Out Front on Main, Inc. is pleased to announce Paul Rudnick’s JEFFREY directed by Buddy R. Jones for a three week run August 11-28, 2011 Thursdays-Sundays at 7:30pm. Out Front on Main, Inc. is located at 1511 E. Main Street in historic downtown Murfreesboro, beside MTSU. Info and Reservations: (615) 516-6279 or
www.OutFrontOnMain.comIn 1993, playwright Paul Rudnick’s Off-Broadway hit, Jeffrey, took a decidedly different approach towards depicting gay men and AIDS; it was written as a comedy. Keeping this a peroid piece Out Front on Main, Inc. proposes to show how little has changed in so much time-the only difference is that it is now spoken in whispers, if at all.
While this might sound tasteless, Jeffrey was a much needed antidote at the time to the climate of death that had permeated gay culture for most of the previous decade. The play resonated with audiences.
Jeffrey is the hilarious story of a 30-something actor/waiter who has become so disenchanted with safe sex and the terror of AIDS that he has decided to give up all forms of carnal knowledge forever. “Sex is too sacred to be treated this way,” Jeffrey (George W. Manus, Jr.) declares directly to the audience. “Sex wasn’t meant to safe, or negotiated, or fatal… So. Enough… no more sex.” Celibacy becomes Jeffrey’s new mantra and he heads to the gym to find a new outlet for his energies and immediately meets Steve (Justin Hand). Steve is everything that Jeffrey has always wanted in a man but, because he has vowed to give up sex, he panics and makes a quick exit stage left. But they meet cute again. Steve is persistent and eventually wins Jeffrey over – until he discloses something that sends Jeffrey into his cocoon again.
The very scenario that he fears is embodied by his two best friends. D. Richard Browder plays Sterling, an ascorbic interior decorator who is always ready with an Oscar Wildean bon mot for every occasion. Sterling is a catty queen but he also has a big heart. He urges Jeffrey to find a boyfriend. His younger lover is Darius (Andy Woloszyn), a dancer who is appearing in Cats. Darius is HIV positive. Sterling maintains a healthy attitude about the situation and tells Jeffrey that they still have sex – “Safe sex. The best.” But he is also being a bit delusional (“You are not going to get sick,” he tells Darius. “I thought I made that clear.”) and his words do nothing to assay Jeffrey’s ultimately selfish terror of living with such a man and eventually having to watch him die.
As Jeffrey ponders the meaning of life, the universe and everything, playwright Rudnick skewers every gay stereotype under the sun and pokes fun at all the staples that had become cliches in gay drama. Much of the humor is brilliant. The copious comic settings and situations include a hoedown for AIDS, bogus self help groups, queer vigilantes, an amorous priest and a Gay Pride Parade. No sacred cow escapes Rudnick’s finely tuned barbs and Jeffrey is often very, very funny. At a memorial service, Jeffrey is shocked to realize that he’s crusing one of the mourners. Sterling moans “Oh please – everybody is” while Darius announces that he wants Liza at his memorial and the cast of Cats to sing “Darius, we all thought you were fabulous” to the tune of “Memories.”
The scene with a priest, besides being funny, is very important. Here is a good example of why Rudnick has always been so popular. Look at how well he is able to incorporate a lifetime of queer experience and sensibility into his writing and convey a mood that is both touching and humorous:
“You got your idea of God from where most gay kids get it – the album cover of My Fair Lady. Original cast. It’s got this Hirschfeld caricature of George Bernard Shaw up in the clouds, manipulating Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews on strings, like marionettes. It was your parents’ album, you were little, you thought it was a picture of God… God is on that record. Lerner and Lowe! ‘Why Can’t The English.’ ‘Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.’ I’m telling you, the only times I really feel the presence of God are when I’m having sex, and during a great Broadway musical.”
This exceptional cast additionally includes Anderson Dodd, Jessica Theiss, Seth Limbaugh and Zach Parker.
Living up to our mission to bring Edgy, Thought Provoking and Contemporary Theatre to Middle Tennessee-Out Front on Main does not blunt the dialogue or action of this play.
