Los Angeles-based writers and spouses Nancy Nyman and Heather McNama were grateful to win the 2015 Pride Films and Plays' LezPlay Competition with their historical drama Resolution. But Nyman and McNama couldn't believe that Pride Films and Plays also offered to produce the world premiere of Resolution the following year.
"It was a very nice surprise," McNama said in a joint telephone interview with Nyman.
"We were so excited to have the honor of winning the contest," Nyman said. "But this is just very thick icing on a delicious cake."
Described as a "vintage queer thriller," Resolution is about a New York high society couple in 1892 whose long-held secret is revealed around New Year's Eve.
"We've always been attracted to period pieces. Edith Wharton is really my favorite writer and so this period really speaks to me," Nyman said. McNama interjected by mentioning British lesbian author Sarah Waters ( Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith ) as another big influence.
The idea for Resolution came to McNama and Nyman after the 2008 passage of California's Proposition 8 that rescinded same-sex marriages. Due to an immobilizing injury sustained by McNama, she and Nyman were unable to get married during the brief window of opportunity when gay marriage was legal in the state. ( The U.S. courts returned same-sex marriages to California in 2013. )
"The idea came to us on Christmas morning and we were just thinking about the year ahead and how we couldn't get married and how devastating that was for us," Nyman said. "For us, our reaction to the whole Prop. 8 thing was to write a play about marriage and what it means to be married. And what are all of the things that make up a marriage."
McNama and Nyman didn't originally write Resolution with African-American characters in mind. Yet they were more than happy to entertain director Diana Raiselis' more expansive casting ideas for the Pride Films and Plays premiere.
"It was absolutely within the realm of possibilities with this play, so we said, 'Yeah,'" Nyman said. "It's given us even more to explore and that has been really fun and interesting."
In order to attend Pride Films and Plays' world premiere of their drama Resolution, McNama and Nyman have had to jump through multiple hoops due to the fact that they are foster parents. There are multiple rules of clearing who can take care of their charges during their absence.
The duo are also relishing the chance to experience Chicago for the first time together as a couple. Nyman and McNama missed out on attending last year's LezPlay Festival due to a pushed-up writing deadline of a TV pilot.
"We are both fascinated by Chicago and its incredible theater community," Nyman said. "Funnily enough, the preview weekend when we are visiting is on our second-year wedding anniversary."
Pride Films and Plays world premiere of Nancy Nyman and Heather McNama's Resolution plays from Friday, Oct. 21, through Sunday, Nov. 20, at Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave. Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays with 3:30 p.m. matinees Sundays. Tickets are $15 for previews ( through Oct. 23 ) and $10-$25 during the regular run; call 800-737-0984 or visit PrideFilmsAndPlays.com for more information.
Life transitions
In Shepsu Aakhu's world-premiere drama Starting Over, for MPAACT, two interracial young lovers who grew up in an intolerant small town face other complications when they are reunited 15 years later in corporate America. In their time apart, one of them has become transgender.
When asked what inspired him to write Starting Over, Aakhu said it was both a tough and an easy question. In large part, Aakhu was frustrated by segments of the African-American community that are a part of the backlash against same-sex marriage. Many African-American religious leaders in particular have also been outspoken about efforts to link the struggles for civil rights with LGBTQ acceptance.
"Lots of people who are church-minded, and not so really church-minded, have an extraordinary difficult time seeing how civil rights are civil rights," said Aakhu, who identifies as heterosexual. "This reluctance to see the humanity of others while at the same time decrying your very own—I wanted to figure out how to write a play that stripped the—for lack of a better word—bullshit out of the argument so that we could get down to try to look at people for who and what they are."
Aakhu was quick to point out that Starting Over is, overall, a love story and not a play exploring an individual's journey through during the transitioning process. And as a cisgender male, Aakhu wanted to be sure that he wouldn't face appropriation accusations.
So auditions were opened up to trans performers, while Aakhu said a trans-identified dramaturg was part of the play's early development. Yet ultimately a trans actor was not cast.
"To be fair, there's just a question of whose stories in this cultural appropriation conversation you get to tell. So if this was a play about a central character that was undergoing this transition and there was no input, no feedback, no connection to that community in telling the story, I think that's a pretty valid point," said Aakhu about his decision to skip over his character's transition process by building in a large time gap into the plotting of Starting Over before the reunion years later.
"But we're treading in a different pool of water. If I tell the story about an interracial couple trying to survive in Virginia where there were laws stating there can't be interracial couples, and I'm Black, can I write the white characters because that's still part of the same story? Or if I'm a white person can I only write about white people?" Aakhu asked. "It's not a singular story, it's a story with a multifaceted approach to a question. And so where do you have to sit to be authentic to have a conversation? For us, it was not to write about the things in portraying the things that we are not well-enough grounded to discuss."
MPAACT's world premiere of Shepsu Aakhu's Starting Over continues through Sunday, Nov. 20, at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Performance times are 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays with 3 p.m. matinees on Sundays. Tickets are $21 to $37; call 773-404-7336, or visit MPAACT.org or GreenhouseTheater.org .
