It begins with me as a teenager (pretty clueless, but very curious) and ends in 1980, traversing my coming out story, and growth into an artist and activist, all set against a backdrop of LGBTQ victories and defeats, local and global. If your own life intersects with this time period, memories will be reawakened. If this was before your time, it promises an engaging history lesson that no school has yet taught.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Gay Man is the first work in my autobiographical series Somewhere Along the Rainbow.* Stories of my personal life, my life as an artist and activist, and LGBTQ progress and setbacks. In the show I tell stories, I dance. What could be more fun?
I previewed Portrait… in June in Grand Marais for their Pride festival. They got a bomb threat. “Should I still perform? Will I survive?” The threat represented by “Don’t Say Gay” is as current as it is ‘nothing new’. That’s why I created this show.
Me, a 70-year-old man looking back to see what has changed, and what has not. Researching and writing, I waded and swam in the silence and invisibility that surrounded being gay back in the 70’s. I’m often sad revisiting how I internalized that. Sometimes uncomfortable. And I get to celebrate me figuring my way out of that!
Friday and Saturday, September 20-21 at 7:30pm
Sunday, September 22 at 2:00pm
*Thanks to James Joyce and Kevin Kortan for the titles!
Location Info
Illusion Theater
Center for Performing Arts
3754 Pleasant Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55409