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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 3, 2008)
JULY 3. 2008 jUStffUt ,39 The Darkest Night Will End Les Mis meets the queer rights movement ometimes 1 choke on the words. Rehearsals for music theater produc- tions aren’t supposed to he sohhy affairs. As a performing artist, I’m trained to he just emotionally invested enough for the feeling to “read,” hut not so overwrought that 1 can’t make it, dry-eyed, through an especially moving lyric. That Friday night, in rehearsal for Broadway Rose Theatre Company’s production of Les Miserables, 1 lost it. “Do you hear the people sing? Lost in the valley of the night—it is the music of a people who are climbing to the light,” 1 sang in a super-soft tenor, almost whispering the words. Except when 1 got to the next lyric, my voice caught: “For the wretched of the earth, there is a flame that never dies—even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” Suddenly singing that lyric—about hope, about moving forward, about change and inspiration and what lies ahead—became just impossible. My eyes clouded over, tears streamed down my face. Returning to the musical theater stage in Les Mis after a few years’ absence has often been jar ring like this. But nothing prepared me for the explosive torrent of emotions that Les Mis un leashed in me, not least because of the surprising resonances between many of the show’s themes and today’s queer rights movement. Actors often like to pay lip service to the “timeliness” of a certain piece of theater, but here NW PROFESSIONAL DANCE PROJECT it’s smacked me right in the face. Since coming to Just Out several months ago, my own sense of urgency on queer equality has expanded incalcu lably. There are moments, like in those Les Mis lyrics, when the scope of the struggles before us looms so large as to seem unbeatable. How many more equality-stripping initiatives are there to re port, and how many frivolous lawsuits? How many times can 1 choke down another interview with a gay-hating activist or find another queer suicide in the national headlines? of a powerful enemy. Then the actors re-emerge from the wings to sing a soaring final reprise of the show’s major anthem. These are the words: “Will you join in our crusade? Who will he strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?” I see the barricade: It is David Crowe and Mary I in Shannon and Gary George and those diminishing numbers of old-school anti-equal ity activists across Oregon. It is our country’s administration, on its way to being retired. It is There are moments, like in those Les Mis lyrics, when the very scope of the struggles before us looms so large as to seem unbeatable. How many times can I choke down another interview with a gay-hating activist or find another queer suicide in the national headlines? Right at the end of Les Mis, there’s a bloody battle in which a group of starry-eyed student rev olutionaries fight for their fervent beliefs in hope and change. As one of them (Enjolras, a Larry Kramer type) waves a proud flag in the face of imminent defeat, others rush forward to battle, losing their lives in the headlong heat and rush also sometimes our own inability to stay actively committed to advancing equal rights. But I also, most days anyway, try to see beyond it. 1 see the proud queer director of our Les Mis production, Broadway vet Robert Hunt, one of the hardest-working theater pros I’ve met. I see his wonderful partner, Frank, with whom he lives in Chicago. I see that, as Illinois residents, they have no legal protections as a couple, and am reminded of the Washington lesbian who died suddenly while on vacation in Florida with her partner and children, and how that partner was denied emergency room access because the state does not recognize their partnership. It is not even news anymore: These are major recurring themes, just like that anthem. You read these stories, battered into our collective queer consciousness. As students of our own civil rights Staff Writer S tephen M arc B eauixmn writes about Portland arts and queer culture at fromeverycomer. Hogs/x ¡t.com. He welci>mes feedback at stephen@justuut.com. PRESENTS the PC at PCPA i ORIGINAL WORKS FROM WORLD- RENOWNED CHOREOGRAPHERS A ASZURE BARTON / Premiere ALEJANDRO CERRUDO I Premiere JAMES CANFIELD I Premiere LUCAS CRANDALL I Premiere SARAH SLIPPER / The Nuisance of Being 4F e T r ISTI/IAS c Extra savings on select items to make your summer fun as exciting as Christmas morning Best Bet for 2007 - The Oregonian NEWMARK THEATRE / PCPA I I I I SW BROADWAY ’ BY STEPHEN MARC BEAUDOIN movement, we’re scrambling to scale the bar ricade. Sometimes (e.g., Measure 36) we’re shot down by the opposition. But guess what—tomorrow comes. As we sing in full-throated abandoned at the musical’s end: Tomorrow comes. © ft J JUL/i ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/ SARAH SLIPPER Corner View / TICKETS/$28-$32 Limited BEST SEATS / www.nwpdp.com Info / S03.828.8285 * Tickets also available at / PCPA Box Office or Ticketmaster outlets 503.790.ARTS FRIDAY + SATURDAY /JULY I 1 + 12 / 8 PM sponsored in part by / a 1Î4JÜI hîÛfiH&B photo / Blaine Covert James F. ft Manca I ífflrWr ^dler foundation dancer / Amanda Philhps-Bosshart ■- I À Enter to win ''special” Christmas presents valued up to $100. No purchase necessary. îl rfí 1 £ All 20 hour DVDs on sale for $20! Visit our website for more events & store specials. www.taboovideo.com » WWW.TABOOVIDEO.COM Taboo Vancouver 4811 NE 94th Ave. Vancouver WA (360) 254-1126 71 82nd Ave. Taboo 2330 SE 82nd Ave. Portland OR (503) 777-6033 ■■If* MLK Blvd. Taboo 237 SE MLK Blvd. Portland OR (503) 239-1678 ’r r-T PfWATE AND INTIMATE MULTICHANNEL ANGABE |
