By Fiona Soltes
July 18, 2010
The summer of 1969 has been remembered for much: President Richard
Nixon announcing the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, the Woodstock
music festival, the Charles Manson murders, NASA's Apollo 11 landing
on the moon, and even the introduction of The Who's Tommy.
In the midst of it all, however, another significant event began
shaping the lives of those present and those to come although
today, many don't know it ever happened.
On June 28, 1969, an early morning confrontation took place between
the police and gay rights activists outside New York City's Stonewall
Inn. The row turned into riots, and the event later became as
significant for the gay and lesbian community as Rosa Parks holding
her bus seat did for civil rights.
Rhubarb Theater Company commemorates the incident and adds faces to
the drama with 41, a new play by artistic director Trish Crist.
The title, Crist says, is not just a marker of how long it's been
since the actual event; it's also a nod to her own age while writing
it, a time of looking back at what you thought your life would become
versus what it actually is.
Along those lines, the play's main character, Demetrius "Dee"
Bradbury, has a chance to revisit his own past in the '60s and '70s,
when he moved to New York as a wide-eyed high school grad from
Tennessee. Dan McGeachy, a veteran of stages in both Nashville and
New York, takes on the role in what he considers a "peak experience."
"It's astonishing what it brings up," he says. McGeachy, now 57,
moved from Nashville to New York in 1973, and remembers what it was
like to live as a gay man there at that time. The year after the
riots, they were commemorated with what became the first Gay Pride
march, now held annually nationwide.
"Initially, the riots were thought of as almost a joke," McGeachy
says. "People who did know about them thought it was just silly gay
people, drag queens, fighting with the police. . . . But I will never
forget being part of the Gay Pride parade much later, in 1992, and
seeing thousands and thousands of people being able to just celebrate
who we are. That is what Stonewall began."
History of tolerance
McGeachy's character has a sister, Lolly, played by actor Lisa Marie
Wright. Lolly serves as heterosexual perspective in the play,
accepting of her brother's lifestyle but also very curious.
Wilhelm Peters, Billy Rosenberg and Chris Basso also take part, with
Basso playing a younger version of "Dee."
Some audience members, Wright says, will walk away with a greater
understanding of the riots' historical impact. "But I do hope some
will walk away with their eyes more open to the whole idea of
tolerance, too," she says.
Crist, who assumed the role of artistic director after founder Julie
Alexander moved to England, says it was the end of last year when she
realized Rhubarb had done nothing to mark the 40th anniversary of the riots.
"And since Rhubarb's longtime focus has been about tolerance and
diversity, generally with gay issues, I thought that was a missed
opportunity for us," she says. She wanted to create a comedy/drama
that was accessible to all, however, including the younger generation
who could not imagine what tensions were like.
Katie Veglio, for one, the piece's 26-year-old stage manager, admits
that when she first heard of the project, she wasn't familiar with
the riots at all.
"To hear the things that people went through, the abuse that went on
mentally and physically, it's heartbreaking that it would ever have
happened," Veglio says.
McGeachy, who has gay friends that are Veglio's age, admits that they
"can have a whole different experience than I did," he says. "And I'm glad."
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