When John Glines strode to the podium at the 1983 Tony Awards as one of the producers of Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy"—just named Best Play—he shocked much of the audience by publicly acknowledging his same-sex lover. It may have seemed like a first for archconservative, Reagan-era America, but for playwright Doric Wilson, it might very well have seemed like an anticlimax.
By 1983, Doric Wilson was already regarded as one of the gay theatre movement's legendary forefathers. A native of Kennewick, Washington, his career began in March 1961 when his play "And He Made A Her" was one of the first works to debut at Joe Cino's storied Cornelia Street coffeehouse, the Caffé Cino. Directed by Paxton Whitehead (now better known as an actor), the play was soon moved from the diminutive stage of the coffeehouse by Richard Barr—then producing partner and champion of all things Albee—to the prestigious Monday Night Series at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Wilson, in fact, was widely called "the next Edward Albee" in print, and the plays he wrote through the remainder of the 1960s—"Babel, Babel, Little Tower," "Now She Dances!" (a nightmarish version of the trials of Oscar Wilde predating "Gross Indecency" by decades), and "Pretty People"—were game attempts to fulfill that promise.
"The Cino," as Wilson fondly calls it, was Off-Off-Broadway's birthplace, hallowed ground where free expression from the gay viewpoint could flower and flourish without apology. At the Cino, gay writers like Doric Wilson and Lanford Wilson (no relation) could have their work realized beside such non-gay groundbreakers as Sam Shepard. It was, by all accounts, an atmosphere that defined Off-Off-Broadway then as much as now, one that placed less emphasis on the straitjacket of mainstream mores and more emphasis on new voices, ideas, and styles for a new theatrical era.
And Wilson, to be sure, was at the very heart of that era. He participated in all three nights of the Stonewall riots, helped found Circle Repertory Company (along with Lanford Wilson and director Marshall W. Mason), and became one of the "star'' bartenders and managers in the post-Stonewall era of gay nightlife. Then, in 1974, Wilson co-founded TOSOS.
The Tale of TOSOS I…
The name stands for The Other Side of Silence—Wilson's loud, out, proud clarion call to all those wishing and, in fact, demanding to write theatrically about the gay experience from the loud, out, proud point of view. Wilson, along with TOSOS co-founders Billy Black-well, Peter del Valle, and John McSpadden, believed that gay stories had for far too long been relegated to silence on the city's otherwise-liberal stages, or else dramatists were expected and compelled to somehow mask the topic with the kind of artful obfuscation that Tennessee Williams perfected. By creating "the first professional theatre company in New York City to deal openly and honestly with the gay experience," TOSOS spearheaded an entire genre nearly a full decade before Glines' words thundered through the Tonys.
And TOSOS, by any measure, was a highly successful company. While lasting just five years, a quick survey of their output reveals a steady climb to popular acclaim and critical acceptance. Two examples: Steve Sterner and Peter del Valle's musical revue "Lovers," which transferred to a commercial run Off-Broadway; and a wild, woolly staging of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe" by Michael O'Brien and Jerry Thomas.
There were also new plays and revivals by writers like Brendan Behan, Nöel Coward, Christopher Hampton, Joe Orton, Terrence McNally, Robert Patrick, Martin Sherman, and Lanford Wilson. TOSOS' productions, readings, art and photography installations, cabaret nights, and notorious "Manhole parties" were, at the pinnacle of the 1970s, the très gay talk of a très gay town.
But in another sense, TOSOS is probably mostly remembered for the fierce, farcical, irrepressibly funny plays of Doric Wilson. After seeing his play "The West Street Gang" enjoy a long run at the Spike Bar in 1979, TOSOS, according to Wilson, "went into hibernation" and its members, their partying and pioneering days soon to be thwarted by AIDS and community apathy, proceeded on to other lives, careers, and challenges.
In the meantime, many of Wilson's plays, including "Street Theater" (titled "Stonewall 69" in productions outside the U.S.), "Forever After," and "A Perfect Relationship" entered a kind of great gay pantheon. Today, they are available directly from the playwright through a website he maintains, www.doricwilson.com. The website also contains Wilson's personal recollections of Caffé Cino, TOSOS I, and the can-do theatre of an era gone by.
…The Tale of TOSOS II
Now, after a 22-year hiatus, TOSOS is back, and at 63, Wilson is no longer just a sharp, quick-witted theatrical cut-up. He is a walking, talking repository of Off-Off-Broadway oral history, a grand still-young man of the gay theatre universe.
And as such, he's unabashed about why it's time for TOSOS II. Among other things, Wilson's growing concern about, and relative disappointment with, the "Off-Off-Broadway movement" has made him think long and hard about what a twice-tried TOSOS can do for the gay community and the theatrical community as a whole. Clearly, this time TOSOS is no longer a lone voice in the wilderness, since such companies as The Fourth Unity, Emerging Artists, SourceWorks Theatre, the NativeAliens Theater Collective, the Wings Theatre, and WOW Cafe are among many groups focused, at least partly, on gay themes and topics.
