Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / Aug. 1, 1987, edition 1 / Page 4
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PAGE 4 Q-Notes ■ August 1987 Hot Summer For Gay Theatre Financially and artistically, Charlotte live theatre this summer has succeeded amazingly for the city's gay/lesbian community: ■ 'Torch Song Trilogy," produced in June by the New Life Players, earned $600 profit for New Life Metropolitan Community Church. ■ "As Is," staged by the Little Theatre of Charlotte in July, far exceeded ex pectations in attendance and produced more than $3,000 in benefit funds for Metrolina AIDS project with just one of its eight performances. "Torch Song" featured novice actors who exceeded all expectations for a troupe whose only previous experience was a series of comedy skits and a production of "Bent" last year. Charlotte Observer critic Lawrence Toppman was so moved by the production that he labeling it a "must-see.' A packed house gave the closing performance a 10-min- ute standing ovation with three curtain calls. It was a moment of memorable emo tion for Charlotte's goy/lesbian commu nity. "I sat there and cried," said Tom Caudle, who directed the play. "As many times as I had seen and heard it, that night everything hit and I was not the only one to cry." Toppman's massive feature story on goy/lesbian theatre in Charlotte came after "Torch Song" and previewed "As Is," a bold step for the Little 'Theatre, North Carolina's oldest community the atre organization. "As Is" — with its raw language and intense interaction between a man with AIDS and his lover — brought the gay and nongay communities in Charlotte together as they seldom, if ever, have $$ Dance For $$ Dollars If You're A Well-Defined And Muscular Man Who Loves To Dance And Does It Well, Call 568-3556 Thursday, Friday or Saturday After 8:50 P.M. EXCELLENT PAY AT CHARADES FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS Free Buffet 5:30-7 p.m. Monday-Friday FREE BUFFET THROUGHOUT AUGUST! Daily Monday Through Friday. Don't Miss It. DINNER SPECIALS, TOO! Sunday Nights: All-You-Can-Eat Spaghetti Monday Nights: All-You-Can-Eat Barbecue Open 4-1 Mon-Fri 11:30-1 Sat & Sun 316 Rensselaer ■ Charlotte ■ 704/377-1221 been. On the night of the performance des ignated as the MAP benefit, tickets were $15, which was $9 more than tickets to other performances. After the perfor mance, the Little Theatre presented a check for $2,700 from ticket sales to MAP president Ron Lowe. But there was more. In a donation box for MAP that sot in the lobby, people had dropped $320. And a man handed MAP executive di rector Les Kooyman a check for $200. "Those were just the tangibles," said Keith Martin, the Little 'Theatre's artistic director. "'The intangibles were even more important. “People volunteered to help MAP staff its hotline and work with other MAP projects. Hospice of Charlotte (a cospon sor, with MAP, of the ploy) has had a tremendous increase in phone colls for information. Little 'Theatre had a dra matic increase in orders for the regular subscription series the week after 'As Is' finished its run and orders are still com ing in. A lot of people came to Little 'Theatre who had never been there be fore. "And we had all that literature in the lobby. It kept disappearing (as people took it) by the handful. Ron (of MAP) kept bringing over boxes of material; so did Hospice and the Red Cross. We had people returning to the theatre the day after they sow the ploy asking for more brochures and literature." Martin explained that the Little 'The atre expected to overage only 87 peo ple in the audience for each perfor mance — a total of 700 and the break even point financially since tickets were priced at $6, half the price Little 'Theatre charges for regular season perfor mances. However, more than 1,400 peo ple attended. The MAP benefit was a sell-out with 31 people still in line. Throughout the run, the program handed to audience members as they took seats included a half-page an nouncement about MAP; and the back of the program gave names and phone numbers of nonsocial gay/lesbian groups in Charlotte. 'The night of the MAP benefit, mem bers of the Ttadesmen — Charlotte's levi/leather group — ushered, wearing white shirts, jeans, black leather vests and boots. Martin related that one older lady, a regular supporter of Little The atre, brightly asked an usher, "Are you Barry Bishop of the Tradesmen ushers members of the audience to their seats prior to the MAP benefit performance of "As Is. ” in the ploy? You hove such wonderful costumes." "The actors," Martin said, "were more nervous for the benefit performance be cause they knew the audience was edu cated about the subject and socially CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE SAVE $2 AT OPENING NIGHT OF THE QUEEN’S PLAYERS PRODUCTION OF ^LiSe of the Party** It’s a hilarious play never per formed on the East Coast, and you can laugh ail the way to the bank! Save $2 per ticket over the reguiar at-the-door price! And attend the opening night performance! Advance tickets are for opening night Sept. 10 are $5. But you pay oniy $4 per ticket by using this coupon! That’s another $1 saving! MAIL THESE NOW 1) This coupon. 2) $4 per ticket. 3) Your evening phone number. 4) Stamped, self-addressed envelope. CHECK PAYABLE TO QCQ Queen’s Players P.O. Box 221841, Charlotte, N.C. 28222 MUST BE RECEIVED BY SEPT. 1 THIS OFFER VALID ONLY FOR FIRST PERFORMANCE AND ONLY BY MAIL ORDER For regular-priced advarxre tickets, send $5 per ticket and designate whether for Sept. 10. It. 17. 18 or 19. Charlotte Now BathJess As Club South Closes By DON KING Editoi On Sunday, July 26, the last customer walked out of Club South — and Char lotte joined a long list of American cities where gay both houses have closed since 1984. 'There had been no pressure from the city of Charlotte or the state of North Carolina. The corporate owner simply decided to close the Carolines' only gay baths with dignity rather than face the criticism and pressure that, in the age of AIDS, has forced the closing of bath houses all over the country. "We felt the writing was on the wall," a company spokesman said. "We knew the days for the baths were numbered. There were other factors involved such as facing a new long-term lease and having to reimburse the owner of the building for a significant increase in business insurance. Probably, we could have overcome all that, but we didn't see the point if we had to face tremen dous pressure to close in the near future. "I hate to see Club South go," he said. "But when the AIDS crisis first broke, there was something of a mass panic and the baths came close to dying then. Business just went away. The only salva tion we had was that when the panic began to subside a little bit and the bookstore harassment started, business began to pick up. But for the last four or five years, we've done nothing more than hang on." Club South was the only baths be tween Atlanta and Woshin^on for 10‘/i years. It opened in January of 1977 a few months after the city's first bath house. Club Charlotte on West More- head Street, closed. Gay both houses in the U.S. were actually an evolution of bath houses, primarily in the midwest, that enabled cowboys of frontier days to have an inexpensive place to wash away layers of trail dust and get a good night's sleep. Gradually they became known as businesses where sex between men was expected and welcomed. Gay baths reached a peak of popu larity in the 1970s, sparked partly by Bette Midler's early-career perfor mances in the Cosmopolitan Baths of New York City. For a brief time among trendier nongoy jetsetters, “going to the baths" for the entertainment became an in-thing to do; and a boths-style business opened for an even briefer time in NYC for non-gay anonymous sex. Another NYC bath house — the Ever- ard — gained particular fame among gay men as a center of orgiastic sex. Neither the Everard nor the Cosmo politan still exists as relentless pressure since the advent of AIDS from within and outside the gay male communities in large metropolitan areas hove forced one house after another to close. Club South is the latest casualty.
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Aug. 1, 1987, edition 1
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