Arts & Entertainment
Maintaining mystery
Out actor Spinella says ‘Velocity’ better experienced blind
Estelle Parsons as Alexandra and Stephen Spinella as Chris in “The Velocity of Autumn’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. It runs through Oct. 20. (Photo by Teresa Wood; courtesy Arena)
‘The Velocity of Autumn’
Through Oct. 20
Arena Stage
1101 Sixth Street, SW
$40-90
Arenastage.org
Broadway star Stephen Spinella almost never leaves New York City to work.
“I’ll only go for incredibly special situations,” he says. “I love my apartment. I have a great support system of friends. I’m just not a happy camper outside of New York. It’s got to be something really great to tempt me.”
Playing opposite Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons in Arena Stage’s “The Velocity of Autumn” is one of those impossible-to-refuse situations.
“Last winter I got a call from Molly Smith [Arena’s artistic director and ‘Velocity’s’ director] offering me the job,” says Spinella, who is gay. “I asked why they’d reached out to me. Molly said I was Parsons’ first choice to play her son. You don’t say no to that.”
Penned by Cleveland-based playwright Eric Coble, the two-character play focuses on 79-year-old Alexandra, who is experiencing the early signs of dementia. Holed up in her Brooklyn brownstone with a cache of homemade explosives, she threatens to blow up the house and herself rather than rethink a less independent living arrangement. It’s then that her estranged gay son Chris is brought in to mediate.
Spinella, widely known for his brilliant Tony Award-winning performances as Prior Walter (a gay man with AIDS) in “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” and “Angels in America: Perestroika,” won’t reveal much — he believes an audience should experience a play blind. But he will say that in 90 uninterrupted minutes, Chris and Alexandra must find out where they’ve been, where they are now and how they’re going to resolve her issues. It’s a lot to cover.
In real life, Spinella’s 90-year-old mother suffers from dementia. She lives in a care facility in Arizona. But unlike his mother, says Spinella, “Alexandra is still very alert and aware. She’s an artist and very self-reliant. Her character is processing what is happening to her and what she wants to do. That’s a big part of what the play is about.”
And while we’re told Spinella’s character is gay, it’s mentioned rather offhandedly. The straight playwright Coble, says he was intrigued with the idea of Chris’ sexuality not being the focal point.
“So often when being gay is used as a dramatic device it’s the entire focus of the character,” Coble says. “I wanted to write a character who’s not struggling with his sexuality. There are other reasons why he needed to get out of New York City and live far from his mother and more conventionally successful siblings.”
Spinella concurs: “The fact that he’s gay is almost completely unimportant to the play. It’s a minor revelation. When he left home, it was probably more important but it’s essentially dissolved in the way that it has for so many of us in this country.”
For Coble, having Parsons (who won her Oscar for “Bonnie and Clyde” and hilariously played Bev on “Roseanne” for a decade) and Spinella bring his characters to life has been a joy and slightly unnerving. “They’re so good and so smart,” he says. “Their ‘truthometers’ are very high — they have a way at getting at the kernel of truth in every moment. It’s an incredible thing to see and experience.”
And Spinella is rhapsodic about 85-year-old Parsons: “She has that frank New England aspect. It’s great for the character. She’s always surprising — incredibly smart and sensitive with a steel trap mind. She and her husband Peter are both like jocks. They cycle, walk, swim and hike. They’re also fun — really wonderful people.”
Next year, Spinella can be seen HBO’s movie version of Larry Kramer’s seminal AIDS play “The Normal Heart.” He describes the experience as fantastic and intense. His part (Sanford) is small but important. “Early in the play his KS lesions are revealed in the doctor’s office,” says Spinella. “And later, in a newly added scene set in a hospital, he is wild with dementia, calling for his dog. He totally loses it and falls apart.”
But for today, Spinella is happily immersed in “Velocity.” When the show closes next month, he returns to New York City, that place he hates to leave.
a&e features
Memorial for groundbreaking bisexual activist set for May 2
Loraine Hutchins remembered as a ‘force of nature’
The Montgomery County Pride Center will host a celebration honoring the life and legacy of Loraine Hutchins, Ph.D., on May 2. People are invited to attend the onsite memorial or a livestream event. The on-site event will begin at 10 a.m. with a meet-and-greet mixer before moving into a memorial service around the theme “Loraine a Force of Nature!” at 11 a.m., a panel talk at 12 p.m., break out sessions for artists, academics, and activists to build on her legacy at 1 p.m. and a closing reception at 2 p.m.
Attendees are encouraged to register for the on-site memorial gathering or the livestreamed memorial. The goal of this event is also to collect stories and memories of Loraine. Attendees and others can share their stories at padlet.com.
An obituary for Hutchins was published in the Bladelast Nov. 24, where people can learn more about her activism in the bisexual community. A private service for friends and family was held in December but this memorial service is open to all.
Alongside her groundbreaking work organizing for U.S. bisexual rights and liberation including co-editing “Bi Any Other Name: BIsexual People Speak Out” (1991), she also integrated faith into her sexual education and advocacy work. Her 2001 doctoral dissertation, “Erotic Rites: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary U.S. Sacred Sexuality Traditions and Trends,” offered a pointed queer and feminist analysis to sex-neutral and sex-positive spiritual traditions in the United States. Her thesis was also groundbreaking in exploring the intersections between sex workers and those in caregiving professionals, including spiritual ones.
In an oral history interview conducted by Michelle Mueller back in August 2023, Hutchins described herself as a “priestess without a congregation.” While she has occasionally had a sense of community and feels part of a group of loving people, she admitted that “I don’t feel like we have the shape or the purpose that we need.”
