There are two plays vying for dominance in David Dillon's Party, the debut offering of St. Petersburg's new Central Stage Theatre. The first, and more important one, is about gay friendships in a setting where there are no straight men or women — much the same territory that Terrence McNally so movingly covered in Love! Valour! Compassion!. The second play — the one which finally comes to prevail over its opposite — is, simply put, soft porn, in which the only dramatic question is, which onstage character will be next to remove his clothes?
Now, as far as I'm concerned, if a theater wants to produce pornography, it has the constitutional right do so. But I do have artistic objections: By the time we've moved from characters in their underpants to characters in the nude to nude characters doing jumping jacks and imitating sex positions from magazines, well, any pretense to deeper significance has pretty much gone out the window. So yes, there is a serious side to Party. But by the end of the evening it's masked by naked bodies.
There's not so much a plot to Party as there is a context: A game of "Facts and Fantasies," in which partygoers are required either to answer a personal question or perform an embarrassing (because it's public) act. First, the characters assemble. There's Kevin (adequately played by Slake Counts), whose living room is the scene for the party, and who's best friends with Ray (nicely portrayed by author Dillon), a comic priest who's an expert on Broadway musicals. There's also Brian (expertly played by Daniel J. Harris), James (the talented Dave Alan Thomas) and Peter (Donald DuPree), Andy (Christopher Knott) and Philip (Jeff Ray).
Once all the characters are present, the game begins. "What's the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?" one partygoer is asked. Or "Who would you say is the sexiest guy you've ever been with?" Because the questions are always deeply personal (and the answers are occasionally lengthy) we come very quickly to learn about this group of friends and, by extension, about gay lives in 21st century America. This is the part of Party that's most significant, that has the most to say to any audience, gay or straight.
But as the game progresses, "fantasy" cards begin to come up more often, and characters are required to behave in ways that, more and more, call for disrobing. First, one character is commanded to moon the others. Then another is required to play the rest of the game in his underwear. Soon things progress to "Show us your dick." "Take Peter's underwear off with your teeth," and so on.
By the near-end of the evening, five of the seven characters are nude, and the last two take off their clothes without even a "fantasy" card to require it. How much of this disrobing is necessary for our understanding of the play's themes? None of it, really, though it sure doesn't hurt ticket sales. Can we at least say that the mutual nudity makes a statement about the deep trust these friends have for one another? We could if we were talking about Love! Valour! Compassion! But in Party the nakedness is manifestly gratuitous, clearly meant to arouse the audience (once a character undresses, he stays that way until the curtain call) and no more expressive of a deeper reality than Pamela Anderson's cleavage in her latest television show.
Still, there are aspects of the production one has to admire. Nic Arnzen's direction, for example: He's particularly good at modulating the rhythms of the dialogue and emphasizing the play's many moments of comedy. David M. Covach's costumes are always just right, though Scott Cooper's living room set is no better than adequate. And it occurs to me that I haven't said enough about author Dillon as priest Ray. This character's constant wit and gentle needling of the other friends are, in most cases, delightful, unpredictable and pleasingly silly. One only wishes that all of Party had been as inventive.
Anyway, it's good to see a new theater company in St. Pete. A glance at my press package suggests that future productions — Me and Jezebel, Paul Rudnick's Jeffrey and others — won't share Party's strategies. So maybe, false start or not, Central Stage Theatre will come to bring us contemporary plays that the only other Pinellas contender — American Stage — has been missing.
If that's the case, then this party's just gotten more interesting.
Rolling Requiem If you're looking for a way to remember Sept. 11, you might want to attend a Clearwater event that looks to be emotionally stirring.
The Tampa Bay Concert Choir, under the direction of Frank M. Wells III, will perform a memorial concert on Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Octagon Arts Center/Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater.
The concert will open with the premiere of Wells' 9/11-inspired "American Testament," which will simultaneously be performed by two dozen other choirs around the country in similar memorial concert programs. The featured work of the evening is the Mozart Requiem, in which the Choir joins more than 125 other groups as part of a worldwide "Rolling Requiem" initiative.
Admission is free. A collection will be taken for the All Souls September 11 Fund, which supports counseling and scholarships for those affected by the events of 9/11. Child care will be provided by the concert organizers.
The Octagon Arts Center/Unitarian Universalists is located at 2470 Nursery Road, between Belcher Road and U.S. 19, Clearwater. For more information, call 727-688-ARTS or e-mail tbcc@theartsproject.org.
Local Tribute St. Petersburg playwright William Leavengood (Webb's City: The Musical, Food and Shelter) is one of the 50 contributors to Brave New World, a three-night theater-and-song marathon in New York on the subject of Sept. 11 and its aftermath.
Leavengood says he wrote "Steve," a 15-minute play about the encounter between an American stock trader and a Saudi Arabian business owner, after being contacted by one of the directors involved in the event. Leavengood's play will be produced alongside the works of such heavyweights as John Guare, Arthur Kopit, Christopher Durang and John Patrick Shanley.
The plays and songs inspired by Sept. 11 will be produced over three nights at Town Hall, a 1,500-seat theater in midtown Manhattan, on Sept. 9, 10 and 11.
Contact performing arts critic Mark E. Leib at mark.leib@weeklyplanet.com or call 813-248-8888, ext. 305.
This article appears in Sep 4-10, 2002.