October 15

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eveningsout

Search for acceptance finds teens of different paths

by Dawn E. Leach

Cleveland Heights-This month, Dobama Theatre is offering a double bill of two plays dealing with gay teenagers struggling with their identities.

Porcelain, opening October 15, is a play set in London about a 19-year-old gay Asian man on trial for the murder of his lover.

On October 22, the Dobama Night Kitchen

John (Jay Kim, center) is lost in a sea of white heterosexual voices.

opens Stupid Kids, a play about two high school students coming to terms with being gay, and their two best friends who don't know.

Crime of passion

Using an Asian minimalistic style, Porcelain tells the story of a lonely, isolated man who rejected his Chinese name and took the name "John."”

Throughout the play is woven the Chinese fable of the Crow and the Sparrows, in which a crow decides to leave the community of

crows to join the sparrows atthe end of the field. After strug-gling the crow finally realizes that the sparrows only tolerate him and can't truly embrace him. He returns to the crows, only to discover that he has been changed, and now no longer fits in with the crows either. John is much like the crow in the fable-he is Asian in a world of white faces, and gay in a heterosexual culture. He is further cut off from his family because he can't tell them he's gay.

Neechee (Jason Popis) and Kimberly (Kelly Elliot, right), grapple with their sexual identities and whether they should reveal their secret attractions for their best friends Jim (Mike Ball) and Judy (Heather Stout, left).

John longs to find lasting love, but instead finds fleeting beauty in cottaging (sex in public bathrooms), which leaves him feeling terribly dirty. "John is very intuitive above all, and he's very sensitive," said actor Jay Kim, who plays John. "He's lonely-very, very lonely. He doesn't have an outlet to express all this passion he has, and that's what forcès him to do what he does, to go and have sex in the public toilets."

Kim, a professional actor who currently works at the Cleveland Play House, said director Joyce Casey approached him about the part in July. "I was a bit intimidated by the intensity of the play at first," Kim said, "but after reading it through I realized it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."

When asked what he likes most about the play, Kim said that there are some "incredibly well-crafted" scenes between John and the prison psychiatrist.

Kim said that he likes working with Allan Byrne, who plays the psychiatrist.

"He's one of the best actors in Cleveland," Kim said. "The dynamics of those scenes are just wonderful."

Kim said the play has been a challenge for him, but he's glad he accepted the role. "Not often do I get to do something that has such a strong message," he said.

Kim said he has grown through work-

ing on the play.

"It has given me a new perspective on a lot of things," Kim said. "I learned how devastating alienation can be. That's really what the play is about."

Asians and Friends Cleveland will have a group outing to attend Porcelain on Sunday, October 31, along with members of Columbus and Pittsburgh chapters of the group. Anyone interested in attending can call Howard at 216-226-6080.

Lesbian and gay in high school

Director Dan Kilbane describes Stupid Kids as the story of "four teenagers growing up in the wasteland that is the suburbs."

Two of the teens are in the process of discovering that they are gay-and have crushes on the other two, their best friends. The energy is romantic and hot, said Kilbane and full of all the angst that the teen years bring.

"They're all dealing with trying to find acceptance in the world and coming to terms with their identities,” Kilbane said. "They're looking for attention and validation."

Jason Popis, who plays the gay male character Neechee, said that he instantly connected to the story when he first read the script.

"I totally related to what these characters were going through," Popis said. "High school

RIQUE VANSTON (2)

was a lot like that for me."

Neechee becomes close to his lesbian friend, Kimberly, as they share their coming out process, and struggle together over whether to reveal their crushes to their friends. "I see them almost as being total soul mates," Popis said. “They do everything together, they really understand each other, they know what's going on inside each other's heads, even before they say it."

Ironically, the bond that the two characters share adds to their invisibility, because their friends assume that they are romantically involved with each other.

"And it's like, if only you knew," Popis said, laughing.

The show combines alternative rock music from the '80s and '90s with movement to tell their story.

"These characters' relationships with each other are very real," said Popis. "The conflicts that they go through are very commonplace with teenagers today. I think that audiences will be able to relate really well to this play."

Stupid Kids runs October 22 through November 6, and is scheduled for performances immediately after Porcelain. There will be a special package ticket to include both shows. For more information, call Dobama at 216932-6838.

Holly Hughes tells the 'preverted' history of the NEA Four

by Dan Hlad

Cleveland-Being notorious in the world of performance art isn't as easy as it used to be. Increasingly little shocks an audience, in a culture that seems to crave oddity à la Jerry Springer. In order to remain interesting, artists can be compelled to push the envelope.

Though possibly shocking, controversy can be effective, and just the different perspective an artist needs to break into their own identity. And so it is with Holly Hughes, whose latest performance, Preaching to the Preverted, makes its Cleveland debut at Cleveland Public Theatre, 6415 Detroit Avenue, beginning October 14.

The performance chronicles the true experience of Hughes and three other performance artists, who sued the federal government in 1993 after their National Endowment for the Arts funding was cut three years earlier because of the content of their material. The group, labeled the "NEA Four," won a Ninth Circuit decision and, in 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the restrictions unconstitutional, and reinstated their grants.

This was a significant occasion in the ongoing war on arts funding, said Randy Rollisons, producing director at Cleveland Public Theatre who worked to bring Hughes

to town.

"In battling the decision [to revoke their funding], the NEA Four made an important

statement against censorship", he said. “In winning, they signified that the Constitution backed them up as individuals."

In Preaching to the Preverted (not "Perverted"), Hughes recalls her struggle and subsequent victory with what is billed as "a scathing political commentary on decency, family values, lesbian chic and child pornography."

She has a lot to reflect upon. Prior to the group's suit, NEA funding was under constant attack from ultra-conservative forces within government.

Despite being well respected in the art world, several award-winning pieces and notable teaching positions at Brown, Duke and other universities, Hughes was called a "garbage artist" by North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms.

His reference was to Hughes' performances that included lesbian themes, nudity, foul language and pornography in pieces like The Well of Horniness.

The political fight and subsequent reputation elevated her to the status of poster child for free expression in the '90s, and her victory and following success has helped maintain that status.

Launching her career at New York City's legendary Wow Café, Hughes spent much of the eighties developing her performance in East Village nightclubs. She is the author of several plays. Hughes'

Dress Suits for Hire toured extensively and received an Obie award for actress Peggy Shaw's performance.

Hughes wrote Preaching with directorial and editorial assistance from Lois Weaver of Split Britches Company. Rollisons, who has worked with Hughes in New York and previously at Cleveland Public Theatre, says this piece is particularly timely in light of recent funding questions surfacing from a controversial display at the Bronx Museum of Art, and on-going pressure from politicians.

"Her work is incredibly personal," said Rollisons. "For her to be thrust on the national stage with something so personal is truly significant."

Preaching to the Preverted is one in a string of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themed events at Cleveland Public Theatre. Ad-mission for all shows is $15 general admission; $12 for students and seniors. For tickets, call 216631-2727.