“I’ve often experienced being the Cassandra in the room, the Cassandra in the community. Somebody who’s kind of way out there ahead, thinking through the strategic action points that my community hasn’t gotten to yet, and getting a lot of resistance and hostile responses from people who are frightened by dissent and conflict and not ready for the changes we have to make to survive,” she said.
“For somebody who’s bisexual in an out political way and who’s been a spokesperson for the polyamory movement in an out political way, it’s very exposing. And it’s very important to me to be able to try to explain and help other people understand the connection between spirituality and sexuality,” she explained citing how even as a graduate student she was “exploring how to feel erotic and spiritual, and not feel them in conflict with each other in my own spiritual contemplative life and my own sensual body awareness of being alive in the world.”
“Every religion has a sense of sacred sexuality. It’s just they put a lot of boundaries and regulations on it, and if we have a spiritual practice that is totally affirming of women’s priesthood and of gay people, queer people’s ability to minister to everyone and to be ministered to be everyone, what does that do to the gender of God, or our understanding of how we practice our spirituality and our sexuality in community and privately?”
“There’s no easy answer,” she concludes, and she continued to grapple with these questions throughout her life, co-editing another seminal text, “Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual, and Polysexual Perspectives,” published in 2012. Her work blending spiritual and queer liberation remains groundbreaking to this day.
Rev. Eric Eldritch, a local community organizer and ordained Pagan minister with Circle Sanctuary who has worked for decades with the DC Center’s Center Faith to organize the Pride Interfaith Service, is eager to highlight this element of her legacy at the memorial service next month.
History
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
Tuesday marked 60 years since four gay activists held protest
While Stonewall is widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the U.S., a lesser-known protest inside a Greenwich Village bar three years earlier helped lay critical groundwork for what would follow.
Tuesday marked 60 years since the Julius’ Bar “sip in.”
On April 21, 1966, four gay rights activists — Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons, and later Randy Wicker — walked into Julius’ Bar and staged what would become known as a “sip-in” to challenge state liquor regulations on serving alcoholic beverages to gay men — with a drink.
Modeled after the sit-ins that challenged racial segregation across the American South, the protest was designed to confront discriminatory practices targeting LGBTQ patrons in public spaces.
At the time, the Mattachine Society — one of the country’s earliest gay rights groups — was actively pushing back against policies enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority. One of those policies could have resulted in the loss of liquor licenses for serving known or suspected gay men and lesbians. The participants had visited multiple establishments, openly identified themselves as homosexual, and requested a drink — with the anticipation of being denied.
Their final stop was Julius’, where reporters and a photographer had gathered to document the moment. When Leitsch declared their identity, the bartender covered their glasses and refused service, reportedly saying, “I think it’s against the law.” The next day, the New York Times ran a story with the headline, “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars,” cementing the moment in the public record.
Though initially framed with disrespect — the term “sip-in” itself was coined as a play on civil rights protests — the action marked a turning point. It brought national attention to the systemic discrimination LGBTQ people faced and helped catalyze changes in how liquor laws were enforced. In the years that followed, the protest contributed to the emergence of licensed, more openly gay-friendly bars, which became central social and organizing spaces for LGBTQ communities.
The Washington Blade originally covered when the bar was officially added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Today, historians and advocates increasingly recognize the “sip-in” as a key pre-Stonewall milestone. According to the New York City LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, the protest not only increased visibility of the early LGBTQ rights movement but also exposed widespread surveillance and entrapment tactics used against the community.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the event, commemorations have taken place in New York and across the country. Reflecting on its enduring legacy, Amanda Davis, executive director of the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, spoke about the event.
“Julius’ Bar is a place you can visit and viscerally connect with history,” said Davis. “We’re thrilled to have solidarity locations across the country join us in commemorating the ‘sip-in’’s 60th anniversary and the queer community’s First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.”
For current stewards of the historic bar, the responsibility of preserving that legacy remains front of mind.
“It’s a privilege and a responsibility to be the steward of a place so important to American and LGBTQ history,” said current owner of Julius’ Bar, Helen Buford. “The events of the 1966 Sip-In here at Julius’ resonated across the country and inspired countless others to stand proud for their rights.”
The timing couldn’t have come at a more important moment, Kymn Goldstein, executive director of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, explained.
“At a time when our community faces renewed challenges, coming together in resilience and solidarity reminds us of the power in our collective resistance,” Goldstein said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, an organization dedicated to defending rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, is currently tracking 519 anti-LGBTQ bills across the U.S. The majority are targeted at restricting transgender rights — particularly related to gender-affirming care, sports participation, and the use of public bathrooms.
Some additional groups and bars that held their own “sip-in” as solidarity events to uplift this historic milestone are from across the country include:
Alice Austen House at Steiny’s Pub, Staten Island, N.Y.
Bellows Falls Pride Committee at PK’s Irish Pub, Bellows Falls, Vt.
Brick Road Coffee, Mesa, Ariz.
Brick Road Coffee, Tempe, Ariz.
Dick Leitsch’s Family at Old Louisville Brewery, Louisville, Ky.
The Faerie Playhouse & LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana at Le Cabaret, New Orleans
Harlem Pride & John Reddick at L’Artista Italian Kitchen & Bar, New York
JOYR!DE KiKi at Loafers Cocktail Bar, New York
Matthew Lawrence & Jason Tranchida / Headmaster at Deadbeats Bar, Providence, R.I.
Mazer Lesbian Archives at Alana’s Coffee, Los Angeles
New Hope Celebrates at The Club Room, New Hope, Pa.
Queer Memory Project at the University of Evansville Multicultural Student Commons / Ridgway University Center, Evansville, Ind.
Sandy Jack’s Bar, Brooklyn, N.Y.
St. Louis LGBT History Project at Just John Club, St. Louis
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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