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Sticky and ‘Sweet’

Trilogy concludes with story of La. teen grappling with sexuality

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From left, Lance Coadie Williams, J. Mal McCree and Nickolas Vaughan in 'Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet' at Studio Theatre. (Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Studio)

‘Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet’

Through Feb. 13

Studio Theatre

1501 14th Street, N.W.

$35-$65

202-332-3300

Well, is he or isnā€™t he? Whether 16-year-old Marcus Eshu is gay, or ā€œsweetā€ as itā€™s sometimes called down south, seems to be the question on a lot of peopleā€™s minds. Whether the interested parties truly want a straight answer is another matter.

After mounting productions of Tarell Alvin McCraneyā€™s ā€œThe Brothers Sizeā€ and ā€œIn the Red and Brown Water,ā€ Studio Theatre is now closing the gay playwrightā€™s ā€œThe Brother/Sister Playsā€ terrific trilogy with ā€œMarcus; Or the Secret of Sweet,ā€ featuring a dynamite eight-person cast ably directed by Timothy Douglas.

Both a coming-of-age and a compelling coming out story, ā€œMarcusā€ is set in fictional San Pere, Louisiana on the eve of a Katrina-like storm. When we meet the title character (convincingly underplayed by J. Mal McCree), he has yet to reveal his true sexuality to his loud-but-loyal best friend Shaunta Iyun (Shannon A.L. Dorsey) whoā€™s itching to learn his secret, or to Osha (Rachel Holmes) the hood beauty whoā€™d like to up their relationship to romance status.

Despite uncertainties, Marcus slowly but surely grows more certain about his attraction to men. In a cleverly done scene played to the faint erotic groans of Donna Summersā€™ ā€œLove to Love You, Baby,ā€ he imagines that the sexy straight boy (Nickolas Vaughan) clamoring for test answers in Latin class is actually vying for his sexual favors.

But of course day fantasies soon lose their novelty and Marcus is ready for something real, so the first chance he gets, he hooks up with the more experienced Shua (Lance Coadie Williams), a Kangol-wearing player on the down low visiting from the Bronx, and rather bravely, Marcus comes out to his friends.

Other aspects of our heroā€™s life are less clear. His sleep is clouded with confusing dreams featuring a mysterious man in white (Williams again) who talks to him through sheets of rain. And while awake, Marcusā€™ questions about his late father Elegba, (a sort of charming ex-con from ā€œThe Brothers Sizeā€) whom he suspects may also have been sweet, are met with stony silence from those who knew him best including Marcusā€™ protective mother Oba (Bianca Laverne Jones).

As the menacing storm draws nearer, things begin to look a little sunnier for Marcus. His girlfriends begin to accept him as he is, his mother gives him a little more freedom, and more significantly, feisty housing project elder Aunt Elegua (an excellent Stephanie Berry who doubles as Oshaā€™s tough, big-mouthed mother Shun) reluctantly displays an interest in Marcusā€™ dreams.

There is prophesy in the dreams of a sweet boy, she suggests.Ā  Middle-aged Ogun Size (Montae Russell), a longtime San Pere resident, gifts Marcus with some illuminating details about his fatherā€™s relationship with Ogunā€™s long-banished brother, Oshoosi.

ā€œMarcusā€ is very connected with the other parts of the trilogy. Like those plays, it makes use of West African mythology, eruptions of song (from old school blues to more contemporary) and dance.

Here again, the actors sometimes turn to the audience and speak their stage directions, underscoring an emotion or simply making us laugh. ā€œMarcusā€ relies on humor more than the other plays ā€” itā€™s infused with more contemporary references and punctuated with obvious jokes.

Daniel Conwayā€™s beautiful, spare set is comprised of a long, low ramp and a glass rain wall backed by a big sky forebodingly lit by Michael Giannitti. Reggie Ray costumes the folks of San Pere in spot-on street clothes.

The trilogy concludes with McCreeā€™s Marcus abruptly announcing the play is over. Nevertheless, itā€™s hard not to imagine McCraneyā€™s characters hanging on in their far off bayou town ā€” yearning, remembering, discovering and dreaming.

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Theater

ā€˜Hand to Godā€™ showcases actors and their puppets

Luke Hartwood serves as designer, coach for Keegan production

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Luke Hartwood in ā€˜Hand to Godā€™ at Keegan Theatre. (Photo by Kodie Storey)

ā€˜Hand to Godā€™
Feb. 1-March 2
Keegan Theatre
1742 Church St., N.W.
$49-$59
Keegantheatre.org

Luke Hartwood has loved puppets for as long as he can remember. 

