Southern Baptist Sissies- Reviews

Fort Worth Star Telegram Excerpt click here.

Dallas Voice review click here.

Dallas Observer review click here.

The Column review click here.

Things are tough for four of the young male parishioners at Dallas’ Calvary Baptist Church. All are devout Christians, trembling from the power of the Holy Spirit coursing through them. But they feel conflicted because of their sexual feelings for each other.

Maybe it’s not God they are experiencing after all, they begin to wonder — maybe it’s just the hot underwear models from the International Male catalogue. Been there. Done that. Bought the cassock.

The playwright, Del Shores, might not have realized it when he wrote it, but “Southern Baptist Sissies” — currently in production from Uptown Players — is a play without an antagonist. There’s a lot of conflict, a lot of soul-searching and tragedy, but no one on stage is to blame for it.

It’s tempting to lay all the responsibility on the feet of Preacher (Rick Espaillat), but while his evangel roils with fire and brimstone, he doesn’t do anything wrong: He’s a fundamentalist minister, he has a dogma to sermonize. Preacher is, at most, the vessel for the real villain. And for Shores, that villain is the church.

It doesn’t take a semiotics expert to deconstruct the play’s point of view. “Sissies” is an expurgation of Shores’ own religious conflicts — the tension between salvation and sexual identity. But while much of the play is specific to the experiences of Texas gay boys — those taught that liking guns makes you a man and playing with dolls makes you a girl — these characters possess a striking universality. It seems inevitable that the play will resonate with gay audiences, whatever their upbringings. Had he been born somewhere other than Texas, Shores might well have been called his play “Midwestern Mormon ’Mos” or “Pacific-Coast Pentecostal Poofters.”

“Sissies” is less a cohesive narrative than a cluster of character studies — “Profiles of Queerage,” he says in his smoking jacket. And while there are traces of Shores’ sitcom training (a few obvious set-up/punch line moments), this is a more developed and emotionally mature work than “Sordid Lives.”

The strength of the cast propels our involvement, and this is one of the most resourceful groups of young actors to take the stage this year. The protagonist is Mark (Carter Hudson), the angry young man whose bitterness gives shape to the show’s theses. Hudson has a sad-eyed intensity and fearlessness with the material that can be bracing.

Chad Peterson and Kevin Moore play the more repressed characters, the two who don’t rebel against the church as much as they suffer through its contradictions. Watching them wrestle with self-hatred is heartbreaking, and flashes of identification can be sensed in the air of the theater, like ozone in an electrical storm.

Emerson Collins gets the showiest role as Benny, who easily rejected his religion on his way to becoming a flamboyant drag queen. Collins could vamp to a gospel reading — he sashays and lip-synchs with the best of them, part Dr. Frank-N-Furter, part teen-pop wannabe.

The veterans are just as adept. Terry Vandivort (as Peanut) and Molly Moroney (as Odette) serve as a kind of Statler and Waldorf, stepping in every so often to comment on the destructiveness of religion in their lives with the comic safe zone that comes from hindsight. Vandivort looks like a refugee from a Jimmy Buffett concert, a desiccated Parrot Head finishing up a three-week bender. His lines drip out his mouth like syrup on a cold morning. Vandivort’s comic timing meshes well with Moroney’s broken barfly shtick. Both also master several tender moments.

Espaillat, dressed up in his perfect preacher’s pinstripe, looks — and just as importantly, sounds — the part, his face reddened and voice tremulous from religious fervor. Cindee Mayfield conveys a blanched familiarity as Mother, whose idea of an unbreakable sacrament is bringing a covered-dish casserole to the church picnic. She’s every parent tortured by her faith and her child’s sexuality.

Director Bruce R. Coleman lets the pacing stumble on occasion, but not at the expense of effectiveness. He also makes some canny decisions, such as casting the same actor (Alexander Mancha) as Jesus and the parade of rough trade hustlers who cruise the gay bars. With his lean, hard-bodied swimmer’s build, showcased in a loincloth, “Jesus was hot,” one of the sissies remarks.

And so the play’s theme emerges like a beast from the forest: Salvation can come in many forms, whether with Jesus or another well-built guy you happen to meet. Sometimes, the most important form of salvation is the one that saves us from the church itself.

