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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2005)
56|ust out • juna 17.2005 DIVERSIONS ............ ▼.......... r-------------------------------------------- v ~ V C fJtaduetwns ¿V < X. emina agnifique jpMt eant A Pageant to Crown the Most Beautiful Female Impersonator in Portland Featuring Talent, Formal Wear Theme and Showgirl Presentations Sunday July 10th, 2005, Door at 7:00 p.m. Pageant at 8:00 p.m. \_____________________________________________ / ^^atcelle C J ^Iwinplace 208 NW 3rd Avenue Portland, OR 97209 503-222-5338 • Fax: 503-248-6771 V" ■> • « * 4 ~ *À Visit us online at: www.reyreece.com ▼ or schedule your appointment Remember Stonewall It was supposed to be just another typical raid of a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The cops enter, order the patrons to line up and perhaps push a few around. Those with ID who are wearing gender-proper clothes can leave. But not the others. The drag queens and tough-looking dykes in men’s clothing would be hauled downtown. That’s what was supposed to happen June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn. The cops, who were receiving payoffs from the bar, usually gave warnings of raids, but not this time. In his book Stonewall, Martin Dubennan offers several reasons why there wasn’t a warning—perhaps the payoff wasn’t made, or perhaps the feds had gotten wind of rhe corrup tion between the bar and cops. Whatever the reason, around 1 a.m. eight cops entered the bar. Patrons with proper ID and gender clothing were allowed to leave. Only they didn’t head home. Instead, they mingled around and waited for others to come out. Tension started to fill the air. When the police brought the drag queens to the paddy wagons, the crowd started to yell. Then something totally unexpected hap pened. The gays fought back. Duberman describes two possible sparks for the ensuing riot: A drag queen started swinging at a cop who wouldn’t stop pushing her, and a dyke resisted getting into a patrol car. No mat ter which was the instigator, the crowd responded. They threw bottles, cans and coins at the cops, then set fires in trash cans. The police were outnumbered, so they ran for cover inside the bar. Someone managed to squirt lighter fluid into the bar plus a match to start a small fire. There were chants of “gay power.” The police called for reinforcements. It took hours for the officers to disperse the crowd. The next day, the crowd reappeared for another night of rioting. Again, the cops responded. By the third night, things were quiet. Stonewall became a symbol of gay liberation across the country. There would be no turning back, as many activists point to the riots as the beginning of the modem gay rights movement. Holocene will commemorate Stonewall’s 503-256-3700 1-800-283-0592 REY REECE DEALERSHIPS VOLKSWAGEN-MITSUBISHI-USED . Sound designer Rodolfo Ortega was honored for Lorca in a Green Dress. Lindsay Lucas (left) and Julianna Jaffe won the Outstanding Ensemble Acting Drammy for Insight Out’s Cornered in the Dark. 36th anniversary 7 p.m. June 28 at 1001 S.E. Morrison St. The event will feature Caught in Candy, Sparkleheart, Excuse Me Sir, Lady, Atomic J, Fleshtone, The Last Regiment Drum Brigade, DJs Beyonda and Sew What, Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams, an art installation and a documentary. Admission is $5-$ 10. Proceeds benefit Basic Rights Oregon and the Audria M. Edwards Scholarship Fund. —Pat Young More than a formality 122nd & East Burnside www.reyreece.com W estover H eights CLINIC Offering general internal medicine and excelling in sexual health care Serving the community for 22 years 2330 NW Flanders Suite 207 503-226-6678 Chris Coleman (right, with Kay Vega of Lakewood Theatre) accepts a Drammy on behalf of playwright Glen Berger for Portland Center Stage's O Lovely Glowworm. Commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Stonewall riots June 28 at Holocene. Portland thespians took the spotlight June 13 when the 26th annual Drammy Awards celebrated outstanding achievement in local theater for the 2004-2005 season. Veteran comic actor Scott Parker greeted a crowd of more than 600 gathered at Crystal Ballroom for 30 awards presented by more than a dozen artistic directors of local theater companies. Coming out on top was Recent Tragic Events, the absorbing 9/11 story of an intimate reaction to a larger-than-life event, produced by virgin Third Rail Theatre Company in conjunction with CoHo Productions. Tragic tixik home five Drammys, including one of the evening’s two awards for Outstanding Production. Miracle Theatre Group’s Lorca in a Green Dress, a dramatization of the life and death of Spain’s gay poet/playwright Federico García Lorca, picked up the other nod for Outstanding Production along with three additional awards. Portland Center Stage received three citations for excellence, including a Drammy to Glen Berger for his quirky new script O Lovely Glowworm. As much as last year’s 25th anniversary was “the biggest cast party of the year,” this year’s more elegant Drammys focused on award win ners who, in turn, graciously deflected atten tion and recognition to fellow collaborators. When Danny Bruno (Glengarry Glen Ross) took the mike to accept an award for Outstanding Supporting Actor, he emphatically called for recognition of the vital but unsung role played by stage managers. Yet the formality of the evening didn’t mask heartfelt emotions evident in the knocking knees of Leo Kominz (Outstanding Young Writer, Little One Inch) and the affirming mes sage from Adrienne Flagg (Outstanding Actress, The Waiting Room) that storytelling in Portland theaters has not gone unnoticed. Nor did the evening lack showmanship, as John Morrison (Outstanding Actor, Glengarry Glen Ross) physically rolled through stair shtick and John Berendzen (Outstanding Sound Design, The Resurrectory) delivered deadpan standup. Perhaps most touching was a special tribute to the Haven Project. Actress Gretchen Corbett accepted the honor on behalf of the organization she founded 10 years ago to share theater crafts with at-risk youth. Corbett is leaving Haven to continue her acting career but announced that much of its far-reaching work will be carried on by Sojourn Theatre and Artists Repertory Theatre. For a complete listing of award recipients, visit www.drammy.info. —Timothy Krause Scratch the surface Writers don’t easily share works in progress with others. Usually they require people they trust, people who can understand what it is to wrestle the bare bones of language until some thing beautiful and interesting is left panting and exhausted on the page. This makes it doubly difficult for gay or bi men to find writing groups in which they can explore and improve their work. Queer writers often find themselves reluctant to be frank and unapologetic (“Well, 1 wanted to write about Josh, but can they handle a gay character who isn’t a stereotype?”), or they become aggravated having to explain content to the uninitiated (“Yes, the two men go to bed in this scene. If you must leave the room, please do so now.”). This led two published Portland writers to
