GAY PEOPLE'S Chronicle CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 30, 1998

Evenings Out

Sex under the cameras

An undressed look at the porn business, and the people who help fuel our fantasies

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Columbus-Pornography is that ever slick, double-edged sword that everybody, at least publicly, denies having an interest in. Yet it is an over $10 billion a year industry—and that's in the U.S. alone. Even if porn is not your cup of tea, most people probably do wonder about the behind-thescenes machinations of an industry built on pure, unadulterated voyeurism.

Act Out Productions of Columbus is presenting such a look with their production of Making Porn, an off-Broadway hit for a year and a half, written by Ronnie Larsen. The play has enjoyed long and popular runs in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami. Like the Academy Awardnominated film Boogie Nights, this play is not only a behind-the-scenes look at porn but also about the relationships between the people involved in making it.

Director Frank Barnhart, who is also Act Out's founder, said that part of what he calls his "mission" with Act Out is to bring “the hottest, most contemporary gay plays to Ohio audiences."

"I liked what [Making Porn] had to say," Barnhart commented, "because it deals with changes in the industry, especially with the onset of AIDS."

Given the title of the play, expectations of a storyline or characters might be slim, but Barnhart disagrees. "There is a lot more body to the play than expected," he said, pun intended.

Making Porn focuses on two couples: Jack and Linda, a heterosexual couple, and Arthur and Jamie, a gay couple.

Jack is an out-of-work actor who takes a job in gay porn, behind his wife's back, in order to pay the bills. Arthur is the producer Jack works with, and Jamie his lover and business assistant. The other characters who fill the world of the play are Ricky, a young newcomer to X-rated films and Ray, a veteran porn star.

While the play is about skin flicks, Barnhart says that "the play has surprisingly little nudity," relatively speaking of

course.

Nudity in plays is a passé concept, especially in the new wave of gay plays from Love! Valour! Compassion! to Party. In both these plays, not set in the porn world, characters spend a lot of the play naked. Barnhart said that all the mudity in Making Porn grows out of situations, such ing a scene on

Like Barnhart, all the actors agreed that sex and nudity are the hooks with which the playwright gets his audiences in, and then presents them with interesting characters and situations.

"It's a character-driven play," Barnhart added, "and ultimately it's a comedy, even though it does have serious undertones." This trick of using sex to draw crowds goes back beyond Aristophanes, whose Lysistrata used the notion of a sex strike to make antiwar commentary.

When casting, Barnhart was first concerned with "the actors' abilities to act and carry out the demands of comedy." However, Barnhart also had to be aware of actors with physical types that were in sync with people's notions of porn stars. Barnhart has acquired an interesting menagerie of virtual porn players in actors who bring unique attributes to their parts.

Rob Wagner, tall and lanky, plays Jack, the straight boy doing gay porn. Wagner is making his theatrical debut, as is Joe Williams, who plays Ricky, the naïve new kid on the nude block. Not only do these two face the daunting task of acting for the first time, but they have to do some of it sans clothing. Even the most seasoned actors get thrown for a loop at the prospect of performing au naturel!

But both Wagner and Williams are more worried about the acting challenges than the fact that there will be quite some "indecent exposure."

"It's not a problem," Williams said, "but I may feel differently when I know all my friends are in the audience."

Scott Foltz, who has acted before, is "doing the nude thing for the first time, and it's something I have considered doing if the right opportunity arose."

The opportunity has certainly arisen, but so has the question about how to handle the ever tricky issues of possible on-stage arousal. Barnhart, who has faced the challenge of on-stage nudity in several productions, said that "it's never a problem because it's all so clinical. There are so many other things like acting, lines, that you have to focus on that arousal is the last thing on one's mind." All the actors agree, except for Wagner, who isn't so sure that such basic

Jamie, the producer's assistant (Roger Whitaker), flirts with Ricky (Joe Williams, left), who has never done porn before. Below, porn veteran Ray (Scott Foltz) pours Ricky a drink.

human responses could certainly be kept in check in such a purportedly clinical setting.

Barnhart and his actors all have strategies for making the nudity as organic and comfortable as possible. Barnhart insists that the process "be slow and based on their individual levels of comfort." Foltz said that he "is psyching himself to think like his character Ray Tanner, who can't be selfconscious as a veteran porno actor." But each actor has a lot more to focus on than just the nudity.

All the actors are all watching their bodies closely. Williams is working out because he "wants to be a believable porn star." Wagner said he's "working out a little harder than his normal routines and doing a few more sit-ups." Foltz said he's dieting and doing more cardio exercises, “although you couldn't tell that by the chips I just wolfed down" he joked.

Barnhart added that the New York producers told him not to get hung up on body types "because in their production all sorts of different men were well received by the audiences."

The play's most serious side manifests itself with the way in which AIDS began to transform the industry. The play takes place between 1983 and the mid-eighties, by which time AIDS had emerged as a dark and pervasive presence.

The actors were all very forthright about the role porn has in their personal lives. Wagner, Mike Dutcher (who plays the sleazy

producer) and Foltz were unanimous and their varied responses of “love it," or "enjoy it" and "buy it, rent it," brought laughter around the table.

"The great thing about theatre is that one can play out the fantasy of being a porn star without actually doing it," Barnhart said. The play hasn't moved any of the actors to consider a career change from stage actor to porno stud although Wagner noted, tonguein-cheek, "Depends on what it pays!”

It is relevant and important to ask if this play only furthers stereotypes of gay men as only being obsessed with sex. Barnhart was quick to answer, "Those who say that are probably those who haven't seen the play."

Foltz added that "They would say such things regardless of whether Porn was being staged or not."

Dutcher elaborated that "The play is about relationships and more than just sex.” Ultimately, audiences will answer that question for themselves having seen the play.

"Making Porn" will be at the Reality Theatre, 736 N. Pearl Street, November 5-7, 12-15, 19-22 and 27-29. Opening night curtain is at 7:30 p.m.; 8:00 p.m. on all other nights, except Sundays at 7:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $15 Thursday and Sunday and $20 Friday and Saturday. Call 614-263-9448 for reservations and more information.

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