Gay Pride and Prejudice at The Ringwald’s Gay Play Series
FERNDALE, Mich.–Most of the quartet of shows that make up the second set, “Block B,” of Ringwald’s Gay Play Series have a definite Detroit spin–from a piece about a reunion of Boblo Island park workers to a vignette set at a People Mover stop to a shout-out to Royal Oak on a t-shirt. One character in Brian David Walker’s “Boblo Island Fairies” loudly and proudly talks of being a Detroiter – even when people from other places trash the city. It’s a subtle connection to the theme of being proud of yourself, even when you have to spend decades overcoming other people who want to trash you.
The four one-acts are diverse in style. There’s some fourth-wall breaking and some meta-commentary. Emilio Rodriquez’s Angel of the People Mover and Jack Bates’ Not Our Town include direct audience address, either through narrators or monologues. A couple of plays stretch their plots to absurd levels, and one goes crazy using the characters of an existing theatre classic.
There is a touch of incompleteness to some of the plays, as if a piece was either a work-in-progress, or just an excerpt from a larger opus. Angels of the People Mover particularly leaves the impression of wanting to – pun alert – take the audience to more stations. Some casts feel more polished than others.
Angel, directed by Michael Lopetrone, begins mysteriously, with Margaret Deighton and Sarah Wilder exchanging looks, as Deighton fusses with a record player. Deighton then tells the audience a story of being teased/harassed by a boy in junior high, which leads into the scene proper–an encounter between two young men (Jake Russell and Justino Solis) and a woman (Walker) in the station. As the guys flirt, then question just who she is, the play switches abruptly from this emerging plot. The woman then addresses the audience, commenting on the possible scenarios and outcomes that could happen to her as a transgendered woman.
Happy and Gay by Dave Davies, directed by Nuverre Naami, springs from a somewhat absurdist premise. Two men (Nate Hudson, Doug Kolbicz) are discussing their three-year anniversary. Or, one of them is. The other thinks they’re just roommates. Hudson and Kolbicz are a charming couple. Or not-a-couple, as you will.
The third story is the most conventional play – and that’s not a negative comment. Boblo Island Fairies, directed by Joe Bailey, contains a fully developed and funny traditional story arc about four friends who worked at Bob Lo during its last season. Sarah Wilder and Peggy Lee are a couple that has stayed together in the years since, while Joel Mitchell and Joe Bailey, long estranged, were (still are?) in love. Now, they’re at a reunion, emceed by a frantic ex-manager, played with hilarious high energy by Lisa Jesswein. Mitchell is outstanding as William, who has been waiting for years to tell this manager off over her long ago prejudicial treatment of their group.
The evening ends with a wild take on Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, directed Topher Alan Payne. In this sexual sequel we’re introduced to Grover’s Corners in a gay new world, led by the Stage Manager (the formidable presence of Lindel Salow), who this time around is dressed as Joan Crawford in “Mildred Pierce” because why not. A sweetly befuddled Sean Paraventi is George Gibbs. He and his college-age son, George Jr. (Jake Rydell) and several of the boy’s friends (Laura Heikkinen, Kaitlyn Valor Bourque and Chris Peterson) are springing into new awakenings. All is observed by the deceased Emily (Sydney Lepora) despite the Narrator’s repeated orders to go back to her pine box. The show’s intentions are good, but it doesn’t quite know if it wants to be a bawdy farce or a serious force. There’s just not quite enough time to careen from cartoony bedroom escapades to a serious denouement about identity (including an awkward 11 o’clock confession from Emily about her own unhappy sexual experiences).
In the wake of the Orlando horror, there’s been much talk of how gay clubs are a refuge, a sanctuary, a place to be yourself, unguarded, unfettered by judgement and bigotry. Theater in its own way has also been safe harbor for many LGBTQ people. The shows that fill out this year’s Gay Play one-acts offer a diverse expression of both life and of intriguing theatrical styles.