Queer Performers Look Ahead

The Greek tragedian Sophocles placed his mythical protagonist Oedipus in Thebes, and later Colonus, but never in Florida. However, modern playwright and actress Maureen Angelos—member of 16-year old theater group the Five Lesbian Brothers and co-author of the play “Oedipus at Palm Springs”—doesn’t give a damn about Sophocles.

According to Angelos, her goal is “dismantling the patriarchy one show at a time.”

Angelos, accompanied by the rest of the Five Lesbian Brothers, and Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver—the two founding members of the Split Britches Theatre Company—gathered Monday evening in the Fong Auditorium. The occasion was a roundtable discussion collectively sponsored by Harvard’s Program of Studies in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, the Course Innovation Funds, and Boston-area queer theater group Theater Offensive.

LEAVING A LEGACY

Both the Five Lesbian Brothers and the Split Britches are known for irreverent, satirical, and emotionally raw performances in queer theater, and members of both groups have been honored with the OBIE award, Off-Broadway theater’s highest accolade.

The discussion Monday evening was ostensibly focused on how the transitory realm of theater can change the world, how to deal with the inevitably fleeting nature of the medium, and how to create a legacy for the future of queer performers.

They discussed topics ranging from the construction of a play to the deconstruction of traditional normative views, interspersed all the while with acerbic prattling, levity, and even some useful practical advice.

“Fuck up a lot in college, because there’s lots of cushion to fuck up,” said Adam Sussman, assistant director and dramaturg of “Oedipus at Palm Springs.”

This sentiment was more or less echoed by the other panelists, who also recommended running with original ideas, making bookings, and generally hanging around your favorite artists.

BEYOND THE STAGE

The women also stressed the importance of expanding outside the theater. Shaw and Weaver extend themselves into the realm of humanitarian service by teaching their craft in prisons, medical schools, and universities.

“The walls [of theater] are really breaking down,” Weaver said. “And the forms are leaking out into the community proper.”

Tatiana H. Chaterji ’08, an attendee concentrating in government and women, gender, and sexuality, echoed the panelists’ sentiments.

“I’m interested in expanding the possibilities for theater, so that representations across culture, gender and sexuality are celebrated,” she said. “Theater as social or political action can be the most empowering.”

NEVER-ENDING STORY

The consensus that the Five Lesbian Brothers and Split Britches came to after much exchange is that performances never end: Their effects are carried on through both audiences and actors.

To drive home this point, Weaver recalled an example of a woman she touched—both figuratively and literally—while playing a vampire in a show. The woman approached her at a later date to say, “You bit me on the neck, and that’s how I knew I was a lesbian.”

—Staff writer Joshua J. Kearney can be reached at kearney@fas.harvard.edu.