About Face Theatre’s 'Abraham Lincoln Was a F*gg*t' explores authenticity with humor and heart
Chicago, IL -
Michaelangelo. Oscar Wilde. Virginia Woolf. For decades, queers have been discovering and reclaiming historical figures, highlighting a legacy of influence in the world and creating a pantheon of admirable artists, leaders and thinkers for the LGBTQ community, particularly our youth, to look up to and call one of our own. About Face Theatre's latest production explores this and proposes another figure for the cannon, in the Chicago premiere of "Abraham Lincoln Was A F*gg*t."
"The word f*gg*t is used to start a conversation," playwright Bixby Elliot told ChicagoPride.com. "To get people talking about sexuality and language. I wanted to grab people's attention and have them confront their feelings about the word. I also think it is funny to me -- it makes me think of Abe as this fabulous gay creature!"
The show follows Cal, a 17 year-old teenager, in his quest to prove that his favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, was in fact a gay man -- and the audience watches a telling of Lincoln's life probably quite unlike the one they learned when making stovepipe hats from construction paper.
It all started when Elliot was flipping through a copy of "Meet Abraham Lincoln: A Step Up Book," a relic of his partner's love of collecting things ("he says 'vintage,' sometimes I say 'junk'" Elliot joked). He found the retelling of Lincoln's life -- Abraham was tall; Abraham read a lot of books; Abraham Married Mary Todd -- "reductive [and] watered down" without substance or nuance in telling the actual life story of this beloved man and president.
"Where were the moral dilemmas that he faced, the crippling melancholia he lived with and, something I had been hearing about for several years... all the rumors of his sexuality?" Elliot asked. "'Shouldn't kids be exposed to the complexity of our American heroes?'" I thought. 'Why do our presidents have to be unblemished or one dimensional – why can't they be who they really are? Why can't we learn about the true and authentic life of Abe Lincoln?' My mind started spinning and that really began the journey of writing this play."
After several readings and workshops, the play had its world premiere in Louisville, KY. in 2013. Andrew Volkoff, who directs this Chicago production, first encountered ALWAF when he lived in New York City and Elliot was holding a reading there. When Volkoff became Artistic Director at About Face Theatre he contacted the playwright about bringing ALWAF back to Lincoln's home state.
This is AFT's 19th season of staging unique and interesting plays that "advance the national dialogue on sexual and gender identity," a mission definitely fulfilled by Elliot's challenging, thoughtful meditation on the nature of language, identity and living authentically.
"When putting together a season, I look for plays that are not only mission driven and speak to our LGBTQ community at large, but that are also inclusive in their themes and stories, allowing the work to reach beyond our own community," Volkoff told ChicagoPride.com. "I wanted to bring the piece to Chicago because this is the land of Lincoln and to AFT because I think Bixby [Elliot] has put an interesting queer spin on one of history's most beloved presidents. It felt like the perfect match of writer, subject and theatre company."
"Andrew has really nurtured this play to life -- working with me to develop the script... and I owe him so much for all his support," Elliot said. "AFT has been amazing to me and to the play... I would be remiss if I didn't say how much I love doing theater in Chicago - it is such a wonderful theater town... the love of theater oozes out of everyone! And there is nothing like a Chicago theater audience -- they are the best!"
The Louisville premiere of ALWAF was on a much larger scale than the production currently up at AFT, after Elliot decided what the play wanted was to exist as a smaller, more intimate production and worked with AFT to workshop a new version last June.
Originally set on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the rewrite pares down the setting to 6 chairs, a table, a bed and a column of books in the center of the stage. Throughout the show, characters withdraw books from this 360-degree library when quoting historical facts and figures related to Lincoln's life and evidence of his hushed up homosexuality. Projectors change the images shown on the walls with each scene's setting, occasionally featuring the text of written letters as well as the lyrics of the Michael Jackson songs peppered throughout the show.
