Gay Play Day: eight theatrical explorations of the queer experience
02 Sep 2018

"Eight plays about guys on Grindr would get a little repetitive," says Darren Stewart-Jones of the Gay Play Day festival. "We want the festival to represent all the colours in that rainbow." This rainbow is divided into two classic gay colours on two weekends. "Both the PINK and LAVENDER shows, each playing three times over the course of the festival, are comprised of four plays each over approximately 75 minutes. What's great for audiences is that they get four completely different stories within one performance. What is surprising is the different aspects of the queer experience that each show tackles."

This is the seventh year for Gay Play Day and that has to be a record for most gay events. "Queer theatre heavyweight Sky Gilbert helped get us off to a good start by giving us a script of his to use at our inaugural festival in 2012," says Stewart-Jones. "At the time, I knew there must have been other queer writers out there like myself who had scripts that they wanted to see produced but didn't necessarily have a platform from which to do so. It turns out I was right. Over the past seven years, we have produced approximately 50 scripts by LGBTQ playwrights. I'm proud of that."

Stewart-Jones himself has a play in this year's edition of Gay Play Day, Fade to Black starring Nonnie Griffin and Nathaniel Bacon."It was inspired by my own relationship with Nonnie," says Stewart-Jones. "I grew up watching her on Polka Dot Door, saw her on stage as Gertrude in Hamlet when I was a high school theatre student and then, much later, got the opportunity to work with her on her solo show, Marilyn-After, which we took down to the United Solo theatre festival in New York. The character of Bedelia in Fade to Black is basically Nonnie but on a much grander scale."

A grand scale but not necessarily onstage. "Nonnie Griffin has every right to be a diva but she's not," says Stewart-Jones. "I don't think Nonnie gets the full respect she deserves from the theatre community. She has performed in theatres across Canada for 65 years. At the age of 84, she is still writing and performing solo shows and taking on small parts in films. She is Canada's Angela Lansbury as far as I am concerned!"

And every Lansbury needs a leading man. "Nathaniel is actually playing a younger version of me, a gay fan boy who is thrilled to meet one of his idols. Nathaniel played Sherlock Holmes in my play Sherlock & Watson: Behind Closed Doors at Gay Play Day several years back. I've wanted to work with him again since then and this was a great opportunity to do so. Coincidentally, Nathaniel and Nonnie hail from the same small town in Ontario where their paths had, unbeknownst to them, previously crossed. Nathaniel is a great actor and a pleasure to work with. They have great chemistry together."

But Stewart-Jones is quick to note that Gay Play Day features seven other plays including, I've Just Seen a Face by Kris Davis, The End is the Beginning by Tina McCulloch, Coming Clean by Laura Piccinin, Labels by Erika Reesor and Diamonds on Plastic by Philip Cairns. Actor Mark Keller who connected with audiences in 5 Guys Chillin' contributes the play Missed Connections. Gay Play Day has also scored the first new play from Stephen Elliott Jackson whose The Seat Next to the King was a huge hit at last year's Fringe Festival and then an acclaimed production at the Theatre Centre.

"Steven submitted a script and we happily accepted it," says Stewart-Jones of Jackson's Point and Click wherein "A flippant photographer trashes everyone in his life while waiting for a male model to arrive at his studio." Stewart-Jones is excited for two reasons, "I'm looking forward to seeing it on stage. We have only ever chatted through email exchanges so I am looking forward to meeting Steven in person at our tech rehearsal. I think the play might contain some nudity but don't quote me on that. I remember reading it in the script when I first perused it. I should probably double check with him. Queer theatre does often come with nudity, doesn't it? Even something as harrowing as Martin Sherman's Bent starts out with one of the characters flashing the audience. I don't think it's necessary but I think it does help fill seats sometimes."

But that isn't the main impetus behind the festival. "There are so many interesting queer stories that need to be told," says Stewart-Jones. "Gay Play Day also provides a platform for a lot of novice playwrights who wouldn't get produced otherwise. We try to include as many scripts as we possibly can. This year, for the first time, we have decided to return the majority of funds received from ticket sales to the artists. It's a big step for us. It means both union and non-union actors can perform in the festival side by side and everyone gets to be compensated somewhat for their work. I really hope the queer community will come out to see this year's plays and support these talented artists. We have become Toronto's mini queer Fringe Festival."