If only Zach could see Southern Baptist Sissies, now running at Uptown Players. All summer dozens of online blogs have bounced stories and comments back and forth about Zach, a 16-year-old Tennessee boy whose own Web journal details his fears of being dispatched by his parents to Love in Action, a Christian program in Memphis that claims to "cure" gay kids and turn them straight.
Zach's diary (www.myspace.com/specialkid) hasn't been updated since early June. If he is locked up at Love in Action, he's being subjected to treatment that includes isolation from family and friends. He is prohibited from physical touching other than handshakes or pats on the back, and he cannot speak after 9 p.m. He's being told not to act "campy." According to the program's long list of rules and practices, he's supposed to "actively re-evaluate the influences of secular media" on his life. He's not allowed access to the Internet, television or movies (Zach's posted faves include Camp, Finding Nemo and Girl, Interrupted). Only explicitly Christian music is permitted. Bach and Beethoven, according to the program, are not considered Christian.

You read this stuff and wonder how? Why? Who? And then you see Del Shores' Southern Baptist Sissies and you know. Shores certainly knows. He's lived it. Now 47, Shores grew up in Texas as the son of a Baptist minister who preached harsh lessons from Leviticus and believed that gays end up in the fiery lakes of hell. Shores married, had kids and built a solid career writing scripts for bland TV sitcoms. Then in 1995 the biggest come-to-Jesus moment of his life found him coming out to his wife, family and friends. It wasn't easy, so the following year he wrote his first play about it, Sordid Lives, a comedy that enjoyed a 15-month, sold-out run in Los Angeles before going to regional theaters (Uptown Players did it here). Shores also wrote and directed the film version starring Delta Burke, Beau Bridges and Olivia Newton-John.

Now an executive producer and writer for Showtime's out-as-out-can-be Queer as Folk series, Shores has followed Sordid Lives with more autobiographical plays with gay themes. He's slick at scoring easy laughs from broadly written characters who say funny, trashy things in accents that migrate between Slingblade and Mayberry. With names like "Aunt Booger" and "Uncle Humpty," Shores' creations are so swishy and trailer park they make the gals of Steel Magnolias sound like King Lear's daughters.

So Southern Baptist Sissies, his fifth and most serious play, might disappoint some of his fans with its darker mood and tragic plot turns (one character commits suicide rather than tell his mother he's gay). But it might also hit close to the heart for anyone who survived being raised in a religion that teaches that only the straight and narrow-minded make it to heaven.

At the center of the play are four boys who grow up in Dallas attending a small Baptist church. All four realize early on that they're gay, but only two--Mark (Carter Hudson) and Benny (Emerson Collins)--are brave enough to admit it. Benny jets all the way over the rainbow as a professional drag queen. Mark, the poetic type, suffers the rejection of his first love, T.J. (Kevin Moore), the butchest and most religious of the foursome and the one most likely to live in the closet and marry a big-haired ol' Baylor gal. Sensitive Andrew (Chad Peterson) secretly cruises leather bars by night but still sings in the church choir on Sundays. He's the doomed one.

Scenes in Sissies alternate between the starchy sermons of the preacher (Rick Espaillat) and revealing, often profane, monologues from Mark, Benny, T.J. and Andrew. Everything is told from Mark's point of view. Thinking back to the church and his three childhood friends, he says, "For God so loved the world...ironic...this is the place we learned to hate ourselves."

Even in serious work like this, Shores can't help but reflexively turn to gags to lighten things up. Some of the best moments in Sissies are provided by two sideline characters, Peanut (beautifully played by Terry Vandivort) and Odette Annette Barnett (Molly Moroney), a couple of over-the-hill boozers who meet and swap sad life stories in a gay bar. "I'm a social drinker," twangs Peanut. "If you'll have another drink, 'social' I."

The writing is sometimes soap operatic and overwrought. Uptown's opening night ran about a half-hour too long, thanks to some indulgent emoting by a few of the actors (overall the cast is excellent). But Sissies is worth seeing because of what it says about acceptance and redemption. It dares to shake its fist at those who really do believe that you can pray the gay out of a boy by confining him to some program in Memphis that promises it can rid him of the urge to sing along with Cher and turn off his fantasies about the hunk on the swim team. Shores, through his main character, Mark, reassures anyone who doubts it that there is hope and grace for every troubled, questioning spirit. The little piece of scripture that says "God is love" isn't followed by an asterisk saying for whom that love is reserved.

