february 21.2QG3 » J u st o u t 41
B
ob Mensel is a treasure of this here queer
community.
T he conductor and artistic director
of the Portland G ay M en’s Chorus (for
10 years now!) has taken a group that mainly
performed show tunes to one that consistent
ly delivers high-quality themed productions
that not only offer beautiful music but in
explicably elicit an impassioned response
from the entire audience. Lots o f people cry
at P G M C concerts— even hardened, cynical
dykes like me.
How does he do it?
“There is an old A ristotelian— was it
Aristotle or Plato?— I think it’s A ristotle,”
Mensel begins, clearly in a bid to show off
his intellectual capacities, “that talked about
catharsis. 1 believe people need to work
their em otions— they need to laugh, they
need to cry. A rt and music are the places
where people can exercise their em otions in
a healthy way.”
A nd it doesn’t hurt that the shows are
also often tributes to queer lives. In fact,
they all are under the surface, but some are
particularly distinguishable: Millennium
M osaic in 2000 honored young people with
some original arrangements by Portland
queer youth. Last year’s Vintage Voices cele
brated older members o f the Portland-area
gay and lesbian community through music,
dance and documentary films clips.
Composers and choreographers are some
times brought in, but Mensel designs and
directs all the productions. “A lot of it from the
early days was simply arrangements of Broad
way show tunes, but now we’ve developed a
whole body o f newly composed music, which is
really wonderful."
It’s also a heck of a lot of work, and sitting
through one o f these events can be a little
emotionally overwhelming. “Our mission is to
create eclectic concerts that honor the gay and
lesbian community,” Mensel says, “and uplift all
people.”
Besides that, who wouldn’t like a job where
you get to boss around gay men with a wave of
your hand? Mensel always comes off so cool
and suave brandishing his little stick, com
mencing and halting movement with looks and
Portland G ay M en’s Chorus
conductor Bob M ensel may
soon be bossing around a
bunch more people
P H O T O BY PAU L K O L N IC K
Queen M ensel
nods. “I am a control queen,” he readily
admits. But “the reality is, it’s all in the
rehearsal. They generally ignore me.”
Soon Mensel may be offered the
job of a lifetime. He’s in considera
tion for the new conductor of the
Portland Symphonic Choir, the offi
cial chorus of the Oregon Symphony.
It performs with the symphony and
also has its own season.
Out of 30-something applicants, the choir
narrowed it down to three hopefuls— two
music professors and Mensel. “Symphonic
choral music is probably more my specialty
philosophically than any other music,” he
says. “My personal career goal has always
been to conduct the chorus of a major
orchestra.”
Part of the final selection process for all
three candidates is to conduct public concerts
with the choir. This might be nerve-wracking
for them, but it’s fun for the rest of us to get to
see Mensel in front of a very different bunch of
musicians. (Although, frankly, he tells me drat
he isn’t nervous at all and that nervous isn’t
really a word he would use to describe himself.
Nervousness, he says, translates in him as “sort
of ornery.")
He’ll be conducting the symphonic choir
March 8 and 9 at Reed College’s Kaul Audito
rium in a program called Treasures from the Old
World, which includes Anton Bruckner’s Mass
m E Minor, Gioacchino Rossini’s Preghiera and
an old Welsh slumber song. (G et tickets from
www.pschoir.org.)
Being used to this particular space, where
many of PGM C’s concerts are held, Mensel
was allowed to “change it quite a bit to make it
work for the concert hall.”
Although this choir is just a wee bit more
classical than PG M C, they gave Mensel lee
way. “In the gay men’s chorus, you can be
eclectic and fun, and the symphonic has
been receptive” to some changes from its
original program. “It’s a little more light
hearted on the second half. I think it’s a m ar-.
velous mix of music that really will appeal to
a lot of people.”
Don’t worry, Mensel will still head up
PG M C if he gets this job. Which may not be
good news for the guys in the chorus, as
Mensel sternly warns, “I’ll be a real control
queen.”
