16 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 11, 1994

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Miss Evers' boys didn't know their syphilis was being left untreated. Bill McKenkie, Robert Williams, Abdullah Bey (standing 1 to r) and Rodney Chaise Williams play four men in the infamous Tuskegee Study.

Black History plays

Continued from previous page

For the Love of the Game is not didactic; issues are raised through characterization; and no easy answers are provided. Anchorman Matt Mason (Willie J. Boyd) views the documentary as a chance to explore the social context of the Leagues. He is less interested in the history of racism than in the spirit of the men who played "for the love of the game." He is opposed by the young intern, Ramone Dailey, who is passionately political. (Edward Lewis and Gregory K. Suddeth alternate in this role. I saw Suddeth who played it with youthful bravado and great charm.) Ramone and researcher Jaretha Brown (Nicole Scoggins) debate the interpretation of the past. They bring to life the reality of how an historian or journalist's choices affect our understanding of the past. Jimmy-Sweetwater-Lee (Jonathan Booker) is a custodian in the studio who had played for the Negro Leagues. He views Jaretha's desire to interview him as exploitation.

At the center of the play's action is the personal and professional conflict between the news program's producer, Gloria Styles (Evelyn Irby) and writer Anne St. John (DeWanda Smith-Aden). Styles is a lightskinned, single woman, approaching her fortieth birthday. She grew up in poverty and has worked hard to get where she is. St. John is a dark-skinned, young woman with a privileged upper middle class background. She is a high-strung, talented artist. Gloria needs Jaretha, but resents her youth and background. Jaretha rages at Gloria's attempts to control her creativity, and resents her light color, which has made her rise to power more easy.

For the Love of the Game is a complex

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and ambitious work, excellently staged by Ford-Taylor and finely acted. I found the first act long and marred by a slow beginning that seems to want to match the light banter of a TV sitcom. But once the characters and ideas come into focus, the play succeeds admirably.

In the context of Black History month, I'd like to consider how these plays can speak to a gay audience. Certainly, as a community that has a history of being oppressed, we can share the experience of oppression that is embodied in these dramas. I think we can relate to the divisiveness within the community that is portrayed in For the Love of the Game. In Miss Evers' Boys, as we watch the progress of the disease in the two men who remain untreated after the discovery of penicillin and its effects on the man who receives treatment too late, we are reminded of the progress of AIDS. We see one man lose his eyesight, dementia consumes another, and Willie, the dancer, loses motor control of his legs. Giving placebos to dying people in order to insure a necessary control for drug testing is an issue ACT UP has debated. And both plays remind us that the struggle to recover an overlooked or marginalized past involves choices that determine how we view ourselves now.

Miss Evers' Boys continues at the Civic Theatre through Feb. 20, FriSat 8 pm, Sunday the 13th at 7:30 pm, and Sunday the 20th at 3:30 pm.; call 321-2930. Greg Robson, program director of the Living Room, will lead a discussion after the Feb. 13 show. For the Love of the Game runs through Feb.27 in the Jelliffe Theatre, Thursday-Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm; call 795-7077.

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