At 24, heā€™s indulging his passion as puppet designer/coach and properties designer for Keegan Theatreā€™s production of Robert Askinsā€™ ā€œHand to God.ā€ Itā€™s the Tony-nominated comedy about meek Jason who after the death of his father finds an outlet for his anxiety at the Christian Puppet Ministry in small town Texas.

Puppets begin as a design team collaboration, Hartwood explains, and move on from there. With ā€œHand to God,ā€ the playwrightā€™s notes describe Jasonā€™s badly behaved puppet Tyrone as looking ā€œElmo-y and shit,ā€ but beyond that thereā€™s room for some interpretation. 

Hartwood, who is gay and Asian American, graduated from George Mason University in May 2023. He majored in theater with a double concentration in performance and design/technology, and minored in graphic design. 

ā€œWith all my varied interests thatā€™s what made sense to me,ā€ he says. ā€œIt wasnā€™t easy but now Iā€™m a flexible candidate when interviewing for work. Iā€™m skilled in design and the physical fabrication of puppets. And I also act.ā€

Based in Northern Virginia, heā€™s been with his partner for six years. Recently, Hartwood shared his thoughts on puppetry and what he wants from the future. 

WASHINGTON BLADE: Whatā€™s the attraction to puppets?

LUKE HARTWOOD:  Iā€™ve always loved puppets. It started as a kid watching cartoons, Iā€™d pause the TV get out a sheet of paper and draw a character, usually PokĆ©mon and Digimon. I learned to use shapes, rounded or sharp edges depending if I wanted to make it cute or scary. I moved from 2-D to 3-D using cereal boxes to give dimension to the drawings. Once I carved a character into the wood of my momā€™s sideboard. She wasnā€™t happy.

BLADE: Were puppets your way into theater? 

HARTWOOD: Not exactly. Despite some fear, I started acting when I was a sophomore in high school. I was a shy kid, but I wanted to be in theater. With me, I also brought my love of art and soon began working on props. It wasnā€™t unusual to see me in costume backstage between scenes building props. 

BLADE: And you continued in college?

HARTWOOD: Mine was the dreaded COVID college experience and the creation of Zoom theater. When we finally came back to live theater, my stage fright returned too. But I got past that and acted in ā€œYouā€™re a Good Man, Charlie Brownā€ [Hartwood was cast as the titular blockhead]. Itā€™s a low-tech show; I did cutouts in the style of Peanuts characters. That was fun. 

BLADE:  With ā€œHand to Godā€ at Keegan youā€™re really multitasking. Tell me a little bit about working with actors. 

HARTWOOD:  During casting, the actors were asked to bring a sock to use as a puppet. Not to show expertise but to prove some potential. 

Actor Drew Sharpe plays both Jason and his puppet Tyrone throughout the show; itā€™s like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. 

We start with basics. But then we retrain the way an actor thinks about a puppet. Not only is he marking up his script with his own blocking and intentions, but heā€™s also doing the same thing for his puppet. Itā€™s playing two roles simultaneously. Iā€™m in awe of how quickly Drew has learned and improved over the last few weeks.

BLADE: Does being queer affect your project choices? 

HARTWOOD: I try to incorporate my queerness into theater. For a while I didnā€™t know how to do that. Iā€™m not writing plays or activist pieces, but Iā€™m selective of what shows I do. I like to dedicate time to shows I care about, particularly those involving the queer and POC communities. Sometimes that means working with a smaller theater and not getting paid as much.

BLADE: Is money a concern? 

HARTWOOD: I recently quit my full-time corporate job as a business analyst at a government contracting company to focus fully on theater. If Iā€™m going to spend 40 hours of my week doing something I better love it. 

I was picturing myself in 10, 20, or 30 years. If I push my artistry now, thereā€™s more time for me to become successful or to get my big break. 

Also, I just graduated from bartending school. That should help pay the bills. 

BLADE: How does ā€œHand to Godā€ jibe with your professional ethos? 

HARTWOOD: Really well. Though not explicitly written for the queer community or POC, it explores grief, toxic masculinity and what it means to be ā€œman enough.ā€ And that resonates with a lot of queer folks. 

