In becoming a social normality, an idea, a product, or even a person loses its essence of being unique. What was once rare, weird, and strange to society, now becomes simply ordinary and understood. Although social acceptance is normally what people desire, they fail to realize what they are losing in the process of becoming just another average Joe: individuality.
Similar to the civil rights movement and women’s suffrage, the gay right’s movement is a certain group of people’s fight to gain their inherent freedoms and rights. Forced for years to stay hidden, unable to fully express themselves for fear of persecution and hate, the LGBTQA community has emerged from the darkness and is now out, proud and louder than ever before. Years of protests, campaigns, speeches, and law suits have allowed this group to finally have a voice in the nation they call home. However, as seen in Erik Piepenburg’s article, “Gay Theaters Now Struggle to Evolve”, the theaters which were once the only places willing to represent their unique identities and struggles, are now losing business because of the LGBTQ community’s integration and acceptance into society.
In his article, Piepenburg describes how the About Face Theater, a celebrated center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied community located in Chicago, is now struggling to find innovate, “fresh” story lines for their performances because the “old white gay coming-out story” isn’t interesting enough for its audiences anymore. Although this is a colossal move in the positive direction for the gay community, it is literally killing business for the theater. Audiences have become so accustomed to gay culture- a culture they previously found repulsive- that they now consider it normal and uninteresting. These people want more. They’re tired of the same song and dance about a married man coming out of the closest. They no longer see the beauty of the LGBTQ community.
This is the problem with things becoming mainstream; society gets tired of it…and quickly. Because society is becoming more accepting of the previously unaccepted gay community, theaters are more willing to perform plays about them. Eighteen years ago, when the About Face Theater was first opened, no one would have believed a gay musical would be on Broadway or that a gay musical would be a Pulitzer Prize winner. This small theater was able to preform for their targeted audience an amazing show that they could not see anywhere else. However, that is now not the case. The once prosperous theater is currently scrambling to “right-size the budget” in response to lack of donations, in other words, lack of interests from their once loyal following.
Piepenburg describes how the new art director, Andrew Volkoff, is trying his best to develop a way to make the theater special again; to attract a broader audience. Although competition from large theaters is making this a difficult task, Volkoff is remaining confident. This confidence is seen in his statement, “There may be elements of gay experience, no matter how integrated gay people get, that remain different, that don’t have enough mainstream appeal to be programmed at regular nonprofit theaters.”
Despite Volkoff’s optimism, the aspects of the LGBTQ community that have yet to be explored will most likely be portrayed in a larger theater. The question is whether or not audiences will find any of these unchartered territories enjoyable or entertaining.
Link
http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/theater/gay-theaters-now-struggle-to-evolve.html?ref=theater&_r=0
Bibliography
Piepenburg, Erik. “Gay Theaters Now Struggle to Evolve.” – NYTimes.com. New York Times, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 19 Sept. 2013.
I do agree with the new art director, Andrew Volkoff, in a sense that there are still more to be displayed and shared about the LGBTQA community. However, it’s also interesting and also ironic how once a criticized, looked down upon community of LGBTQA is now seeking for a broader stage to spread their wings. I understand how society is slowly getting exposed to the underrepresented community and culture therefore desires for more contents, but can it really be seen as society accepting them, or does society just want a higher degree of stimulus?
Art constantly changes because society constantly changes. There’s always going to be something new and controversial around the corner. What once was unique, different, and interesting may not be today. Therefore, art needs to adapt and evolve with society or else it risks losing its audiences.
Nowadays, society is more understanding and accepting of the LGBTQA community. It is no longer uncommon to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, etc. The same old story lines of coming out has been done already. I don’t think the LGBTQA community has lost its beauty or has become boring. I just think people want to see something new. There is much more to the LGBTQA community and people are just curious to see what else the it has to offer.
Very well written and insightful analysis! It’s interesting how the inner-hipster in all of us yearns for variety, conflict, and surprises. Your analysis definitely gave me a sense of a bittersweet victory. The acceptance of LGBTQA individuals into our society is really an impressive victory, however the fact that viewers have become inured to their stories is expected. Too much of anything is never a good thing. Furthermore I do not feel that the LGBTQA community has lost their individuality. Every single person has unique traits about them that will always discern them from the crowd.
This instance also proves how good humans are at adapting, what was once shunned is now accepted.
I think it’s a great testament to society that what was before an uncommon gay theater production is now simply ubiquitous. The idea of growth and revolutionizing art suggests the evolution of that medium. Of course, that gay theater community will have to strive to bring new material to the public attention, but I think that all art needs to strive to change and change the general perception in another new way. Being openly different may not attract attention as easily anymore, but in a way I think it will help to pick off the mediocre productions that will solely rely on using the LGBTQA factor to garner interest.
I really like the idea of this article and the response by my gal Rebecca. It seems that part of the human condition is to always want the best of both worlds, but that is not a fair expectation, or even generally possible to obtain. The LGBTQA, due to anger from society, took the idea that their cause was “different” as a positive and began to use the fact that they were set apart as an advantage. The shows in specific gay theaters began to boom, but with the success and spread of interest, came the loss of individuality. It was no longer strictly gay theaters, but just theaters that held shows for the gay community. With this the Gay Theaters began to struggle because, in a positive way, there was now nothing special about them. They were more and more seen as just great actors and great people, rather than great gay actors and great gay people. In my opinion it is better for people to accept you for you, than to be criticized in order to keep uniqueness. Now there will never be the asterisk next to their name and compared to other good gay actors. Now they will be compared as a whole in the best of all actors. It is definitely a double edged sword, but I do believe it is a step forward for the LGBTQA.
Thank you for generating the idea for this review..would not have be able to do this without you.
Hey Rebecca,
First off, I want to say that you did an excellent job reviewing this article and picking out the meaning. I find it so interesting that topics once thought of as too controversial for the theaters are now too mundane to attract large audiences. However, I think that the typical story of “[a] white gay coming-out” is still important. Although I see the importance of expanding the topics to be shown within the performances, I feel as if the mainstream nature of these stories provides an important environment where other closeted gays can feel comfortable to come out. The stories serve as reassuring nudges to be comfortable with who you are, and show those not yet at that point that it is perfectly normal to come out. In the future, I think it would be important to integrate some of these stories into the straight community so they can better understand the nature and background of gays and treat them in a more equal way.
Austin
It is rather ironic in how a business related to a culture prosper when the society despised that culture and dwindles when the society started to accept the culture. This fact rather exemplifies Darwin’s idea of the “survival of the fittest.” The society today is like a jungle of constantly changing conditions and different businesses are different animals living within this jungle. The ones who are able to prosper are those who can adjust their business plans based on changes in the need of the society. It is not difficult to imagine that the theater, reliant on a single element to prosper, eventually meets a rough path as the society changes view in what is considered acceptable.It is rather satirical in how a culture once dispised
In retrospect, it is amazing how far the LGBTQA community has come. Many people have become more accustomed to “gay” people around them and it is no longer something out of the ordinary (despite the widespread opinions that some people in society may have). Audiences may have grown tired of seeing the typical plot of a man coming out of the closet, but don’t you think there are so many more theatrical productions that involve the typical plot of a woman falling in love with someone she never thought she would (or along those lines) so ordinary? The theatre is such a broad topic that I find it impossible to find any story “uninteresting”, or even limited to how much you can manipulate a plot. Yes, the old story of coming out of the closet is “played out”, but there are elements in a gay persons life that a straight person cannot possibly relate to. It is only through theatre that one may actually become accepting of the LGBTQA society.