Stage Preview: Pride Festival premiere is a twist on Wilder
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The fourth annual Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival -- "Where Gay Life Takes Center Stage" -- has a new wrinkle. Instead of two programs of four one-act plays each, one of this year's programs is given over entirely to the world premiere of "Their Town," a full-length comedy by Paula Martinac.
Adam KukicScott van de Mark, left, plays the town council president, and Jaime Slavinsky and Leah Klocko are citizens of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, in "Their Town," part of the Pittsburgh Pride Festival.
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As that title suggests and as the play's setting in fictional Grover's Corners, N.H., makes evident, "Their Town" is in some way a response to the most famous of American plays, Thornton Wilder's sweet-sour "Our Town."
Indeed, "Their Town" is set in today's Grover's Corners amid the descendents of Wilder's characters. Wilder himself (the town founder, after all), is a statue in the town square. Then, as the Pride Festival describes it, "mayhem breaks out when the mayor . . . decides to make history -- and maybe get a guest spot on TV -- by inviting a home-grown lesbian couple to come to Town Hall and file for a marriage license."
In relation to "Our Town," Martinac says, "my play is a sort of 'what if'" -- not a parody or deconstruction or sequel. It is not even really about Wilder's play, "though we borrow a lot from it" and the two women who seek to marry are named Gibbs and Webb, like Wilder's young man and woman.
Where: Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 542 Penn Ave., Mezzanine Level, Downtown.When: Through June 24, Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 4 and 8 p.m., Sun. 3 and 7 p.m.Program A (one-acts): 8 p.m. tonight, Sat. and June 22; 3 p.m. Sun.; 4 p.m. June 23; 7 p.m. June 24.
Program B ("Their Town"): 8 p.m. Fri., June 21 and June 23; 4 p.m. Sat.; 7 p.m. Sun.; 3 p.m. June 24.Tickets: $10 with reservation; $15 at door; Festival Pass for both programs, $15; pghpridetheaterfest; 412-288-0358.
When Martinac started writing, there was lots in the news about gay marriage rights. "And Wilder was a closeted gay man," Martinac says, "so it became clear to me" that he should be a character. In effect, he serves as a modern version of "Our Town's" Stage Manager.
As if to honor the New England setting, the Rev. Janet Edwards, a local Presbyterian minister descended from celebrated Massachusetts Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards, will make a special appearance following the 7 p.m. "Their Town" on June 17.
Rev. Edwards united two women in marriage in 2005 and had theological charges brought against her, later dismissed by the church. A parish associate of Pittsburgh's Community of Reconciliation, she will join Martinac in a conversation on how art helps to create social change.
Adam Kukic directs a cast of Todd Betker, Lou Bojarski, John Feightner, Diana Ifft, Leah Klocko, Jaime Slavinsky, Paige Spara, Joe Stitman and Scott van de Mark. Martinac is also grateful to Ted Hoover, who served the play's development as a dramaturg. You can read Martinac's account of that development and rehearsals on her blog, accessible through the Pride Fest Web site at home.comcast.net/~pghpridetheaterfest.
Martinac explains that although all the Pride Fest plays have themes relevant to gay life, not all the playwrights, actors or others involved are gay. This makes the Festival a good match for its host, Pittsburgh Playwrights, which has a mission of bringing together people of different backgrounds, usually but not exclusively black and white.
PROGRAM A PLAYS
"And a Happy New Year!" by Aaron Jefferson Tindall: three friends come together for their first Christmas since they started college and find shocking secrets.
"Session" by Wali Jamal: a wacky lesbian couple arrives in the office of a homophobic marriage counselor.
"Beyond Dirt Knees" by Ryan M. McKelvey: Simon wonders whether he'll break the cycle of young men who eventually turn into the same type of leering older men who brought them out.
"Call Girl" by Carol Mullen: a lesbian grad student who takes a temporary position as a phone sex operator to make ends meet is unwilling to let her new girlfriend in on her occupation.
The festival is supported by a grant from the Lambda Foundation of Pittsburgh and "Their Town" in part by a grant from The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation of Palm Springs, California.
First Published June 13, 2007 8:06 pm