These include songs Cal, an avid fan, sings while listening to his iPod and rewored songs such as a wonderful version of Thriller in the style of mid-1800s that plays while Lincoln, Mary Todd and other Civil War-era characters break it down to the Prince of Pop's famous dance routine.
"I love Michael Jackson - one might say I am 'obsessed,'" Elliot admitted. "One of the joys of being a writer is getting to indulge your obsessions in your work. Incorporating MJ music in the play started as a very small idea that got bigger and bigger and then just made such perfect sense to me. The connection between Abe and MJ is so strong -- these two huge public figures who (in many ways) were unable to be their authentic and true selves, in my opinion."
The cast was also made more intimate. Featuring 13 actors in its premiere, ALWAF's Chicago production is performed by only six, most of whom are cast in double roles one would never know weren't part of the show's original conception for all the insightful parallels they draw.
The only roles not double cast are those of Cal (played by Matthew Farrabee) and Skylor (Lane Flores), an openly gay student at Cal's school who encourages Cal in his search to prove Abraham Lincoln's homosexuality for a class assignment. The growing relationship between Cal and Skylor creates tension with Cal's mom, who is not ready to accept her son's being gay as he struggles to find a way to come out and searches for a hero in whose footsteps he can follow.
"Discovering and accepting who we are as human beings in high school is a nearly impossible task," Farrabee told ChicagoPride.com. "The bravery of Cal and Skylor is an incredible thing. The desire to find a role model that is like you in many ways and also has made a difference in our society, stood for something great in the face of adversity, made a change for the better, striven for equality, and fought for rights he believes in is something I believe anyone can relate to."
Running parallel to to this story is that of Geoffrey, Cal's uncle played by Nathan Hosner, who begins the show visiting for his nephew's birthday with his "roommate" Buck, actor Derrick Trumbly. Geoffrey's struggle to come out to his sister and nephew is paralleled in his double cast role as Abraham Lincoln, who also struggles to live as his authentic self in a time when language fails his self-identification. Trumbly similarly plays both of Lincoln's reputed lovers, a mattress salesman named Shua with whom he shared a bed for years, and later Captain Derickson, who, like Buck, are the only characters Geoffrey and Lincoln seem truly themselves around.
Cal's mother, Geoffrey's sister, Susan struggles through the show to acknowledge her brother's sexuality as she deals with the increasingly obvious fact that her son is also gay. The show is set in 2008 and the recent shooting of Lawrence "Larry" King provides a fresh fear for the worried mother, who is paralleled with Mary Todd Lincoln, who tried to protect her husband and fortify his future.
"I believe Susan and Mary just want to protect the ones they love in a scary world where being your authentic self can be met with confusion and violence," Jamie Fisher, who plays Susan and Mary Todd, told ChicagoPride.com. "I think Mary could be viewed in a Lady M[acbeth] kind of way, but I make sure to humanize her and her love for her husband... playing an historical figure is a challenge because you feel like you have a duty to honor someone else's truth. But at the end of the day, this play, like most plays, is about relationships and humans trying to/failing to connect. So that is what I focus on."
The cast is rounded out by Dana Black, who takes on the rest of the roles as Actor 6. Acting as a sort of one-man Greek chorus, Black takes on a myriad of characters ranging from a sign language interpreter (who signs the dirty and offensive words to follow in the show), to a feed store owner; a Days Inn receptionist to Ellen Degeneres. When characters produce academic evidence, she appears as the professor reading his findings and when they take a drive she personifies the GPS. Black frequently steals the scene with her distinct and memorable impressions and frequently vaudeville-like humor that never fails to have the audience laughing out loud.
"I think for each character I had to visualize what they looked like first and then play around with their physicality and voice," Black told ChicagoPride.com. "I find it fun, now that's it open, for people to say 'I love your Christiane Amanpour' when there is nothing in the text that says that's who I am playing. That's fun. Someone recently asked if one of my characters had a little Doris Kearns Goodwin in her and I said 'No, but it sure could!'"
