Arts & Entertainment
Several factors contributed to Omega closing
Long-time manager attributes shuttering to changing gay social scene
Omega in 2009 (Washington Blade file photo by Henry Linser)
A few more details emerged this week about the closing of long-time Dupont Circle-based gay bar Omega, although specifics of who purchased the property remain undisclosed.
Perry Morehouse, who started there as a bartender 35 years ago and was its general manager for about the last 20 years, said this week he doesn’t know specifics other than that “it was sold to two guys that are gonna make it their private residence.” As for the sudden closing, he said it was explained to him that the business, which opened as The Fraternity House on Sept. 1, 1976 according to Mark Meinke of Rainbow History Project, had to be dissolved and moved out by year’s end.
Morehouse concurs it is unfortunate that such a long-time staple of D.C. gay nightlife didn’t get to have a closing night party as other former D.C. gay bars and clubs have done, but said the decision was beyond his control.
“I wasn’t involved in the decision at all,” Morehouse said. “I think with the people involved, it had to be closed before the end of the year. It’s just a guess, but it may have been a tax issue, I’m not sure.”
Morehouse said the building/business had been for sale since May. It was located at the rear of 2122 P Street, NW, the address it used in its promotions, though the technical address was 2123 Twining Court, NW.
“We just always used that in our advertising and such because nobody knew where Twining Court was, but everybody knows P Street,” Morehouse said.
He also said owner Glen Thompson, a Delaware resident who also owned the nearby gay bar/club Apex (now closed) and former Rehoboth Beach, Del.,-based gay club Renegade, declined to answer questions about the business or why it was sold. Morehouse declined to comment on the degree to which Thompson was involved in the business.
Morehouse did, however, offer his own thoughts. He said business had been “a lot slower” in recent years.
“I attribute it to a couple things,” he told the Blade. “One, the gay demographic has moved farther east … it got to where it was hard to get people to cross over to the west side of the Circle. Second, we were mainly a cruise bar and in the advent of the internet, it really hurt some of that. Suddenly you can go online and pull up a thousand people in D.C., Maryland and Virginia all looking for a date. They all used to be at the bar.”
Morehouse said while certain specials — like their “shirtless men drink free” nights on Wednesdays — remained popular, it’s untenable to run such specials all the time.
“You can’t give the bar away every night,” he said. “People go where the specials are. We were popular on Wednesdays. Green Lantern had theirs on Thursdays. JR.’s is popular on Sunday afternoons. The bears go to bear happy hour, but most of them don’t go out other nights. It’s just the way things are with demographics now.”
He also said gay assimilation into mainstream society has taken a toll on traditional gay watering holes and hang-out spots.
“Twenty years ago, gay people went to gay bars to hang out with other gay people and I don’t think you have that as much anymore,” Morehouse said. “People used to go to Annie’s because you could be with your own kind. Now, five gay men can go have dinner together anywhere and not feel out of place. I’ve even seen two guys out on the dance floor at a straight bar and hardly anyone looks sideways, especially in D.C. People don’t feel uncomfortable out like they used to. They feel they can let their hair down just about anywhere now.”
According to D.C. property records, the Twining Court location was sold to Thompson in 2005 for $2 million. Morehouse confirmed that prior to that, the location was rented. Sales records have not yet been posted for the current transaction, but the property has a proposed 2013 value of $2.2 million. It’s registered as a historic carriage house in Washington, a point Morehouse said had little impact on their ability to use it as a bar. He said about 15 employees were on staff, not counting contract employees such as DJs.
“A lot of people worked there a long time,” he said. “We had a couple bartenders who were there 15 to 20 years, so there’s quite a few that had worked there quite awhile.”
Morehouse said the name was changed to Omega “probably 16 or 17 years ago” though the reason for the change was “something I honestly don’t know.”
Morehouse informed employees Dec. 26 of the closing. Its website initially remained live but now a blank black screen appears at omegadc.com.
Deacon Maccubbin, owner of now-closed gay bookstore Lambda Rising, said in an e-mail that “we’ll miss seeing Perry behind the upstairs bar.” He and partner James Bennett met there when it was The Fraternity House.