But the costs of mounting even 12-performance Equity Showcases continues to grow, and that worries Wilson the most. "The way Off-Off-Broadway is operating prevents [many companies] from moving their work or having their work moved to get in front of more audiences" and that, Wilson says, endangers the very "spirit of new spaces and voices" that set the playwright forth on his career. Rather than watch passively as a whole new generation of gay writers, directors, and thinkers face life on the sidelines, Wilson, buttressed by two forward-thinking counterparts, Artistic Director Mark Finley and Administrative Director Barry Childs, simply felt the spark for TOSOS II had been ignited.
Their first project is "Look Again!," a sprawling, 10-part reading series that, according to an explanatory program note, "presents a rare opportunity for audiences to revisit plays that contributed to the making of what we now call gay theatre," reexamining the pre-AIDS gay theatrical canon. Thus far, readings have included Doric Wilson's "The West Street Gang," directed by Mark Finley; Jane Chambers' "Last Summer at Bluefish Cove," directed by Rebecca Kendall; and a double-bill of Lanford Wilson's "The Great Nebula in Orion" and "The Madness of Lady Bright," directed by Igor Goldin and Doric Wilson, respectively.
Tom Eyen's "Sarah B. Divine!," directed by Barry Childs, plays Thurs., Feb. 28 (the day this March 1 issue of Back Stage actually hits the newsstands of NYC). Next up, on March 14, is Frank Adamo's "Dis Con," directed by Peter Boruchowitz, followed on March 28 by a rare look at Hugh Wheeler's "Look, We've Come Through," directed by Kevin Brofsky. (Lovers of curious theatrical factoids will note that the play, a flop, originally featured a young Burt Reynolds. It was also published in critic Marilyn Stasio's compendium of plays she thought should have been hits, called "Broadway's Beautiful Losers." The late Wheeler is better known to today's audiences as the author of the books to two Sondheim musical classics: "Sweeney Todd" and "A Little Night Music.")
Then, on April 11, spring kicks in with a double-bill of Robert Patrick's "Fred and Harold" and "T-Shirts," directed by Rebecca Kendall and Mark Finley, respectively, followed on April 25 by Bill Solly and Donald Ward's musical, "Boy Meets Boy," directed by Igor Goldin. "Payments," by esteemed gay historian Martin Duberman, then gets a hearing on May 9, under the direction of Barry Childs, and the series comes to a conclusion on May 23 with Robert Anderson's "Tea and Sympathy," directed by Mark Finley.
The "Look Again!" series performs on the second and fourth Thursday of every month through May 23 in the Harvey Lerner Auditorium at The Center, 208 W. 13th St. Each reading is a benefit for the Pat Parker-Vito Russo Library, and a suggested contribution of $5 is asked.
Wilson adds that at the present time, TOSOS II is unable to accept unsolicited manuscripts, but the company is open to letters of inquiry accompanied by a synopsis. To become involved in TOSOS II productions, for further schedule information, or to be placed on the TOSOS II mailing list, send an email to TOSOS2@nyc.rr.com, or write to TOSOS II, 506 Ninth Ave., #3FN, NY, NY 10018.
The Theory Behind TOSOS
Asked to elaborate on why the time is ripe for a TOSOS II, Wilson gives no quarter. He says he only needs to look at Broadway for the answer. "Every play on Broadway and every TV show has gays in it," he says, but "most of the plays on Broadway that deal with gay characters are just like books from the 1950s: the leading character dies in the last chapter. And how many plays on Broadway with gay characters are not about AIDS? Name one. Almost impossible. There are a lot of stories that aren't being told—a lot of plays that aren't going to Broadway. I think there's a validity to this kind of theatre—just like theatre by blacks and for blacks, or by women for women."
By starting small with the reading series, Finley adds, "there's not a huge financial risk" as the group begins operations. In addition, a 10-play reading series is also "an alternative to the showcase auspices, where you get 12 or 16 performances and usually, sometime during your last week, people just start to know you're on the map—just in time for you to close. Instead, this lets us get started and figure out our work dynamic without having to worry about mounting an entire production. It's also a great way to meet people."
According to Childs, there's also a major aesthetic bonus to starting small. "Since we're at the very earliest of stages for the company," he says, "rather than trying to decide everything at the outset by writing a manifesto and pursuing it relentlessly, we want to find the interest that's out there and find the people who are interested in it. We want to find out what people are talking about, what they'd like to see, what they'd like to hear, and then we want to take that information and channel it into something."
For Rebecca Kendall, the idea of TOSOS II harkens back to the kind of theatrical idealism that put Doric Wilson on the road to critical success. To illustrate what she means, she refers to another idealistic era in theatrical merrymaking: "When I read Colleen Dewhurst's autobiography, it literally changed my life. In her book, she talks about her and her friend 'Joe' and how they were doing 'The Taming of the Shrew' down on the Lower East Side and all that. Well, of course, it turns out that 'Joe' is Joseph Papp. Just like them, I want to get together with a group of people who are like-minded, who have a lot of integrity, and who have a lot of heart. I'm not so interested in money right now. I just want to work on stuff that feeds my soul." The kind of soul, in fact, heard loud and clear on the other side of silence.