Gay Our Town

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/13/15 at 9:52pm

I always thought Mrs. Gibbs was really a man.

"The National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) is contributing to the production of a new adaptation of "Our Town," set in a town where "gender and sexual identity are fluid."




Link

Updated On: 1/14/15 at 09:52 PM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 1/13/15 at 10:44pm

One word: why?

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/13/15 at 10:49pm

Agreed: Why? I'm gay and this sounds really stupid. Changing the sex of the characters doesn't really change the meaning of the piece or shine any sort of line on the piece?

[haterobics]

Posted: 1/13/15 at 10:57pm

"set in a town where “gender and sexual identity are fluid." "

Isn't that every town?!

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 1/13/15 at 11:02pm

How is this going to further our understanding of the material?

[LetticeDouffet]

Posted: 1/13/15 at 11:09pm

"a town where “gender and sexual identity are fluid"

Do they mean San Francisco?

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 1:06am

Good one, Lettuce.

I'm all about reinterpreting classics a la David Cromer, but this does nothing for the play. You could argue that Cromer's production meant to tell us that the basics of life are the same now as they were then. The point of this version is...what? The way we WISH things were then? I don't get it.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 1:10am

I have difficulty believing that there is a point. It seems like just an idea, there has to be more than that though.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 1:32am

Well, at least this makes me feel like I now have the go-ahead to do my all-midget Death of a Salesman and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with actual wolves.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 7:20am

I do hate to say it, but this pitch sounds like a throwaway joke about a progressive but talentless artist's current project on "Glee."

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 7:54am

What's next an all gay male version of COMPANY?

Oh wait...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 9:24am

Liberals always mock when Republicans try to cut the budget for the NEA. But this is an example of why Republicans feel that way. $10,000 of taxpayer money wasted on a gay reimagination of Our Town. Perhaps if the NEA put that $10,000 towards a PBS broadcast of On The Town, Republicans may not be so contrary. But it seems like the NEA just wants to piss away money.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 9:47am

I'm not sure how accurate that article is. Wouldn't an NEA grant most likely be to the theater company in general, not to sponsor one play?

Also, it doesn't seem to be a queer production of "Our Town" itself. On the company's website, it says "Casey is writing a play for the Foundry inspired by Thorton Wilder’s OUR TOWN which we will develop in workshops throughout 2014-15." That sounds very different to me than, say, putting Mr. Webb in drag.

[Kad]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:14am

The Foundry received a grant to develop a play. This is not at ALL controversial or unusual. Come on.

[brucebossa]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:25am

Sounds like the playwright is using OUR TOWN as a model - and writing her own play which will have a different title. Perhaps it is more of a new play "inspired" by OUR TOWN, so perhaps the character names will be different, etc. Hey - just last year how many new plays were inspired by Chekhov plays? Can we wait to see what the final play really is? It certainly doesn't sound like the director is taking OUR TOWN and making those characters gay.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:28am

Wait...are you saying that people on this board have mis-read an article and willfully or ignorantly decided it was one thing when it clearly is something else?

I'm stunned, I tell you. Stunned.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:28am

(Now done by a drag queen as Liza): Oh, Mama, look at me one minute as though you really saw me. Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I'm dead. You're a grandmother, Mama! Wally's dead, too. His appendix burst on a camping trip to North Conway. We felt just terrible about it - don't you remember? But, just for a moment now we're all together. Mama, just for a moment we're happy.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:31am

Wait...are you saying that people on this board have mis-read an article and willfully or ignorantly decided it was one thing when it clearly is something else?

I'm stunned, I tell you. Stunned.

SHOCKING though isn't it?

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:42am

Even though this project is actually only inspired by Our Town, I never understand why people react so negatively to reinterpretations of classic plays? Obviously not every reinterpretation works, but it doesn't mean the original can't/won't be performed ever again. Who cares if someone wants to try something new?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:47am

I never thought it was going to be a show where Simon Stimson drank because Mr. Webb spurned his advances.

But Our Town has a certain tone to it that doesn't lend itself to gender fluidity. It sounds like this theater company wants attention and gets it by being provocative. And the NEA is all too happy to pay for it. If this playwright wants to write about a town where gender fluidity is the norm, then why doesn't she just write it rather thank invoking the reputation of an American classic?

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:53am

I really don't know anything about this playwright. But maybe for the same reason Stoppard wanted to write "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" using "Hamlet" as a starting point, rather than a play about two other courtiers in some random castle. I guess he felt that the original would inform his work and resonate in a way that audiences would respond to.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:53am

Because maybe people outside the norm, like gay and trans people, people of color, would like to see themselves reflected within the classics American theatre? I don't think the play's feelings will be hurt, or its reputation will suffer- if anything, it will only help to serve as a springboard for what could be a great new play.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 11:09am

"Because maybe people outside the norm, like gay and trans people, people of color, would like to see themselves reflected within the classics American theatre?"

But plays aren't written to include or not include splinter groups. It's forcing a perspective on a work that doesn't belong there. If the gay community wants to celebrate Shakespeare for writing cross-dressing into his plays, then that is fine, but it shouldn't be shoe-horned into a piece.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 11:31am

But why can't it belong there? Recently, I saw a production of The Winter's Tale in which several characters, including Florizel, were changed into female characters. It was a stunning production, and nothing felt "forced" on it by adding some women to the mix. And if someone really felt like the play was that disrupted by having a lesbian relationship at its center, than I'm sure they can easily find a production that's all straight people and not be bothered by anyone ever trying something different.

[Kad]

Posted: 1/14/15 at 11:33am

Goth, you are being willfully obtuse. It's a *new work* inspired by Our Town. It's not Our Town. No themes are being shoe-horned into an existing play.

"It sounds like this theater company wants attention and gets it by being provocative"

That sounds like a page from your playbook.