A lot of the audience at Uptown sniffled and sobbed through the final scene of the play the other night. Such is the power of theater to reach deep inside and affirm life and love and inner peace. If only young Zach were free to see Southern Baptist Sissies, he'd know he isn't alone and that he's all right just the way God made him. Till then, let's keep him on the prayer chain, shall we?

Review from John Garcia's THE COLUMN

The South. The Bible belt. Bubba Bush Country. Texas, a state that contains massive amount of bible thumpers screaming till they are blue in the face about what God says. Now put all that in front of someone who wants to come out of the closet because they are gay. Oh yea, that should make this extremely painful, personal confession very easy.
It's kinda like strapping raw steaks onto your body and throwing your- self into a pool of man hungry sharks. Not a pretty picture is it?!

Being gay in the South can be quite difficult. There is an immense amount of obstacles to overcome to get to that finish line, but once you reach it, life does become much easier. No more hiding. You surround yourself with people, cultures, and groups who love and care for you for just being yourself. Theater is one world that is very open about people being gay. The theater world is a very supportive, loving, and respectful society that doesn't give a rat's a** if you are gay or not. They are more concerned if you are a good actor, director, designer, choreographer, etc.

Now put these two elements together-gay in the south and the theater, and you get the foundation for Del Shore's play, SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES (SBS), which is currently being produced by Uptown Players.

SBS is a heavy morality tale about four males who attend a strict religious school and live in Dallas, the buckle of the Bible belt. Each of them is gay and handles it in very different ways. Some good, some horrific.

The major problem though is the script itself, for it is way too choppy. Shores have scenes, emotions, and characters flying all over the space, only sporadically touching ground. You just don't know with -in the confinements of the play's timeline where you are in regards to the characters. The focus of the piece stretches too sparsely to
cover all its bases and characters. The best subplot involves the confident, yet angry "Mark" and his relationship with the religious "TJ". That is the heart of the piece, and I feel that if he had solely stayed focused on this tortured relationship, so much more could have been explored emotionally. Instead we are left with a hodgepodge of
scenes, emotions, and characters without a solid flow of organic procession.

Another glaring problem involves the subplot of two bar flies at some gay bar. These two have absolutely nothing to do with the dramatic side of the play or any of the other characters. So it screams of desperation from Shores to ease up on the drama by having these two become the major source for the comedy to even up the playing field. Shores background is that of writing for comedy TV sitcoms, and sadly at times that's exactly how the writing feels and plays out before us.

I'm Catholic, not Baptist, so when it came to many of the religious conversations and the never ending references to the Baptist belief and their morals, values, etc. in regards to the Bible, well they flew over my head. That's no one's fault (I mean the play does have Baptist in its name) but again I felt a little detached from the material.

Once again director Bruce Coleman uses his vast knowledge and creativity to bring his vision on stage in vivid, dramatic emotion. This very talented director is easily one of the top directors in the metroplex. Many actors within the acting pool have voiced wonderful praise in working with him, or will rush over to an audition of a production that has his name attached to as the director. Coleman sails with assuagement between the worlds of musicals and plays. He
always brings to the table a massive bag of new concepts, themes ,and subtext to what he is helming, whether it be a musical or a play. He is one of this city's most respected and sought after directors, and this piece shows exactly why.

Coleman keeps the performances of the entire cast knee deep in pure realism. The characters could have been loud, screaming, caricatures, but Coleman swiftly keeps his company from this. The staging and blocking feels organic and reflects actors moving due to the under- lying emotions. Coleman is keenly aware of the script's pitfalls, but
is sapient enough to build a sturdy bridge for his cast to walk over these script holes to still achieve cathartic, emotional performances. Whenever I am aware that Coleman is the director of a production, I know I will never be disappointed. This production proves that once again in plenitude.

In the design elements, they are all what you come to expect from an Uptown Players production. Wade Giampa's slick, open church set looks so real you expect someone to pass the collection plate at any minute. He has smartly designed two "L" shaped beams that hang over the set, with two large glass lanterns, all this frames the set like a quaint Rockwell setting. But what makes the set truly glow is the gorgeously painted window pane that sits dead center. It is a spray of colors that look like sun rays bursting through the multi-colored cut glass. It looks so real that you forget that it is just a painting. This spray of color mural is framed by elegant, cut wood that does bring home a house of worship.

