Chris Tyler performing in an earlier workshop at Little Theatre in February (photo credit: Knud Adams)

THIS IS A PLAY ABOUT BEING GAY

Written and Directed by Teddy Nicholas
Presented by the 2013 Fresh Fruit Festival
www.freshfruitfestival.com
All performances at The Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street New York, NY 10009
www.thewildproject.com
Ticket available for purchase by: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/924653

“A three-act experimental gay identity politics play”

Show Times:

• Tues 7/16/13 @ 7:00pm
• Wed 7/17/13 @ 7:00pm
• Sun 7/21/13 @ 12:00pm

Answers by Teddy Nicholas (playwright/director/producer)

[1] How did you come up with the title for your show?
Teddy Nicholas: I was getting to a point in my play-writing career where I realized I hadn’t written a play that addressed what it meant, for me, to identify as a gay male in our current American society.

I had also been seeing plays which painted really depressing worlds featuring this really ugly side of gay men and it pained me. It pained me because I felt I had more evidence, from these plays and from these message in media and culture, of why gay men are evil and wrong, and not enough evidence, not enough stories, not enough heroes who are gay men, even if they are fictional, to look up to.

There was a span of two weeks where I’d seen plays that featured a gay man abusing crystal meth, and featured a destructive relationship that ended in death or emotional ruin. And I’m not saying that these things don’t exist in the world because they do, and that’s obviously a problem, and I think yes, art does hold a mirror up to the audience showing the society we live in.

But I also believe that art can influence and shape and guide the way, and more often than not, work that features characters who are gay males are either victims or perpetrators of destruction, whether to themselves to the people they love; and I guess I’m getting sick of seeing that narrative played over and over again.

There’s a quote by Bertolt Brecht I love: “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”

And so one night, I began typing furiously away at my computer and after about 10 pages, I titled it: THIS IS A PLAY ABOUT BEING GAY.

[2] Was there an unexpected discovery made during the development of this production that you’d like to share with us?
Teddy Nicholas: I began writing the play two years ago, and at first, it was sort of a one-act musical with all these songs in it and I imagined there being musicians on stage. But then I felt that the play was striving to get at something stranger, and so I took out the music and replaced them with dances, and added two more acts. Each of the three acts of the play are completely different in terms of tone, narrative and characters, but yet they are all thematically linked towards the same universe of this idea of what it is to be a gay male as I see it today.

[3] What do you hope the audience receives from the experience of seeing your show?
Teddy Nicholas: I hope the audience takes away a new and different perspective of gay males, or at least questions their own ideas of what gay males are or how they relate to them in society. I also hope the experience is entertaining as well!

[4] How much of your show was inspired by true events?
Teddy Nicholas: A lot of the writing in the play is deeply personal and mixes in a lot of truth with slight distortions; there are stories from my childhood (including the first movie I ever saw in a movie theatre: Pet Sematary), my awkward/angsty high school experience, and even a breakup that happened to me in college that was particularly painful and raw but I felt needed to be shown. But there’s also a gay marriage proposal which is basically how I imagined my dream boyfriend proposing to me someday.

As a playwright, I don’t feel particularly comfortable with the writing unless I believe it to be honest and truthful, and so the things I write about in the play are either from my own experiences, or from experiences of those who are close to me.

[5] An anonymous donor funds your show. The one caveat is that you must use the money for a lavish set piece that’s outrageous, dazzling, fun and/or showstopping. What do you build for your show?
Teddy Nicholas: I would build a giant glass cube that surrounds the stage so that the actors looks like specimens and the audience is observing them as if they were scientists or something and the stage floor would illuminate like the music video to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

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Thanks Teddy!

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How could I not want to go see a show called Flying Snakes in 3D?  With a wink-wink to the obviousness that all theatre is 3D I was more interested in the Snakes.  And the Flying.  Okay - and the 3D.