A s for the next PGM C concert, Classical
Voices, that’s Feb. 23 at the Old Church. (Get
tickets from www.pdxgmc.org.) Because it’s a
performance of the chorus’ auxiliary groups,
Mensel will not be conducting. “I’m going to
be an usher!” he enthusiastically states. “My
role is to not boss anybody around...but I’m
not sure that will happen.” JH
For G od’s sake, don’t miss The Producers through March 2 at Keller Auditorium
The Producers
is totally, totally gay
f you’re an uninformed buffoon and haven’t
seen the 1968 movie The Producers like the Arts
and Culture Editor of this newspaper, then what
a delightful surprise it will be to you to sit down at
the Broadway version of the Mel Brooks classic
running through March 2 at Keller Auditorium.
1 know, you thought all Broadway musicals were
gay, but none so gay, my friends, as this.
The Producers is about a Broadway producer
and his accountant, who cook up a scheme to
raise a lot of money for a new show, make a
flop and keep the investments for them
selves— because if a show opens and closes in
one night, no one expects their investment
back. So all they have to do is go out of their
way to make the worst production ever seen (a
tall order, when you think about it).
They finally decide on a script— Springtime
for Hitler — and hire a terrible director and the
worst of actors. Hilarity, of course, ensues.
What the ads don’t tell you is that half the
cast plays gay— and not just normal, average,
Joe-on-the-street gay, but screaming, flaming,
faggot gay.
The director of Springtime for Hitler is a drag
queen with an unforgettable limp-wristed part
ner perfectly executed by Michael Patemostro.
The scene inside their lush lavender living
room, complete with dramatic and huffy exits,
many introductions to their “theater assistants”
and lines like “How do you really think I look
in this dress?” is one of the funniest I’ve seen
on stage in years. Kevin Cook (aka Poison
Waters) was sitting in the row in front of me,
and he almost fell out of his chair.
You will, too. For gosh
sakes, go. Tickets are
$31-$71 from the Port
land Opera box office or
Ticketmaster.
I
Watch Cockettes
with Dave and Tom
*
T
he award-winning film The Cockettes
returns to Cinema 21 for a free showing at
5 p.m. Feb. 23.
Recently named Best Documentary by the
Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the film
follows the 1970s theatrical troupe of hippie
women and drag queens who decked themselves
out in flamboyant costumes and gaudy glitter for
a series of legendary midnight musicals. The
Cockettes combined political parody, drugs,
gender-bending sexuality and the kind of chaotic
free-love fun that San Francisco was known for.
Filmmaker David Weissman, who is visit
ing Portland for a month, will attend the show
ing. The 48-year-old filmmaker is a friend of
Pink Martini lead Thomas Lauderdale, who
arranged the screening “to pull out the Oregon
welcome wagon and show David what a cre
ative, welcoming city Portland is.” Well, now
that shouldn’t be too hard for us.
A reception will follow the screening at Le
Happy, 1011 N.W. 16th Ave.
— Floyd Sklaver
Baby dyke biographies
T
A flO iO H d
he Women’s Entertainment network plans
to air four episodes of its When I Was a
Qirl series in March— one showcasing
Melissa Etheridge and one showcasing Ellen
DeGeneres. Sex and the City’s Kristin Davis is
the host of the series, which is produced by
journalist Linda Ellerbee.
Each show, which will include backgrounds
of several women, documents growing up from
childhcxxl through awk
ward adolescence. Hope
fully Melissa and Ellen will
talk about feeing fears
around their sexualities
and hopefully those com
ments will make it into
the final edit.
The project “reaffirms
that
women appreciate shar
on’t look for Skervy:
ing stories and establishing
Queer to the Bone!
common bonds," says Eller
at Billy Ray’s any
bee, “no matter where you
more. The smokin’ dance
night has outgrown the
Dyke tyke: Ellen DeGeneres talks about live or what ycxi do.”
The Melissa epis<xle is
MLK Jr. Blvd. dive.
her childhood in When I Was a Qirl
slated for March 3 and
“There was a concern
Ellen for March 10. Women’s Entertainment is
that the tiles on the first-fkxir ceiling might
available in the Portland area on digital cable
come loose and fall with all the butt-bumpin’
Channel 502 and on satellite distnbutor
g(xxl times happening on the second flixir," DJ
DIRECTV’s Channel 260. Yeah, pretty
Zanne confides. Anyone who’s been can testify
obscure, but clip this handy article and in six
to that possibility.
The Skervy crew is kx>king for a new butt-
months check the video store.
bumpin’ l<x:ation. If you have any ideas, e-mail
Compiled by L i s a B r a d s h a w
zanne@de j anvier.org.
Skervy needs
new home
D