Margin Notes: Street Theater

Street Theater

Greg Seage as Jack. Photo by Richard Rivera.

Seen on: Thursday, 10/17/24.

Plot and Background

The Other Side of Silence, celebrating its 50th year, presents a seminal work by its founder, Doric Wilson. TOSOS has a long history of producing this play, starting with its New York premiere in 1982 and including when the company relaunched in 2002. This a new staging (though still done in a runway style), a satirical look at queer culture in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969, in the hours leading up to the Stonewall Riots. Trans sex workers, anarchists, a leather daddy and a hippie, Vice cops, cruisers, and more populate the intersection of Christopher and Sheridan Streets, all looking for something to make their day a little more survivable. Doric Wilson himself was a participant in the Stonewall Riots, and wrote this as a record of the people he knew at that time.

What I Knew Beforehand

I kind of can't believe this was my first time seeing a Doric Wilson play, but what a way to start! I knew he was part of the early Off-Off-Broadway movement from my readings on Caffe Cino. And I knew some of the history of Stonewall.

Thoughts:

Play: This was fantastic and I loved it. It's genuinely funny and ultimately genuinely galvanizing. The arc of people who are used to being put down, marginalized, targeted by law enforcement, realizing they don't have to be used to that, and shouldn't be used to that, and that they have some control over whether that pattern will continue to perpetuate. This play is clearly built for runway staging, as if we the audience are the buildings lining the scrap of street on which these characters all intersect, semidormant witnesses to this seminal day. The characters don't know that Stonewall Inn is about to become a historic landmark of queer liberation, but we do. Co-directors Mark Finley and Barry Childs keep the action moving at a brisk pace, including utilizing the risers behind one side of the audience as a sort-of ghost space: the larger unseen audience on this moment (it's possible I'm reading something into a happenstance fact of the space, but hey, a theatrical experience is a collaboration between the storytellers and the receivers of that story, and this is the story I saw). Doric Wilson's play is fast, funny, and raw, and absolutely worth everyone's time. It's rather remarkable TOSOS has been able to take this particular iteration on tour, but then, as Co-Director Mark Finley said in his pre-show speech, "It takes a village to do the Village."

Cast: For the most part, the cast is all on the same page, able to handle the quick wit of the play with ease. A few times the overlapping scenes have more air in them than they should, but one can be forgiving of that with everything going on. Zephyr Caulfield, as undercover Vice cop Seymour, is a great mix of deliciously dopey and shit-heel enforcer--and they know how to turn from one to the other on a dime. Antony Terrell is a delightfully juicy Boom Boom (inspired by Marsha P. Johnson, who was among the vanguard at the start of the riot) with whip-sharp delivery. Greg Seage plays a quietly simmering leather-clad Jack, though his inner sweetness is brought out by bright-eyed newcomer Timothy (Jacob Covert giving his best Midnight Cowboy). And the icing on this delicious cake is Tim Deitrich's closeted cruiser Sidney--there isn't a moment he doesn't know how to milk, and his timing and delivery should be taught in schools.

Design: The set design by Evan Frank is deliberately minimal: the floor a paint- and grime-speckled blue-grey, crossed and crisscrossed with the confusing yellow traffic paint at Sheridan Square. It's garnished with a spray-painted fire hydrant, a street sign planted in an upended silver bucket, and a rattling tin trashcan. Considering the population of Greenwich Village, the dressing here is all on the bodies, not where they're standing.  Ben Philipp's expansive costume design is able to quickly show the audience which archetype we're encountering, while also tossing in little details we can pick up later and feel proud of catching: the ruby sequined platform heels sported by Boom Boom, in honor of the recently departed Judy Garland; the little green soldier earring dangling from Ciel's ear, nodding toward the upcoming battle; even the detail that the Vice cop already knows how to roll his sleeves up over his biceps, a trick that Sidney has to teach Timothy when they meet.

***

Running: Now playing at The Flea Theatre (TOSOS) - Opening: October 3, 2024. Closing: October 22, 2024.
Category: play
Length: 1 hour, 45 minutes, including intermission.

Creative Team

Playwright: Doric Wilson
Director: Mark Finley and Barry Childs. Assistant Director: Reesa Graham
Designers: Evan Frank (Set), Ben Philipp (Costume), Sasha Finley (Lighting), Morry Campbell (Sound), Jésica Terry (Stage Manager), Gregory Pernicone Jr. (Assistant Stage Manager), Robin Kaufman (House Manager), Stefan Danielski (Graphic Design), Nathan Nolan Edwards (Social Media), Paul Siebold (Public Relations).
Cast: Dom Giovanni, Greg Seage, Frances Inés Rodríguez, Clare Fox, Zephyr Caulfield, T Anthony, Tristan Mesmer, Tim Dietrich, Antony Terrell, Jacob Covert, Joey Mulvey, Aaron Kaplan, Zach Kelley, Josh Lau.

Antony Terrell as Boom Boom. Photo by Richard Rivera.