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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1987)
Art to heart Intimate Friends takes everything so many have in common, places it right in the middle of the straight world , and says, ‘ Let this be the hub of the tire for the moment! * — Miriam Moses BY B R A D Y J E N S E N ays and lesbians present an ambivalent face to the worL of the arts, and nowhere is this more clear than in situations where those arts are produced by us and for us. While we frequently bemoan the lack of books, plays, movies, and concerts about us, gay and lesbian artists do produce fine works of literature and turn in outstanding performances in the arts, but, alas, to little critical or popular notice in the G mainstream. Musician and composer Miriam Moses holds some very strong opinions on the role of the arts in the gay community. Ms. Moses is the author of Intimate Friends, a musical revue which will play the Portland Center for the Performing Arts later this month. Ms. Moses is a New York native who left a very successful career in thea ter and came to Seattle seven years ago, as she puts it, “ to change my life.” I had the pleasure of talking with Miriam Moses one evening soon after Intimate Friends ended its successful twelve week run at Seat tle's Theatre Off Jackson. Along the way, we focused on obligations — those which gay and lesbian artists have to their communities and vice versa. JENSEN: We’ve talked about your not wanting to have Intimate Friends be evaluated a s4 ‘good for gay theater” — MOSES: Right. JENSEN: — Do you see it as gay theater? MOSES: Certainly, in some ways. Well, let’s define what gay theater is. Gay theater is thea ter. Gay theater is new, but it identifies itself as gay theater so that gay people will know when they go to it that it’s got something to do with them, whereas if it doesn’t say gay theater on it, we don't know whether it’s about us or not, so we don't identify it as gay theater. But just because a show is about somebody gay or has a gay theme, doesn’t make it good theater. And because a woman is gay and she sings songs doesn’t make her a good singer and it doesn’t make them good songs. We so much seek to go to be entertained with things that are about us that we will, in fact, pay for and settle for less than what any straight audience would. They'd say, “ That was a rip-off.” But we won’t, we'll say, “ At least it was about us. at least we got something out of it. So it wasn’t great, so the speaker system was crummy, so they didn’t have good costumes, so what, it was about us.” I’m saying that you’re damn right, it’s about us, and it deserves as much dignity as we can give it. as much professionalism, as much lavishness as merits the piece itself. What's the matter, we don't have that right ' We get to settle for less? So we have an obligation to ourselves, to our own community, as well as to the larger community — including the whole theater com munity, gay or straight — and to the larger community of all possible audiences, of pre senting a piece of theater or a concert or what ever. as works of excellence. We need to com pete in the same superstructure. I might write a show that doesn’t touch you so you walk away feeling cold, but at least it should be. to the best o f my ability, a well-crafted and place it right in the middle of the straight world and say. “ Let this be the hub of the tire for the moment.” Theater ,md art have always been used by societies 10 advance those societies, that’s what they re there for. The artists and musicians are the movers and shakers. We were able to stop a war in Viet Nam with music and poetry (and a little bit of drugs), but we could do that because everybody was really clear on what they wanted. Not because “ Blowin’ in the Wind” could really stop a war, it couldn’t; but with every body singing it. it certainly could. So that was a situation where something was put out, and little by little. people came back and said this is what we want, until you had Legionnaires march ing in anti-war parades when their own kids were old enough to get drafted. So it’s obligatory that the audience, the patrons of the arts, take the responsibility to say, “ Yes this is demanded.” and to say. “ Yes, we hear this.” and to say, “ Now we want you logo further." We’ve had an amazing response to Intimate Friends in Seattle. The response has been unbe lievable. We get letters, all kinds of statements from people about what the show did for them, what it did for them as human beings. When somebody comes to see a show and then goes through their phone book and calls everybody they know, including people who never go to theater in the first place, and say, “ You must see this show.” then that person sits in that audience and that person, just by who they are sitting there, is telling the cast v/hat they want. And I 'm sir ing hack there and I’m watching that interaction and I'm saying. “ Okay. Miriam, they want you to go further now.” I’m knowing that, and the only way I can know that is by having the audience accept its responsibility as an audience. • Ruth Bernhard The Eternal Body For the first time a collection of Bernhard s finest nudes in a single elegantly bound monograph. . . . A unique and personal vision of the human bodv that is as breathtaking as it is profound Miriam Moses show. It should be a well-done show. My ability as a writer and my skill as a writer also have to figure into that. And I need to have fine actors, an outstand ing director, and the best of all set designers. It doesn't mean that we’re going to come up with a hit, but it does mean that when you go in there and you pay your $12 and you don’t like it, it will have been a good show done well. That we have a right to expect. We have this obligation to ourselves as a community to develop our selves as craftsmen who compete with the rest of the world for the same jobs that everybody else competes for. Our audiences shouldn't have to leave saying, “ Well, at least it was about us.” JENSEN: Do you see gay theater as having an outreach, a mission role to the straight community? MOSES: I see myself as having that because I’m willing to do that. That’s a question of willingness, a question of personal need on my part. Traversing those worlds to me is important. I don’t think that I will learn the maximum that I’m going to learn without traversing these worlds. I have to associate with the best artists I can find regardless of whom they sleep with, and I’m assuming that they will associate with me regardless of whom I sleep with for the sake of the development of the art form itself. And because I will that for myself, I also see that as a gay person I have the responsibility. I have the responsibility as a Jew, also; and I have that resonsibility as a woman. I have that responsi- blity for all of the things that I am. There’s a thing that Jews always say, “ You can’t be ex pected to change the world, but you can be expected to try.” For me, personally, as a value I place on myself, if you have a talent, you have the obli gation to develop it. And if you then develop it. you have the obligation to use it. and if you use it, you have the responsibility of using it well. JENSEN: So you have an obligation to yourself and you’ve expressed an obligation to the com munity to present well-crafted, well-designed, productions. What obligations do we as a com munity have back? MOSES: Most people can only, and should only, say I like this better than that. It's another step. From that point on. you should say. “ at least we want this much.” If you want us to take that risk, you have to support it. It’s a much greater risk for us finan cially. As artists, we’re going much further than we need to go. My show is going much further than a show needs to go because it’s trying to take everything that so manv have in common Photographic Image Gallery 2118 SW f irst, Portland. ORS72<W 503 - 224-3543 • Art Gallerv • Books & Posters • Custom Framing CA i tlfj from The Six Marilyns. Collection Carter Burden PRINT BY WARHOL HAIR BY GARY LUCKEY They say blondes have m ore fun but at Gary Luckey we say fun com es in all colors. So have some fun — mention this ad in September and receive 20% OFF ALL COLOR WORK And while you’re pampering yourself at our relaxing smoke-free salon, d o n ’t forget your nails. 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