The cascade of LGBTQIA works on Chicago-area stages continues with two world premieres opening this week. One deals with bisexuality among Latino immigrants living in Chicago, while another focuses on an intersex installation artist trying to make amends as death approaches.
El Incas
Out Mexican-born and Chicago-based playwright Raul Dorantes expects to stir up some controversy with El Incas, his new play dealing with two Latino men who furtively carry on a gay relationship on top of their marriages to women. The fact that Colectivo El Pozo is producing El Incas in the heart of Puerto Rican cultural stronghold Humbolt Park is also a risk.
"An objective with the production is to provoke dialogue about sexual diversity in our own community," said Dorantes, who decided to write El Incas when a friend of his complained that too much of his previous work dealt with immigration issues. "But I laughed a little bit, because my friend didn't realize it was also about immigrants — immigrants who are dealing with being gay or bisexual. This is kind of taboo in the Spanish-speaking Latino community."
El Incas as a title refers to a fictional Chicago bar that takes its inspiration from the long-gone Pilsen gay Latino hangout La Cueva Bar from the 1990s. When Dorantes originally visited La Cueva, he was initially thrown by its Mayan décor and its drag queen host who offered a welcome to "Inca country."
Dorantes then realized that the space was meant to be a pan-Latin one that embraced cultures stretching from North to South America. Hence in Dorantes' play El Incas, the bar becomes the sort of safe space where dialogue can actually happen.
Dorantes also made his characters' origins also very pan-Latin. The lovers Martin and Fernando are from an unnamed Central American country and the same town of El Progresso ( Dorantes chose this name since he joked that so many Latin countries have a town named El Progreso ). The nosy drag queen Cata, who owns and holds court over El Incas as a multi-national Latin enclave, is also from El Progreso. But Dorantes was more specific about the men's spouses, with Fernando's wife, Cristina, coming from Argentina and Martin's wife, Mata, being Puerto Rican.
As with most Colectivo El Pozo productions, the company tries to reach out to the largest possible audience linguistically. That's why any spoken Spanish will be translated with projected English titles and any spoken English will be augmented with projected Spanish translations.
In addition to looking at gay and bisexuality in the Latino community in El Incas, Dorantes says another major issue is "Latino identity in Chicago, because I think that everything not only has to do with sexual identity, but also identity when you're asked if you are Mexican or Latino or Hispanic. Myself, I consider myself first an immigrant who must embrace many cultures."
Colectivo El Pozo's world premiere of El Incas plays from Thursday, April 10, through Sunday, May 11, at La Casa de Oscar Lopez, 2628 W. Division St. There is an 8 p.m. preview on April 10, with an official press opening at 8 p.m. April 11. Subsequent performances are from 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, with 3:30 p.m. matinees on Sundays. Performances are in Spanish and English with projected translations. Tickets are $15 and $10 for students; for advance tickets, email colectivoelpozo@gmail.com .
A Fine Line
There's a typical British complaint about having to wait forever for a London bus, only to have three show up at once. The same could hold similarly true for Chicago-area audiences who have had to wait years for a play centering on an intersex character, and then having two open in the exact same month.
Already playing is Silk Road Rising and About Face Theatre's regional premiere of Brahman/i: A One-Hijra Stand Up Comedy Show in Chicago. It's soon to be joined by Waukegan-based Clockwise Theatre's world premiere of Rob Winn Anderson's A Fine Line, which is about an intersex artist trying to make piece with oneself and loved ones near the end of life.
"It's really fascinating because this was written a few years ago," said Anderson, a straight playwright and director who was inspired to write A Fine Line when he researched a story of an intersex person who lived six months of the year as a man and the other six months as a woman. "Sometimes it's about when is the right time for a piece and it seems to me that it's now for this subject matter."
A Fine Line focuses on D. Garfinkel, who has straddled dual genders and acceptance and sorrow throughout life. Now that death is approaching, Garfinkel tries to reach out to a now-grown foster son named Bradley who was previously removed from his home ( Anderson says his main character primarily identifies as male, since that was the gender that was imposed early on when Garfinkel was a child even though he had two sets of genitals ).
"He's trying to find this kid and reconcile with him and make some peace," said Anderson, who creates a device of Garfinkel writing a series of letters to Bradley so he can "explain himself and why he made the decisions he did, and to hopefully help the kid understand who he is."
Anderson also creates a number of fantasy characters of different genders for Garfinkel to interact with in his play, and he finds it interesting that director Andrea J. Dymond has opted to cast her production of A Fine Line with all men. The production is also notable for being Clockwise's first Equity production with the casting of professional actor and director Doug McDade as Garfinkel.
Anderson is an Ohio native and a Northwestern University alum, and he currently lives in Florida where he's in the midst of directing a community theater production of the musical Hairspray. Yet Anderson was able to participate in Waukegan rehearsals of A Fine Line via the computer program Skype. And though Anderson's directing duties will prevent him from attending the opening night of A Fine Line, he hopes to catch the show later in its run.
Though A Fine Line focuses on an intersex character, Anderson said the play is ultimately a story of self-acceptance and reconciliation, to move beyond what happened in the past.
Clockwise Theatre's A Fine Line plays from Friday, April 11, through Sunday, May 4, at 221 N. Genesee St., Waukegan. Performance times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20; call 800-838-3006 or visit www.clockwisetheatre.org for more information.