In 1968, I crept surreptitiously into a Broadway theater to see The Boys in the Band. I hoped I wouldn't see anyone I knew and vice versa, and I didn't.

It was an audacious play. The word "gay" had not quite entered the American lexicon. Stonewall was still a year away. Closeted doesn't even begin to describe how barricaded I was from sharing my deepest desires with anyone - even with myself. Nonetheless, I found myself in the audience of the first-ever gay-themed play on Broadway.

It scared the bejesus out of me.  I had a hard time relating to the characters I saw on stage.

And yet. They were real. In 1968, gay men who wanted to be themselves were, by and large, well represented by the stereotypical characters in the cast of Boys in the Band. Those were my options. In 1968.

Congratulations and thank you to Stage Q for bravely remounting this classic and important play. It's been fun to work across the hall from you the last few weeks, as we rehearse The Mousetrap.

I can't wait to see it.

Contributed by Coleman

Coleman is a member of the Strollers Board and currently rehearsing for the Oct 9 opening of The Mousetrap. But in his spare time, he's a writer (or as Erin Baal puts it ... 'not just a pretty face').

This week you have three opportunities to see a short piece written by Coleman and produced by Forward Theater. The piece is called Cuban Poetry (a riff on a true story), and it's one a dozen monologues  first performed at Overture Center this past February.  Forward Theater selected six of those monologues for a second, third and fourth viewing, as follows:

Tuesday - 7pm - Deforest Public Library
Wednesday - 7pm - Waunakee Public Library
Thursday - 7 pm - Stoughton Public Library

Admission is FREE!

In 2003, Strollers put up All In The Timing, a play that the program described thusly: "It's about romance.  It's about Trotsky with an axe in his head.  It's about monkeys writing Hamlet... and Philip Glass buys a loaf of bread."

Contributed by Lucas Sevedge

In 1986, twenty-one years before Daniel Radcliffe made waves by performing in the risqué play on the heels of his Harry Potter stardom, Strollers put up a production of Equus at Madison Christian Community. 

Can you identify the actor pictured here, in his role as Alan Strang?

TBT! June 1973 - The day before "Any Number Can Die" opened at Madison Christian Community, principal actor Mark Buxbaum contracted appendicitis. With less than 24 hours before opening night, Ron Paska, the director, stepped in to fill the role for the first weekend of performances. How's that for "the show must go on"?

This is the 2nd of a new series of "Strollers Throwback Thursday" posts - featuring various productions from the last 59 years. Feel free to comment on these posts, especially if you were involved, attended them, or if you can identify the actors!

Contributed by Scott Bennett