july ¿ 2Q04 ’ jUSt OUt 41
DIVERSIONS
▼.........
New Oregon
Bear and Cub
Give my regards to old Broadway
’m going to say something now that might scare you. Tigard.
Calm down, calm down, I’m not saying you have to go there, hut as you
continue to read down the column, he open-minded. You’re queer, remember?
It’s supposed to come naturally.
I’ll he honest: Before I was forced to attend press screenings at Tigard Cin
emas, I couldn’t even have told you where Tigard was. But now I can hop on
the freeway (you’ll want to go south) and drive right on in just like I live
there. (Ha ha, as if!)
Anyway, aside from the cinema, I’ve found
a really good reason to go to Tigard—The
Broadway Rose Theatre Company.
There are three reasons Portlanders don’t
give much notice to the mostly musical theater
troupe: They’re in Tigard; their name sounds a
little cheesy; they perform in a high school.
As I’ve come to find out, though, people
who live in Tigard flock to the place (it can be
scary driving into the city!), and the perform
ances are in a high school’s theater auditorium.
(I don’t know what I was thinking—that
they’d be on a gym floor or something?)
This month Broadway Rose is doing the
smash pop-rock opera Jekyll & Hyde. The New
York director, Abe Reybold, is gay. The local
musical director, Rick Lewis, is gay. Portland
stage manager Mark Tynan is gay. The New
York lead actor, Robert Hunt, is gay. Two of
the other Portland actors —Paul Miller and
Jim Crino—are gay and gay, respectively.
I know it’s not much of a stretch to link
gayness and the performing arts, but in
Tigard it still kind of seems, I don’t
know.. .subversive.
“It’s harder in the ’burbs, it really is," admits
Lewis, Broadway Rose’s in-house musical
director and occasional actor, who also serves
as director of entertainment and marketing on
the Portland Spirit. But this is, he continues,
“a really beautiful production...it’s the type of
production you’re probably not going to see in
most theaters in Portland.”
The company has rented the entire set from the Fullerton Civic Light Opera
in California. “1 don’t know what the Broadway Rose reputation is,” says Hunt,
who plays Dr. Jekyll, “but I do know that the production values of this show are
pretty amazing.. .it’s dark and mysterious and sexy and over the top.”
Hunt was last in Portland about six years ago on a tour of Forever Plaid, and
he’s just come off a tour of Les Miserables. He gives props to the two leading
ladies in Jekyll & Hyde. “We know the queers love to hear the divas sing, and
these girls are unbelievable.... We went out to karaoke in Portland, and the two
of them brought the house down.” (Tigard and The Grand Café—what a
priceless tour these people are on!)
Still, am I up to driving to the suburbs for theater when there’s plenty within
10 minutes of my inner Southeast home?
“Yeah, get out here, for Christ’s sake!" director Abe Reybold hollers at me
through the phone. “It’s worth the trip.. .they’re really pushing the envelope with
this show.... We’re not holding back with the murders and kind of the racier
things.” And, he adds, lowering his voice, “Robert Hunt is incredibly attractive.”
“As far as the gay audience,” Lewis notes, “Robert Hunt is....” He pauses.
“He’s gorgeous.”
“I rip my shirt open,” Hunt adds. “If that helps.”
It helps.
But if you’re still not convinced, check with your closest college lit geek friend
and you’ll find out that some scholars believe Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego was brought on
by repressed sexuality.
Now, off to Tigard with you! JH
I
JEKYLL &. H yde plays at Tigard’s Deb Fennell Auditorium, 9000 S.W. Durham Road,
through July I I. Tickets are $12-$I9 from 503-620-5262 or
wwu>. broadwayrose .com.
111’m actually kind of a small guy,” says
1 Johnney Russ, the 32-year-old new
I Mr. Oregon Cub. But, as he points
out, being a bear is a matter of personali
ty, not size.
“Bears are the most genuine, loving,
compassionate, nicest bunch of guys,”
says Russ, who joined the Oregon Bears
two years ago when he and his husband
moved to Portland from a small town in
Washington. Russ works at the bear-
owned Beefy Boys ftxxl cart downtown.
