Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

SCOTTISH PLAY SCOTT Lesbian playwright on 'Mammoths' task
by Scott C. Morgan, Windy City Times
2014-03-05

This article shared 4045 times since Wed Mar 5, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


When New York-based lesbian playwright Madeleine George found out that the old Pratt Museum of Natural History was going to be closed down in her hometown of Amherst, Mass., she wanted to go back so she could chain herself to the door to stop it from happening. And that was despite her opinion that "it was a terrible museum and it was really outdated."

"It was a museum that I had loved a lot as a child," said George, citing the Pratt closure as one of the inspirations for her 2011 comedy Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, which is having its Midwest debut in Chicago at Theater Wit. "[The museum] felt ancient itself and it was always very under-visited. You could go in there and get lost and feel like you were stepping out of time."

But a musty museum isn't the only focus of George's play, even though its closure does create some conflict for the characters and some whimsical comic asides as two prehistoric diorama Neanderthals share conversations that mirror those of bored college students encountering decades-old exhibits.

George says the heart of Seven Homeless Mammoths… is an examination of jealousy involving a lesbian love triangle among college academics in a small New England town. Dean Wreen ( Meighan Gerachis ) has invited her ex-lover, Greer ( Laura T. Fisher ), back into their former home together since she has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. But also living there is Wreen's much-younger lover, Andromeda ( Kristen Magee ).

"How do you deal with being the new person coming in to a relationship where there's an ex-partner who has been around for a really long time?" said George. "Not to generalize, but I feel that lesbian configurations of that problem are different from other kinds. There's a particular way that women stay in each other's lives. Not everybody, obviously, but it's pretty common to find that people have created really interesting 'alternative kinship structures' as one of the characters says in the play."

Although George is more than happy to see all the advances being made in the United States regarding same-sex marriage rights and is very willing to endorse them, she questions if something might be lost with all the emphasis on traditional two-person partnerships taking precedence over more creative and expansive family relationships created within the LGBT community.

"The more innovative structures that we have been able to make in the past, not having access to the traditional or mainstream forms, do those things fall by the wayside?" George asked. "That's a kind of question that runs throughout the play."

But despite the dramatic issues of mortality and jealousy, George insists that she also wrote Seven Homeless Mammoths to explore the similarities and differences of comedies as written by Shakespeare and those of modern-day sitcoms. In fact, George found a way to weave in her obsession with the hit NBC sitcom Friends throughout the play.

"I don't know exactly what I love so much about that show, but I think it's a little because it verges on the perfect sitcom," George said. "I have watched all the episodes many, many times and I own them all."

All these disparate comic elements of a natural history museum, jealous academic lesbians and Friends sitcom references really spoke out to Theater Wit artistic director Jeremy Wechsler, who feels that Seven Homeless Mammoths… is a perfect compliment to his company's hit production of Completeness from last year.

"I'm a whore for a comedy," joked Wechsler, adding that he sought out to direct and produce Seven Homeless Mammoths… initially just because its wacky title jumped out at him. "Ultimately I picked the play because its characterization is spot on, and it is freaking funny."

Another thing that impressed Wechsler, who joked that he was the "straight man out" when he previously worked for the very gay-focused Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, was that Seven Homeless Mammoths… featured lesbian characters who weren't dealing with societal disapproval or discrimination, but who were just leading their everyday lives.

"The assumptions in the play are all about the inclusiveness of gay culture into American culture," Wechsler said. "It's also about loss and how you let go of things in the past, and it's quite touching."

Though Seven Homeless Mammoths… is largely about a lesbian, George was happy to report that her comedy largely won over an overwhelmingly suburban heterosexual audience at its 2011 premiere at New Jersey's Two River Theater Company.

"This is a beautiful thing for comedy, which is to bridge the gap," George said. "To have some people in the audience to say, 'This is my story and I don't get to see it enough,' and to have other people in the audience to go like, 'There's no reason why I can't participate in this story, too.'"

Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England runs Thursday, March 6, through Sunday, April 27, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Previews go through Sunday, March 16, with an official press opening at 7 p.m. Monday, March 17. The regular run is 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays with 3 p.m. matinees Sundays. Preview tickets are $12-$28. Regular run tickets are $20-$36; call 773-975-8150 or visit www.theaterwit.org .


This article shared 4045 times since Wed Mar 5, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor talks theater, comics, queerness
2024-03-26
City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 season—which will be the company's 44th. It will also be the first season to be programmed under the leadership of Brian Pastor (they/them), who will assume ...


Gay News

The Jeff Awards announces the 50th anniversary awards for non-equity theater
2024-03-26
--From a press release - A complete list of recipients can also be found online in the Non-Equity and News and Events sections at www.jeffawards.org. (March 25, 2024 - Chicago) — Celebrating its 50th anniversary awarding recognition for Non-Equity theater, the ...


Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event
2024-03-25
Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman
2024-03-21
Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


Gay News

THEATER Chicago's City Lit has anxiety on tap with 'Two Hours in a Bar'
2024-03-21
Two Hours in a Bar Waiting for Tina Meyer by Kristine Thatcher with material by Larry Shue Text Me by Kingsley Day (Book, Music and Lyrics). At: City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.. Tickets: ...


Gay News

Jamie Barton brings nuances of identity to her Lyric Opera 'Aida' performance
2024-03-18
Chicago's Lyric Opera is currently featuring a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida starring Michelle Bradley as Aida, Jamie Barton as Amneris and Russell Thomas as Radamès. The opera runs through April 7, 2024, with Francesca Zambello ...


Gay News

Almost 8% of U.S. residents identify as LGBTQ+
2024-03-16
The proportion of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+ continues to increase. LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as LGBTQ+, according to the newest Gallup poll results that ...


Gay News

Women's History Month doesn't do enough to lift up Black lesbians
2024-03-12
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by ...


Gay News

No 'explanations' needed: Affinity remains a haven for Chicago's Black queer community
2024-03-12
Back in 2007, Anna DeShawn came out while she was studying for her undergraduate degree. At around the same time, she searched online for "Black lesbians in Chicago." Her search led her to Affinity Community Services, ...


Gay News

Affinity Community Services' Latonya Maley announces departure
2024-03-06
Latonya Maley, executive director of Affinity Community Services, announced March 6 that she would be stepping down from her post. The announcement came from a statement with Affinity board members. Maley said that, "It has been ...


Gay News

LPAC celebrates historic wins for LGBTQ+ candidates in Super Tuesday primaries
2024-03-06
From a press release: Washington, DC—Today, LPAC,the nation's leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary candidates to public office, proudly announces the outstanding victories of 67% of endorsed candidates ...


Gay News

Queer Eye's Jai Rodriguez is set to slay at The Big Gay Cabaret
2024-03-05
Out and proud performer Jai Rodriguez is set to play at The Big Gay Cabaret this March for three days. Presented by RuPaul Drag Racer Ginger Minj, this monthly series highlights the wide world of cabaret ...


Gay News

THEATER 'R & J' puts a female, queer spin on Shakespeare
2024-03-05
Romeo and Juliet is the theatrical gift that keeps on giving. It's been reworked for the masses numerous times, whether in direct adaptations or musicals such as West Side Story. Shakespeare's plotline points have even inspired ...


Gay News

Without compromise: Holly Baggett explores lives of iconoclasts Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap
2024-03-04
Jane Heap (1883-1964) and Margaret Anderson (1886-1973), each of them a native Midwesterner, woman of letters and iconoclast, had a profound influence on literary culture in both America and Europe in the early 20th Century. Heap ...


Gay News

Center on Halsted hosts 6th Annual Intergenerational Talent Show
2024-03-03
On the evening of Feb. 29, Center on Halsted held its 6th Annual Intergenerational Talent Show in front of a packed audience at the Hoover-Leppen Theater. The event brought together participants of the Center's youth and senior ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.