State of Emergency

Daniel Beaty's one-man, 40-character play is more powerful than 14 Godzillas combined. Do not miss it!

BY JONATHAN RIGGS

Allow me to gush: Daniel Beaty's self-penned, one-man play Emergency made me weep. He manages to become 40 different characters and to make many powerful, provocative nonpreachy points about the black experience in America. There are moments that haunt you—watch for them: the pound cake monologue, a little girl's fairy tale, channeling the spirits of a slave dungeon—I'm tearing up again … Jesus, it was great. OK, gushing complete. A graduate of Yale and also from the American Conservatory Theater, Beaty nabbed a shelf-full of awards for Emergency's off-Broadway run, and now we're lucky enough to have him in L.A. at The Geffen Playhouse.

FRONTIERS: What inspired you to write Emergency?

DANIEL BEATY: I am very interested in the concept of freedom. Each character in the play is endeavoring to be free to love, to be fully self-expressed, to follow one's dreams.

How do you even begin wrapping your head around playing 40 characters?

Playing multiple characters is a blast. It is a joyous experience to transform into so many different characters: male and female, old and young, gay and hetero, etc.

Speaking of, there are at least two prominent, vivid gay characters in the piece. Why was it important to you to include them?

I am portraying a tapestry of the American landscape. These characters must be included. And it was important to me that they have humor and deep humanity that the audience can relate to regardless of what their personal beliefs might be. It is also important to me that they have as much fight and determination to be free as any of the other characters.

How does it feel to know—while performing this—that the audience is being moved? At times, it sounded like a Kleenex commercial in my section.

I love feeling the audience's emotion. It is an extremely moving experience for me. It reminds me how connected we all truly are—that something about the human heart is universal beyond race, sex, sexuality, class, or any other label of identity.

What's your favorite thing about spoken-word performing?

I love the energy and the climax at the end of the poem. I also sing opera and spoken word feels very similar to the sensation of singing a dramatic aria.

Ruby Dee is one of your most passionate supporters. How did you two meet?

Ruby Dee attended an early performance of Emergency three years ago at the recommendation of another actress with whom she had worked. When the lights came up, she was on her feet applauding with tears in her eyes. She produced the play for me in Times Square and invited her friends and even took me to the Kennedy Center to perform in tribute to her and Ossie Davis when they were honored there. Ruby Dee is my angel and I am soaring on her wings.

How would you describe La Dee's artistic legacy?

Ruby Dee and her husband Ossie Davis (before he passed) epitomize the artist/activist. They understand the artist’s responsibility to hold a mirror to society in a way that we can see both how beautiful and possible we are as well as the aspect we need to work on.

How would you like people to describe you one day?

I would like people to describe me as an artist with humor, passion, and integrity who brought communities together and inspired people to transform pain into power.

What would you say to convince our readers to come out and see the show?

Emergency is a thrilling, entertaining, moving, one-of-a-kind theatrical event. There is magic in the performance and the sense of shared humanity. There is a possibility of [discovering] something new and having a great time in the process.

What's your greatest hope for this show's effect on people who see it?

My greatest hope is that people will understand how connected we all truly are beyond the labels that separate, and that with humor and heart we can come together and create the world we all desire.

Emergency runs from April 23 until May 25 (Tuesdays through Sundays) at The Geffen Playhouse. Buy tickets at the box office, www.GeffenPlayhouse.com or through Ticketmaster at 213/365-3500.

Power(ful) Play

Award-winning playwright Erik Patterson unveils his newest play: a provocative work about searching for love … even if it means purposely infecting yourself with HIV

BY JONATHAN RIGGS

FRONTIERS: He Asked For It is, to put it lightly, about a controversial topic. What inspired it?

ERIK PATTERSON: A relationship that ended much quicker than it should have. I was dating a guy who was HIV-positive. He'd never dated anyone who wasn't, and I'd never dated someone who was. I had strong feelings for him, but he finally broke things off because he wasn't comfortable dating someone who was negative. That break-up scene was one of the first I wrote, and the rest of the play was born out of that moment.

Wow.

