Montrose Activity Center NEWSLETTER ·4Eltgtuuj De L~ Ad- ·1Jati E~,W'~~~ January 1'990 "1-- Issue 17
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Montrose Activity Center NEWSLETTER ·4eltGtUuJ de L~ ad- ·1JatI e~,W'~~~ January 1'990 "1-- Issue 17 The Montrose Activity Center is a non profit 501c3 organization whose purposes arc to increase understanding of social, racial and sexual minorities, and to en- courage acceptance and tolerance of alternative lifestyles so that together the citizens of the City of Houston and the State of Texas may work in the spirit of peaceful cooperation to build a better society. Tpe organization acts as an umbrella to other organizations. 11AC, PO Box 66684, Houston, TX 77266-6684. IL CB§!hlfi?a)IID I([I}?a) Y IF IT'fi cdlCB 'VW CBceJk 0 N?a) IlTDlce§ IF Ii"@j ce~ fr TIU@ TIll§fr@IID 0 ([I}?a)y IIL® §!hlfi?a) IID nufi §{p)?a) IIDfi~ § illIIDficdl©§ .~. _1__ ill: . ...-~ __ ~~~~~:; • '~THE EVENT" Finding a 'VOice through theater a special by Robert Hurwitt at the end of the tunnel. Gays and lesbians in his gay and lesbian drama anthology performance of from The San Francisco Examiner became part of a larger group of people "Out Front." John Vaccaro's Playhouse of' Edward Albee's "I can't imagine whatit must've been , who were beginning to find their voices, the Ridiculous, which opened in 1966, and like then," a local gay writer in his 30's like the civil rights movement." its spinoff, Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Who's afraid of said, commenting on the play, "Black Cat' s Said veteran Bay Area actor, director Theatrical ComPany, reveled in freewheel- Tale," at Theatre Rhinoceros. "I'm not sure and author Dean Goodman: "Just as many ing outrageousness that drew heavily on Virginia Woolf? I want to." young people can't imagine their parents drag and camp. to benefit the Kimberly Brown's play, premiered in a ever having sex, Stonewall made them In San Francisco, drag performers were Tale Spinners Theater production at the aware thathomosexuality was a partoflife. moving out of the clubs and onto the semi- Montrose Activity Center Rhino last January, was set in 1951 at the Out of that awareness grew the gay theater legitimate stage. "Darling! I started it," Building Fund Black Cat, a North Beach bar that show- companies like Theatre Rhinoceros here said A.J. Esta, who staged the first two cased one of San Francisco's leading drag and the Glines in New York." "SIRlebrity Capades" in 1965 and '66. Ten years ago the Montrose Activity Cen- ,. queens, Jose Sarria. It chronicled the events Other leading figures in San Francisco's Fund-raisers for the gay Society for Indi- ter was conceived as the nucleus of a Gay that led to a landmark state Supreme Court gay theater scene think Stonewall's role vidual Rights, the shows were full-out drag & Lesbian Community Center. Perhaps decision: that a bar could not be closed just has been overstated. "It was a catalyst for revues. you know us better by some of our other because its patrons were gay. people in New York," says 'Dan Curzon, Esta, who is writing a history of Bay names: Gay & Lesbian Pride Week, Names ___ L r ...l_...J .LL_ T"" .•. T"'I"_ .~'-... 11 .,_ r 111 •• °.11 PrnlPf"t Unl1C'tnn n.,.r,'!lIu Jb T p(.!hl~n l-ll<"n~n _ 2'" ;id,~~;;;ti-~;;';heplay,"BlackCal's Said veteran Bay Arc; actor, director TheatricaICom"jxmy,revelcdinfreewhccl- . .' . Tale," at Theatre Rhinoceros.''I'm not sure and author Dean Goodman: "Just as many ing outrageousness that drew heavily on Virginia Woolf? I want to." . young p~ple can't imagine their parents . drag and camp.. to benefit the Kimberly Brown's play, premiered ma ever havmg sex, Stonewall made them In San Francisco, drag performers were .. Tale Spinners Theater production at the aware that homosexuality was apartoflife. moving out of the clubs and onto the semi- Montrose Activity Center Rhino last January, was set in 1951 at the Out of that awareness grew the gay theater legitimate stage. "Darling! I started it," Building Fund Black Cat, a North Beach bar that show- companies like Theatre Rhinoceros here said A.J. Esta, who staged the first two cased one of San Francisco's leading drag and the Glines in New York." "SIRlebrity Capades" in 1965 and '66. Ten years ago the Montrose Activity Cen- queens, Jose Sarria. It chronicled the events Other leading figures in San Francisco's Fund-raisers for the gay Society for Indi- ter was conceived as the nucleus of a Gay that led to a landmark state Supreme Court gay theater scene think