PATRICIA MILTON AND ANDREW BLACK
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS OR NOT? Theatre Out in Santa Ana brings us the winning
play of the 2005 San Francisco Stage and Film Absolute Time Festival, Strange Bedfellows. The show is the brainchild of playwrights Andrew Black and Patricia Milton. Black and Milton also collaborated on It’s Murder, Mary! and Porn Yes- terday, plus their up-and-coming musical, Not Without Our Women. One fun tidbit about this new gay screwball
comedy, is that it’s set right here in modern day Or- ange County—that’s not all—on top of having local
flavor, Strange Bedfellows is the perfect show to see in this election year because of the political themes. Surely we’ll enjoy both the humor and familiarity of the play. The Democratic candi-
date for District Attorney was just killed in a freak accident and it is six weeks until the election—they better act fast because they aren’t losing any seats to the right. The party quickly finds a new candi- date: Nathan Zimmerman. Nathan is both an ardent public servant and a totally uninhibited leather-clad gay boy. Not too sure what to make of all this, Campaign Manager Antonio Mar- quez must decide whether to mount a campaign for this improbable but idealistic candidate, or sell out for a lucrative advertising career. Oh, what shall he do? Playwrights Black and Milton
confessed they like happy endings, but this show is really about the journey; the madcap, oddball interactions between their characters and there’s more
than a dash of romance. Black says, “Men who love men and a coalition of dykes on bikes is the play’s subculture. The show is flamboyant, out there, political and funny. We’re both optimists, I very much believe in happy endings— there is a message in there about
16 RAGE monthly | AUGUST 2012 by lisa lipsey
overcoming obstacles. It is reflected in an amusing and palatable way.” Milton brings an additional ele- ment to the play, “My vision as a playwright is to write strong roles for women and there are two fabulous women in this show—they are so much fun.” Black recalls, “Originally we had it set in San Francis-
“We’re both optimists, I very much believe in happy endings there is a message in there about overcoming obstacles.”
co, but we realized the idea of being nervous about how to get a gay candidate elected—no matter how flamboyant—didn’t work there. So we came down to Orange County, picking names off the map at ran- dom and visiting them. We went down this street in downtown Garden Grove and saw an authentic and beautiful building; it was exactly what we needed for the set of our play—we reference a lot of local things, even the Orange County Transit Association (laugh- ter). What? Orange County has one?” When asked about their collabora-
tive process, they alternated sharing that partners must have a very, very, very clear outline. They use post-it notes and flip charts to create scenes and characters. Then they move around post-it notes and write their first draft. Black feels, “Writing the first draft is the most boring adminis- trative procedure, it’s like following a recipe. You really want to try different
things and see what happens, but you have to follow the recipe exactly to get the whole thing on paper first. After that it gets wild. The two of us start to read it aloud to each other, we assign parts and character voices and we read. We trade roles back and forth so we both get the experiences of the actor reading and the audience hearing the lines said.” Given their humor, easygoing conversation
and passion for the theatre, consider heading to see Strange Bedfellows on Playwrights Night, Saturday, September 1. There will be an audience talkback with Black and Milton after the 8 p.m. performance.
Strange Bedfellows runs Friday, August 17 through Satur- day, September 8 at Theatre Out in the Empire Theatre, 202 N. Broadway (located in the Santa Ana Arts District). For tickets and more information call 714.220.7069 or go to
theatreout.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76