“So it’s held a fond spot in our memories for 35 years,” Maccubbin wrote.
Washington Blade staff writer Lou Chibbaro Jr. contributed to this report.
The 32nd annual Roanoke Pride Festival was held at Elmwood Park in Roanoke, Va. on Sunday, April 29.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Eight contestants vied for Mr., Miss and Mx. Capital Pride 2024 at a pageant at Penn Social on Saturday. Xander Childs Valentino was crowned Mr. Capital Pride, Dylan B. Dickherson White was crowned Mx. Capital Pride and Sasha Adams Sanchez was crowned Miss Capital Pride.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
Round House explores serious issues related to privilege
‘A Jumping-Off Point’ is absorbing, timely, and funny
‘A Jumping-Off Point’
Through May 5
Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Md.
$46-$83
Roundhousetheatre.org
In Inda Craig-Galván’s new play “A Jumping-Off Point,” protagonist Leslie Wallace, a rising Black dramatist, believes strongly in writing about what you know. Clearly, Craig-Galván, a real-life successful Black playwright and television writer, adheres to the same maxim. Whether further details from the play are drawn from her life, is up for speculation.
Absorbing, timely, and often funny, the current Round House Theatre offering explores some serious issues surrounding privilege and who gets to write about what. Nimbly staged and acted by a pitch perfect cast, the play moves swiftly across what feels like familiar territory without being the least bit predictable.
After a tense wait, Leslie (Nikkole Salter) learns she’s been hired to be showrunner and head writer for a new HBO MAX prestige series. What ought to be a heady time for the ambitious young woman quickly goes sour when a white man bearing accusations shows up at her door.
The uninvited visitor is Andrew (Danny Gavigan), a fellow student from Leslie’s graduate playwriting program. The pair were never friends. In fact, he pressed all of her buttons without even trying. She views him as a lazy, advantaged guy destined to fail up, and finds his choosing to dramatize the African American Mississippi Delta experience especially annoying.
Since grad school, Leslie has had a play successfully produced in New York and now she’s on the cusp of making it big in Los Angeles while Andrew is bagging groceries at Ralph’s. (In fact, we’ll discover that he’s a held a series of wide-ranging temporary jobs, picking up a lot of information from each, a habit that will serve him later on, but I digress.)
Their conversation is awkward as Andrew’s demeanor shifts back and forth from stiltedly polite to borderline threatening. Eventually, he makes his point: Andrew claims that Leslie’s current success is entirely built on her having plagiarized his script.
This increasingly uncomfortable set-to is interrupted by Leslie’s wisecracking best friend and roommate Miriam who has a knack for making things worse before making them better. Deliciously played by Cristina Pitter (whose program bio describes them as “a queer multi-spirit Afro-indigenous artist, abolitionist, and alchemist”), Miriam is the perfect third character in Craig-Galván’s deftly balanced three-hander.
Cast members’ performances are layered. Salter’s Leslie is all charm, practicality, and controlled ambition, and Gavigan’s Andrew is an organic amalgam of vulnerable, goofy, and menacing. He’s terrific.
The 90-minute dramedy isn’t without some improbable narrative turns, but fortunately they lead to some interesting places where provoking questions are representation, entitlement, what constitutes plagiarism, etc. It’s all discussion-worthy topics, here pleasingly tempered with humor.
New York-based director Jade King Carroll skillfully helms the production. Scenes transition smoothly in large part due to a top-notch design team. Scenic designer Meghan Raham’s revolving set seamlessly goes from Leslie’s attractive apartment to smart cafes to an HBO writers’ room with the requisite long table and essential white board. Adding to the graceful storytelling are sound and lighting design by Michael Keck and Amith Chandrashaker, respectively.
The passage of time and circumstances are perceptively reflected in costume designer Moyenda Kulemeka’s sartorial choices: heels rise higher, baseball caps are doffed and jackets donned.
“A Jumping-Off Point” is the centerpiece of the third National Capital New Play Festival, an annual event celebrating new work by some of the country’s leading playwrights and newer voices.
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