Ana F. Pettit's lighting is neutral and earthy, but when we step into the disco she gives it a surreal swirl of color! She has flashing spears of light, revolving colors, and a mirror disco ball to boot! For the church she has a charming gobo reflecting a church window pane. The lighting is simple, yet purposeful.

The costumes by director Coleman range from ideal to glamour!. I swear this man can do it all for he is a one man theater company! For the male students he has them in appropriate character colored dress shirts and ties. For the mother she is in breezy dresses that reflect that the mother shopped at a quaint Shoppe in downtown Grapevine. The
costumes for the female impersonator are ravishing to say the least! If I were Coleman I'd lock those costumes in a safe. They are beaded and sequined to death, and that would make any salivating drag queen crazy enough to break into the theater and steal these glittery gowns for the Miss Thicket Pageant!

But watch for a delicious visual subtext involving costume and light. In the second act when there is a dramatic scene involving the two bar flies and "Andrew", look at their costumes. They are all in green and blue. See? Coleman knew the script's faults of these characters not connecting, so he uses costume to connect them. Later when Andrew does
the unthinkable, Pettit flushes the actor in a sea of green and blue. It's subtext like this that I love about theater.

The entire cast is chockfull of terrific performances. Rick Espaillat has the right vocal overtones of a fanatic, bible thumping preacher; As the Church Pianist, "Brother Chaffey", Coy Covington plays the piano beautifully, supplying some moving musical underscore throughout the evening. But also watch Covington create solid laughs involving a pimento sandwich. Alexander Mancha has not a line, but shows his range as an actor by playing a plethora of
characters peppered throughout the play. He goes from a leather dancing stud to a crack addict with finesse, solid characterization; Terry Vandivort provides many of the loud laughs as "Peanut", the gay barfly. This actor's comedic timing and delivery brings home the zingers with hilarious results.

Cindy Mayfield portrays the mothers of the various gay male students within Shore's world. She gives each woman her own voice, posture, and look. Not one of them seep into the others, she gives each one her own identity. She provides some wicked humor as the trashy mother who wants to smoke in church, for another-the religious one-she gives her
these overtones of Kathy Lee Gifford mixed in with Tammye Fay Bakker. She's all sweet & Southern, but with a sick, crude view of religion and morals. But it is her portrayal of Andrew's mother that is gut wrenching, powerful, & true to life. You feel this woman's conflict of love, motherhood, god, & the possibility of having a gay son pour out in starking reality from Mayfield's heartbreaking performance.

Kevin Moore is outstanding as the butch, closeted, and sexually confused "TJ". The actor shows with painful honesty the conflicts within his heart about his feelings for a man and the teachings of his religion. Moore's facial expressions add layers to his character, but it is his subtext that is riveting. You sense from your seat the immense confusion and conflict within his soul. It is a mesmerizing performance. The only minor flaw in his performance was the stage
fighting between he and Mark (Carter Hudson). In the play both actors fight physically, but the staging for this rings too false and has this aura of "let's be careful and not get hurt". This wounds the emotions that both actors are conveying during their gut wrenching battles. You have to go for the organic naturalism and truth when it comes to physical violence on stage. Anything less creates this veil of false believability. Nonetheless Moore is superb.

In past reviews, such as MAMBO ITALIANO and THE WILD PARTY, I stated that the theater space can either be a positive or negative thing regarding actors. The Trinity Arts Theater is where these two shows played and where SBS is currently housed in. The audience is so close to the cast you can see everything. So anything false or fake will
read loud and clear on that small, intimate space.

Having said that, Chad Peterson and Carter Hudson have the most difficult roles between the four teens due to the dark, emotional dramatic arches that both have to reach. Both actors have gut wrenching scenes and monologues that require them to emotionally break down and sob uncontrollably. But neither actor achieves this. They bow their heads, releasing vocally loud, guttural sobs, with their bodies reflecting this pain physically as well. But when they raised their head, not a tear was coming from their eyes or running down their cheeks. Now I'm not saying they needed to have Demi Moore from GHOST tears pouring out of their eyes here. But since both characters are "crying" loud, echoing against the walls of the small theater, you do expect to see tears in their eyes. Alas you see none within their eyes or faces, thus it cheats both the actor & audience.

