GayFest: The New Kid On The Off-Broadway Block
At this time of year, most theatre companies are preparing to pack it in after their last runs of the season. But at least here in New York, one new theater festival is giving it the old college try, filling the May-to-June gap in the traditional theatre season. Meet GayFest NYC 2007, the brainchild of veteran producers Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman.
Harris had done a Gay Pride theatre festival before and wanted to highlight unknown playwrights in Off-Broadway spots they might not otherwise have access to. He recruited Batman, a longtime producer who had been one of his script readers, because as he tells it, "I couldn’t do it on my own, and Jack said, ’This has to be done.’" The two men read over 100 scripts in order to narrow it down to three mainstage plays and two readings - all, except A Kiss From Alexander, world premieres.
The selections span class (royalty in David Hopes’ Edward The King, protesters in Michael D. Jackson’s Revolution), race and time (A Kiss From Alexander unites ancient Greek and modern history in a screwball musical tale). "These shows are for the community, by the community, and for the future of the community," Harris said.
"The festival is just the beginning," Batman said. "We’d like to do this year round - to provide a clearinghouse for gay, lesbian and bisexual playwrights to get their plays produced all the time. That’s why we looked for plays that we feel will have another life around the world." New York was the logical choice for the men who had built their careers there, but also because of the proximity to the festival’s beneficiary, New York’s Harvey Milk High School. Festival benefits will help fund scholarships for seniors at Harvey Milk, one of the only high schools in the city with a 95 percent graduation rate. The school is also sending interns to help out with the festival as they can.
"They have no cafeteria, no library, no gym," Batman said. "Our long-term goal would be to build them a multi-purpose facility they could use for those things - so they could have what the other kids have."
The pair stressed that New York’s festival is the first in hopefully a series of GayFests around the country.
