Marry Me!
The Asolo’s Laramie Project galvanized the Sarasota audience—especially gay men wanting to tie the knot.
Sarasota’s gay community has one thing on its mind these days – marriage. It was in the air at Monday night’s Laramie Project at the Asolo. The town’s confirmed bachelors are no longer confirmed. They see themselves in the vanguard of a pressing civil rights issue whose time has come. Plus, let’s face it – nobody can plan a wedding like a gay man.
Sarasota’s gay community – and here I’m talking the men; we’ll deal with the women later – has always been a little apart from the rest of the town. Discretion rules. But they turned out in force for The Laramie Project, a one-night documentary play that was being done at the same moment by 150 theaters all over the world, and all hooked up electronically. Michael Donald Edwards masterminded the Sarasota portion. I’d been watching him put it together, and I must say he did a sensational job on all levels – the place was packed, the local production perfectly cast and presented in a clear and moving way, and best of all, Michael realized its potential as a community event.
It was basically a staged reading, with the actors –well known stalwarts from all the local theaters – arranged in a semi-circle. The action of the play, taken from transcripts, deals with the Wyoming town’s reaction to death of Matthew Sheppard, the gay college student who was murdered in a hate crime. I won’t single anyone out for special praise, but I would be remiss not to mention the sensational moment Len Gumley had as a conservative Wyoming legislator with a gay daughter. He eloquently defends her and brings down the house. While all the other actors played many parts, Len had just this. It was like they were saving him to do something special, and he sure did.
There were many straight people at the event, of course, but the average attendee was a gray-haired man in late middle age, retired and with a longtime partner in tow. And the fact that all of a sudden, after all these years, they can suddenly go somewhere like Iowa and get married has hit them like a ton of bricks. Take Donald Geikie, the realtor with Michael Saunders. (He’s helped put together the Gay Realtor’s Group, whose monthly meetings have suddenly become the chicest networking event in town.) Donald is planning to tie the knot with partner George Neary next year in Connecticut. But don’t worry. They’re not rushing things. They’ve been together 32 years, and George just turned 91.
By the way, these pictures of the event were taken by Donna Des Isles, who has a sensational new hairdo.
Michael Donald Edwards, Natalie Gundrum.
Jeffery Kin and Joey Panek.
Doug Jones, Marian Wallace
Denise Lange, David Valdez, Kevin Stanfa
Eva Slane, Jay Handelman
And here’s some news. Starting next week I’m doing a new social column for our new Charity Register newsletter. I promise to be as obsequious as possible. It will be in diary format and you can follow my journey from one exciting event to another. My goal will be to paint a picture in vivid colors of our town’s glamorous social life, and maybe bring in a little advertising.
Comments
1. Cliff said...
Great report, Bob and Donna!
I'm on tenterhooks now, looking forward to your new newsletter - will you be giving us a blow-by-blow report about your Opera debut? Come by the Apple afterwards and watch the show, then we can have a natter about Donna's "do" and our future plans for our "Dead Funny" funeral parlour.
Syndicate this site