Arts & Entertainment
Sharing the stage
Gay partners both have roles in touring ‘Beauty’
Matt Kopec, left, and David Baur. The actors and real-life partners say working together has not been problematic for their relationship and they actually prefer it. (Photo courtesy Center Stage Marketing)
‘Beauty and the Beast’
Through June 24
National Theatre
1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
800-447-7400
To hear young actor David Baur expound on the bliss of touring with the Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast” (now at National Theatre), you might think he is playing the lead or one of the more featured roles. In fact, he’s a member of the ensemble who’s best remembered as the tumbling carpet.
Still, he loves the part, and so much more. There’s the memorable score by Alan Menken (music) and Howard Ashman and Tim Rice (lyrics), a supportive cast and crew, and traveling from city to city. And, as any actor will tell you, it’s always great to be working, but it gets even better — Baur’s fiancé, actor Matt Kopec, is in the show too. Also an ensemble member, Kopec plays a townsperson, assorted enchanted objects (knife, pepper pot and gargoyle), and has a short featured bit as creepy Monsieur d’Arque, director of the local insane asylum.
The upbeat couple got together during their freshman year at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, where they both studied theater. Since graduating in 2009, Baur and Kopec (who both turn 26 later this month) have worked in theater professionally without interruption and also managed jobs in the same shows more often than not, which is no easy thing to pull off.
“We’ve been with ‘Beauty and the Beast’ for a while. I joined the show in January 2011,” Baur says. “And Matt joined six months later in July. Just before I left to go on tour, Matt and I exchanged rings. We wore them on our right hands. And then last Thanksgiving on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, when we talked seriously about marriage for the first time, we moved the rings to our left hands. When we actually do marry we’ll upgrade our bands. I’m thinking something from Tiffany’s.”
But is all this working and living together too much togetherness? “No,” Kopec says. “We built up to it. Although we didn’t live together in college, we spent a lot of time together in class during the day and performing at night. At school, we played arch enemies Bernardo and Riff opposite each other in ‘West Side Story.’ We learned how to separate our professional and personal lives early on.”
“Just after college, we worked for nine months together performing on cruise ships,” adds Baur. “After living on top of each other as roommates in the tight confines of our tiny room on the ship, we consider hotel rooms on the road are a luxury. If it were up to us, we’d always work together.”
“Beauty and the Beast” premiered on Broadway in 1994 and ran through 2007. It’s based on the same- titled 1991 Disney hit film that was adapted from the traditional fairy tale about beautiful Belle’s happily-ever-after romance with the kindly Prince/Beast. Baur and Kopec especially enjoy the show’s several rousing song and dance numbers. A former competitive gymnast, Baur brings tumbling skills to his role. Kopec describes himself as a singer/actor/dancer (in that order) and is taking advantage of the run to hone his dancing skills.
Baur rates the musical as his second favorite animated Disney feature just behind “Aladdin,” mainly because he had a crush on that film’s cutely drawn title character.
The upbeat couple plans to marry later this year in a quiet civil ceremony in New York. And sometime next year they’d like to include family and friends in a big celebration back in Ohio where their parents live just 30 minutes apart. “Plans are all a little tentative right now,” Baur says. “We’ll do it our own way and don’t feel any reason to rush. We know it will work out.”
For Baur and Kopec, the fairy tale tour will soon draw to a close. Their contracts ends in July after a three-week run in Toronto and neither actor plans to renew. Instead, they will return to New York and pursue more acting opportunities. Both realize they may not be cast in the same show again for years, or maybe never. But for now, they’re enjoying sharing the same stage.
