It seems LA’s theater scene is being rocked with allegations of sexual misconduct…. gay ones!
A few years ago, Michael A. Shepperd contacted me about getting the rights to “Southern Comfort”… he was professional and kind and smart. We weren’t ready to release the rights, but he really wanted the show for his Celebration Theater in LA. He’s now at the center of a perfect storm of “queer safe spaces”, sexual shenanigans, vision, community theater, race, professional theater, and the growing minefield that is the arts today.
This woke wrestling match takes place in a 55 seat theater in LA which was founded as an LGBTQ dreamland focusing on the queer community. It’s a 99 seat waiver theater or code theater …which simply translates into actors making sub-minimum wages where a day’s pay wouldn’t buy a pack of cigarettes. The majority of theaters in LA are these little storefront odes to the dream vs. considering selling your kidney to pay your rent. But they gain a lot of attention and local awards and cache at the same time… the Celebration theater certainly did.
“Shepperd also said he and Diego collaborated closely on how their characters would act during the show. He said it was Diego who suggested they kiss at a certain point in the show and, because of a knee injury, Diego would help Shepperd get dressed backstage. During those times, Shepperd said, Diego would “slide down my leg slowly while staring me in the eye, and it was very seductive and lustful and subservient.”
I guess the thing that interests me.. well one of them…in this passion play, is splitting the harassmentbaby into sex or “queer and performative” expression:
“A “showmance,” Shepperd said, developed on and off stage. “Were there moments that I put my hands on his hips? Sure. Were there moments where he slid his hands up my legs? Sure,” Shepperd said. “Was it done in a sexual manner, or in a queer and performative manner?”
Right there is the heart of what is the death by a thousand cuts of theater today. The no man’s land of intention, culpability, blame, shame and power. What’s allowable behavior under the proposed AEA pronoun and safety monitors observing ,well, everything? Are the actors in character? Are they not? Is there some sort of bell that the harassment monitor rings when you can get all crazy in a crazy, darkly funny show? Creating a self conscious environment where you police yourself, get in your own way, or others do is where art and performance chokes and becomes boring as bat shit. Of course there are limits to that, but the pendulum is swinging further to getting a lawyer before you start rehearsal.
“We had characters that were super flirty, super fun and naughty bawdy, and sometimes that naughty bawdy fun-ness from both of us would carry off onstage and go backstage,” Shepperd said.”
He’s got a point. Even if we social justice warriors decide he should know better.
But I do think that when professional theater sorta becomes community theater…like the star dressing room doubling as the bathroom!, not paying actors, or company members painting said stardressingroombathroom …the lines get blurrier.. evidently there were complaints to at least one Equity stage manager who should have intervened. But she didn’t because she and the union probably don’t consider this theater a professional workspace. I guess the “queer positive, sex positive safe space” got a bit more Ramrod than Ripley Grier. But someone pooped on the floor in a rehearsal room there so who knows anymore.
I guess one man’s queer safe space is another’s office of Franklin Hart. Dolly made it clear what her limits were… maybe we should all follow Dolly’s lead and speak up before we change men from a rooster to a hen with one shot…. or call a newspaper, go on social media, or whip up an “open letter” and accomplish the same thing.
I do question why this stuff winds up in newspapers. I find reporting that a man who considers himself a victim had nine more “consensual” encounters a pretty absurd narrative. And divulging very gross, stupid things that we’ve all said… out of context.. as weapons to take down a “titan in the industry” telling.
But, if you wanna be a”professional”.. whatever that is… it’s not wise to use your theater as a a jumble of gay mumbo jumbo to get laid. Because people do get hurt. I believe that they really felt pressured, particularly because he’s a successful black man, and their identities and dreams were intertwined with a teeny theater in LA where they were gonna find fame and fortune. Well maybe not fortune. And fame from accusations possibly.
“Generational differences played a role in the perception and acceptance of sexual advances, some of the men said. Older gay men tended to be more comfortable with a vibe in which sexual advances were an expression of freedom, while younger gay men expected a more professional atmosphere in which to pursue their chosen art form. To them, the theater is a workplace, not a social gathering.”
That made me laugh. It’s far from true…
I think in general many people in the theater industry today don’t take allegations from gay men very seriously. I’m not sure where these fit by the way… but there are many others. In fact, I think there is a casual homophobia that has crept in that’s alarming. Broadway is way behind the curve in addressing it, while at the same time Actors Equity is promoting a disturbing blame game starring white gay men.
So, theater’s now back with a new, inclusive, diverse sheen. We are woke. Super awake. That’s what the papers say. That’s the pledge. That’s the promise. The Renaissance.
So what will Broadway do with “MJ:The Musical”?
“MJ is the electrifying new Broadway musical that takes audiences inside the creative process of one of the greatest entertainers in history.”
By the way, his name is Michael Jackson.
You know the rest… will Broadway hit the snooze button on this one? Or woke up?
Robert DuSold 
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