Theater review and interview: GAY CAMP

Published in OUT magazine:

Gay Camp is written by Philip Mutz and Susan-Kate Heaney, and stars Christian Mansfeild, Philip Mutz, Ken Urso, and Bradford Proctor, it is playing at the Duplex in the West Village.

The show is a satire of the Gay Reform camps that ‘cure’ people of the egregious disease of homosexuality; and while it does not take itself too seriously – it brings up serious topics and asks important questions. Covering everything from gender, abortion, class and of course LGBTQ rights.

The show runs at The Duplex, next door to The Stonewall, and the pre-show atmosphere was full of excitement, mostly nude boys, drinks, piano renditions of Disney songs and a generally fun atmosphere. The Audience was ready to enjoy the play, and it showed.

The show itself is satire it the purest sense, forcing the audience to, sometimes uncomfortably) laugh at the current state of America. The show uses over the top stereotypes of gay, straight and lesbian folk to illustrate it’s point and is punctuated by a piano with voice over shooting of one liners.

Topics ranged from necrophiliactic scissoring, to lists of companies which are anti gay. Mimed out rimming to a memorial to “all those we have lost to the evil gay agenda”: which is really a celebration of the strides the community has made in the past year.

The show has audience interaction, which in part due to the audience, featured more prominently in this particular show than in most runs, memorable moments are the “Straight or Gay” game where audiences are asked which one of the things listed are straight or gay, with humorous results.

Overall the show was a hilarious and well worth a watch.

Below are excepts from an interview with the cast and director. The interview shows, not only the intelligence and eloquence of those involved, but that they take this show very seriously, are politically and socially motivated, and for them, as with most satirists, think satire is a serious business.

Originally you crowd sourced this whole thing, iniegogo:

Phillip Fazio [Director]– we used indigogo; we were originally part of the new york fringe festival; which is a festival of theater, dance, comedy, all different types of performance art, it runs over the summer we did it last summer, there were 187 shows, we did an indigogo fundraiser raised $4000 to pay for wigs from party city, shirts from old navy, fireproof materials, because everything had to be fireproof.

And this show obviously wasn’t crowd sourced:

Phillip– Luckily the duplex is a very friendly, very inexpensive place to run the show. We already had all of the sets and the costumes and everything and we’re all working for very low to no pay

Christian Mansfeild [actor]– For peanuts

Phil Mutz [writer/actor]- Well one of the things about it is that you can do it at the duplex, which is a much smaller space, or we just had our west coast premiere in Spokane, which was a 300 seat theater, enormous space, it was in ¾ thrust and it’s enormous. But you can bring {the show} anywhere because everything fits in 12 suitcases, and you just wheel it in; It looks like wigs exploded backstage, but still. So we are able to shop around, we can be picky about where we go, or find the best deal; we don’t have to take whatever’s available, thats whats really great about the show.

Now, you’re mostly preaching to prettty appreciative chior; so how do you feel this would play out with a straight crowd, with a straight audience?

Phil- well we just didi Spokane, washington. It’s the third gayest city in america, it’s one of the most closeted gay cities in America. Washington’s a blue state but it is in the red parts of the blue state.

Christian – It’s literally inches from Idaho

Ken Mutz [actor, original director]– Whats amazing was, everyone in that city was ready for it so they all came out in droves. Sure, there were protestors saying you’re all going to hell as you exited the theater which you wouldn’t get in New York.

Phil – Everyone inside was eating it up with a spoon. It was like drag queens, we had old people 70-80 year old people.

Phillip – Everything, from drag queens to straight elderly people everybody in the house was very receptive, and they embraced everything.

Christian – I mean all day, and leading up to doing the show we were like; “We have no idea how this is going to work here!”, and that was like part of the excitement of it; this is a totally different crowd this isn’t our friends and family. We played the opening sequence and the first joke, got a huge laugh and we * sighs dramatically *. So here we go, and we relaxed into the show. And for a community like that, it’s more of a treat, something they don’t get to see . In New York you can see “my gay wedding” and “my gay bar mitzvah” and “my big gay dog” and “my big gay aunt and uncle”. But there this was a special thing for them so people were ready to have a great time and it was fantastic

Phillip – we did a talkback afterwards and so many people said “thank you for bringing a show like this to Spokane, and thank you for taking the risk and for jumping off that cliff knowing that we might be run out of town with…

Christian – Torches and pitchforks

Phillip – Yeah, they were really ready for it

Phil – And the gay community there was really accepting, one of our first nights there we did an event at a lesbian bar, and two nights later the queen drag queen of Spokane Washington, Novacane, she came to us and said “Come down, come to our show, we will hook you up” we were part of their show, they promoted our shows, they came in full drag to our show, everybody just came and made an effort, for people that they don’t know, I think, because they were exited about it.

What are the merits of satirizing people that are really already parodies of themselves such as Michelle Bachman, these people are already jokes.