Even with this problem, both actors deliver exemplary performances. Peterson enacts "Andrew" with this sweet disposition of shyness. He gives the role a quiet aura of a teen that is deeply confused of how to follow the teachings and ramblings of his local preacher, and what his heart and soul hunger for. His scenes involving the one night
stand with a bar pick up show layers of confusion, shyness, and fear. Peterson's emotional breakdown when he finds out his mother knows he's gay is both powerful and shocking. His raw fear claws out from the actor's vocal and physical reactions come from his very bowels of dark loneness and confusion. Once this actor truly hits the inner,
organic core of this pain, and the tears do flow from him, it will make that scene much more intense and convincing. Regardless, this is by far Peterson's best work as an actor that I have seen him do.

Hudson is both pragmatic and piercing as "Mark", the gay teen that falls for the closeted "TJ". The actor portrays this out and proud (yet deeply resentful) character in masculine, respectful overtones. As the narrator who leads the audience into his life and the world which is being exposed on stage, the actor comes equipped with an endearing stage presence and warm demeanor that matches perfectly with his characterization. But where the actor truly shines also
happens to be the best scene of the evening, which involves the breakup of his relationship with TJ. Hudson rips in brutal gory the organic reality of anger, pain, and the loss of his first love. This thespian is so angry and raging mad that he beats himself, the floor, anything to make the pain stop. Let's face it, we've all been there.

The chemistry between Hudson and Moore is extremely believable and does touch the audience's heart. Both actors are asked to take large risks in portraying physically the love between these two. They both handle it with organic truth, honesty, and respect. I was deeply touched that not a soul in the audience made a rude, uncomfortable vocal response to their intimate scenes.

Out of this talented cast it is the work by Molly Moroney and Emerson Collins that provide the scene stealing performances of the night.Collins has the showiest and most over the top character of the piece, "Benny". He is an out and proud gay teen who says the hell to the religious fanatics and defies them by becoming a drag queen, By the way, Collins actually makes quite a lovely girl! Collins razor sharp comedic timing, pace, and especially his delivery result in gut busting laughter every time he speaks. He then adds his facial expressions to his character that add another round of loud laughter. Watch his face react to the comments, lines, or situations on stage- they are side splitting hilarious. But then when "Benny" has to be dramatic, Collins reigns in the flamboyance and gives organic truthfulness to what Benny feels in his heart. Collins work here is without a doubt is his best performance.

Molly Moroney is "Odette", the straight, booze chugging, loud mouth broad in the gay bar who dresses like she got the last items left on the racks at a Phyllis Diller Estate sale.! With Moroney's deep, smoky, baritone voice, the girl sounds a bit like Kathleen Turner. The actress also has smacked on her head one of those god awful Southern hair pieces that looks like bleached blonde road kill. All these components help this actress create the funniest character on stage. Moroney's delivery of the line, "A most unfortunate accident which I wish not do discuss" will have you laughing so hard by the end of the evening. No matter what she says, this amazing comedic actress has the audience in the palm of her hands, that is when there's not a drink or a cig in it.

But then towards the end of Act Two when "Odette" has a dark, intense emotional confession, she is both shattering and powerful. She sobs loudly, letting the pain of her secret ebb out with raw, intense honesty. The tears pour from her eyes as she exposes this pain, resulting in many in the audience to sniff and quietly sob. She was the only performer to be so "in the moment", allowing realism to flow from every pore. Moroney is both hilarious and deeply moving in this
brilliant performance.

Uptown Players can do no wrong. Period. This theater company continues to produce and mount productions that become both critical successes and sold out hits. At the curtain speech we the audience were informed that several of the SBS performances are already sold out. I am always excited and enthused when I have an Uptown production on my schedule, because I know they never disappoint. This company provides some of the finest theater our metroplex has to offer. SBS is another glowing success for them to add to their never ending list of fantastic hits.

But I sincerely hope that straights and those who are anti-gay or have negative feelings towards those who are gay will see this production, because they really need to. Big time. Hopefully it will open their eyes to the kind of pain that results from being ouster sized and ridiculed by some within society. We are all human. We all love, we all feel pain and we all lose just the same. This production shows this in stark reality. Maybe, just maybe, Uptown Players and this first class production can open at least one cold, negative heart and have them accept people for who they are. Now that would be a perfect world, which is the final message of this play. Indeed, that would be
a perfect world.

GRADE: A-