Gay Youth and Conservative Religion

Southern Baptist Sissies – PrideArts

Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic continues to put a damper on everyone’s lives, forcing people to stay safe inside their homes, instead of going out for any reason. But smart, creative theatres have found a way to keep presenting their work to interested audiences. Chicago’s PrideArts, for example, has been offering a series of staged play readings as one-night-only viral productions. By special permission, I attended the final dress rehearsal, in order to review this viral production before the actual performance. Joe Hudson, who appeared in Bailiwick Repertory’s 2002 fully-staged production, directs this live Zoom presentation, featuring a cast of eight very talented actors.

Del Shores’ award-winning indictment of conservative religion and its effect upon their gay youth returns to Chicago. No doubt the decision to re-stage this 21-year-old melodrama is because of how it’s written. The play is mostly a series of monologues that are delivered directly to the audience. There are a few two-person scenes, but they’re primarily performed with each actor safely in isolation. Also, the play portrays the still-present antagonism by some toward the LGBT life style, most often expressed by more conservative Americans. But as the gay community becomes more widely accepted, the message spewing from right-wing, faith-based organizations is often still repugnance and hatred. 

As Del Shores put it, he wrote a play “about love and acceptance for gays who’ve felt excluded from the church and the love of God.” He based this cathartic work upon his own painful experience growing up gay and Baptist, in a small Texas town. While it’s had over 30 productions nationwide, the play remains a lengthy, somewhat predictable coming-out story, filled with anger, angst and, yet, a certain amount of empathy. 

In this play, four adolescent boys struggle fiercely with their sexual feelings in the shadow of a callous Baptist community. Mark (played with passion by Pierce Livingston), who will later vent his anger as an adult activist and writer, represents the playwright as the main character and the narrator of this story. His love for handsome, sexually conflicted TJ (nicely portrayed by Mike Bindeman), who becomes emotionally crippled by overwhelming guilt once the boys’ passion has been consummated, is the crux of this play. Brooks Whitlock’s more flamboyant Benny represents the other end of the gay spectrum. The young man alternates between a flaming caricature in his everyday life (reminiscent of Emery in “Boys in the Band”) and a lip-syncing performing drag queen, humorously called Iona Trayler. However, Carlo Zenner, who plays sweet, sensitive, Andrew, is the true heart of this story. Mr. Zenner gives a sensitive, understated performance as a young man tormented by his natural inclinations, and with no one to turn to for guidance. It doesn’t take a psychic, however, to guess where this storyline will eventually take us. 

The staged reading plods onward, between Baptist hymns and drag performances, ponderous monologues and maudlin, melodramatic scenes that sometimes seem to go on too long. Matt Shea and Amy Farrington, playing Peanut and Odette, are two middle-aged, redneck barflies, who supply some honest and sometimes humorous moments. However, their scenes feel irrelevant to the primary story and only serve to interrupt the pacing. Nicely playing all the mothers in this drama is Candace Decker, and David Leeper portrays the overbearing Baptist Preacher, with a bit too much fervor, at times.

PrideArts’ mission, since 2010, is to tell queer stories, both through live and virtual performances. The company’s series of staged play readings is the perfect way for audiences to become familiar with some of the most noteworthy GLBT dramatic literature available. By experiencing it in this way, the drama springs to life, as audiences remain in the safety of their own home. While this reviewer finds Del Shore’s script too sermonizing for contemporary audiences, and often far too predictable, Joe Hudson’s staged reading is polished and very well performed.    

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas 

Presented May 4, 7:00, as a live-streamed staged reading, by PrideArts.
Tickets are available by calling 773-857-0222 or by going to www.pridearts.org.

More information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.