GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE June 22, 2007

Cruising WITH Pride

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Holliday

Continued from page 8

nifer Hudson's performance?

The film was, as adaptations are, good. They took away too much from the soul of the musical but that's their privilege. And if I say that Jennifer Hudson's not good then I am saying that I am not good.

Her performance has me in it. Unlike me, who created the role from no history, she had something there for her.

How does that make you feel that so much of what you did has become the standard for that role?

It makes me have mixed feelings. At one level you feel I have been copied, I have been ripped off. But at another you feel that you've done something that is put in print that will live on. I have elation and sadness all at once, if that's even possible.

Since your Broadway fame, there have been many Jennifer Holliday impersonators and entertainers-women and men in drag. What do you think about this phenomenon?

It has been going on for twenty-five years. Back then I didn't like it because I was severely obese and whether it was women or men in drag I realized I was being laughed at. Now I've seen all kinds and I say to them, you'll have to lose some weight too. But back then it was hard to look at.

You say you are deeply Christian and yet you are so open and accepting of the gay community. Unlike so many Christians, how have you reconciled the two?

The clearest way I see this is that if I am a Christian and God loves me and he has been faithful to me, why would he choose a community that other Christians say are not good to have been my sole support? This community fed me and allowed me not to be on the street. I'd be a hypocrite if I said yes, I need their money, but I am not going to accept who they are. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. God created gays as he created everyone and he loves them as he loves everyone and as I know he loves me. What kind of person would I be if I didn't love them and what kind of image of God would that be?

You have been very frank about your struggles with depression. How are you managing these days?

I take medication and continue with therapy. I have found a way to balance life. I realized that prior to this I was just a voice but now I am just beginning to live and learn how to balance the two, my life and my

Sublime

Continued from page 8

without being able to call home and tell how it all went."

In addition to his repertory work in Cleveland this summer, he is also writing a one-man show called Bitch-Slapped by God: A Christmas Rantomime, which will be part of the Drill Hall in London's 30th anniversary season. Quinton performed there twice as part of Ridiculous during the 1990s, once with Ludlam's Camille, and again with Georg Osterman's Brother Truckers.

"Julie offered me the opportunity to do the play two days after Michael's funeral. She didn't know that Michael had died," he said. "She knew Michael. One of my dearest memories is of Michael and Julie meeting me at Heathrow [airport] when we did Brother Truck-

ers."

"I arrived after the company. I remember Michael's smile that day, thus the title," he reminisced. "I was feeling bitch-slapped by God. What a cruel God sometimes. I am not able to be philosophical about Michael's death now. In time I'll see that he's not in pain anymore."

Having been brought up in the same theatrical circles that produced Lypsinka and Charles Busch, Quinton has played his share of women.

"I'd say that about fifty percent of my roles

work. And I am singing better than ever because I am happier. I don't have any hobbies, so I am trying to learn to golf and learning how to de-stress. I am trying to become a whole woman and in this new millennium putting the pieces together to become a whole Jennifer Holliday with my mind, body and spirit. I am also speaking to others to let them know that they are not alone and [in doing so] am hoping to save a life.

In 1990 I did try to commit suicide by taking a lot of sleeping pills. In the entertainment business we have lost so many to suicide and there are so many in America whose names we don't even know. I want to be more active with that and tell people not to worry about the stigma. We have lost too many-white, black, young, old.

How did you make it through your attempted suicide?

With God, of course. That was when I also began to lose the weight. I had gastric bypass surgery and lost two hundred pounds. I had always assumed that all my problems were connected to my weight. And then when I lost the weight I realized I still had the problems. I didn't have a career, I didn't have a boyfriend, I can't get along with people. And even recently I have had many losses, many heartaches. I lost my mother to cancer, a couple of relationships that failed. But I am trying to move on. I am beginning to find out how to make it all work, hoping I will survive, that I will make it.

You said you are singing better because you are happier. But having been through so much pain in your life, does that help you bring out the raw emotions in your singing?

All that has given me a renewed passion and determination to, live more than ever. Because I have been through so much I have defiance and confidence to fight. I spent so many years not knowing that people loved ·

me,

that I was liked for my work. I remember someone saying, "Give me my flowers while I live." I don't care if I have a big funeral. I know finally I'm loved and not just for singing "I'm Not Going.”

Have you ever thought that "I'm Not Going," which defined you and your career, would become about what you have been through in your life—that is, with all the struggles, you're still here?

I never thought of it that way until this year. Before I viewed it primarily as a love song. I would have people come up and tell me that the song saved their marriage, or that they had got back with their boyfriend. But now it's my own anthem. I want to live.

have been women. I like that," he stated. "I always say it's cool to be able to say I played Camille and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the same career. That's why I like the roles I have this summer. I love Mr. Page in Booth."

Booth is about the struggle between Junius Booth, one of the top actors of the 19th century in America, and his son Edwin. Junius was also the father of John Wilkes Booth, who killed Abraham Lincoln, although that is secondary to the story.

Even though he won't be doing drag in Booth, "I always was a drag queen, and when I first got into the RTC I was glad there was a place for me. I always wanted to act, but I didn't know it. I thought I was nuts, in my shower doing Bette Davis."

"It's important for me to play both men and women," he said. "I don't want to say anything else about it because it sounds like a judgment of people who want to do it different than me. It takes all of us to make a world." Mauldin, who is also the director of Cleveland State University's dramatic arts program, used his pull to bring in Andrew C. Call, Jessica Anderson and Carl Whidden, who play Jamie, Rosamund and Clement in Robber Bridegroom. Whidden will direct Booth, in which Mauldin plays Junius.

The pieces run Thursday to Sunday through July 15 at the CSU Factory Theater on West 24th Street between Payne and Chester Avenues. For information on which play is performed on which date, call 216687-2109. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.