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
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
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