Longer, Bigger, Better
Fourth Annual Lavender Footlights Festival Comes of Age

By Mary Damiano

	Ellen Wedner and Doug Williford, founders of Creative Arts Enterprises, will both direct staged readings in the Fourth Annual Lavender Footlights Festival, May 3-7 Photo: Mary Damiano

In the gay community, the words longer, bigger and better are important, whether you’re talking about men or theatre. 

The organizers of the Fourth Annual Lavender Footlights Festival, which takes place May 3-7 and features staged readings of gay and lesbian plays, are taking those words to heart, featuring ten plays over five days with three visiting playwrights, and increased outreach to young playwrights and gay youth groups.

While the Lavender Footlights Festival features plays with gay and lesbian themes, organizers stress that it is by no means just for the gay community.  Theatre-goers and writers, especially young, aspiring playwrights, will benefit from the opportunity to hear new work and to participate in discussions with established playwrights.

“The vision is to create a festival of gay new and emerging plays and voices in the theatrical community for the gay community in South Florida and for the theatre-loving community as well,” says Ellen Wedner, cofounder of Creative Arts Enterprises, and the festival’s executive producer. 

Creative Arts Enterprises was conceived in 2002 as a way to nurture gay and lesbian playwrights and plays with gay and lesbian themes.  The Lavender Footlights Festival  began as a weekend event held in September 2003 at the cavernous Shores Performing Arts Theatre in Miami Shores, which was difficult for a fledgling festival to fill.  In 2004 it moved to the Little Theatre on Washington Avenue and featured Tres Gai Cabaret, a musical revue with local performers.  Last year, Wedner decided it was time for a change, and moved the festival out of the theatres and into Dot Fiftyone, a gallery in the Wynwood Arts District.  The idea was a hit.  The actors performed the staged readings dressed in black against a stark white wall, creating a kind of theatrical performance art, and the absence of a stage separating the performers from the audience encouraged a more casual atmosphere.  The result was a more successful turnout on each of the two nights and a real buzz about the festival. 

“We’re not taking baby steps anymore,” says Wedner.  “We’re in the toddler stage and we’re hoping we can grow.”

The festival has also found a new place on the cultural calendar.  Previously held in September before the start of the regular theatre season, hurricane delays of previous years were a factor in moving Lavender Footlights to spring.  Now, Lavender Footlights has a new date, a cozy venue, and, with the help of several grants, especially from the Dade Community Foundation and the Women’s Community Fund, is embarking on their most ambitious festival yet.

“We are trying to expand the educational portion of the festival so that gay youth, theatre students and those who are aspiring writers can turn to Lavender Footlights once a year to hear gay playwrights talk about their craft,” Wedner says.  “That’s important.  It’s stimulating, it’s inspiring, and it gives you the ability to go forward and finish that play.”

	New York playwright Tracy Winston, who will read his one-man play Liquid Spirits, directed by Mik Cribben, at Lavender Footlights on Wednesday, May 3

Lavender Footlights opens Wednesday, May 3, with New York playwright Tracy Winston, who will be reading his one-man play, Liquid Spirits.  The piece illuminates Winston’s experience growing up African-American with a verbally abusive father who could not accept his artistic and gay son.  Members of Pridelines, a local gay youth group, have been invited to the performance.  Winston will also visit with the kids from Pridelines in their own facility to speak about the benefit of writing down their stories.

“When you see a 38-year-old man who came from that kind of background and managed to make a wonderful life for himself, then I think it gives you the courage to go forward and to get those things that you’re repressing out,” Wedner says.  “I think that’s especially important for Pridelines.”

The second night of Lavender Footlights, Thursday, May 4, features Chicago playwright Claudia Allen, whose play Dutch Love will be read.  The comedy centers on a nuclear family and what happens when Mom’s female lover and Dad’s ex-boyfriend show up for Easter dinner.  Allen, the resident playwright at Chicago’s Victory Gardens theatre, is regarded as one of the foremost lesbian playwrights in the country.  Her play Hanging Fire was featured last season at Florida Stage in Manalapan,  her play Movie Queens was featured in the first Lavender Footlights Festival and her play Hannah Free was produced by Creative Arts Enterprises last August.

“Claudia Allen is an amazing playwright,” says Wedner.  “Where Hannah Free was a really serious and tender and dramatic play, Dutch Love has a wonderful point of view but it’s very funny.” 

After the reading Allen will take center stage in a discussion with the audience.

“This is a great opportunity for women in the gay community and also for interested writers who want to get up close and personal with someone who teaches playwriting, and who is a well-established playwright,” Wedner says.

Friday, May 4, features an Evening of Short Plays by writers from around the country and in our own backyard—Michael McKeever, the Davie playwright whose 13th play The Impressionists is currently playing at the Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton, will see his play, Knowing Best, read. 

Wedner is especially excited about the Saturday, May 6, world premiere presentation of a play by Hal Corley, Peoria, about two middle-aged men in rural America who try to find their way to each other and to a freer life.  The reading is directed by Barry Steinman, who also directed Corley’s play Legion, which was part of the first Lavender Footlights Festival.

“We’re the first people to see it,” Wedner says.  “He wrote me that it’s literally hot out of his computer.  It feels so good to know that playwrights are thinking of us and get excited about this opportunity.”

	Chicago-based playwright Harlan Didrickson will appear at the Lavender Footlights Festival on Sunday, May 7, for the staged reading of his play, Marlowe

Lavender Footlights closes on Sunday, May 7, with Marlowe, a play by Harlan Didrickson, about Elizabethan era playwright Christopher Marlowe, a literary bad boy who is considered the James Dean of his time.  Directed by Stuart Meltzer, it is the first historical play Lavender Footlights has tackled

“We have a really nice cross-section of plays,” Wedner says.  “Should we come out of the closet, should we go back in the closet, of course, gay marriage, middle age and growing older is a big issue, how do you come out to your parents—some of it’s funny, some of it’s sad, but it’s all entertaining.”

Doug Williford, festival artistic director, echoes that sentiment.  “We’ve achieved a nice mix this year, with both established playwrights and up-and-comers represented, with full-length pieces as well as shorts, and with gripping dramas as well as light-hearted comedies.  The staged reading format is a refreshing way to experience these works up close and personally, and the intimate atmosphere of Dot Fiftyone is wonderfully appropriate for this kind of presentation.”

It’s also a great place for a party, and Lavender Footlights will not only have an opening night fete but also a mojito bar each night to enhance the festive atmosphere.  The grants they’ve received enables them to promote a $10 “suggested donation” for each night, rather than a hard ticket price.

“We really do mean ‘suggested’,” Wedner says.  “If people can afford it and want to support this organization that’s great, but if they can’t, we still want them to come and see this work.”

Invitations to Lavender Footlights have also been sent to about 50 local theatre producers and directors.  Long term plans for the Lavender Footlights Festival include making the festival a destination for regional theatre directors, artistic directors and producers to give  them the opportunity to view new voices in the gay world with an eye toward presenting a play during their regular season in a mainstream theatre.

	David Dial and George Asperos rehearse their roles in Till Death Do Us Part, with director Ryan Capiro, part of the Evening of Short Plays on Friday, May 5

“That is a positive way to get issues and concerns and agendas out to a mainstream audience,” Wedner says.  “People like to be entertained but there’s nothing wrong with educating them as well.”