Queer Theatre – Taking Center Stage

In an effort to champion the discovery, development and production of plays that explore, reveal and celebrate the lives of the LGBT community, Diversionary Theatre presents Queer Theatre – Taking Center Stage. Four plays, both old and new, are given readings in January and February as part of the program. Says Dan Kirsch, Diversionary Theatre’s Executive Director, “Reclaiming a word like queer to describe ourselves is provocative and challenging to some. To others, it provides a sense of pride – they’ve put aside the negative connotation that society created around the word and are proudly defining the word to allow lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people to be true to themselves […] This program also allows us to look at plays that are relevant to LGBT history.” The plays are:

Cry Havoc
Written by Tom Coash; Directed by Esther Emery
Tuesday, January 23 at 7:30pm

In present-day Cairo, a naive British writer and an Egyptian university student covertly live as lovers. Surrounded by poverty, religious fundamentalism, and political repression, these educated, morally-centered, yet disenfranchised men pursue divergent paths toward escape and extremism. This shocking and timely story inventively contrasts the perils of forbidden love in an intolerant culture with the absurdity of government bureaucracy. Cry Havoc paints an alternately searing and humorous portrait of love and survival in the volatile Middle-East.

Something Cloudy, Something Clear
Written by Tennessee Williams; Directed by Ruff Yeager
Wednesday, January 31 at 7:30pm

Written in 1980, suppressed for a decade after Williams’ death by his literary executor, Something Cloudy, Something Clear is an astonishing work and powerful autobiography in the form of a memory play. This last play by Williams is a masterwork: full of doubled visions, stylistically daring, leaping in time between 1940 and 1980, peopled with ghosts. One eye is clouded by nostalgia, guilt, and regret, the other sharply focused by a ribald unsentimentally. It’s also a candid account of life and all its gritty compromises, as they unfolded for a gay artist in the 1940s.

Passing Ceremonies
Written by Steve Willis; Directed by Dr. Floyd Gaffney
February 17-19: Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 2:00pm, Monday at 7:30pm.

Harlem Renaissance artist Richard Bruce Nugent and modern-day poet Essex Hemphill meet between ‘earth life’ and ‘paradise’ and converse about what it meant to be black, gay and artists. The play celebrates LGBT Black History month with Ebony Pride San Diego. North Carolina playwright Willis is scheduled to be present for the readings.

Do Geese See God
Written by J.D. Eames; Directed by Esther Emery
February 24-26: Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 2:00pm, Monday at 7:30pm.

Topher’s life is all about the words, until she’s hit by lightning and left with a speech impairment. Her recovery forces her to develop a new relationship with words and with her lovers and friends. San Francisco playwright Eames is scheduled to be present for the readings.

Additional Ticket Information:

Tickets for Saturdays, Feb. 17 and Feb. 24 are $15.00 General Admission and $12.00 for Diversionary Subscribers and donors (William Finn Circle and higher). Admission includes a reception.

The $9.00 Donor discount price is available for the William Finn Circle and higher.