Though this was a short run (as part of  the Ice Factory Festival) it was a powerful one – filled, as it was, with snakes.  Flying snakes.

I could write a review as short as the run: Meta.  Meta-meta.  Meta with a side of meta.  Snakes.  The end.

But I don’t think that would be fair to Everywhere Theatre Group and the enormous amount of work they put into this groundbreaking, innovative, highly original show.  While I didn’t exactly buy everything they were selling me, I sure loved the dish it was served up on.  So much of this play worked for me that the parts that didn’t are – if not dismissible – then at least completely forgivable.

We start with Teddy Nicholas and Leah Nanako Winkler – the writers of the show – addressing the audience directly,  matter-of-factly explaining their humble (and somewhat horrifying) beginnings and then quickly bowing out as their stand-ins move on to play heightened versions of them.  It’s effective.  Equally effective is how the lack of melodrama used to underline these grim monologues which pepper the show winds up making these moments the most riveting.  Constantly intertwining  deep thoughts (delivered in somber tones) with campy action that explodes in your face Snakes winds up delivering an inside out horror story where the gentle moments are unsettling ones.   Snakes offers an impossible story of scientists, snakes, a serum, heroes — all played over tales of childhood abuse where alcoholic parents give nothing to their children except a grim resolve to get away.  The monotone would have you believe that they’ve been left with nothing; but then there’s the meta: of course something’s left … you’re watching it.  They’ve been left with the thing that drives them, consumes them, awakens them, ignites them.  It’s theatre.  It’s Flying Snakes in 3D.

The ensuing snake story which rolls out is campy – played for laughs and often intentionally overacted.  But wait – there’s also plays within plays.  So while you get your scientific story complete with a justice league (or in this case, a band of F.U.C.K.E.R.S. – Four Universally Combative Kill ERS) and a lot of hi-ya! ka-pow! and fake blood (effective) and snakes (which the audience get to throw) there’s more.  You also get the story of entitled rich kids, or in this case entitled middle class kids (the Snakes of a whole different type), who had no idea how glorious their home life was.  Sure, they had divorce, or dad was dying and maybe crazy mom kept a tight rein on the funds.  Sure, those struggles were tough, gosh darn it … but hey, You middle class Snakes, you gotta understand … others are getting KILLED (ka-pow!) out there for their art.  Others will NEVER pay off that debt from film school, NEVER have health insurance … NEVER be a white American male like you are.

Throughout it all the absolutely stunning video/sound design by Chase Voorhees was compelling, alluring and dramatic.  In another meta-meta move despite the setup of film versus theatre, Voorhees and company show that a top-notch multi-media backdrop can elevate live theatre rather than detract from it (or destroy it completely.)

Sounds crazy?  Crazy like a snake!

In between the brilliant parts, the hilarious parts, the innovative parts there were some definite plot holes.  Some scenes needed work – some bits went on too long, some points were made over and over, or diverted from an otherwise sharp premise.  There was a little too much kitchen sink at times.   But this show had me saying – so what?  So what if this is one hell of a crazy mix up with snakes and melodrama and monologues and mayhem?

Because the real message of Flying Snakes in 3D came to you later, at home, plot be damned. Despite all the plot holes, tangents and mis-steps it was wrapped up in layer upon layer of smart, thoughtful, good theatre – theatre that was by the people, of the people and for the people.  Yes, not all of it made sense.  Yes, not every moment was fascinating.  But the moments that won me over made me excited about theatre in a way I hadn’t expected and I hope that Everywhere Theatre Group continues to push the envelope, continues to give their all for their art, and continues to produce work that comes with props which I get to throw.  I may not have loved the show as much as I wanted to going in but I sure loved how it made me feel about theatre.  And THAT is wonderful.

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Flying Snakes In 3D Trailer
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July 4 – 7

Flying Snakes In 3D

produced by Everywhere Theatre Group

Written and directed by Leah Nanako Winkler and Teddy Nicholas, with video/sound design by Chase Voorhees

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