Stonewall's role vidual Rights, the shows were full-out drag & Lesbian Community Center. Perhaps decision: that a bar could not be closed just has been overstated. "It was a catalyst for revues. you know us better by some of our other because its patrons were gay. people in New York," says 'Dan Curzon, Esta, who is writing a history of Bay names: Gay & Lesbian Pride Week,Names Brown's play didn't make the sequence who co-founded the Earnest Players with Area drag theater, followed up with an all- Project Houston or Gay & Lesbian Hispan- . of events clear, but it did evoke an era that Turner in 1977, the same year the Rhino male drag production of Clare Boothe ics Unidos. But the activities we sponsor must have seemed like a foreign country to was founded - and whose free-wheeling Luce's "The Women" and two showcases are steps toward realizing that ORIGI- much of its audience. The 1950s were a comic revue, "The Sex Show," predated - "Ready or not, It's Me" and "It's Me NALDREAM. time when a bar could be raided it two men both groups. Again" - for comic queen Michelle Now we are taking the next step, ... the or two women were seen to touch each "I think the time was right People were (Michael Gerry). By the time Stonewall creation of a dedicated "Building Fund." other, when same-sex pickups were caused looking at the black movement and the made news, San Francisco was into an era (PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 3) for arrest. women's movement and thinking, 'Why of all-male musicals: "Marne," "Hello Homophobia is still, to a degree, the law not me?'" Dolly" and so on. of the land ~ but a court decision like the He added: "Personally, I think 'The boys "It seemed like no big deal to come out 19{7'1lfS ISSV.'E recent one ordering the U.S. Army to re- in the Band' was more influential." at the time," Esta said. "When you worked enlist an openly gay soldier would have "Boys," Mart Crowley's off-Broadway with SIR you were already stating the fact A Brother's Dream 2 been unimaginable to the closeted lesbian hit about a gay men's birthday party ,opened that you were gay." That was a far cry from We cannot know another's grief. as officer in Brown's "Black Cat." two years before Stonewall. Though itsoon the mood when he arrived here in 1956 and deeply personal as love and pain, I can- Nor could she have imagined the explo- came to be heavily criticized for its stere- began working with the Actor's Work- not measure my own against the sorrow sion of gay and lesbian theater that has otypical portraits of gay men, it played a shop. of my brother's friends who must won- der every day which among them will be made gay characters commonplace on the major role in opening up the stage to gay Ties to hippie scene next. American stage in the '80s. themes - for gay and straight audiences. Founders HerbcrtBlau and Jules Irving, Photos of GIL Couples 4 To a large degree, the current openness 'Darling! I started it' Esta says, were so afraid of their company dates from Stonewall-from the protest of As such, it was part of a long slow being tainted in the public mind that they Calendar of Events 5-6-7 Jose's drag sisters in New York over a raid process that stretched back to the 1920s didn't even acknowledge they knew some Freedom & Attitude 8 on a bar. and was about to come of age. In some members of the ensemble were gay. How- Dallas Loses an Activist 9 ''The sense of freedom that we experi- ways the theater was ahead of the gay ever, he added, "Herb did write a play In Dallas, the death of Allan Calkin leaves thecommunitypoorer andgrayer enced was amazing," says playwright Dan liberation movement - in the developing called 'Telegraph Hill' in which one of the and a liulc less hopeful. AI died Sunday Turner, who came out while a theater stu- sympathy for gay characters in mainstream characters was a gay man based on one of ofliver failure at the age of 50. surely the dent at the University of Iowa, not long plays, in the celebratory flamboyance of our actors." gentlest political activist any of us ever. after Stonewall. - performers like Jose Sarria, who staged The openness that flowered a decade knew. "You hardly ever saw gay characters drag mini-operas at the Black Cat, and in later had as much to do with the rise of the 21.06 is not just for Men 9 before Stonewall and most gay stories were the new generation of playwrights nur- hippie scene as it did with drag shows and Gay Theatre is not Surving 10 tragic - the gay person would commit tured off-off Broadway.