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#26

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 11:41am

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.

and it all comes back down to:

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

Yeah, that sounds about right....

#27

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 11:42am

Kad, maybe you're the one being obtuse. Or maybe the article is poorly written. While it does say that the title will be changed, it also says:

“Playwright Casey Llewellyn will use [Thorton] Wilder’s text and strive to maintain his aestheic [sic] and social relevance while she considers cultural and social issues within contemporary society,” a description of the NEA grant states. “The play will explore questions of love, marriage, and loss within the context of a town where the inhabitants’ gender and sexual identity are fluid.”

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#28

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 11:53am

It's still a new work. Even if it's using existing text- in ways that, as of now, are not defined.

Our Town is a work that has had countless riffs and adaptations and derived work. Why are you taking issue with a queer take on it? Because the NEA has given them a grant?

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#29

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 11:59am

This idea stinks on ice!

#30

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 12:10pm

So it will be like one of those modern adaptations of Chekov's plays - i.e. Drowning Crow (The Seagull). Okay, fine. Guess I should have actually read the article rather than depending on someone else's summary of it.

I have an idea though: why not use that $10,000 to develop a new work that ISN'T a riff on a play we have all already read or seen (possibly multiple times)? I'm all for plays being written that reflect the mixed gender/race/whatever households we now have, but why can't it be COMPLETELY new work? That would be such a better use of that valuable NEA money.

#31

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 12:41pm

What does it matter if it's going to an adapted work or an original one? The grant is going toward a project that is supplying an established, socially and community-minded theatre company with a history of public engagement that wants to produce a socially-conscious piece of theatre by an emerging young playwright with the means to do so.

The grant they received, NEA's ArtWorks Grant, specifies: "Art Works grants supports the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#32

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 12:48pm

I mean...WEST SIDE STORY is fine and all...but WHY COULDN'T IT BE A COMPLETELY NEW WORK??

F*cking seriously? I don't even know where to begin.

#33

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 12:50pm

Our Village.

#34

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 12:58pm

"I mean...WEST SIDE STORY is fine and all...but WHY COULDN'T IT BE A COMPLETELY NEW WORK??"

Bad analogy. WSS was a completely new work. Romeo & Juliet doesn't contain language like "sperm to worm and birth to earth." Nor are any of the characters given names that are even close to those in R&J. The way this article makes it sound is that Mr. Webb and Mr. Gibb are going to be horsing around behind the barn.

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#35

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 1:14pm

You literally have nothing to base that on except your very specific reading of the article. The script does not yet exist.

By the way, Foundry is the company that gave us the Taylor Mac/Lisa Kron GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN. I think they deserve way more than $10K in public funding.

#36

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 1:17pm

Even in the one article you cite, Goth, nothing makes it sound like that. You know absolutely nothing about this work beyond the fact that it's inspired by "Our Town."

#37

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 1:36pm

From the article:
“The play will explore questions of love, marriage, and loss within the context of a town where the inhabitants’ gender and sexual identity are fluid.”
[...]
“It’s really interesting to grapple with belonging, and family, and community within a queer community,” she added."

Yeah... this really sounds like a big queer orgy.

Of all of Goth's conservative freakouts, this one is the most inexplicable and stupid.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

Updated On: 1/14/15 at 01:36 PM

#38

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 4:15pm

"sperm to worm and birth to earth."

Birth to Earth? Really?

I'm sorry but "womb to tomb" is too good to misquote at this late date.
You're making Arthur very angry rolling around in his.

#39

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 4:29pm

Didn't 'sperm to worm' get sanitized to 'birth to earth' in the film?

#40

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 6:21pm

Having been George in a production of Our Town, I really see no point. There are plenty of LGBTQIA plays that could be produced instead of changing an already existing show.

I'm all for classics being put on or revived (especially if there's a purpose to the production) but we need to make room for shows that aren't getting attention. It's almost as repetitive and boring as the same block of shows that tour everywhere (Wicked, The Lion King, Annie, etc).

I'm interested in how it turns out, though. They'll have to really deliver their work or it will be picked at as much as it is now.

I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.

#41

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/14/15 at 10:41pm

Instead of calling it Gay Our Town they should call that Our Town Gay, as in "I don't know about yours, but our town gay."

#42

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/15/15 at 7:42am

". . . instead of changing an already existing show."

Am I just reading wrong when I think that this isn't a queer production of "Our Town" but rather a new play inspired by the Wilder?

#43

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/15/15 at 8:28am

No. No you are not. The article explicitly says that is the case.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#44

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/15/15 at 9:42am

Sort of like Wilder's own "The Matchmaker" being inspired by/adapted from John Oxenford's "A Day Well Spent" and Johann Nestory's "Einen Jux will er sich machen," before being turned in "Hello, Dolly!"?

#45

Gay Our Town

Posted: 1/15/15 at 10:11am

Don't forget Stoppard's ON THE RAZZLE.

Good Christ, people are being unbearable about this.

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