Stages Goes ‘Swimming’ Montrose theater’s production puts spotlight on homeless LGBTQ youth. By Don Maines
‹ It Gets Better Director Emilio Rodriguez, left, says Swimming While Drowning showcases characters seldom seen on stage—homeless LGBTQ teens. University of Houston professor Trevor Boffone (below), who uses the play annually in one of his classes, says it “hits on all the issues,” including coming out and living up to ideals of masculinity.
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ike a fly on the wall, Emilio Rodriguez’s play Swimming While Drowning hones in on the bond that forms between two 15-year-old boys at a revolving-door LGBTQ homeless shelter somewhere in these United States. “It’s less about plot, or what happens, than it is about meeting two people you don’t often see onstage,” Rodriguez tells OutSmart in a phone call from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the playwright works at the University of Michigan. He hopes to attend several performances of the October 3–21 production that will open the new season of Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston. Rodriguez, who identifies as “Latino and LGBT, Puerto Rican and gay,” describes the play’s teenage leads as a study in contrasts. Angelo is a sensitive gay Latino who believes “the only way to survive is to find someone to trust,” while his reluctant roommate, Mila, is a 88 | SEPTEMBER 2018 | OutSmartMagazine.com
brooding gay black-Latino who thinks “survival depends on being very careful who you trust.” “It sounds heavy, but it’s really, really funny, too,” says Trevor Boffone, a queer University of Houston professor who has championed Rodriguez’s script since Boffone attended its 2015 “developmental reading” at a Chicago festival called Latinx Theatre Commons’ Carnaval of New Latinx Work. Ever since then, Boffone has shared the play with students in his Introduction to LGBTQ Studies classes at UH. “They really like it. They find it quite authentic in how teenagers talk and what they talk about. The play has some pretty in-depth conversations about homelessness, coming out, and things like living up to ideals of masculinity. It hits on all the issues.” Some of the story is told through poetry, which Mila says is “for bitches” but Angelo enjoys as an outlet for his feelings. The