That being said, the play is entirely fictional, and it totally took on a life of its own from that point on. I'd read about “bug chasers” and “gift givers”—people who want to get or who want to give the disease—and I wanted to explore that psychological mindset. The fact that there are people out there who are willing to put others' lives at risk like that is fucking scary. Fortunately, the people who fit into those categories are few and far between. The real problem that I see in our community is more a general lack of awareness, as well as a lack of protection. HIV isn't really on the radar of young gay men anymore—not like it was in the '80s and '90s. Guys get careless, and that's how the disease spreads.

That's just part of what the play's about, though, right?

It's also about the human desire to connect and how, ironically, the technology that makes instant connections possible today actually creates a barrier to real intimacy. At its heart, the play deals with the desperate need for love and the extremes we'll go to get it.

What's the biggest misconception about the play?

It's hard to describe the play without making it sound really dark and dreary, and that's frustrating because, honestly, the play is anything but. OK, maybe it's dark, but it definitely isn't dreary—it's way too sexy and funny. When you hear, “It's a play about HIV,” that might not be your first assumption, but you're gonna have a good time. And yes, it's gonna get dark and heavy too, but the play ends on a hopeful note, so I always tell people to leave their expectations at the door and just come along for a ride.

Has working with The Theatre Of NOTE helped realize your vision?

I love working here—they're a group of fearless people, those whack jobs. [Laughs] This is actually the fourth play of mine they've produced, so we have a nice history together. I think we also have a truly kick-ass cast.

What do you think the relationship today between young gay men and AIDS is?

One of my favorite plays is Angels In America by Tony Kushner. It's a major influence on my work. But the image of a sick man in a hospital bed, that's not my generation's sole experience with AIDS, which is obviously a great thing. Thank God for the advances in medicine that have led to a healthier, longer life for those who are fighting the disease.

So how would you characterize He Asked For It in that tradition?

I don't think of my play as an “AIDS play.” It's an “HIV play.” It's come out of a world where AIDS and HIV are not necessarily a death sentence—but that doesn't mean we can grow complacent. I think that young gay men have a false sense of security—a feeling of invincibility—that can be dangerous. It's not that I'm advocating fear, I'm just saying that a healthy dose of caution is a good thing. And I'm all for sexual freedom—but with freedom comes responsibility.

In terms of the finished play, what are you proudest of?

A lot of the play is about people engaging in risky behavior—and the characters do a lot of unlikable things—so I'm proud of my cast and the whole production team for embracing the play so fully, for really going there. I think the play will start a lot of discussions, and I hope it can inspire people to live healthier lifestyles.

Hard-sell us, baby.

It's a sexy, funny, provocative play. Come!

He Asked For It runs April 25-June 1 (Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays) at the Theatre Of NOTE (1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood). For tickets, call 323/856-8611, or visit www.theatreofnote.com.

LIMITED RUN

My Fair Lady

The celebrated British revival of Lerner and Lowe's timeless rags-to-riches romance closes April 27. Ahmanson Theatre. Closes Sun., Apr. 27. $30-85. 213/628-2772. www.centertheatregroup.org.

The Violet Hour

The critically acclaimed play by Tony Award-winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out) has been extended through May 3. Theatre Tribe Studio Theatre. Closes May 3. (Thurs.-Sat. only.) $20. 818/754-2662. www.theatretribe.com.

Spiegel (Mirror)

Acclaimed Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus' dance company, Ultima Vez, brings their controversial mixed-media performance to UCLA, retrospectively exploring the themes throughout Vandekeybus' renowned body of work. Royce Hall, UCLA. Fri., May 2-Sat., May 3. 8 p.m. $22-42. www.uclalive.org.

No Exit

Your existential bouts will be validated in Jean-Paul Sartre's classic No Exit. Focusing on three recently deceased souls, they start to realize they are each other's punishments, for “Hell is just other people.” The Lounge Theatre. Tuesdays through May 27. 8 p.m. $20. 800/595-4849. www.hellisjustotherpeople.com.

Homo Must

He Asked For It

Delving into the dance clubs, back rooms, and bathroom stalls of Hollywood, the Theatre of NOTE tells the story of a young man who becomes ensconced in the gift-giving and bug-chasing subculture. Theatre of NOTE. Apr. 25-June 1. (Fri.-Sun.) $22. www.theatreofnote.com.