$1.00 of every ticket sale will be donated to Nashville Cares:
Nashville CARES began at a meeting held in August of 1985 at the Life Styles Health Clinic. At that meeting, a group of men and women came together to discuss the appearance of AIDS in the Nashville gay community. Many of the participants had family and friends who were living with AIDS. Following the example of cities nationwide, they decided to form a group committed to providing education about the disease and support to those living with it. In October 1985 the group adopted the name “Council on AIDS, Resources, Education and Support” (CARES). That same month, Nashville CARES was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. AIDS has remained the exclusive focus of the organization since that time. In 2004, the Board of Directors formally changed CARES to mean “Community AIDS Resources, Education and Services” to recognize its origins and confirm its grassroots commitment.
CARES has provided education and direct services continuously since 1985. Initially education focused on raising awareness about AIDS in the public-at-large and among medical and social service providers, and providing prevention education to gay and bisexual men, people with hemophilia and IV-drug users. Over the years, CARES has created new programs to reach diverse populations. Systematic prevention efforts for African Americans began in 1991. The First Person program for youth began in 1993. Targeted programs for alcohol and drug using populations and for women began in 1994. Brothers United began in 1996 to address rising rates of HIV among African American gay and bisexual men. A program to provide HIV-infected pregnant women with intensive care and support was created in 2000 in collaboration with the Comprehensive Care Center and the Vanderbilt Pediatric AIDS Clinic. A second, peer-based program for youth (Survivor Club) was begun in 2001, and a program addressing the unique needs of younger (age 16-23) African American gay/bisexual men was begun in 2003. Healthy U, providing wellness and prevention education and support to people living with HIV, began in 2005.
Today more than 45,000 adults and youth receive education annually to help them reduce their risk for HIV infection. Through group workshops and individual counseling, CARES offers a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention, supporting decisions by young people to delay sexual behavior and giving sexually active individuals the skills to change risky behavior. CARES also provides HIV testing and screening, distributes education and prevention materials at fixed sites throughout the community, conducts workplace training, and consults on HIV issues.
CARES direct services initially supported gay and bisexual men, hemophiliacs, and their families, who were the first people in Nashville living with AIDS. As the numbers of IV drug users, heterosexuals, people of color, and women living with HIV/AIDS has increased over the years, the numbers of people from these groups served by CARES has also grown. CARES was founded at the time that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was identified as a causative agent for AIDS (1984) and an antibody test was developed to detect HIV infection (1985). Thus, services have always been provided to people with HIV infection as well as those with AIDS or an AIDS-related illness.
Currently more than 2,400 men, women, and children who are HIV-infected are receiving the support they need to live with independence and dignity. Services include individual and group counseling, case management, emergency housing and help finding permanent housing, short-term rent and utility assistance, a food pantry and home-delivered meals, transportation assistance, assistance for dental care, assistance for insurance premiums and medical/prescription copayments, CARE Team practical support with daily tasks, outpatient alcohol and drug treatment, and social activities. The individuals and families supported by direct services, like the HIV/AIDS epidemic itself, come from every community, in numbers which reflect the incidence of HIV/AIDS in those particular communities.
While CARES initially focused its work within Davidson County, support was always available upon request to anyone affected by HIV/AIDS within the Middle Tennessee region. In 1993, the agency formalized its commitment to people throughout the region, with its first assignment of staff to provide services outside of Davidson County. Today CARES serves seventeen counties of northern middle Tennessee, which account for about 90% of the reported incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Middle Tennessee region and about one-third of the reported incidence of HIV/AIDS in the state as a whole. Staff are deployed throughout the region to bring services to individuals and families.
Individuals with HIV/AIDS may receive services at the CARES office, through HIV medical clinics in Nashville or Springfield, or from the case managers assigned to work in specific counties. (A separate corrections case manager can provide services as needed, especially pre-release planning, at local prisons and jails.) Clients can access services and contact their case manager at no charge through the agency’s toll-free HEARTLine. Services are individually determined, based upon a particular individual’s and family’s needs and resources. Services are provided throughout the progression of HIV disease and relationships may last for many years, with needs and the services to meet them changing in type and intensity over time.
None of this would be possible without the generous support of our community. While government grants partially underwrite many programs, every service and education program relies in part upon individual, corporate, foundation and religious gifts, and special events revenue. Hundreds of volunteers give thousands of hours of support to programs, events, and other facets of agency operations.
For more information about the agency (including financial information), visit our listing at www.givingmatters.com.
Jeffrey opens August 11 for three week-ends. Thursdays-Sundays at 7:30pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weY20u3ss1g