And, Iā€™m definitely here for the puppets 

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Theater

Two queer artists ready to debut new operas at Kennedy Center

Works by JL Marlor, Omar Najmi part of American Opera Initiative

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JL Marlor (Photo by Sy Chounchaisit)

American Opera Initiative
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
Jan. 18, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
$25.00 ā€“ $39.00
Kennedy-center.org

For those who find traditional opera off-putting or mired in the past, thereā€™s the American Opera Initiative (AOI). Now in its 12th season, the Washington National Operaā€™s well-known program pairs composers and librettists who under mentorship spend months collaborating on new work, culminating with the premiere of three 20-minute operas. 

Included in this yearā€™s exciting group are queer artists JL Marlor and Omar Najmi. While these multi-taskers lend their composition talents to AOI, they are also performers and arts administrators. Marlorā€™s bio includes electric guitarist, and performer (she fronts the celebrated indie rock band Tenderheart Bitches), and Najmi divides most of his time writing music and performing as an operatic tenor.Ā 

Marlor and librettist Claire Fuyuko Biermanā€™s ā€œCry, Wolfā€ is a short yet probing opera about three males (a late teen and two college age) who are navigating some dark internet ideologies. The work explores how the red-pilled manosphere pipeline serves as spaces of community for some people. 

ā€œTo me itā€™s a very timely piece inspired by an outlook that has consequences in the real world.ā€  She adds, ā€œWeā€™ve heard a lot about how angry incels [involuntary celibates] think about women. I want to hear what incels think about themselves.ā€

While Marlor tends to gravitate toward more serious opera pieces, Fuyuko Bierman, whose background includes standup, tends toward humor.

ā€œI think this work brought out the best in both of us. The libretto feels like a comedy until suddenly it doesnā€™t.ā€

Marlor was introduced to opera through osmosis. At her gay unclesā€™ house there was always music ā€“ usually Maria Callas or Beverly Sills. She appreciated grand opera but not with the same ardor of true buffs. But her relationship with opera changed dramatically while attending Smith College.

ā€œI was lucky enough to have Kate Soper as my first composition teacher and saw her opera ā€˜Here Be Sirensā€™ as my first piece of modern opera. I was totally hooked.ā€ 

Originally from picturesque Beverly, Mass., Marlor now lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their very senior dog. For Marlor, coming out at 25 in 2017 wasnā€™t entirely smooth, but finding support among the many queer women in the world of classical music helped. And more recently, AOI has bolstered her confidence in continuing a career in the arts, she says. 

Najmi and librettist Christine Evansā€™ opera is titled ā€œMud Girl.ā€ Set against a post-apocalyptic, climate-affected world, itā€™s the story of a mother, daughter, and the daughterā€™s child Poly, created from toxic detritus, trying to navigate relationships.Ā 

ā€œMost people go into opera without having had a ton of exposure.Ā  Often through musical theater or choir,ā€ says Najmi, 37. In his case, he was pursuing a BFA in musical theater at Ithaca College. After an unanticipated internal transfer to the School of Music, where he transitioned from baritone to young gifted tenor, his interest veered toward opera.Ā 

While enjoying a performance career, he wrote his first opera on a whim. ā€œAnd now,ā€ he says ā€œcomposition is my creative passion. Singing is more like a trade or sport. I love the action of doing it and practicing.ā€ 

In one of his recent operas, ā€œJo Dooba So Paar,ā€ Najmi, who is half Pakistani American, draws specifically from personal experience, exploring how queer and Muslim donā€™t necessarily need to be conflicting identities. And while he grew up in liberal Boston in a secular environment, he still had insights into what it means to exist in two worlds. Itā€™s a story he wanted to tell. Ā 

On a broader level, he says coming of age in the 1990s and aughts, on the cusp of homosexuality becoming normalized and accepted, created certain angsts. Today, his artistā€™s voice is drawn to the sentimentality that comes with unrequited longing.

Whatā€™s more, Najmi collaborates with his husband Brendon Shapiro. In 2022, the Boston-based couple co-founded Catalyst New Music, an organization dedicated to fostering, developing, and producing new works.Ā 

AOIā€™s three 20-minute operas will be led by conductor George Manahan and performed by Cafritz Young Artists on Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. 

Following their world premiere at the Kennedy Center, the three operas will travel to New York City in a co-presentation with the Kaufman Music Center. The Jan. 23 performance will mark AOIā€™s first appearance in New York City.

