Actors gotta act, they say, and there are a lot of local LGBTQ actors about wondering about the future of live theater in general, but, in particular, queer relevant theater. Hanging on before the pandemic, its survival thereafter may rely on the kindness of strangers.
Milwaukee’s storied flirtation with a specifically LGBTQ focused stage has been, if nothing else, historic. However, it’s always been a struggle to bring in audiences. Yet, given the size of Milwaukee’s LGBTQ community, its divided demographics, and the fact that not everyone is spending sleepless nights in anticipation of the next show, LGBTQ theater still manages to make its mark.
Beginning in 2005, the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center’s (MGAC) in-house theater company produced major shows like Tony Kushner’s epic AIDS drama, Angels in America; Jonathan Tolin’s dramety Twilight of the Golds about the potential for testing identifying a gay gene and the resulting moral conflict to abort or not; and Christopher Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All For You that included performances at PrideFest.
Earlier this year Theatrical Tendencies, a troupe founded solely to produce LGBTQ stage works, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding and inaugural (critically acclaimed) production, Thrill Me, Stephen Dolgioff’s musical about the murderous lovers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Performed at MGAC, TT transformed the Walker’s Point gallery space into a 1920s environment replete with original period props and other artifacts gleaned from painstaking combing through eBay (TT gave those items to a local mainstream theater’s staging a season later).
Over MGAC’s decade-long run, there were many such productions contemplating LGBTQ subject matter from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Black Box Theaters
While not exclusively LGBTQ entities, for their part, black box theaters, like Mark Bucher’s Boulevard Theater and Dale Gutzman’s Off the Wall, added their share of contemporary queer plays to the marquee. Along with MGAC they not only brought the LGBTQ stage to the public but also offered opportunities for local actors of all persuasions to broader their artistic horizons.
Meanwhile, those houses with primarily straight audiences followed suit, adding ever more inclusively themed plays to their repertoires. Usually, local LGBTQ funders helped underwrite their production.
The salient differences between LGBTQ and mainstream companies, however, are sensitivity and perspective. The former, perhaps simply because they live the life, have a mission to engage their audiences not only artistically, but emotionally and introspectively as well. While the others may dabble in LGBTQ relevant works for hopefully similarly aesthetic reasons, their bottom line is bottoms in seats. To be fair, their selections have shown a gradual shift from presenting tried and true tropes of subtly queer characters or, conversely, a blatant stereotypes, to out and loudly proud, for better or for worse. A few seasons ago, the Skylight Music Theatre put on a nuance-be-damned, excruciatingly gay La Cage aux Folles as its holiday show. It was a bold choice given the financial risk. The mitigating factor was the show’s certain Stepin Fetchit appeal, objectionable to some but ultimately accommodating the comfort zone of the audience base.
Most recently, the Milwaukee Repertory staged Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride. The comedy mulls gender identity and acceptance through the backstage and on-stage story of a conflicted straight guy who finds his niche as a drag performer. The Rep enlisted Cream City’s cream of the crop drag icons as consultants and promoters. It also cast a non-binary actor, Kevin Kantor, as the straight guy. Kantor had previously appeared in another Rep production in which they played the role of Mark/Mia, the transitioning son, in Andrew Bowell’s family drama Things I Know to be True.
One can debate the laughing-with versus laughing-at conundrum and gay = drag fixation until the cows come home, but meanwhile, the bills get paid and, ultimately, audiences engage with LGBTQ issues.
The sad reality remains that, in this town, minority audiences cannot support minority targeted theater alone Gentrified out of its gayborhood MGAC shuttered in 2015. Off the Wall closed after decades due to the financial impact of COVID-19 and TT is on extended hiatus. Mercifully, now in its 35th season, the Boulevard carries on regardless.
We’ll see what post-pandemic queer theater looks like sooner or later. In the meantime, I hope nobody thinks a ZOOM production of Boys in the Band would be a good idea.