Ken – I don’t think they are ‘such jokes’ to everyone first of all. But I think what’s great is, the whole point of the show to me is we take the power, we’re saying we will make fun of ourselves, we will call ourselves the worst names ever, because then you don’t have the power when you say those things to us on the street, we’re like “we’ve said much worse, we’ve done much worse, thank you so much”. And that is the feeling when we walked out with the protestors, its was like, “we already won” there are 250 gay men and women and straight allies who just paid $30 to come and see the show and they are walking out.

Phillip – and, not to bring it down or anything, but right over there (gesturing to the corner of 7^th ave in the West Village), someone was shot, the battle is not over

No not at all

Phillip – while they may be jokes to us, they are not jokes to them.

Phil – I think, going off what Ken just said, Michelle Bachmann is an out there character – to New Yorkers – but, she was elected to the House Of Representatives, she ran for president

Phillip – She was the frontrunner for the republican party

Phil – she won the Iowa straw poll! She is not a joke to many people, so I think by satirizing her, and then ideally taking the show elsewhere, we can share that message that the rest of the world doesn’t think that she is a real person, it thinks she’s a joke, and you don’t have to let her be a serious political figure

So what do you feel the theaters role is in effecting political change. Do you think the theater has a large role, like you said, someone jut got shot over there, Michelle Bachmann is in the house of representatives, do you feel like the theater can effect social change?

Phillip – Definitely

Phil – I think it’s two fold I think one that it brings people together and creates a sense of community/.

When we were in Spokane there were 200 people who, when they left no one was going “oh I can’t believe there are protestors I should go talk to them” There were probably christians in there who were not part of the activist church that was protesting, but there supporting people, it brings people together it creates a sense of community. I think also I think it’s important the remember that its 2013 and we’ve got lots to go, but we’ve come really far, gone a really long way, and were only able to do this because of people before us, we’re right next to The Stonewall, we only get to do this show because things like that happened.

Phillip – It’s a celebration of how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go

Lets talk a little bit about context, your next door to the stonewall, how do you feel the context informs the performance

Phillip- well one of the things I love about the show is we are paying homage to those who came before us. Charles Bush, Charles Merrill, all the gay icons of the 60s and the 70s who really did the heavy lifting, so we can be here openly, doing theater, doing a show like this that we love, in Spokane Washington

Christian- I think to an important word for the show is: “celebration” it’s totally a celebration, it’s a party, everyone has such a great time and laughs so hard, when DOMA was struck down this street was full. We were all here we were all celebrating and like that spirit of community is what gets things done, I think that’s a great way to get people organized, is with a celebration like that, we celebrate our wins, and we feel our losses, thats how the gay community gets through it together, we laugh through the tears.

Ken – and our community is not just us gays, it’s our straight allies.

What do you feel the gay communities role is in larger political protest.

Phil – I’d like to think, and maybe i’m being a little naïve, but that we are a little bit past the protest movement, and now we are just demanding our rights, we’re no longer the minority in the sense that people no longer look at us like somethings wrong with us, people now are accepting, the majority of the people in this country thinks gays should have, as if a poll matters, gays should be allowed to get married; we no longer have to be picketing because we are in the right. We’re on the right side of history, and now, crazy people can picket us, but I think things like theater and things like all of the arts, thats bringing people together as a community and we dont’ have to be activists anymore because we’re not a minority, and even though we might be a minority group, we’re not a minority opinion, we’re no longer looked down upon by the majority, we don’t have to be activists anymore; in the same way I think you could be an activist and promote things that need to be done

Phillip – There are still battles to fight

Christian- I think also the gay community throughout american history have always been first adopters of fringe political movements, like, gay rights and civil rights were very closely linked back in the day and now I think gay people, yes now we can get married, and were more visible in film and television and now they eye is starting to turn towards trans rights, and a lot of the crazy reproductive things that are still unfortunately going on, I feel like the gay community tends to be an ally and first adopter in those kind fo cases. I love that, you know, I’m gay and i’m also a feminist, and i’m also for trans rights. I love now that marrage is getting wrapped up we are all “what’s the next big thing”

Ken – Exactly: what’s next on the agenda

There are no female actors in the show, could you talk about that.

Phil – OK well I co-wrote the show with my female writing partner (Susan-Kate Heaney) and our first production which Ken directed about 3 or 4 years ago. There were two male actors and she was in it as well, and we talked about it afterwards. I think the play was missing something because, gender actually became an issue, when there were different genders in the cast. Because right now we’re trying to say, gender is irrelevant, I’m a man i’m a woman, I’m whatever I am right now. When you have a woman playing a woman sometimes and a man playing a woman sometimes, all of a sudden your actual gender matters; and we are trying to eliminate that, I think it would still work; in a very different way, with three women

Phillip – Yeah i’d love to see that

Phil – I don’t think it’s about a feminist choice or having anything to do with that, I think we were trying to make a strong choice about eliminating gender identity as an issue in a play, and being about I’m just going to immerse myself in this character whoever it is male, female, lesbian, straight, gay.

