Charles Isherwood on Anti-Gay Slurs on Stage
New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood takes two current NY productions to task for their use of anti-gay speech as “easy” punchlines. In his view, these productions forgo critical examination of what in other contexts might be deemed “hate speech” and may even be reifying the latent homophobia of supposedly “with it” New York audiences.
Isherwood’s argument connects directly to our company’s mission statement and desire to reimagine the roles of sexuality onstage. Have a look at his article: What do you think?
New Web Archive: ‘To Be Loved’ (Ver. 1)
Images, video, and production credits for To Be Loved (Version 1) are now available in our ARCHIVE.
Little Elixir Items in the News
We haven’t been featured on the cover of Rolling Stone yet, but getting into print in NYC amounts to much the same thing with a publicity budget as small as ours.
Thanks so much to all of you who are coming out to see the play!
The Gothamist
Okay, this isn’t print. But it’s worth it for the misspelling of our name alone!
NY Newsday
No scan of this one yet, but here is the text – dedicated, of course, to Erica.
Playwright celebrates a friend’s life
Long Island playwright Alex DeFazio has dedicated his 12th play to a close friend from Great Neck High School who died last year in a mountain-climbing accident in northern Pakistan.
DeFazio, 28, was a classmate of Erica Kutcher, the Great Neck native who died in July 2005 on an expedition to climb Shipton Spire, a mountain in the same range as K-2, the world’s second-tallest peak. Kutcher was an accomplished athlete who friends said could scale a nearly vertical 3,000-foot route up the North America Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Calif., in 40 hours – without sleep.
DeFazio’s memorial to Kutcher is published in the program distributed at Chashama, the East 42nd Street venue where his “To Be Loved” runs through Dec. 23. He writes, “At the funeral, I told several people that Erica had saved my life. I doubt she ever knew she was doing this, but the simple fact of her presence was enough to keep me from giving into the far less ecstatic reality of a life … filled with impulses that confused and upset me – a life, in short, common to most teenagers.”
“To Be Loved” is a Kabuki-inspired play about the forbidden relationship between a monk and a boy. DeFazio’s recent New York productions include two one-acts, “Mountainlight” and “Can I Touch You.” Visit www.elixirproductions.org to learn more about “To Be Loved.”
- Robert Kahn
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