visited in the theatre, letting the potentially warm and exquisite delights of this play envelop us.

The CPT is to be congratulated for offering this play. It speaks of a special dedication to a special magic, much like that which was sparkling through SoHo lofts and East Village warehouses of the '50s and '60s where theatre artists pushed exuberantly against established limits of the art. They sometimes produced monumental and glorious disasters, but they also succeeded in broadening those limits.

We've come a long way in the theatre because of those people in those places. Thanks to those brave, energetic souls, there is hardly any subject that is taboo for drama today, no words that deeply shock us when thrown at us from the stage, no ideas generated in our brains that offend us to the point of riot. Cage, Beck, Genet, Schechner, Stein, Malina and many others risked everything so that we could be open to a much wider range of things theatrical and dramatic than we were used to.

Yes, fashion does still go in one era and out the other, and the oncefashionable sight of things like naked actors parading around the stage is no

perform it, we won't know how Sappho Gay sergeant

and Aphrodite actually works for us until we are there during the performance. The abundance of energy, commitment and skills that have been evident in the tight ensemble of artists, craftsmen and craftswomen who have built this play in-

dicates that we will taste a rich banquet of theatrical pleasures. And maybe we will even come to realize deep implications behind the thought that Malpede

tossed out in casual conversation the other day: the thought that Erato is a women, you know.

prove to be an undue hardship. For the moment, Gym members are choosing to raise their own fees so the Gym will remain in existence.

If you ever thought about joining or trying out the Gym, now's the time to do so! Members are also planning future fundraising activities. One activity may be a garage sale, so if you have any donations, please call the WBP at 321-3054 and leave a message for Sally. Please, support the Women's Fitness Center. Don't let another resource disappear! ▼

Jamie Hecker

The Chronicle encourages everyone to write and express their opinion about the paper or life in general. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. We will print your name unless you specifically ask us

not to.

Address letters to the Chronicle, P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland, Ohio, 44101.

Proudly Serving Cleveland's Gay & Lesbian Community

BODY LANGUAGE

Monday-Saturday Noon-Nine

Sundays. Noon Five

3291 W. 115th St. (1/2 Block North of Lorain) Cleveland, OH 44111 251-3330

"The Thinking Person's Adult Store!"

Continued from Page 1

Pentagon officials subsequently' changed the rules to permit the discharge of persons with "homosexual orientation" as well as those who engage in homosexual acts. However, the threejudge appeals panel and the full appeals court ruled that the Army's decision to retain Watkins in the past, despite his affirmation of a homosexual orientation, meant he could not be subjected to the new rule. To do so, the court said, would subject Watkins to constitutionally prohibited "double jeopardy."

Gay rights attorney Richard Gayer of San Francisco said Wednesday's restricted decision in Watkins' favor means Watkins could be discharged once again by the Army if Army investigators prove that Watkins engages in sodomy in the future.

An Army spokesman said in May that government officials have not decided whether to appeal the latest decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gayer said he doubted the government would choose to appeal and predicted the Army would offer to pay Watkins a "significant sum" in an out-ofcourt settlement if he agrees to withdraw his case.

By appealing to the Supreme Court,

longer even interesting. But one person's A Chorus Line is still another person's CATS, and funny girls still dream of a life in the theatre. If it weren't for places like the CPT today, we might be stuck in those fashionable mansions, not just unwilling to buckle onto the back of the next Pegasus to come along, but unable to accept the offer of a soaring trip through unknown skies.

Each new generation of artists whose souls burn with the fire of creativity seems to include those who do not learn that ideas cannot be communicated from playwright to audience. But it is in theatres like CPT where they get the chance to try again. For it is in their trying that they invent ever newer ways to harness the theatre's tremendous powers to draw emotions willingly from us, emotions we might not even know we have, thereby forcing us to think about what we are capable of thinking about. Thank you, CPT, for encouraging Sappho and Aphrodite for our benefit. It promises to be one of the most outstanding and riveting plays we've seen in a long time.

The Women's Building Project will be sponsoring a benefit performance of Sappho and Aphrodite on June 10 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 and must be purchased before June 8th at The Women's Building Project, and Rethreads in Cleveland Heights; Another State of Mind in Lakewood and the Bookstore on West 25 in Cleveland.

For information on other tickets and reservations, call 631-2727.

Performance dates: June 8-25, Thursdays through Saturdays at 9 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m.

Gayer said, the Army would allow Watkins to file a cross appeal seeking affirmation of the sweeping decision by the three-judge appeals panel.

"I don't think they want to risk a Supreme Court decision [ending the military ban on gays], even though it's a small risk," Gayer said.

Openly gay Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, who died of AIDS last June, received criticism by some gay activists when he agreed, in 1980, to a $160,000 settlement with the Air Force in exchange for dropping his lawsuit for reinstatement. A federal appeals court in Washington ordered the Air Force to reinstate Matlovich after ruling, on technical grounds, that his discharge was illegal.

The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1987 that lesbian Miriam Ben-Shalom must be allowed to re-enlist in the Army reserves. Similar to the Watkins case, the court ruled that the Army could produce no evidence that BenShalom engaged in homosexual conduct and that her affirmation of a homosexual orientation was insufficient grounds for denial of re-enlistment.

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.

ARE YOU HIV-POSITIVE?

A clinical trial of AZT in HIV-positive persons is underway at University Hospitals of Cleveland. This trial will close to new enrollment as of July 1, 1989.

Call 844-8175 for further information.

Benefits to Participants:

Ongoing medical evaluation of your health status by AIDS specialists

Laboratory testing, immunologic monitoring and physical exams free of charge

The possibility of obtaining the newest and most promising drug therapies free of charge