Your use of strryotypes in the play, your gay stereotypes, your lesbian stereotypes

Ken – Straight stereotypes especially

Christian – I think its a great way, like Ken said earlier, you get to embrace the stereotype, you reclaim it.

Phillip – It’s like the Dan Savage call me a faggot thing, he made everybody write in and say hey faggot

Christian – Exactly, and then that word loses it’s power and you embrace. My character Anton is so over the top and getting to embrace that is so fun and getting to play up that side of myself and that side of a lot of people is really great, I think to put it on display and have it be silly, and have me own it and have me say like parts of yourself that make up your identity are all of these different things add up to my personality it doesn’t mean, your a queen, or your a butch, or your a fem, or your masc; everyone is all these things, and it’s so funny to see them amplified.

Ken – And also Anton and Martha are the most stereotypical gay and lesbian people in the show and they are the most comfortable people in the show, they don’t hate anyone, they love who they are, and they tell the world that.

Phil – and essentially they learn something about themselves when they learn to embrace their own stereotype whatever they are and to embrace that and I think we fight against stereotype but i’m going to embrace the part of the stereotype that is the reality, and i’m going to actually go further and say, but I’m a person. And that’s what we are trying to do is make people out of these characters by taking it too far with stereotypes.

How much of the show is scripted and how much is imporovied and updated

Ken– Today (all laugh) could have been an exception, but normally I would say that in performance 98% of it is scripted, now, a lot of what was scripted in todays production was improved first, so there are sections where Phillip as the director, and Phil as the writer, let us go a little bit like “straight vs gay”

Phillip – The audience interaction stuff isn’t scripted

Ken – If we’re we’re not on the script we’re not on the beats and we’re not making transitions, the audience in going to be lost

Christian – and a lot of things we wrote are just from us in a conversation, and the jokes need to be updated, Michelle Bachmann used to be Rick Santorum, used to be Sarah Palin

Phil – In an early draft it was Rush Limbaugh

Christian – yeah, you have to update everything, all the little references like Paula Deen, and Antony Weiner, that keeps it fresh. Those kind of jokes and the script has to be constantly updated

So you can play to a wide audience, and I compare your show to the book of mormon, and middle america accepts that, and you’d like to tour more, do you feel like middle america would be accepting of gay camp

Christian – it’s pretty similar

Phil – One of the things we learned doing it out of town for the first time is that it actually might be more successful in other places that it will be in new york, because like we said, New York is saturated with gay plays. What was terrifying in Spokane is; we made our first abortion joke and it was like “booom’ and we realized, oh ok THIS is whats too far in Spokane

Phil – The gay stuff was fine. The June Martha love story, the audience in Spokane were emotionally involved, something bad would happen to Martha and the crowd would sigh, but every time Lisa with the baby came out it was silence, so I was rewriting things as we go

Ken – It will be the pockets, what is the one thing that will be too far in everywhere we go

Christian – Right, there are some things that are too far even in New York city

Ken – the wire hanger the first time we did it was hard

Yes even tonight the wire hanger got a bit og a ‘ooooh’

Phil – well there is a difference between getting a ‘ooooh’ which I think is great and silence nothing.

Ken – Silence means you actually can’t deal with whats happening on stage ‘ooooh’ mean that’s terrible

Phil – It means your still smiling, like the Rihanna joke, you’re still smiling, even though your angry that your smiling you are laughing about it.

Phillip – Your having a vocal reaction because you’re laughing and you know you shouldn’t be laughing so your changing it into an ‘oooh’

Phil – silence would be way worse

Christian – I think that other cities are ready for it and I think that it is a, again especially to keep talking spokaneWashington because it’s the only other place we’ve played; it energized the community, we got into town the friday before and we did the show on a saturday night, and every day leading up to it before we did the show there was a palpable excitement. People were so excited that people were going to get a break from what they normally get to see in theater in their town and get to see something like this and celebrate it and be part of this party that came all the way from New York city. So I think that yeah, other cities are totally ready

Phillip – So look out Middle America because gay camp is coming for you

Are you planning on touring the show anywhere else after this

Phillip – Yeah, we would love to, we would love to go do a whole west coast tour, Seattle, down to San Francisco, Los angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs,

Phil – and one of the things we’ve been talking about is Provincetown Massachusetts, because Naked Boys Singing had been a staple there for a decade, and they aren’t there anymore, there here in New York doing their thing, but I think there is room for a new show that when your just walking down the street you go “I’ve got an hour and a half, what can I do?” you can come watch gay camp, have a drink and enjoy, so that’s one of the places we’re looking at.

Phil – we don’t have any solid plans at the moment but there has been some chatter and discussion.