Quince Productions is bringing back some of its favorite playwrights for the third annual GayFest, the city’s only LGBT theater festival, presented at various venues through Aug. 24.
As in previous years, GayFest is presenting four stage plays aimed at LGBT audiences as well as hosting galas, parties, readings and other events during the course of the festival.
Two of the shows featured this year are Philadelphia premieres. “The New Century,” a comedy by Paul Rudnick, follows the story of a Long Island “supermom” to three LGBT children. “The Homosexuals” by Philip Dawkins examines the fears, doubts and hopes faced by gay men in the first decade of the 21st century.
And two returning playwrights this year are world-premiering their plays at GayFest.
Sarah Pappalardo is debuting “Cold,” which she first presented in a reading at last year’s festival.
The story follows stoic butch Linda, who is dealing with the strife of having to sell her once-legendary Chicago lesbian dive when the darkest days are intruded upon by her hard-drinking business partner, as well as a young transman and his lesbian ex-girlfriend.
Pappalardo said the reaction from the audiences who attended the reading last year were very encouraging.
“It was overwhelmingly positive,” she said. “We had an impromptu Q&A after the reading last year, and it was a very cool, engaged and diverse group of people of all ages from all over Philly. It spurred a discussion not only of the identity issues that are brought up in the play, but also gentrification. It seems like a lot of Philly residents had a lot to say about the similarities in the gentrification change in Chicago to Philadelphia. I learned a lot about it, so it was a really cool discussion and a great response to the play.”
Pappalardo said there weren’t too many changes made to the story between the reading and the final stage version of “Cold.”
“It made me realize the play reached certain people in ways I didn’t expect but I don’t think any changes were made to heighten the themes of the play. There was some refining of the characters. It wasn’t a major expansion of the play. It was more just taking from the readings some holes and a few weaknesses and tightening them up and refining the flow of the play.”
Daniel Talbott, who has had plays performed at all of the previous editions of GayFest, is world-premiering “Someone Brought Me,” a drama he wrote specially for GayFest that deals with a gay couple trying to navigate life and love in the brutal and harsh near-future world.
“They’re all about relationships,” Talbott said about the plays he has presented at GayFest. “This play is about the future and is more about politics, both emotional and sexual. Also it’s looking into the future about possibly where our country is going in a global way. It’s set in the future when the country is involved in an active world war. The government is not what we knew it to be. There are almost like ‘backyards’ for the rich. Whole cities have become a property. Natural resources are very depleted and there’s a 10-times-more-extreme separation between the wealthy and the poor than there is now. The wealthy have sectioned off part of where they live to us poor people. Poor people can’t travel between zones and they have to stay where they are. The wealthy can travel and do what they want to do. In this place and time, this couple has a very checkered background: One becomes incredibly successful, while one was successful before the war but isn’t after the war.”
Talbott added that in this future world, the concept of marriage doesn’t mean what it does today.
“At one point, one character says, ‘We’re married’ and the other guy goes, ‘Oh, that doesn’t exist anymore,’” he said. “In the future, all marriages will be eradicated. It’s more about property and ownership and wealth. It’s looking at the question, What is your actual hold on a human being? Is it marriage or is it something else? It’s more about emotional politics in a way. What is ownership for a couple? What is privatized and not privatized amongst couples? How do you tackle that kind of exchange?”
Talbott, who said he is already penning his contribution for next year’s GayFest, added he hopes to branch out into writing for other media besides theater.
“I think I’m pretty lucky,” he said. “I make my living as a theater artist, which is rare. I produce, I direct, I write. I run a company. Hopefully I will keep working for myself and get to work with people that I love and create more often. I’m trying to work in TV and film as well. I just finished writing my first TV show. I hope to do all of that. I hope to be bicoastal this year, working in Los Angeles and New York. The goal is to keep expanding and continuing to work on different things and in all three mediums: theater, television and film. Theater is the heart of it so I’d like to go further with that.”
Pappalardo said she intends to keep on writing but not to expect any new theater pieces from her at next year’s GayFest. “I’m working on a dark comedy about a cult that is currently in the days after their proposed apocalypse, but that has been put on the back burner due to a site that I just launched called Reductress, which is a satirical women’s magazine,” she said. “A lot of my playwriting has been put on the back burner because of that.”
Pappalardo added that GayFest is important to LGBT writers, performers and audiences alike.
“It’s the one place where you can see a lot of good queer art. Any space like that is so, so important because we don’t see enough of it. It means a lot to me to be a part of it and for my play to be a part of it. I’m just really excited to see some new work in the queer sphere. In Philly it’s super important to be able to come to one place and really enjoy a festival that means a lot more to people that don’t get to see queer art on a day-to-day basis.”
Quince Productions presents GayFest through Aug. 24. For a complete list and schedule of shows and events or to purchase tickets, visit www.quinceproductions.com or call 215-627-1088.