Plays at area schools
Published 1:14 pm Thursday, May 9, 2019
“Little Shop of Horrors” on tap at GRC
If you have never considered the possibility your plants might be looking at you with Cassius’ “lean and hungry look” then you might want to avoid this Broadway musical presentation at the high school May 16-19.
According to the school’s website, “It’s a tale as old as time: Boy meets girl, solar eclipse brings a Venus flytrap from outer space, mutant plant needs blood to survive, boy makes bargain with plant to get the girl, doo wop group sings about it. Look out, look out, look out, look out — it’s the hit rock musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’”
Public performances are May 17-19. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $10 for adults, $8 for Clark County Public Schools employees with ID and $5 for students.
Transylvania play is about Winchester native
The Transylvania University Theatre Department is presenting an off-Broadway production of Ain Gordon’s play about Dr. John Fryer called “217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous.”
The play will be performed at the Lucille Little Theatre on Transylvania’s campus at 7:30 p.m. May 16–18 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 19.
Tickets are free on a first come, first served basis. Donations will be accepted to benefit Transylvania’s John Fryer Fund for Diversity and Inclusion. Following the May 16 performance, there will be a talk-back session with Ain Gordon.
Free tickets can be obtained by visiting the Transylvania department of theatre’s website at transy.edu/about/theater-program/season.
The play focuses on the life of Dr. John Fryer, 1937-2003, a Winchester native, who courageously spoke at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in 1972.
Risking his job and his professional reputation, Fryer began his speech by saying, “I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist.”
At a time when gay marriage is legal, when neighboring Lexington had a gay mayor, Jim Gray, for eight years, and when Pete Buttigieg the openly-gay and married mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is running for president of the U.S., it can be difficult to remember LGBTQ acceptance has not always been the norm.
Until the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of same sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), being a member of the LGBTQ community was particularly difficult with discrimination on the basis of gender orientation being normal. Making the situation worse was the fact that until 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) defined homosexuality as a psychopathology, a mental illness.
One of the reasons the APA ruled homosexuality was not a mental illness was because of Fryer’s courage in speaking at the APA’s 1972 annual meeting as part of a panel discussion entitled “Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to the Homosexual?; A Dialogue.”
Speaking in disguise (in a rubber mask, wig and baggy pants) and through a sound distorting microphone he took on the challenge of convincing his peers and the world homosexuality was normal.
Below is part of Dr. Fryer’s speech:
“When you are with fellow professionals who are denigrating the ‘faggots’ the ‘queers,’ don’t just stand idly by. Don’t give up your career either. Show a little creative ingenuity, and make sure that you let your associates know that they have a few issues which they have to think through again.
“When fellow homosexuals come to you for treatment, don’t let your own problems get in your way. Develop creative ways to let the patients know that they’re alright, and then teach them everything they need to know. Refer them to other sources of information with biases different from your own, so the homosexual will freely be able to make his own choices.
“Finally, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and discover ways in which you as homosexual psychiatrists can be appropriately involved in movements which attempt to change the attitudes of both homosexuals and heterosexuals toward homosexuality.”
Bill McCann is a playwright, poet, flash fiction writer, and teacher who writes about arts events and personalities. Reach him at wmccann273@gmail.com