Thursday, September 20, 2007

"True Lives" brings homophobia into focus

by Melody Gustafson
EAST LIVERPOOL – Tuesday evening in the Slak Shak, a Kent State student cast brought into focus some of the issues homosexual students face in their first year of college.

Directed by Yolanda Board, the play “True Lives: I’m a Kent State Freshman,” is designed to make audiences uncomfortable. The issues are difficult, the scenes are based on real-life occurrences, and although the play is not without humor, Board wants people to think seriously about the subject matter.

According to theatre professor Daniel-Raymond Nadon, the group has performed “True Lives” six other times for audiences at the Kent and Trumbull campuses. The show is aimed at spreading awareness about hate crimes, homosexual discrimination, and social and safety issues affecting gays.

The players want people to experience a walk in a homosexual’s or his or her family member’s shoes so people will be more proactive about ending negative behaviors, language, and attitudes toward them.

Several scenes in the play display people insulting the homosexual community with slurs and ridicule. The characters demonstrat the inner frustration and fear of rejection suffered by closeted individuals. Even homosexual professors get taunted with death threats by nasty vandals.

Jillian L. Forsty’s character, Lori, addresses how campus security teases her by calling her “their regular” when she asks for an escort back to her dorm at night. Alienation is a common feeling amongst people who are heckled for being who they are.

Another of the highlighted issues covered in the play is the struggle some gays experience when in "coming out" to family members. A concerned brother confronts his sister about a rumor that she is gay. She admits it, but worries that the people who love her will turn against her; however, she is surprised to learn otherwise. “You’re my sister, and I love you,” her brother says. So not all coming-out stories end badly.

A series of short, dramatic scenes punctuated by silly commercials and someone reading cold statistics structured the show. In one instance, actor Dan Grgic holds a sperm-shaped “windsock” and jousts with a girl holding a condom-shaped version. After she successfully captured the sperm, he proclaims, “Trojan Man!”

But when the actors vacate the stage, a voice states that “five percent of the people in the world are LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or trans-gendered), which is 325 million people in the world, 15 million people in the United States, and 1,100 Kent students.”

In the main action of the play, Grgic plays a closeted homosexual named Anton who actually lashed out at fellow homosexuals to camouflage his true self to others. At a climactic point, Anton and a macho male friend discover what they think is a gay man hanging fliers for an upcoming “coming-out party” and beat “him” up. The victim is actually a gay female, Dani, played by Molly MacLagan, who suffers injuries severe enough to warrant hospitalization. After the attack, Forsty narrates, “She didn’t scream because she didn’t want them to know she was a girl.”

After the play, the cast explained their reasons for wanting to participate. Colleen Eltibi, the narrator, who is lesbian and a lover of theatre, considered it “an obligation and a privilege to be in this play.”

The term “gay” used to refer to something as negative needs to stop, MacLagan pointed out. “You are using a word to describe someone’s sexual orientation with a descriptive word for something bad.”

Alexandra Schultz, who plays a bisexual female named Sashh, is tired of the violence and hatred that she notices around her. Josh Belford had a gay friend in high school, so he knows first hand about the pain suffered. Forsty mentioned that she had a homosexual friend who lost his life to a hate crime.

The actors urged the audience to talk about their experiences and ask questions, and they passed out a survey for them to complete before and after the show. The subject of the military popped up in the last few minutes, and there was a mixed set of claims about the prevailing attitudes in the armed forces. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” seems to be the best route, in light of the beatings that some have suffered before expulsion.

The show proved to be an eye-opener for folks in the crowd, because it changed their attitudes toward these people who live life a little differently from them.
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Anyone interested in jointing the Harmony Alliance, a Kent State University club in East Liverpool, may contact President Chrissie Penwell at cpenwell@kent.edu.

Photos by Winfield Dray

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