Seattle Gay News
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Issue 52, Volume 42, December 26, 2014
courtesy of Strawberry theatre workshop
Scene from The Normal Heart
by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer Here we are, again, at year’s end, and I’m about to recap some of the highlights of the 2014 Theater Year. The year was more eclectic, I
think, than some, and included exciting developments, particularly in local writing. Of course, it is just not in me to call out only five or ten productions…. But before I plunge in too deeply, I want to acknowledge the tre-
mendous writing of Robert Schenkkan and effort that is Seattle Repertory Theatre’s All the Way and The Great Society in performance. You can still see these performances through January 4th, though tickets are getting scarce.
Since it is almost an import, it’s hard to claim it as completely “our own,” but it is important work and a chance to see work that has already received national acclaim. Jack Willis needs to be acknowledged as the hardest working actor on stage this year! Local Playwriting This might be called The Year of Local Playwriting! More world premiere plays were performed and, in my opinion, at a higher level of sophistication and polish than I think I’ve ever seen. A raft of challenging subject matters and tight writing were exemplified by scripts such as Black Like Us by Rachel Atkins (by Annex Theatre/Brownbox Theatre), Royal Blood by Sonya Schneider (by Onward Ho Productions), Chaos Theory by Courtney Meaker (by Annex Theatre), Tails of Wasps by Stephanie Timm (by New Century Theatre Company), Balconies by Scotto Moore (by Annex Theatre), Attack of the Killer Murder of … Death! by Wayne Rawley (by Theater Schmeater), the adaptation of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Jeff Schwager (by Book-It Repertory Theatre), Blood Countess by Kelleen Conway
Les films du losange
ww.aldeeratravel.com
Christophe Paou (l) and Pierre de Ladonchamps
Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, Thailand
by Albert Rodriguez and Jessica Price SGN A&E Writers By planes, trains and automobiles (even crowded buses), we visited some exciting places this past year. From these trips, we’ve chosen our favorite hotels, restaurants, bars and lounges, coffee shops, and visitor attractions, plus our favorite ways of getting there. Here are our picks for the Best of Travel 2014, in alphabetical order.
HOTELS 1. Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles – Los Angeles, California USA Further helping the revitalization effort of the Historic Core neighborhood is this 14-storey diamond in the rough, the newest member of the urban Ace Hotel chain. A live performance theater, see Travel page 4
by Gary M. Kramer SGN Contributing Writer The year in queer film 2014 got off to a great start in January with the release of arguably the best queer film of the year, Alain Guiraudie’s explicit, erotic, and irresistible thriller, Stranger by the Lake. The film placed considerable emphasis on full frontal nudity, a motif that was also visible in several films this year. Lars von Trier’s fascinating Nymphomaniac featured a parade of penises in “Part I” as Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the film’s
title character, recounts her multiple lovers, all of whom are seen naked from the waist down. Other memorable episodes in “Part II” include Joe being framed by two African brothers (Kookie and Papou) and their elephantine erections, or her efforts to – ahem – arouse a Debtor Gentleman (Jean-Marc Barr). Even the campus comedy Neighbors promoted the penis. Zac Efron and his fraternity brothers making casts of their cocks to raise money – as well as raise hell and eyebrows. Teenagers grappling with their sexual identity were the basis for
Blanchard (by Annex Theatre), and Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: Homeless in Seattle by Rose Cano (by eSe Teatro). Each of these plays deserves at least a paragraph on what was so great about them, but I’m afraid this would turn into a chapter of a book, if I wrote more. There is so much more to talk about. Theaters of 2014 Anyone notice how many Annex Theatre mentions there are? Annex often produces original work, but this was a particularly strong year for them. Let’s also give a loud shout out to the little theater in Redmond that can: SecondStory Repertory! They are always hard working out there, but this year’s slate of musicals and straight plays was edgy and might be daunting to any single theater. They did excellent productions of A Little Night Music and La Cage aux Folles and tick, tick … Boom! They took on difficult musicals like Kiss of the Spider Woman and Chess and gave us opportunities to see them done well. They challenged their audience with Keely and Du, a play about kidnapping see theater page 8
several enjoyable Gay films in 2014. The best of the bunch was Darren Stein’s G.B.F., a highly amusing high school comedy, where the Gay teen wasn’t a pariah, but a desirable accessory. Dear White People, by out writer/director Justin Simien was a clever campus satire that featured a Gay student, Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams), who may be the most complex of the four central characters. Lionel is possibly exploited, and both mentally and physically abused, but develops a resilience that has viewers rooting for him. Likewise, Leo (Ghilherme Lobo), the blind Gay teen in the fantastic Brazilian film, The Way He Looks struggles with other people’s perception of him, even though he is quite confident about his same-sex desires for a fellow student. Also of note was out filmmaker Matt Wolf’s Teenage, a terrific documentary narrated in part by Gay actor Ben Whishaw, about how teenagers came of age and developed between 1904 and the post-WWII era. From the UK came several excellent films about queer characters. The Imitation Game is a crowdpleasing, if tragic drama about Gay see Queer Film page 6