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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1989)
PGMC, Ballet Oregon unite in spring concert / fj \\ The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White. 1989. Ballantine. $4.95. 199 pp. The M ysteries o f Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. 1989. Harper & Row, $7.95. 304 pp. t wasn’t too long ago that homosexuality wasn't just viewed as a difference, but as an rt Bechstein is a college student, the only illness, and that any young man who chose to son of Pittsburgh's best-known gangster but safely isolated from his father’s underworld come to terms with his gayness had a long and or its next concert, the Portland Gay Men’s lonely journey of self-discovery ahead. The connections. Art seems doomed to an unevent Chorus is featuring a surprising collabora Beautiful Room Is Empty is Edmund White’s tion with Ballet Oregon, one of the Northwest’s ful Pittsburgh summer until a trio of unconven autobiographical novel (a sequel to A Boy's tional new friends — vampish Phlox, rebellious leading professional dance companies. Own Story) that takes place from the late 1950s Cleveland, and gay Arthur— force him to “ Song and Ballet” will have two perform to the time o f the Stonewall Riots in 1969 — confront himself and his sexuality in ways he ances. Saturday and Sunday, April 15 and 16, in From prep school through college and on to a never thought possible. the Intermediate Theatre of the Portland Center career in New York for his unnamed narrator. The Mysteries o f Pittsburgh, Michael for the Performing Arts. White documents in convincing detail the Chabon’s debut novel, satisfies on several PGMC commissioned Dennis Spaight. impossibility o f a healthy gay awareness in a levels. It’s a “ young man’s novel” in the mode artistic director of Ballet Oregon, to create an society where the mere possession of homo o f F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side o f Paradise. original ballet in the classical style, set to six sexual tendencies was “ sick.” His narrator It can also be considered a gay coming- of- songs for male chorus by Franz Schubert. comes out into the butch/nelly dichotomy o f the age novel since Art. after a great deal of The 25-minute ballet, titled “ In the Presence late fifties, a society in which internalized self- indecision, finally chooses Arthur over Phlox o f Things Past.” will be danced by the full loathing had rendered “ fruits” incapable of and decides to live as a gay man. company of Ballet Oregon, while the 65-voice acting like “ real men” and “ real men” Most interesting of all. Pittsburgh is remark chorus sings. Spaight designed the production incapable of loving other men. able for its dark side, as Art gradually becomes with lighting by Peter West and costumes by Finally, after years in New York, the Stone aw are of the corrupt underworld Pittsburgh that Carol Shults. wall riots open up the possibility o f real libera owes its existence, in large part, to his gangster Besides the Schubert songs, PGMC’s con father. tion and the book concludes on a hopeful note. ductor. David York, will lead the singers in There is no more gifted stylist than White, Remarkably, Chabon fuses all these elements several other songs in a romantic vein — by into a very stylish, well-written package. The and even the most unsavory aspects of gay life Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten, among Mysteries o f Pittsburgh is a masterful achieve in decades past achieve a tense lyricism in others — ending with a little known version of ment, and deserves to reach a whole new — his masterful prose. ' The Blue Danube,” composed for men’s paperback — audience. — Allen Smalling chorus by Johann Strauss. Jr., “ the waltz king.” The new ballet has been made possible, in part, by a grant to PGMC from the Metropoli Let your body speak its mind. tan Arts Commission, and a grant to Ballet Oregon from the Oregon Arts Commission. The program also includes a second, shorter dance work, the pas de deux from “ Triptych.” featuring Spaight and ballerina Pamela Hayes. Spaight has studied at American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet in New York, and has performed with San Francisco Ballet and Maurice Bejart's Ballet of the XXth Century. PGMC. now in its ninth season, is recog nized as the area’s premier men’s chorus (Check out Page EZI2 in the glossy section of The Yellow Pages!). “ Song and Ballet” is included in the Young Audiences ARTSCARD program, and is sponsored, in part, by KYTE 970 AM. The Classical Station. Tickets for “ Song and Ballet” are currently J e n n ife r H erezan K lez —m ey d lek h BETTY l.a d y g o u rd Sangom a on sale at the Performing Arts Center box B lazin g R edheads I.ibana office. Broadway at Main Street, 248-4496. B lue R ose M argaret S loan -H u nter Prices are $8. $12. and $15. C a sselb erry & D uP ree J u d e Marita Performances will be at 8 pm on Saturday, D an ce B rigade Laura N yro and 7 pm on Sunday. • F L ‘ .i Book briefs Foofy" is back /i^ Foofy Open-Toed Shoe (what a title!) is a farce in two acts by Ej Westlake. Written in the classic detective genre, the | characters are cleverly named (Helen Wheeles, chauffeur, for example) and the stage is set for a thickening plot, romantic intrigue, a case or two to solve, and. at the end. with all parties onstage, the revelation of “ whodunit” Harriet Hunt is the detective on the case, and the actor has to be very clever, indeed, to avoid I being upstaged by such flamboyant characters I as Helen Wheeles. the Butler, and DD. the I singing baby dyke. Westlake is directing the current production l o f Foofy. She promises that this version will v have a quicker pace, and will be styled in broad | physical comedy. Harriet Hunt will be played by Patty French; Holly Bennett will reprise her role as Helen. It is a rich time for Portland’s women’s community with TWO women’s theater troupes performing at the same time. The performances are scheduled so that not only can the audiences make it to both plays, but the two troupes can make it to each other's productions, as well. Stark Raving Theatre has a sliding scale from SO-15. This make the theater truly accessible to all levels of income. Unfortunately, the theater space itself is not wheelchair accessible, but Westlake plans to remedy that in the near future. r A • Massage Therapy • Body Awareness • Body-centered Counseling D ian n e D a v id so n D isa p p ea r Fear Ferron R obin F lo w er & Fihhy McLaren Mimi Fox Kay G ardner & S u n w om yn E nsem ble J u lie H om i J a n e ’s Aire Deidre McCalla, Portland Lesbian Choir in concert irlfriend Productions will present Deidre McCalla in concert on Saturday. April 22. at 8 pm. at the Pine Street Theatre. The Portland Lesbian Choir will open the concert. One of the few black American women prominent in the contemporary singer-song writer genre. Deidre McCalla is an inspiring, evocative performer with a wicked sense of humor and a rock-solid back beat. Her two albums on the Olivia label. Don t Doubt It and With a Little Luck are exciting collections of O va O ver Our H eads Pat Parker Ruth Pelham Vicki R andle T osh i R eagon C a ro ly n Ritt Trio L orraine Segato S tafford Street S isters M ahinaarangi T ocker G C L I N I C A L G. Gwenn Cody. B.A.. L.M.T. 2625 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 232-2041 — Sandra de Helen BARBARA I II 12 13 1989 T eresa Trull F dw ina Lee T yler C ris W illia m so n W.W.T.M.C. Box 22 Walhalla, Ml 49458 tyrffjnt+dtProbations SAYS freshly blended pop stylings, smooth vocals, tight songwriting, and aggressive production. Tickets ($9 in advance. $11 at the door) are available at A Woman's Place Bookstore. Pine Street Theatre is located at Southeast 9th and Pine. For information, call 281-4635. • ISAACS, Ph. D. P S Y C H O L O G I S T 2250 NW FLANDERS. SUITE 312 ■ 10 AUGUST PORTLAND. OREGON 97210 (503) 248-0775 m DANCE TO THE RUMORS OF THE BIG WAVE Sat. May 6, 8:00 p.m. ECHO THEATRE SE 37th & H aw thorne Tickets $8.00 Available at: A Woman's Place Bookstore 5% just out V 21 ▼ April 1989
