Voice of Equality is about to launch its inaugural season, and is promising to give the local LGBT-theater community something to talk about.
“It was something that I really wanted to do and, at this point in my theatrical career, it was a good time to start it,” Troy Cooper, Voice of Equality artistic director and founder, said about the LGBT-focused company’s inception. “Theatrically, there was this void. The theater companies have perceptions that they are producing work but it’s the same four or five plays that are commercially known and accepted, like ‘Angels in America’ and ‘The Falsettos.’ There are huge bodies of work by really good authors that no one is touching.”
For its first production, Voice of Equality is diving headfirst into that realm, with the appropriate and unapologetically titled “Fucking Men,” an adaption of the play “La Ronde,” in which 10 men in 10 scenes seek to navigate the changing landscape of sexual manners while seeking emotional fulfillment.
The play was written by playwright Joe DiPietro, who has penned books and lyrics for several Tony Award-winning musicals like “Memphis,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”
“The playwright is well-known in the theatrical community,” Cooper said.
The title of the story might be a little brazen, but we’re assured the play is an enthralling, insightful and timely piece.
“One thing I wanted to do with this company is produce this work and produce work that opens up a dialogue. When I go see a show, I sit, I watch it, I take it in and it opens a dialogue for me to say, ‘Hey, we’re not that different,’” Cooper said. “As you watch this play and you watch the central themes and the conversations, it relates. It’s a conversation that, whether you are gay or straight, you’ve had because sex takes on so many different avenues and uses in life. Some people use it as a diversion. Some people think they are going to connect. Some people use it just for pleasure. What I love about this play is that it discusses all of that. It opens the dialog that your human relations, no matter to what extent they go, are a universal theme and it carries across. And it was important to me to bring that across.”
While the themes are universal, there might be a particular resonance for LGBT audiences, he noted.
“As a community, with Grindr and Scruff and all of that, we’ve gotten into this very desensitized ‘sex is sex’ mentality and we don’t think about the emotions of the other person and, is this hookup that we’re having going to affect other lives outside of what is happening in this moment? What is interesting is with each character carrying into the next scene until we get to the end, they’re all somehow connected by who they have slept with. And that is something that is very true and happens much within the community. You end up knowing somebody or knowing about somebody by virtue of who you’ve had sex with.”
Cooper said at first he thought the play would be pure drama, but soon found out the stories have a humorous streak to them.
“As I read it, it kind of had a serious tone,” he said. “Once I got it in rehearsal and I started hearing the lines delivered and doing the blocking, I found that some of it is really funny. It’s one of those plays where you laugh for a little bit, you think a lot at certain points and the end of the play drives the emotional aspects of it home. What the play leaves you with is, no matter what status you are in, when things go wrong, if you open yourself up to being transparent, you’re always going to meet someone else.”
Cooper said he already has the first year of Voice of Equality’s show schedule mapped out, and he hopes to present a variety of diverse stories and perspectives representing the spectrum of the LGBT community.
“The next play will be ‘HIR,’ a great transgender story,” he said. “What I love about it is the transgender conversation is ever-evolving in our culture right now. It takes a family dynamic and opens up a dialogue. We’re doing ‘Love, Valour, Compassion,’ a play I have always loved. I always enjoy stories that talk about long-term friendships among gay men, especially now because I realize that, as I get older, I’m watching people younger than me that, over stupid stuff, make their friends disposable; that particular story is a very important story to tell, to cherish the people in your life and the family you choose. Then I had a director approach me who wants to direct ‘Fat Pig’ because Voice of Equality isn’t just designed to be for the LGBT community but for anyone who is a marginalized sect of the community. It’s the story of a woman who falls in love and he loves her for who she is, even though she’s a heavyset woman, until she has to encounter his friends and it becomes about her self-empowerment. The director approached and said she really loved the story but she really wanted to do it with an all-black cast. And for our one-year anniversary we’re going to do a musical for the first time, ‘Zanna Don’t.’”
Voice of Equality presents “Fucking Men” Nov. 9-11 at Ruba Club, 416 Green St. For more information or tickets, visit https://voiceofequality.com.