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Negative reader comments spark new play about gays
After the Post-Dispatch posted to STLtoday.com its April story about prominent gays turning to activism, the reader comments swelled to more than 330, many of them negative. Several targeted Bill Donius, former chairman of Pulaski Bank, who was featured in the story.
“It is ridiculous that there is a story about a successful gay man in the paper,” wrote “W. Champion,” the screen name of one reader.
It is one of 16 reader comments sprinkled throughout a new play Lipkin has written with Sharon Bandy, a playwright from Chattanooga, Tenn.
In a conversation shortly after the story was published, Donius suggested to Lipkin that she turn the reader comments into some kind of performance piece.
“I like the idea of all the different voices, but I didn’t feel like it was sufficiently dramatic. It didn’t have a spine,” said Lipkin.
Then their conversation turned to the National Equality March in Washington next month. Activists from across the country plan to march on the National Mall and urge Congress and President Barack Obama to make gay rights a priority. This push is something that many commenters on the story thought was a bad idea.
“The country has undeniable fundamental values, and the gay lifestyle is not one of them,” wrote reader USF1965.
But the march gave the playwrights the spine of their story.
Lipkin is artistic director of That Uppity Theatre Company, often labeled provocative or controversial for addressing issues such as abortion, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. She is probably best known for a play she did 20 years ago, “Some of My Best Friends Are… . “
That play followed a heterosexual couple as they made their way through a world in which the majority of people are gay. Tackling the thorny issue of gay rights again seems right, she said.
“I think the theater is an incredible vehicle for touching people’s hearts and minds,” Lipkin said. “I don’t necessarily seek to be controversial. That’s a misconception. I seek to tell the truth about what I see going on in the world.”
And this time, her efforts come with a twist. In addition to a local production of the play on Sept. 20 at Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis, Lipkin is putting her play on the Internet and encouraging other theater companies, colleges and community groups to perform it before the gay march Oct. 10-11.
She has sent the play to other members of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, as well as actors and artistic directors. Lipkin is waiving any royalty rights.
CONSTANTLY TYPING
The University of Redlands in California and the University of Baltimore have both expressed interest in producing the play, Lipkin said.
In the play, the readers who posted comments on the story are referred to as bloggers. They will probably be portrayed by actors roaming the stage with keyboards around their necks, constantly typing. At various points in the play, a reader comment plucked verbatim from the online story will be shouted out or blasted from the speaker system of the church. One example:
“The real reasons for all the attention is not really for equality. All they want is the spotlight, and to push their personal agendas,” wrote reader
“Justtruth.”
Donius acknowledges that he was taken aback by the sheer number of comments but said the strong response bolstered his argument that a long road remains to be traveled in getting equal rights for gays in marriage, the military and the workplace.
He looks no further than this reader comment: “Just because people want to be recognized as equal does not mean it should be done,” wrote reader “Shelley Powers.”
‘THE WATER IS FINE’
The play is called “Beyond Stonewall: Why We March” and references the long battle for gay rights, including a clash between police and gays in 1969 outside the Stonewall Inn in New York City.
The play begins with a television reporter sent to do a story on a prominent gay man in his new role as activist. But the interview goes off track when two ghosts from Stonewall, bloggers and a longtime African-American lesbian activist intervene.
In the end, the play seeks to encourage people to fight for gay rights, including eliminating the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy, establishing
a federal non-discrimination law for workplaces and legalizing same-sex marriage at the national level. It’s the latter that sparked the most reader
outrage in the Donius story.
“Gays and lesbians have a right to live as they choose; they don’t have the right to redefine marriage for all of us,” reader “J.R.” wrote.
But not all reader comments were an attack on gays, as addressed in the play.
“Ophelia J” wrote: “You all might think I’m kidding about this, but I am very serious! I think all people should be able to experience misery and that hopelessly trapped feeling of being married. Come on in. The water is fine!”
And there is a comment that resonated with Donius, a former banker.
“I’m a business owner, and I don’t care what they look like or what their sexual orientation is as long as their money is green,” wrote TaterSalad.
