Gayfest NYC begins tonight

Our readers in the New York area might want to check out Gayfest NYC, a theatre festival highlighting new material by LGBT playwrights as well as plays with gay-friendly themes. The festival seeks to highlight independent gay voices in an era when mainstream representation is no longer rare.

Charles Busch described the festival's aim to the Gay City News:

"New York is gayfest 24/7. But when you think about it, one of the problems with assimilation is that we've become so accepted, it's not so necessary to do gay-themed plays anymore. We need a forum where many gay voices can be heard, because you won't get the variety at the Manhattan Theater Club or the Roundabout."

Busch likens the plight of gay theater to that of gay bookshops, which were largely driven out of business by the superstores. "The independents had vast collections of material," he explained. "But when you go to Barnes and Noble, you only get a couple of shelves."

Gayfest NYC opens tonight with Revolution, which examines the Stonewall Riots in an unusual format, mixing live performances with news footage from the time. The play also looks at how gays from different eras look upon the turning point in gay history.

Gayfest NYC will stage two more plays. Competing Narratives tells the story of a former gay activist who can pass as straight, his partner and an African-American journalist who can pass as white. A Kiss from Alexander is a play-within-a-play where Alexander the Great is reincarnated as an actor cast in a campy musical distorting his history as a Macedonian conqueror (I'm a sucker for high concept stories like this one). (BJ: And I'm a sucker for pictures like the one above.)

Two staged readings are also planned for Gayfest NYC. Edward the King dramatizes the relationship between King Edward II and Earl Piers Gaveston. The Casserole Brigade tells the story of four widows who return to the dating pool and discover how much things have changed since they last were single.

All the proceeds from Gayfest NYC will go towards a scholarship fund for the Harvey Milk High School, a public school focused on creating a safe educational environment for students who would be at risk in a traditional school.