EDGE New York City

It’s the 1970s. Dallas. Daytime. If you’re a gay man with a leather fetish (or, for that matter, simply a gay man), you don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. You don’t step out of the closet. You don’t do anything to call attention to that obvious little secret which, if worn with pride, can get your ass kicked.

As for what goes on at night? Well, while polite society and violent bigots turn in to bed or talk tough about football, you let it all hang out by dancing to disco with dudes dressed in leather collars, vests, harnesses and more. You dish and bitch and laugh... and among the kind, accepting faces in the crowd, you probably spot a biological woman whose sass and empathy makes her a genuine ally.

Late Nights with the Boys: Confessions of a leather bar chanteuse is touching down in NYC after a slew of awards and high praise (including the 2008 Best Literary Staging award at the San Francisco Fringe Festival).

This time around, it’s part of Horse Trade Theater Group’s Frigid Festival - a multidisciplinary theater fest designed to pry jaded New Yorkers from their expensive apartments and into comparatively cheap theater seats.

The story: Anna Zander is a reclusive former Southern debutante/cabaret performer in her Golden Girl years (i.e., her sixties). She hires young Craig Bauer to help her write about the best years of her life - recounting tales of singing in the gay leather bars of Dallas (where her look blended right in with the drag queens). As she dishes, a friendship blossoms...

The storytelling style: Author Alex Bond (aka Anna Zander) and pal David Carson read selections from Ms. Bond’s novel.

EDGE recently spoke with the author and the director about this unique theatrical/literary experience.

Director Steven Yuhasz has known author Alex Bond since their graduate school days at the Dallas Theater Center. They remained friends over the years; but when the book project came to be four years ago, Yuhasz recalls: "She was trying to find ways to promote it. I said this is potentially a play; you can do a reading of it - so she started submitting to the Dallas Fringe and the San Francisco Fringe festivals. It was a way to get the novel out there."

Bond asked Yuhasz "to come in and help shape it; to make sure it wasn’t just a reading from a novel, but something that was somewhat theatrical without being staged. Some of the storytelling in the novel is narrative, so that helps you get through a series of events much quicker. She’s also set up the premise that in the novel, a character is going to write her memoirs. She talks to him."

The project, which takes place in the pre-AIDS world of 1977 - but it also takes place in the closeted, prejudiced atmosphere of Dallas, Texas. That’s where the story really gels; between a woman and these social outcasts who form their own nighttime society.

Yuhasz: "It shows tremendous tolerance between women and gay men; how this group of people becomes a family. It’s not about who is straight or gay or French or black or white. It has a message about becoming part of a community. It also captures a time when that was new in a way that people hadn’t expressed those feelings about acceptance and tolerance, especially in Dallas, which was changing at the time."

For her part, Bond notes the 70s-era piece still has a relevant message about the challenges of being yourself. Bond: "In these times when it looks like the pendulum is swinging backwards instead of forewords as far as tolerance and respect for other people’s choices, I feel the reading is a good way for me to get the word out however I can."

Bond says the fact that it’s a low-tech reading instead of a multi-media spectacle has its own unique power: "I was raised by a mother who read to me. A lot of us who have a great fondness for words and stories, I think being read to is something that appeals to people." That noted, she says with a tone of satirical sass: "If you don’ like it (being read to), then you don’t’ have to come!"

But for those who do show up, Bond says you’ll see tales based on a time when she herself performed in Dallas gay bars: "I felt I belonged to a group of people who needed to pretty much hide their sexual orientation during the day. There were a lot of people in Texas who felt it was OK to beat up queers, pardon my expression. I was fortunate enough to get to know folks who let their hair down. Perhaps it was the music that brought us together. There’s nothing like standing there and singing never Never Never Land from Peter Pan and watching men in leather caps and chaps and harnesses tear up."

Despite her bitchy take it or leave it quote from earlier, Bond hopes people do come - and listed and incorporate her stories into their own lives: "It’s a privilege to do what I can. I am getting older. I don’t make loud noises, but if I can communicate a more gentle approach to our fellow human beings, then we’ve done some good."

Late Nights with the Boys: Confessions of a leather bar chanteuse will be presented at Under St. Marks (94 Saint Marks Place, between 1st Ave & Ave A). Remaining reading dates are Friday, March 5th at 6pm & Sunday, March 7th at 2:30pm. Tickets are $15.00 ($11 for Students/Seniors/Veterans). Advance tickets can be purchased online at www.Smarttix.com, or by calling 212-868-4444. Tickets may also be purchased at the theatre’s box office half hour before the reading. Running Time: 60 minutes. For more information visit the show’s website.