PGMC, Ballet
Oregon unite in
spring concert
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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
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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