ON STAGE

Daughters of Heaven

Alexia Robinson Studios, Mar. 21-Apr. 26
**

On the plus side, Amanda Jones and Brittania Nichol are rather effective in their decidedly earnest portrayals of Pauline and Juliet, the New Zealand adolescents whose intense albeit platonic attraction proves so encapsulating that they are compelled to murder Pauline's mother when she tries to come between them. On the minus side, well, pretty much everything else. Michaelanne Forster's script is overwritten with numerous pointless, disjointed scenes, as a result of which Judith Bohannon's direction rarely rises above the plodding. Accents ramble over most of the Commonwealth and dip, on occasion, into a bit of Texas (still trying to figure out how the act became a "moy-dah"). The thoroughly unpleasant character of Bridget O'Malley (Kerry McGrath), the narrating Irish maid who takes it upon herself to provide a moral framework, draws such a disturbing amount of glee from the travails of two young girls on trial for murder it makes one think schadenfreude might, in fact, be a Gaelic term. —WENZEL JONES

Mask

The Pasadena Playhouse
***

It's hard to believe, but the bikers in the musical are even less threatening and more Munchkin-like than the ones in the 1985 film on which this is based. Anna Hamilton Phelan's adaptation of her screenplay is shamelessly sentimental, but so well directed by Richard Maltby Jr., that the tale of plucky, deformed Rocky (an astonishing Allen E. Read in a Klingon-ish mask designed by the movie's makeup man, Michael Westmore) and his spunky, amphetamine-friendly mother, Rusty (Michelle Duffy in rare and raw form), generally avoids the treacle. The music (Barry Mann, lyrics by Cynthia Weil) may not be overly hummable, but it's well worth a second or tenth listen. The supporting cast is impressive, particularly Greg Evigan, who looks and sounds great as Rusty's on-again, off-again man. The set (Robert Brill) elegantly evokes locales from Azusa to a mountaintop lakeside camp. The end, I'm afraid, may have been one triumphal production number too many, but kudos to any show that can make me go misty over anything involving an internal combustion engine. —W.J.

AISLE SAY

Musicals ‘R’ Us

A new organization that could provide a huge shot in the arm to the growth of American musical theater makes its debut in and around Los Angeles in May and June. The first annual Festival of New American Musicals will feature world premiere productions, staged readings, workshops, concerts and cabarets, master classes, and myriad other events. “The climate for new musicals right now is as rich and diverse as any time in my theater-going life,” Co-Executive Producer Marcia Seligson said. “It's as though the medium were going through a great renaissance and we are in a new golden age of creative expression.”

Seligson founded the highly regarded Reprise! Broadway's Best, for which she is former producing artistic director. Bob Klein, the festival’s co-executive producer, was a Reprise! founding board member. These hard-driving visionaries and their advisory board reviewed more than 60 new American musicals for the Festival. Among major goals of the new venture are to bring new musicals into schools to educate and nurture audiences of the future of the art form, and to promote the development of new works. Among special presentations are star-studded concerts, headlined by Stephen Schwartz (a festival adviser), Jerry Herman, and Jason Robert Brown (recent winner of Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Back Stage West Garland Awards for his score for the Broadway-bound 13).

Some productions and events will likely be listed in Frontiers as they open. Here are a few highlights: the science-fiction spoof Brain From Planet X, with music and lyrics by Bruce Kimmel (Anaheim's Chance Theater, May 3-June 15); My Antonia, a musical set in the Nebraskan Plains of the late 1800s, with musical underscoring by Stephen Schwartz and direction by his son, Scott Schwartz (Ventura's Rubicon Theatre, May 9-June 1); a suite of music from Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie's musical drama, The Grapes of Wrath (Walt Disney Concert Hall, May 18); a world-premiere solo musical Songs From an Unmade Bed (Celebration Theatre, June 6-July 13); It's Only Life, a revue featuring the songs of fast-rising songwriter John Bucchino (A Catered Affair); and the American premiere of the politically-charged musical The Fix (Musical Theatre Guild at the Alex Theatre, June 23). The hills, valleys, and performing facilities of our fair city will be alive this summer with what promises to be a thrilling and melodious slate of terrific attractions. For more information, visit www.lafestival.org. —Les Spindle