Arts & Entertainment
Hay days
Rep Stage production portrays early gay rights legend
‘The Temperamentals’
Through Sept. 16
Rep Stage
Howard Community College
10901 Little Patuxent Parkway
Columbia, Md.
$15-$40
443-518-1500
‘Harry believed that not only should [gay people] have rights but we also should also have the right to act the way our culture is, to be ourselves even if that’s not pleasing to mainstream society,’ says gay actor RICK HAMMERLY. ‘This was very progressive thinking for the conformist 1950s. Harry had radical ideas and wasn’t always very diplomatic, but he contributed immeasurably to the gay movement before it even had a name.’ (Blade photo by Michael Key)
In “The Temperamentals,” gay playwright Jon Marans follows real life lovers Harry Hay and Rudi Gernreich in 1950s Los Angeles as they boldly build the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights organization in the United States.
Marans’ compelling 2009 comedy/drama is currently in production at the award-winning Rep Stage in Columbia, Md.
According to the amiable playwright, speaking via telephone from his apartment in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen, “Typically we don’t think of Los Angeles as the hub of political activity, but what Harry Hay was doing there at the time was revolutionary. He was a visionary who saw the world differently than anyone in the U.S. back then. Hay [who died in 2002] was joyfully unapologetic about who he was. His attitude was, ‘It’s not my problem. It’s yours.’”
Marans first learned of Hay when he wrote the book to a musical based on Studs Terkel’s “Coming of Age,” a collection of interviews with activists all over 70, one of whom was Hay. The show, Marans says, “is political and very funny, particularly the part of Harry.”
The experience left Marans inspired to write more about Hay. He zeroed in on an earlier, sexier time in Hay’s life when he was ending his marriage to a woman and having a red hot affair with clothing designer Rudi Gernreich (noted for the first women’s topless bathing suit).
“Harry wasn’t an easy man. He was sort of the Larry Kramer of his day,” Marans says. “People didn’t want to work with Harry. If it weren’t for Rudi, with his abundant Viennese charm, and the several other founders, the Mattachine might never have happened.”
In forming the initially very small and secret society, Hay and fellow members came together and formally wrote down what it meant to be gay men and what was important to them. It was a journey of self discovery. Some reviews describe “The Tempermentals” as a kind of gay docudrama, but, Marans says, the play is also an exploration of our core selves and what it means to be gay and part of gay culture.
During the Eisenhower era, “temperamental” was one of various code word used by gays for gays. It was wise to stay away from calling anyone homosexual — an accusation at the root of witch hunts, police entrapments, undeserved pink slips and sometimes jail time. In his play, threats and fears are addressed and the productions are always better, Marans says, when that fear is made palpable.
Rep Stage’s artistic director Michael Stebbins, who’s gay, first saw “The Temperamentals” in New York with a much older gay friend. “After we left the theater, he said the play rang entirely true. It accurately reflects those scary but exciting times.”
As Rep Stage’s season opener, Stebbins says it fits with Rep’s mission to include a contemporary work that is both is entertaining and informative, and speaks to the American experience of cultural minority. For LGBT audiences, he says, it will inform and strengthen self-awareness.
Directed by Kasi Campbell, the production features Nigel Reed as Harry along with Vaughn Irving, Brandon McCoy and Rick Hammerly. Alexander Strain plays Rudi. Hammerly is the lone gay actor in the production’s five-man cast. Throughout rehearsals, he was called on to act as a sort of gay translator, explaining lingo and cultural cues.
“You assume actors would know better, but these straight guys were clueless about a lot of things,” he says. “It’s been interesting and a responsibility. I want this to feel as authentic as possible.”
Busy with his theater company (Factory 449) and grad school, Hammerly has to be selective about what projects he takes on. With “The Temperamentals,” he found the history and playing Bob Hull, a Mattachine founding member whom Marans writes with humor, too tempting to pass up.
“As a gay man,” says the Helen Hayes Award-winning local actor, “it’s important for me to pass this history on, especially to younger gay people who aren’t aware that it’s a big deal to be able to marry your partner or hold his hand in public. They need to know and understand the enormous strides made by people like Harry Hay.”
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
The second annual Frederick Pride Parade was held in the streets of downtown Frederick, Md. on Friday, June 26.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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Theater
Carla Hall goes from ‘Top Chef’ to the stage
Solo show ‘Please Underestimate Me’ premieres at Olney
‘Please Underestimate Me’
Through July 12
Olney Theatre Center
at Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab
2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd.
