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Are These Queer Times? Gay Male Representation on the American Stage in the 1920'S and 1990'S

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Are These Queer Times? Gay Male Representation on the American Stage in the 1920'S and 1990'S University of Kentucky UKnowledge University of Kentucky Master's Theses Graduate School 2003 ARE THESE QUEER TIMES? GAY MALE REPRESENTATION ON THE AMERICAN STAGE IN THE 1920'S AND 1990'S James Russell Couch University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Couch, James Russell, "ARE THESE QUEER TIMES? GAY MALE REPRESENTATION ON THE AMERICAN STAGE IN THE 1920'S AND 1990'S" (2003). University of Kentucky Master's Theses. 416. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_theses/416 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Kentucky Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT OF THESIS ARE THESE QUEER TIMES? GAY MALE REPRESENTATION ON THE AMERICAN STAGE IN THE 1920’S AND 1990’S Utilizing a model based on Queer theory and comprising four relational paradigms, this thesis examines specific dramas of Mae West and Terrence McNally in an effort to understand the multiple relationships between the text, the society and the culture in the production of a gay male identity and its representation on the American stage in the 1920’s and the 1990’s. Each relational paradigm is the product of a different twentieth century scholar and can be viewed as an individual lens through which one aspect of a drama or culture can be magnified, illuminated or distorted. These paradigms are: culture and power; science and sex; gender and performance; plus structurization and identity. The most significant paradigm, structurization, provides the culminating focal point for the contributions of the other relational paradigms. Through this examination, Mae West’s dramas in the 1920’s produced a prescriptive attitude toward the gay male in society, a thing to be cured. The dramas of Terrence McNally produced a subscriptive attitude toward the gay male, an equal human being who should not be marginalized. Ultimately, Broadway Theater can be seen as a site of cultural production that shapes the views of its audience as much as it is shaped by the larger society in which it exists. KEYWORDS: Gay Theater, American Theater, Queer Theory, Terrence McNally, Mae West James Russell Couch June 5, 2003 Copyright © 2003, James Russell Couch ARE THESE QUEER TIMES? GAY MALE REPRESENTATION ON THE AMERICAN STAGE IN THE 1920’S AND 1990’S By James Russell Couch Geraldine Maschio, PhD Co-Director of Thesis Russell Henderson, MFA Co-Director of Thesis Rhoda-Gale Pollack, PhD Director of Graduate Studies June 5, 2003 RULES FOR THE USE OF THESES Unpublished theses submitted for the Master’s degree and deposited in the University of Kentucky Library are as a rule open for inspection, but are to be used only with due regard to the rights of the authors. Bibliographical references may be noted, but quotations or summaries of parts may be published only with the written permission of the author, and with the usual scholarly acknowledgments. Extensive copying or publication of the thesis in whole or in part also requires the consent of the Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Kentucky. THESIS James Russell Couch The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2003 ARE THESE QUEER TIMES? GAY MALE REPRESENTATION ON THE AMERICAN STAGE IN THE 1920’S AND 1990’S THESIS A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky By James Russell Couch Lexington, Kentucky Co-Directors: Geraldine Maschio, PhD, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Russell Henderson, MFA, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Lexington, Kentucky Copyright © 2003, James Russell Couch Dedicated to my Partner, Barry E. Gray ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the support and guidance of my thesis committee members: Dr. Geraldine Maschio, Advisor and Co-Chair; Professor Russell Henderson, Co-Chair; and Dr. Rhoda-Gale Pollack, Director of Graduate Studies. I specifically thank Dr. Maschio for her encouragement, for her help in making me a better writer, for her vast knowledge of gender and theory, for instilling in me that the rewards of scholarship are in the research and not the accolades, for the coffee talks, and for her belief in me as a scholar and a teacher. I specifically thank Russell Henderson for his lectures—in and out of class—which have always reminded me that theater is a thing that lives and breathes, for his support and for his willingness to engage my thinking at every turn. I specifically thank Dr. Pollack for our many hours spent discussing theater history just for the sake of exploration, for her constantly pushing me above the last accomplishment, for her editorial skills, for her directing skills, for the conference and grant- writing opportunities and for tea time. Other members of the faculty and staff at University of Kentucky to whom I owe thanks are Jim Rodgers, Nelson Fields, Robert Haven, Joyce Rife, and Kathi Kern. From my formative years at Berea College, I also offer my thanks to: Alycia Smith-Howard, Greta Heitzelmann, Travis Lope, Dorothy Schnare, Cynthia Bishop-Dillon, David Sawyer, Foula Dimopoulous, Nathan Rome and Jamie Hammel—wherever you are… I thank many of my classmates who have challenged and made me a better student with their discussions, laughter, tears and insights. Specifically, Jim McDermott, Dawn Lipker, Ann Cutler, Reba Carroll and Sandra Vance. I would be remiss to not thank the many scholars’ works that I consulted in the course of exploring my studies in queer theory, gay and lesbian studies and the arts, particularly those of David Gauntlett, Anthony Giddens, Michele Foucault and Judith Butler. On a personal note, I would like to thank the following people in my life whose contributions to my well being have made this past year much more liveable: Barry Gray, Pamela Couch, The Larkin Family, Ron Johnson, Matt Waitkus, David Little, Christopher Silverthorn, Phillip Howell, Elizabeth Todd, Lenora Ayame Todd Howell, Charles Baker & Raul Escudero and the beautiful people at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................iii List of Files ............................................................................................................................v Introduction............................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Mapping the Landscape Queer .......................................................................5 Chapter Two: The Queens of Babylon in the Roaring Twenties...........................................11 Chapter Three: The Bohemian Kings of the New Gay Nineties ...........................................28 Conclusion: Queer Principalities: Demarcating the Lines Between Broadway Respectability and Queer Alternatives ..................................................43 Appendix A: Theories............................................................................................................47 Appendix B: Mae West..........................................................................................................60 Appendix C: Terrence McNally.............................................................................................61 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................62 Vita.........................................................................................................................................69 iv LIST OF FILES JRCtheTA.pdf ..................................................................................................................... ............................560KB v Introduction Are these queer times? The question is simple enough on structure and syntax, but the answer could not be further in the opposite direction. To answer this question is to delve into an explanation of one of contemporary society’s most complex theories of cultural production and identity. So, how can a fairly recent theory be used to investigate the cultural production of an identity that, in the American 1920’s, was, itself, a novel topic of discussion? I hope that by the end of this investigation, it will become clear that while Queer theory—a mode of critical analysis—came to fruition in the late twentieth century, it had its antecedents in full operation at the beginning of that century. Indeed, Queer theory has an important bearing on the cultural production of gay male identity in American theater throughout the twentieth century. This thesis explores gay male representation on the American stage and the process of cultural production of that identity within society. Given the complex nature of this chosen theoretical model and appropriateness of length for a master’s thesis, I am limiting this study exclusively to gay-male representation. As George Chauncey says in the introduction to his work Gay New York (1996), “…the differences between gay male and lesbian history [and cultural production of identity] and the complexity of each made it seem virtually impossible to write a book about both that did justice to each and avoided making one history an appendage to the other” (Chauncey, New York 27). Therefore, while
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