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2024 a memorable year in local theater

Engaging premiers, reprises, and some particularly strong performances

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Stephen Mark Lukas (Photo courtesy of Lukas)

For D.C. theater, itā€™s been a year of engaging premiers, reprises, and some particularly strong performances. Here are a few of the standouts. 

At Round House Theatre, 2024 kicked off with ā€œNext to Normal,ā€ Brian Yorkey and Tom Kittā€™s masterful alt-rock musical. Strikingly helmed by out director Alan Paul, the production featured a marvelous Tracy Lynn Olivera as Diana Goodman, a homemaker struggling with mental illness. 

Despite years of scary manic episodes, med adjustments, and endless flat days filled with robotically performed household chores and married life, she maintains a wry sense of humor peppered with sarcastic asides.

At Studio Theatre in spring, nonbinary playwright Bryna Turnerā€™s ā€œAt the Weddingā€ made a regional debut with a production directed by Tom Story. The queer comedy about a woman crashing her exā€™s wedding and hoping not to make a scene.

Also in spring, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Gustavo Ott and Mariano Valeā€™s ā€œThe Return of Eva PerĆ³n: Momia en el closetā€ a dark musical comedy filled with history and madness starred out actor Fran Tapia as the taxidermized former first lady. She was terrific. 

Set against the harsh landscape of World War I, ā€œPrivate Jonesā€ a new musical written and directed by Marshall Pailet, premiered at Signature Theatre in Arlington in February.

The production featured a cast of hearing, Deaf, and hard-of-hearing actors including Dickie Drew Hearts, the Deaf, gay, and appealing actor who won an Obie Award for ā€œDark Disabled Stories,ā€ a Public Theatre production. 

At Signature, Hearts played Henry, a Deaf munitions worker. At the time, he told the Blade, ā€œI know that queer people have always been here and I like to infuse that into the characters I play whether or not itā€™s stated. I look for those moments of where it might be hinting at sexuality, and ask what was it like at the time, was it safe to be out?ā€

Throughout summerā€™s Capital Fringe, D.C.ā€™s annual edgy performing arts festival, there was ample opportunity to see some new and different things.  

Included in the offerings was work by Sharp Dance Company performed at DCJCC in Dupont.  Sharp company member Wren Coleman, a transmasculine dancer and educator based in Philadelphia, described the group as very LGBTQ friendly and noted that their summer dances were of particular interest to queer people. 

In July, Stephen Mark Lukas brought his good looks and considerable talent to the Kennedy Center Opera where he played Nick Arnstein, the love interest of Katerina McCrimmonā€™s Fanny Brice in the national tour of the Broadway revival of ā€œFunny Girl.ā€ 

ā€œThese older book musicals are character driven and have great scores,ā€ he shared. ā€œItā€™s what makes them relevant today. On the surface they might feel dated, but thereā€™s also the contemporary humor and romance.ā€

As a leading man in musical theater, Lukas has played the straight love interest more than once, but heā€™s never been too concerned about his sexuality getting in the way of the work. ā€œThe acting takes care of that,ā€ he said. 

In North Bethesda, Strathmore dedicated two months to celebrating the greatness of James Baldwin. programming included live musical and theatrical events celebrating the late writerā€™s genius. 

In late September, Tony Award winning out actor Gavin Creel, 48, died from a rare and aggressive cancer.

Just a year and a half earlier, heā€™d been at the Kennedy Center headlining with a national tour of the Broadway hit production of ā€œInto to the Woods.ā€ He played both the lascivious Wolf and Cinderellaā€™s Prince, two terrific scene stealing roles that allowed him to show off his gorgeous voice and comedic magic.

In December, much-admired childrenā€™s television screenwriter and producer Chris Nee went from TV to stage at the Kennedy Center with ā€œFinn,ā€ her heartwarming musical about a young shark who dreams of following in his familyā€™s footsteps by joining the prestigious Shark Guard and the challenges and moments of self-discovery he faces along the way. 

Nee is best known for being the creator of the popular Disney animated series ā€œDoc McStuffinsā€ (the first Disney show to air an episode featuring an interracial lesbian couple as well as other kidsā€™ shows ā€œRidley Jonesā€ and ā€œVampirina.ā€  

And at Studio Theatre, out actor/director Holly Twyford moves into the new year starring opposite Kate Eastwood Norris in David Auburnā€™s ā€œSummer, 1976ā€ (through Jan. 12), a wonderfully acted memory play about two very different women and their longtime friendship.

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