WEST VILLAGE — A local theater company will hold an "active reading" at Stonewall Inn on Monday of a new play that aims to showcase a diverse array of LGBT voices from around the Village.
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide, Frack Theatre is producing "Stonewall'd" to showcase LGBT people who live on the fringes — what Frack member Lindsay Morris is calling "the other LGBT community, the one that is less concerned with marriage equality and more concerned with where they’ll sleep at night."
"Stonewall'd" is a "documentary play" based on interviews that Frack member Oscar Lopez conducted with real members of the LGBT community in the West Village.
Morris referred to the plays as "verbatim theater" because they use "people's real words."
Some of the interviews come from a play Frack produced last year, called "Village Voices," which was prompted by Lopez's experience volunteering with New Alternatives, a group that offers food and social services to homeless LGBT youth at St. John's Lutheran Church on Christopher Street.
"He was inspired by their stories and started recording interviews with them and others in the LGBT community generally," said company member Lindsay Morris.
They performed "Voices" in two festivals last year, but decided it needed a new name "and more diverse LGBT stories," Morris said.
"When marriage equality passed, we thought, 'well, why not do something right now, when we can really get people’s attention,'" Morris said.
The characters in "Stonewall'd" include a gay Lutheran priest, a homeless transgender girl living with with HIV, and a "carefree party boy," among others, Morris said.
"You get a really diverse variety of voices," Morris said.
Morris, Lopez and Frack's third member, Sam Clark, are all Australian and worked in theater back in their home country before uniting here to form Frack.
"We all work really collaboratively and play to each other’s strengths," Morris said.
The event at Stonewall is not a full performance, Morris said, but is a little more involved than a typical play reading. It will include some musical numbers, some lighting and "some light staging."
"We like to think of it more as an active reading," Morris said. "People will be getting out of their chairs and singing and dancing."
The reading is a "prelude to a larger production" Frack is planning for later in the year, for an as-yet-undetermined location in the fall.
"Stonewall'd" is being read on July 13 at 8 p.m. at the Stonewall Inn at 51-53 Christopher St. in the West Village. Tickets are $5 at the door.