Olney, Md.
$47-$101
Olneytheatre.org
Carla Hall gained celebrity status from Bravo TV’s “Top Chef.” She was funny and fun, and with her kooky signature catch phrase “Hooty hoo” and the southern-inspired recipes she lovingly cooked, Hall stood out in a kitchen crammed with contestants.
Now the D.C.-based Hall is taking revisiting her earliest love with the world premiere of her solo show “Please Underestimate Me,” currently running at Olney Theatre Center’s intimate and revamped Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab.
In the 90-minute piece (written by Hall, Lori Kaye, and Kaye’s partner Leslie Thomas; and directed by Lili-Anne Brown), Hall leads with food but quickly swerves into her personal and other aspects of her professional life. Built around an immersive fictional TV cooking show, her new play draws on experiences from her seven seasons (2011-2019) co-hosting cooking/chat show “The Chew”an ABC daytime proving ground, and her heady years on “Top Chef.” (2008, 2010).
Born and raised in Nashville, Hall wanted to attend Boston University to major in theater, but was rejected. Instead, she went to Howard University at her mother’s urging, where she ultimately majored in accounting. After graduating in 1986, she donned a bespoke business suit and briefly worked as a CPA for Price Waterhouse.
Business wasn’t for Hall. Tall and slender, she walked the runways in Paris for a while before ultimately finding her niche as a chef. Cooking seemed to come from her heart, something she learned from her grandmother who not incidentally bankrolled Hall’s way through culinary school.
Now she’s bringing the vibrancy and good humor that made her a “Top Chef” fan favorite and a popular TV host to the stage with “Please Underestimate Me.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: You seem a natural live performer. Were at all you nervous about doing this?
CARLA HALL: Anytime you step outside of what you’re known for you have to take a risk and make it happen. I’d been working on this the idea for seven years. I decided that I really wanted to do a variety show and really wanted to step back into my original love of theater.
I didn’t know what that looked like so I was asking a lot of people, actors and friends, about how to break into it. Can they see me as more than a chef? So, I told my agency to book me for voice overs, cameo roles. I got an acting coach and I was seeing a lot of single person shows. I literally embodied the thing that I wanted.
BLADE: Have you always been a vocal and public ally of the queer community?
HALL: For me, it’s natural. I came from the theater and dance world. I have a lot of gay and queer friends.
There’s something about people being gay and queer that goes with a need to be authentic to yourself. I think that’s why you find a lot of queer people in the arts. Dare to be you. Dare to be different, right? I like that.
BLADE: Long ago, I remember stopping by a Safeway in Wheaton to grab a sheet cake for a party. Your second or first episode of “Top Chef” had just aired. I wanted to yell “Hooty hoo” across the aisles, but was too shy.
CARLA HALL: My catering kitchen was near that Safeway.You should have yelled. I’d have given you a hug. I’ll hug almost anyone.
BLADE: Thanks. I think. You hear actors saying there’s nothing quite like TV fame because you’re invited into people’s living rooms. What were those days like when you started being recognized?
HALL: I like people. I tell Matthew [Matthew Lyons, Hall’s husband of 20 years], when fans say hello it’s my chance to get to learn about them. I owe them a lot; without them I wouldn’t be working.
BLADE: At Olney, Lauren M. Nichols’ surprise-filled set and Kelly Colburn’s projections of your personal snapshots from over the years are really wonderful.
HALL: It becomes really emotional. At the end of the show, I see 12-year-old me. I’m looking at that girl, and they did a put a little crown on my head, and I’m living her dream 50 years later.
BLADE: Is the pace hard?
HALL: Seven shows a week isn’t easy. I used to say “Top Chef” was my most grueling experience…well, that was before I did this.
BLADE: And is it gratifying?
HALL: At the end of the day, yes. Look, this play is filled with personal highs and lows and emotionally it’s exhausting. It’s also rewarding. Two weeks before the show started, I wasn’t sure I could do this.
BLADE: But of course, you are doing it. And you’re doing it so well.
HALL: A while back, I reached out to the executive producer of “The Chew” and thanked him for being the messenger of my lessons. Without those experiences I wouldn’t be here now doing “Please Underestimate Me.” My confidence has definitely grown. I’m a firm believer that everything that happens to you is for you.
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