stage


FACING LIFE AT THE END OF THE WORLD by tony reverditto


DEAD BOYS Dead Boys is a world premiere dramedy by


Matthew Scott Montgomeryabout polar opposites at the end of the world. Two actors alone on stage portray millennials who get trapped in the basement of their old high school. One,the only gay kid at the time is played by playwright Matthew Scott Montgomery, and the other,a former classmate who used to bully him, is played by Andrew Puente. The two young men have no choice but to face their history, their prejudices, their sexualities and each other, while contemplating their impendingfate. The Rage Monthly caught up with Montgomery,


to gain a little insight into his unique production and his role in it. Coming up with a concept when writing can be a challenge. Montgomery talked about where the idea forDead Boys came from and his motivation for writ- ing it. “It started because I love two person shows,” he said. “I got addicted to the idea of working on one after acting in a workshop of a two-person play calledCoromandel, written by Nick Johnson with EST L.A. It seems like the purest form of acting to me, just two people for 80 minutes, there’s no hiding!” Montgomery continued, “I was anxious to do one


and decided to write my own, and I had this idea of this complicated relationship between two guys with a history that dealt with race and sexuality. Both characters are a mix of people I know and from my imagination and I had them bouncing around in my head for a while. I basically lived as them for a weekend in my apartment and wrote down what a conversation with them would be like in an


apocalyptic situation. I find myself being drawn to the dark side of entertainment (horror movies are my favorite) so there is definitely a bit of a scary twist to the environment they’re in.” The demands of live theatre are very different that


film and television, Montgomery opined on what the biggest challenges are when preparing for a demanding play likeDead Boys. “There’s something really magical about theater because although it’s the same script every night, whatever performance you see will only ever exist that particular day. The ‘liveness’ of it all is really satisfying and exciting.” The obvious answer for what the biggest chal-


lenge isprobablylies in the memorization of all the lines. “I wrote myself 82 pages to memorize, but so far that process hasn’t been as difficult as I thought. At certain times specifically with this show—and this may sound strange, but I actually do forget people are watching—especially an hour or so in. This play is very explosive but there’s also some intense intimacy to it, which really does feel like a secret that you almost want to keep in a way. I have to remind myself, ‘Speak up, people are watching! You’re on stage, girl!’” “My character, Levi, is a


IT’S REALLY A


STORY ABOUT FINDING


‘SAMENESS’


gay kid who was bullied in school and is still processing everything that happened to him,” Montgomery went on to explain. “He’s still wrestling with his identity and even though he’s done with school, in this show he finds himself back at the site where it all happened. It brings up a lot of stuff that maybe he hasn’t dealt with


BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE, WHO


ON THE OUTSIDE SEEM LIKE POLAR OPPOSITES.


HOW AFTER YOU UNPACK THE


LAYERS SOCIETY HAS PLACE ON US, BE IT


LABELS OR TOXIC MASCULINITY, UNDERNEATH WE’RE GOING THROUGH THE SAME THINGS.”


Celebration Theatre’sDead Boys runs Sunday, July 1 through Tuesday, July 31 at The Lex, located at 6760 Lexington Avenue in Hollywood. For tickets and more information, call 323.957.1884 or go to celebrationtheatre.com.


completely.” Any of us who are members of the LGBT community understand how it feels to have to perform, what the pressures of heteronormativity are and the consequences if you don’t on some level. Montgomery says, “I’ve worked on tapping into the angst and that honestly still seems fresh to me, it really does seem like yesterday. When you’re in high school, everything seems like the end of the world and in this show, Levi is back in high school, literally at what could be the end of the world.” Montgomery discussed the message he hopes


the audience walks away with, “It’s really a story about finding ‘sameness’ between two people, who on the outside seem like polar opposites. How after you unpack the layers society has place on us, be it labels or toxic masculinity, underneath we’re going through the same things. That’s heartbreaking and beautiful and frequently pretty hilarious. I think there’s something everyone can identify with in the show and people have seemed very moved by it. They feel compassion for both of these guys who are imperfect and complicated, and I think that makes them authentic. Hopefully the audience will walk away feeling the love.”


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RAGE monthlyRAGE monthly | JULY 2018


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