The Empty Closet
B
Pride Guide Insert
Arts, Entertainment and Community
number 447
a publication of the gay alliance of the genesee valley
july 2011
Stills from “You Should Meet My Mother,” screening at The Cinema on July 14.
ImageOut screens two films for Pride 2011 ImageOut will once again sponsor Rochester Pride 2011. ImageOut is not only Western New York’s largest LGBT film festival but also a consistent supporter of local LGBT events, including Rochester Pride. ImageOut brings back two audience favorites from last October’s lineup for one night only during Pride Week, on Thursday, July 14 at The Cinema, 957 Clinton Ave. at Goodman St. Admission is $8 in advance, $12 at the door; tickets available at Equal=Grounds and Outlandish. At 7 p.m., a loving mother finds unexpected allies in her quest to find happiness and true
love for her closeted gay son in “You Should Meet My Son!”. Rochester audiences were treated to an entertaining Q&A with writer/director Keith Hartman when this film had its New York State Premiere at ImageOut last October. Popular among men and women of all ages, and with its broad theme of acceptance and its focus on the importance of family, “You Should Meet My Son!” is the perfect film to start an evening of celebrating LGBT pride. At 9 p.m., ImageOut says, “Nothing can truly ever prepare you for the unique experience that is ‘Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives’. With its over-the-
top, ‘authentic’ ‘70s B-exploitation style (complete with grainy film-stock, missing scenes, and ‘please be patient while we switch reels’ inter titles), this film takes revenge to a different level as it tells the story of a sassy group of “tranny” entertainers who respond to a deadly hate crime by fighting back in grand style and high camp.” This controversial film, which has both opponents and supporters within the gender variant community, was a major hit last October, ImageOut says, adding, “Just be warned that ‘Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives’ contains excessive, graphic violence.” ■
Nazareth College hosts 2011 Dance Festival July 8-16 The Nazareth College Arts Center will hold its 2011 Dance Festival July 8-16. Tickets for the four main stage performances at the Callahan Theater, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, July 8-9, and Friday and Saturday, July 15-16, are on sale now. All other events during the Dance Festival are free and open to the public. The Dance Festival will feature the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and its cofounder and artistic director, Bill T. Jones, who received the 2010 Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contributions to the arts and American culture. A very special evening is planned for Thursday, July 14, when Tony Award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan joins Bill T. Jones on stage for an enlightening discussion moderated by Deborah Ronnen, owner, Debo(Nazareth continues page 2)
“Body Against Body”
Mark Allen Davis and Stephen Cena. Photo: Susan Jordan
Mamet’s “Speed the Plow” opens at The Space July 14 By Susan Jordan David Mamet’s “Speed the Plow,” a scathing treatment of the relationship between two Hollywood movie executives, will be staged July 14-17 at The Space, a new performance venue in the Hungerford Building at 1115 E. Main St. The three-character play stars Mark Allen Davis and Stephen Cena, with the third role unfilled at EC press time. Mark Allen Davis, a Rochester native, is a dancer, choreographer, actor, artist and teacher.
He has danced with the famed Jose Limon company and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane company, and was in the original production of “The Lion King”. He has just been named Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Memphis, and will be moving to Tennessee shortly after the production of “Speed the Plow” ends. Davis will be returning to Rochester after the school year is over and hopes to produce more plays at The Space. Stephen Cena is originally from Massachusetts. He came to Rochester to study computer science at RIT and has never left. He says, “I did theatre with
Review: You Should Meet My Son! By Robby Morris “You Should Meet My Son”, an audience favorite on the gay film festival circuit by writer/ director Keith Hartman, could easily be called “You Should See This Movie”! Fortunately, now you can, as the film was recently released on DVD -- and it will be screened by ImageOut on July 14 at 7 p.m. at The Cinema. Conservative Southern belle Mae gets the shock of her life when she overhears that her only son is gay. She then discovers that the guy he has been living with wasn’t just his roommate,
the RIT drama club and after graduation stopped acting for a while. Then I felt that itch again. NTID was looking for a voice actor, so that’s how I got back into being on stage.” He has appeared at MuCCC and Geva in Michael Steck’s “Lipstick Massacre” and at MuCCC as the lead in “Boys In the Band” and in “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Miss Mary Dugan”. Mark plays a newly promoted Hollywood studio executive, Bobby Gould. He says, “Mamet wrote ‘Speed the Plow’ after his first experience in Hollywood, maybe as a way to exorcise that. It’s about friendship – how nothing is sacred, but in the end Bobby’s best friend saves him from career suicide.” Mark and “Speed the Plow “director Jerry Argetsinger did Facing East by Carolyn Pierson last year. “It’s about a couple whose son has committed suicide because he was gay. It was very successful and Jerry and I discussed doing another play.” Stephen says, “I’m playing Charlie Fox, a production assistant in Gould’s office and his best friend of 20 years. I see Charlie as Bobby’s friend – but he really wants to make his career take off….” Admission is $5. J The play runs July 14-July 17, Pride Weekend. The Space is on the second floor of the Hungerford building, and playgoers should use the building’s Entrance Two. ■
but his boyfriend, and they have recently broken up. Rather than dig in her heels and refuse to accept the truth about her son, she and her spinster sister plunge in head first to embrace and educate themselves on gay culture, meet some new friends along the way and endeavor to find her son a new Mr. Right. There is a reason this film has won several “Best in Festival” awards, including Best Feature at Ontario’s Reel Out Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the Festival Del Sol in Spain. It’s smartly written, incredibly moving, hysterically funny, and features standout performances by Joannie McGee as Mae and Carol Goans as her sister, Rose. Unlike other films dealing with the issue of a parent’s acceptance of their offspring’s sexuality, “You Should Meet My Son” never wanders too far into preachy waters and the use of cultural clichés (Drag Queens, Go-Go Boys, and cruising on Manhunt) are purely intentional and played for laughs. One comical scene pays homage to an iconic scene in the classic film Auntie Mame and even references itself as such. But before the plot has the chance to become too over the top, an exchange between Mae and her son quickly reminds us what the film is truly about: “If you think that this world won’t give you the things that you want, love, kids, a family, then I am gonna have to change the world, because I will not have it change you.” Writer/Director Hartman has managed to do what few others have been able to. He has taken a topic familiar to all of us in the gay community and used countless times as a plot device in gay themed films, and put a fresh and endearing spin on it. If you aren’t smiling at the end of this film, clearly, there is something wrong with you. Image Out, Rochester’s Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, will be showing “You Should Meet My Son” as part of their Summer Mayhem – Special PRIDE Week Double Feature Thursday July 14 at the Cinema The(Review continues page 2)