Both he and Mr. Oregon Bear 2004,
James “Butchy” Janik, serve on the Ore
gon Bears executive board. “I find it a
huge honor to be representing the Bears,”
says Russ.
He and Janik were given their new
titles at a gala event June 12 as part of
Beartown 2004.
Russ says he looks
forward to working
with Janik. “If you
go to an event and
Johnney Russ (left)
all the flowers are
and James “Butchy”
arranged really nice
Janik
were sashed
ly, that’s Butchy’s
June 12 during
work,” he notes.
Beartown 2004
Janik also moved
here two years ago
with his husband; they
hail from Texas. Janik
was a founding mem
Also on the docket are Portland’s own Sarah
ber of the Houston-area bear organi
Dougher
and teen phenom Zoe Trope. Literary-
zation. “Bear culture is almost a
inclined indie rocker Dougher (The Bluff, The Walls
counterculture movement,” he notes.
Ablaze) has most recently been at work on a cycle of 24
The 39-year-old says their jobs as
songs that explore the afterlife of Homer’s Odyssey. In
Mr. Oregon Bear and Cub will be to
case you’ve been living in a cave, Trop is the author of
act as ambassadors for the club to the
the wildly popular Please Don’t Kill the Freshmen.
rest of the queer community. “Bears
This all-ages event gets going at 9 p.m. for a mere
have big hearts. We’re very giving
6 bucks.
and committed to communities.”
The coming year will find both
men involved in all manner of
warm and fuzzy bearlike activities,
including trips out of town to help
judge bear contests. Other duties
t wouldn’t be summer without the Michigan
includes raising money for the
Womyn’s Music Festival. The 29-year tradition con
Friends of People with AIDS Foun
tinues Aug. 10 to 15 when thousands of women from
dation, organizing campouts and
all over the world converge on 650 private forested
working with the Imperial Sovereign
acres to dance, camp and bare breasts in the largest
Rose Court on various events. Oh,
intentional women’s community this—or any other—
and don’t forget the bears’ important job as foster par
side of the Mississippi.
ents to an actual bear at the Oregon Zoo.
You may not agree with all their spelling choices or
Russ, who was introduced to the bear movement a
gender guidelines, but you’re sure to find someone you
few years ago, says “being a bear is an attitude.”
love listening to at the fest. This year’s lineup includes
The Dolly Ranchers, Tret Fure,
Ubaka Hill, Magdalen Hsu-Li,
Laura Love, Kate Clinton, Alix
Olson, C.C. Carter, Ellis, Jill
Sobule and many more.
t would be in your best cultural inter
The highlight will likely be
est to not miss Disjecta Gallery’s all
the
Aug. 12 performance of
chick literary-music-art ensemble
Hothead Paisan: The Musi
July 14. The proud space of avant-garde
cal,
Act I, based on the comic
multigenre art at 116 N.E. Russell St. is
by Diane DiMassa and directed
hosting a gaggle of queer gals sure to
by Animal Pruffock. The
twirl your curls.
“Wholly Ensemble” includes
Headlining is Michelle Tea, the
Ani DiFranco, Ferron and
punk-rock poet and memoirist whose
Susan Powter (who is billing
unabashed tales of being queer, poor
herself as “the female Michael
and female put her at the top of Village
Moore”). They are accompa
Voice, San Francisco Chronicle and
nied by “Whorchestra” mem
Lambda Literary charts.
bers
that include Toshi Reagon
For her latest creation, the 33-year-
and Alyson Palmer of Betty.
old co-founder of Sister Spit All-Girl
Visit www.michfest.com for
Roadshows has teamed up with illus
a complete schedule and ticket
trator Laurenn McCubbin on Rent
information. JF1
Girl, a graphic novel about the several
years Tea spent working in the sex
C ximptled by MEG D a LY
industry.
Dykes who flock together
rock together
I
Triple your pleasure
at Disjecta
I