Arts & Entertainment
Women Crush Wednesdays is new monthly happy hour
Monthly event at Trade for LBT women born out of ‘mutual need’


The July gathering of Women Crush Wednesday, a new monthly happy hour for LBT women. (Photo courtesy Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter-Poza)
The sudden closing of Phase 1 last year provided an opening some local lesbians are taking advantage of.
Women Crush Wednesday, a new “laid-back” happy hour for LBT women, happens monthly at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.) and was born out of what its organizer says is mutual need.
“It’s not filling a void per se,” says organizer Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter-Poza. “I think it’s providing a different setting.”
Jacob Noel, who is on staff at Trade was talking with Buckwalter-Poza about a desire to get more women into the bar. Buckwalter-Poza, a lesbian, felt there was a need for a casual queer female space in D.C.
Buckwalter-Poza finds that most queer female events post-Phase have been “sporadic, formal or late night.” There are events like Ladies’ Tea and networking or professional events hosted by GLASS and Q Street. Buckwalter-Poza says what makes this event different is the generally consistent nature and midweek early evening start time.
Buckwalter-Poza pitched the idea to Noel who put her in contact with a manager and thus Women Crush Wednesday was born. She describes the partnership between the two as “organic” and says Trade’s central location is part of its appeal.
The inaugural event took place in June with a crowd of around 40 women of all colors and queer identities who stayed for hours. It was well received with “a lot of enthusiasm” especially for an event with limited promotion.
In keeping with the laid-back vibe there is a “mix off” at every event where attendees submit drink recipes and the two best drinks become the specials for the night based on popular vote. Last month’s included “the Cukes to Watch Out For” which combines cucumber, ginger beer, vodka and lime.
As the event progresses, Buckwalter-Poza hopes it remains a space where queer women can build community and make connections. Buckwalter-Poza and Nikki Keown, the organizer of the lesbian happy hour LezLink are working together on a new quarterly event for queer women in D.C.
Women Crush Wednesday is monthly, but time and date consistencies will develop over time. For more information on the next event, visit the Women Crush Wednesday group on Facebook.

The 13th annual Hagerstown Pride Festival was held at Doubs Woods Park in Hagerstown, Md. on Saturday, June 21.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)






















Theater
‘Hunter S. Thompson’ an unlikely but rewarding choice for musical theater
‘Speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country’

‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical’
Through July 13
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.
$47 to $98
Sigtheatre.org
The raucous world of the counterculture journalist may not seem the obvious choice for musical theater, but the positive buzz surrounding Signature Theatre’s production of Joe Iconis’s “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” suggests otherwise.
As the titular, drug addled and gun-toting writer, Eric William Morris memorably moves toward his character’s suicide in 2005 at 67. He’s accompanied by an ensemble cast playing multiple roles including out actor George Salazar as Thompson’s sidekick Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, a bigger than life Mexican American attorney, author, and activist in the Chicano Movement who follows closely behind.
Salazar performs a show-stopping number — “The Song of the Brown Buffalo,” a rowdy and unforgettable musical dive into a man’s psyche.
“Playing the part of Oscar, I’m living my Dom daddy activist dreams. For years, I was cast as the best friend with a heart of gold. Quite differently, here, I’m tasked with embodying all the toxic masculinity of the late ‘60s, and a rampant homophobia, almost folded into the culture.”
He continues, “My sexuality aside, I like to think that Oscar would be thrilled by my interpretation of him in that song.
“Our upbringings are similar. I’m mixed race – Filipino and Ecuadorian and we grew up similarly,” says Salazar, 39. “He didn’t fit in as white or Mexican American, and fell somewhere in the middle. Playing Oscar [who also at 39 in 1974 forever disappeared in Mexico], I pulled out a lot of experience about having to code switch before finally finding myself and being confident just doing my own thing.
“As we meet Oscar in the show we find exactly where’s he’s at. Take me or leave me, I couldn’t care less.”
In 2011, just three years after earning his BFA in musical theater from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Salazar fortuitously met Iconis at a bar in New York. The pair became fast friends and collaborators: “This is our third production,” says George. “So, when Joe comes to me with an idea, there hasn’t been a moment that I don’t trust him.”
In “Be More Chill,” one of Iconis’s earlier works, Salazar originated the role of Michael Mell, a part that he counts as one of the greatest joys of artistic life.
With the character, a loyal and caring friend who isn’t explicitly queer but appeals to queer audiences, Salazar developed a fervent following. And for an actor who didn’t come out to his father until he was 30, being in a place to support the community, especially younger queer people, has proved incredibly special.
“When you hear Hunter and Oscar, you might think ‘dude musical,’ but I encourage all people to come see it.” Salazar continues, “Queer audiences should give the show a shot. As a musical, it’s entertaining, funny, serious, affecting, and beautiful. As a gay man stepping into this show, it’s so hetero and I wasn’t sure what to do. So, I took it upon myself that any of the multiple characters I play outside of Oscar, were going to be queer.
Queer friends have seen it and love it, says Salazar. His friend, Tony Award-winning director Sam Pinkleton (“Oh, Mary!”) saw Hunter S. Thompson at the La Jolla Playhouse during its run in California, and said it was the best musical he’d seen in a very long time.
“Since the work’s inception almost 10 years ago, I was the first Oscar to read the script. In the interim, the characters’ relationships have grown but otherwise there have been no major changes. Still, it feels more impactful in different ways: It’s exciting to come here to do the show especially since Hunter S. Thompson was very political.”
Salazar, who lives in Los Angeles with his partner, a criminal justice reporter for The Guardian, is enjoying his time here in D.C. “In a time when there are so many bans – books, drag queens, and travel — all I see is division. This is an escape from that.”
He describes the Hunter Thompson musical as Iconis’s masterpiece, adding that it’s the performance that he’s most proud of to date and that feels there a lot of maturity in the work.
“In the play, Thompson talks to Nixon about being a crook and a liar,” says Salazar. “The work speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country: We seem to take them one step forward and two steps back; the performance is almost art as protest.”
Photos
PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride Parade
Senior living and healthcare organization holds fifth annual march at Falls Church campus

The senior living and healthcare organization Goodwin Living held its fifth annual Pride Parade around its Bailey’s Crossroads campus in Falls Church, Va. with residents, friends and supporters on Thursday, June 12.
(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)











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