Blade, J_une 1976, page 9 Playwrights Theatre Offers Quality Gay Fare By Frank Akers Gay t~eatre-goers will find have seen, being used gratuitously Edward Albee draws kupon the legend fugitives which gestate in an of the provocative drama abounding in the fare because, like Everest, it is - there~ ·· Fol'• in The American Dream with the mystic - the unreal - which increase as dispensed by the prolific New Playwrights instance, rather than endlessly repeating character of the "young man" who tells Lenny's obsession posseses him, but Theatre of Washington. Unspoiled by the same F major arpeggio with raisea Grandma of his separation from his twin which is dispersed in th~ final con• considerations of commercial success, seventh under The Nightingale and the . brother. "It' was almost as if my heart frontation. This amorphous affect, which this whirligig of a theatre is helping to take R<'Se, again brilliantly · performed by became numb . .I cannot touch another seems to parallelthe transformation of the up the slack created by the absence of an Wilner, the piece -could have been person and feel love .... .I let people love waters of ' pond into tears, is the institutionalized indigenous gay per• beautifully underscored by Granado's The me, I let people touch me, but that is all it most captivating property of Baker's forming here. Maiden and the Nightingale - a brazen comes to... I am incomplete." writing. Twice in a single week NPTW presented choice, perhaps, but I yearned for the · Baker's Narcissus figure is the opposite Provocative ideation regarding outer works derived from and addressed to the wedding of those two works. Therein is my of Albee's. He posseses no insight but is beauty, its effect upon· the possesor and on gay culture. The most recent was a revival only criticism, a criticism of the instead vacuous. He is a dramatic symbol those who succumb to its powers is of The Sunflower And The Lily by Paul production not ·of the script. If I were rather than a character. Dean Pierce is a critically needed by gays and straights Hildebrand, Jr. I was thrilled at the im• commanded at gun-point to propound only young college athlete whose beauty has alike as long as the "beauty mills" such provement in the production since I first a single artistic principle, I should exhort already drawn a teammate (Danny) into · as Lost and Found or Clyde's remain in• saw it produced several years ago when.it artists to make committed choices. Save its vortex and, as the play begins, is taking stitutions of our singles culture. Baker is served as swan song for NPTW's Twen• the spurious piano, Hildebrand has done hold on Lenny · Buckman, fortiesh himself a classic physical beauty (see tieth Street facility. Sunflower is a moving just that. He has provided a smorgasbord Chairman of the History Department. Mandate, May 1976), thus eminently dramatic poem, a canticle for three ac• · of archetypal Wilde, judiciously culled and Dean castigates Buckman for his qualified to pose the question: do we err in tors; and lucky actors they are, for luxuriantly performed by himself, Wilner deteriorating physique and imposes a our propensity for responding so easily to Hildebrand's script appears to be a boy to and Kathryn Plowitz who is a sensitive, rigourous exercise regimen upon the our outer casings or can we learn to perform. The Oscar Wilde sage is a warm actress po8sessed of a commandlng professor. Lenny soon becomes obsessed balance that with an inOPeased ability to miasma, complex in the spectrum of presence. Finally, I appreciated the by D'!an's beauty, with Qis own emulation . see beyond ? Or achieve a balance? choices it presents to any artist who discreet lighting design which kept effects of it, surrenduring his whole"life to the goal "Beauty is Truth and Truth beauty. That decides to tap into it. The duality of the to a minimum, this lending subliminal of becoming Dean. He moves out of his is all we know .. . or need to know." participants' views on Wilde's debacle support to Wilde's fervent verbiage. house and.into Dean's room, becoming the NPTW's logo is a big, red heart. There is obfuscate the truth for all but the hardiest butt of campus gossip: However, the love in this place. It is in• historians. Yet, Hildebrand has deftly rejected Danny commits suicide which fectuous ... ingratiating. · wrested the poetry from the Wilde Gymnasium, a new play by H. Jones shocks Lenny into reality. In a final , chronicles to craft a shining dramatic Baker, Ill, sent me off to my mytholgy which Baker has masterfully written, sculpture out of poems, fables, epigrams books for a refresher course on Narcissus, Lenny denounces Dean and renounces and a lengthy segment of Wilde's De son of the river-god and the their relationship. Dean seems merely Profundis, brilliantly performed by , Leirope. Leirope asked the seer chagrined and is left at the end of the story Geoffery Wilner, whose artistic growth Teiresias whether her newborn son would having experienced no changes. Taking Cris has been astounding since that earlier have ~ long life. The answer .a•as "H he I remained for the "'discussion" performance. I was also enchanted by the never knows himself." That cryptic following the performance although such 11 opening sprechstimme. Its performance wI• • statement damaged Teiresias's reputation colloquies are anathema to me. The tams on was immaculate despite the perfunctol'f at the time, but sixteen years later, it danger which inheres in these sessions is use of the piano. Indeed, this ubiquitous made him famous. Narcissus had grown the possible muddying of the artists instrument is my only source of contention up to be a ravishingly beautiful youth, choices. Iconoclasm frightens us, causing with NPTW. Like a perverse puppy, it has courted by many of both sexes, all of us to revert tenaciously to a demand for ' yapped at the heels of each of the shows I whom he pridefully scorned. , familiar modes. I experienced· a overhearing the prayer of one rejected protective feeling for Baker during this to Task young man that Narcissus should ex• session, for I had felt that his choices were perience unrequited love, arranged for courageous and unique. Gymnasium is N~rcissus to stop at a spring to drink. episodic and fragmentary. We do not gei. by Ursula Campbell Upon doing so, the youth fell in love with every detail of the story but, rather we get his own image, and pined away to hjs the effect of looking though a window while Despite her incredible talent, it now death because he could not embrace the . occasional winds blow the drapes across appears as if Cris Williamson is perhaps beautifUI being he so loved. our vision . ..The play is a series of visions more interested in performing many low quality concerts rather than a few high quality ones. At least that is the im• pression I was left with after attending her most recent (and soldout) Washington, D.C. concert.

This performance was not only marred Proprieior "88" • by apathetic delivery, but Cris herself Tues. 9 to 11 : two drinks for the price TRAINED MASSEURS ·of one··. · ' summed-up the evening's problems at the VIBRANT ESCORTS end of her performance when she rather Wed : Women's Nite blandly announced that she would not do Drinks $1.00 INTERNArJONAL STAFF -even one encore because her voice was __ Beer 5()(' "going" and she had "many gigs, uh, I Thurs: Wome·ns Music mean concerts to give in the next few _ ~UJ!Lllliw.i~i,,Wl ____ _ call 785-- G.AYS weeks and well, you know .... " Indeed, the / 202 500 8th Street SE audience could not avoid knowing how Washington, DC unbelievably bored she had appeared "S , ~ -;.~~.-;;; throughout the long evening. As a result, --p;r. :"j IT's'CO- The Seventh Floor of the MANCHESTER INN - her music and especially her reputation as 546-1525 1426 M Street N. W a live entertainer greatly suffered. Washington, D. C. · Lesbians who have attended·Cris' local concerts in the last few years, are wit• nesses to this regretable downward trend . in her live performances (just as, ironically,. she is becoming more nationally renowned for her . superb recordings). Although there is no doubt 1 that she is an extremely gifted composer, . musician, and vocalist, her recent concert DIAL qemonstrates her clear need to either ''SOMETHING DIFFERENT" relegate herself to recordings · or to become more interested and pr

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