Community Connections, March, 1991 Page 17
With Script
in Hand
Second Stage Readers’ Theatre is a
theatre group in Asheville which has a lot
to offer the area’s gay/lesbian community.
Second Stage produces plays which appeal
to diverse communities, including lesbians
and gay men. Housed within Asheville
Community Theatre, Second Stage
receives the full support and backing of
the board and staff of A.C.T. Tn April,
Second Stage will produce Dos Lesbos
and Andre’s Mother, the third and fourth
gay/lesbian oriented plays this year. The
first two were Safe Sex and Tidy Endings.
Dos Lesbos, written in the late 70’s
by Perry Baum, is a two-woman show
which has been performed internationally.
Janet Oliver, Coordinator for Second
Stage, describes Dos Lesbos as a slap
stick comedy which "deals with coming
out to parents and living in a homophobic
world...." The characters "are trying to
live with some dignity. The play conveys
[the message] that lesbians/gays are real
people, living just like everyone else,"
Oliver said.
Andre’s Mother, written by Terrence
McNally, is only three pages long and
takes about ten minutes to read. It will be
performed in three different scenarios.
Scenario 1 involves a man who has died
of AIDS, his male lover, and his mother;
scenario 2 involves a man who has died of
AIDS, his female lover, and his mother;
and scenario 3 involves a man who has
died of AIDS, his male lover, and his
father. This three-part production was
contrived to demonstrate that AIDS cuts
across all lines—everybody is affected by
AIDS. Both Dos Lesbos and Andre’s
Mother will be directed by Jerry Crouch.
The purpose of Second Stage is to
make available to the public plays not
covered by the main stage of A.C.T. The
main stage avoids material which is
considered to be offensive to their
patrons; consequently their repertory is
limited to musicals, comedies, mysteries,
and home-town dramas.
Janet Oliver is in her third
year of coordinating Second
Stage Beaders’ Theatre, She
has acted with AXX and
served on its Board, and has
acted and directed with Second
Stage, Oliver has both a B.A,
and ALA, in speech and
theatre. While pursuing her
undergraduate degree, Oliver
became intrigued by the
medium of readers’ theatre and
has been involved in it since.
The theatre is in Oliver’s
blood: ”I love the make believe
of iL.J love the smell of the
theatre..,! love when the lights
go down.. ♦
The innovative scripts employed by
Second Stage may shock, challenge,
educate and broaden minds. Second Stage
is "a place for experimental theatre—new
types of theatre....We try to present
challenging scripts to an actor/actress that
other theatre groups don’t do, can’t do or
won’t do," said Oliver.
In its effort to reach out to a variety
of communities, Second Stage was one of
the first theatre groups to do black
drama/black theatre, and produced To Be
Young, Gifted and Black, a compilation of
Lorraine Hansberry’s plays. Second
Stage’s production of Safe Sex, by Harvey
Fierstein, toured universities and colleges,
and was presented at CLOSER in
February.
Oliver encourages people to consider
Second Stage as a way to get involved in
theatre. While main stage productions can
take a six to eight-week commitment,
Second Stage productions can be put
together in as few as 12 rehearsals. You
don’t have to worry about memory loss,
for you have the script in your hand;
hence the term "readers’ theatre." And
best of all you can be part of productions
that are on the cutting edge of the theatre
world.
One noteworthy aspect of readers’
theatre is lack of type-casting. Readers’
theatre does not discriminate based on
race, sex, age, height, weight, etc. It
doesn’t matter what you look like.
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Second Stage’s production of Getting Out
(February 23, 1991) is a good example of
this: Oliver (a woman of color) plays a
woman who is getting out of prison, her
mother is played by a Caucasian blond,
and her alter-ego is a white woman, as
well. Instead of looking for specific body
types, Second Stage looks for specific
types of vocal inflections and people who
can read well. The performers should be
passionate about the material, and enjoy
digging into the characterizations.
Second Stage was started eight years
ago by a member of A.C.T. as an
alternative to the more traditional
approach of the main stage.
In the last year, Second Stage’s
audience size has grown 40%, and it
soared beyond that when it produced Bent,
by Martin Sherman, last fall. This
increase in audience size has let A.C.T.
know there are folks out there who are
interested in supporting and backing
alternative theatre.
Second Stage has accomplished much
in eight years, and hopes to remain the
mechanism for alternative scripts and
different types of shows. Second Stage
Readers’ Theatre is very grateful to
Asheville Community Theatre, for without
them, Second Stage would not exist!
Second Stage will hold auditions for
Dos Lesbos and Andre’s Mother March 24
and 25, from 7 to 9 PM, at Asheville
Community Theatre, 35 E. Walnut Street.
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