Team DC, the umbrella organization for LGBTQ-friendly sports teams and leagues in the D.C. area, held its annual Night of Champions Awards Gala on Saturday, April 20 at the Hilton National Mall. The organization gave out scholarships to area LGBTQ student athletes as well as awards to the Different Drummers, Kelly Laczko of Duplex Diner, Stacy Smith of the Edmund Burke School, Bryan Frank of Triout, JC Adams of DCG Basketball and the DC Gay Flag Football League.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The 2024 National Cannabis Festival was held at the Fields at RFK Stadium on April 19-20.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Covering the @NatlCannaFest at RFK Stadium for @WashBlade . Stop by the LGBTQ+ booth and pick up a paper if you are here. pic.twitter.com/is7hnsaPns
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) April 20, 2024
Theater
‘Amm(i)gone’ explores family, queerness, and faith
A ‘fully autobiographical’ work from out artist Adil Mansoor
‘Amm(i)gone’
Thorough May 12
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
641 D St., N.W.
$60-$70
Woollymammoth.net
“Fully and utterly autobiographical.” That’s how Adil Mansoor describes “Amm(i)gone,” his one-man work currently playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
Both created and performed by out artist Mansoor, it’s his story about inviting his Pakistani mother to translate Sophocles’s Greek tragedy “Antigone” into Urdu. Throughout the journey, there’s an exploration of family, queerness, and faith,as well as references to teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations with his Muslim mother.
Mansoor, 38, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and is now based in Pittsburgh where he’s a busy theater maker. He’s also the founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former artistic director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQ youth arts organization.
WASHINGTON BLADE: What spurred you to create “Amm(i)gone”?
ADIL MANSOOR: I was reading a translation of “Antigone” a few years back and found myself emotionally overwhelmed. A Theban princess buries her brother knowing it will cost her, her own life. It’s about a person for whom all aspirations are in the afterlife. And what does that do to the living when all of your hopes and dreams have to be reserved for the afterlife?
I found grant funding to pay my mom to do the translation. I wanted to engage in learning. I wanted to share theater but especially this ancient tragedy. My mother appreciated the characters were struggling between loving one another and their beliefs.
BLADE: Are you more director than actor?
MANSOOR: I’m primarily a director with an MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon. I wrote, directed, and performed in this show, and had been working on it for four years. I’ve done different versions including Zoom. Woolly’s is a new production with the same team who’ve been involved since the beginning.
I love solo performance. I’ve produced and now teach solo performance and believe in its power. And I definitely lean toward “performance” and I haven’t “acted” since I was in college. I feel good on stage. I was a tour guide and do a lot of public speaking. I enjoy the attention.
BLADE: Describe your mom.
MANSOOR: My mom is a wonderfully devout Muslim, single mother, social worker who discovered my queerness on Google. And she prays for me.
She and I are similar, the way we look at things, the way we laugh. But different too. And those are among the questions I ask in this show. Our relationship is both beautiful and complicated.
BLADE: So, you weren’t exactly hiding your sexuality?
MANSOOR: In my mid-20s, I took time to talk with friends about our being queer with relation to our careers. My sexuality is essential to the work. As the artistic director at Dreams of Hope, part of the work was to model what it means to be public. If I’m in a room with queer and trans teenagers, part of what I’m doing is modeling queer adulthood. The way they see me in the world is part of what I’m putting out there. And I want that to be expansive and full.
So much of my work involves fundraising and being a face in schools. Being out is about making safe space for queer young folks.
BLADE: Have you encountered much Islamophobia?
MANSOOR: When 9/11 happened, I was a sophomore in high school, so yes. I faced a lot then and now. I’ve been egged on the street in the last four months. I see it in the classroom. It shows up in all sorts of ways.
BLADE: What prompted you to lead your creative life in Pittsburgh?
MANSOOR: I’ve been here for 14 years. I breathe with ease in Pittsburgh. The hills and the valleys and the rust of the city do something to me. It’s beautiful, it’ affordable, and there is support for local artists. There’s a lot of opportunity.
Still, the plan was to move to New York in September of 2020 but that was cancelled. Then the pandemic showed me that I could live in Pittsburgh and still have a nationally viable career.
BLADE: What are you trying to achieve with “Amm(i)gone”?
MANSOOR: What I’m sharing in the show is so very specific but I hear people from other backgrounds say I totally see my mom in that. My partner is Catholic and we share so much in relation to this.
I hope the work is embracing the fullness of queerness and how means so many things. And I hope the show makes audiences want to call their parents or squeeze their partners.
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‘Amm(i)gone’ explores family, queerness, and faith
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