The chemistry between what is clearly a tight-knit the cast is palpable as they play through an amazingly fast-faced 65 scenes, switching between the 1800s and 2008. They take the audience from hilarious comedic heights to soul-wrenching and troubling depths. Punchlines are hit every bit as hard as heart strings are tugged on as the play touches on themes of language, self-discovery and the struggle of living as one's most sincere self as well as the consequences of not doing so.
"The theme of the show is really about truth and authenticity," Elliot said. "How can we be true to who we are? The play starts with Cal literally not having the 'voice' to say that he is gay and then ends with him being strong enough, empowered enough to say, out loud, to everyone at Ford's theater [where he is chosen to present his paper making the case for Lincoln's homosexuality] that he thinks Abe Lincoln is gay and that he himself is gay. That is the journey of the play; for Cal and all the other characters."
"Abraham Lincoln Was A F*gg*t" runs in the Upstairs Studio at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., through Sunday, July 5. Shows are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $35 for adults or $20 for students and seniors, with discounts for groups of 10 or more. You can buy tickets online at www.aboutfacetheatre.org, by calling (773) https://gopride.com/Zaee404-7336 or in person at the Greenhouse Theater Box Office.
When asked whether or not, after being presented with the evidence and research in the show, they thought Abraham Lincoln really was a f*gg*t, the cast and crew's answers were mixed -- with many carefully treading the line of labeling another person's identity and circumstantial evidence, something they've no doubt discussed countless time in the past months, but also hinting at a possibility of something not entirely UN-queer about Abe. Playwright Bixby Elliot, however, rang in with a resounding affirmative:
"ABSOLUTELY!" he told ChicagoPride.com. "I think the only person who might believe it more than I do is Larry Kramer, but it is close! For me the letters are the smoking gun. I can still remember the day I read them. I was vibrating. Those letters reveal MORE than a very close connection between two men. They are letters between two men that LOVE each other - that had an intimate sexual bond. I am definitely in the 'he was a big ol' mo camp!'"
Get to About Face Theatre's production of "Abraham Lincoln Was A F*gg*t" before it closes to witness a truly hilarious, touching, all around fabulous production and decide for yourself.
"The word f*gg*t is used to start a conversation," playwright Bixby Elliot told ChicagoPride.com. "To get people talking about sexuality and language. I wanted to grab people's attention and have them confront their feelings about the word. I also think it is funny to me -- it makes me think of Abe as this fabulous gay creature!"
The show follows Cal, a 17 year-old teenager, in his quest to prove that his favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, was in fact a gay man -- and the audience watches a telling of Lincoln's life probably quite unlike the one they learned when making stovepipe hats from construction paper.
It all started when Elliot was flipping through a copy of "Meet Abraham Lincoln: A Step Up Book," a relic of his partner's love of collecting things ("he says 'vintage,' sometimes I say 'junk'" Elliot joked). He found the retelling of Lincoln's life -- Abraham was tall; Abraham read a lot of books; Abraham Married Mary Todd -- "reductive [and] watered down" without substance or nuance in telling the actual life story of this beloved man and president.
"Where were the moral dilemmas that he faced, the crippling melancholia he lived with and, something I had been hearing about for several years... all the rumors of his sexuality?" Elliot asked. "'Shouldn't kids be exposed to the complexity of our American heroes?'" I thought. 'Why do our presidents have to be unblemished or one dimensional – why can't they be who they really are? Why can't we learn about the true and authentic life of Abe Lincoln?' My mind started spinning and that really began the journey of writing this play."
After several readings and workshops, the play had its world premiere in Louisville, KY. in 2013. Andrew Volkoff, who directs this Chicago production, first encountered ALWAF when he lived in New York City and Elliot was holding a reading there. When Volkoff became Artistic Director at About Face Theatre he contacted the playwright about bringing ALWAF back to Lincoln's home state.
This is AFT's 19th season of staging unique and interesting plays that "advance the national dialogue on sexual and gender identity," a mission definitely fulfilled by Elliot's challenging, thoughtful meditation on the nature of language, identity and living authentically.
"When putting together a season, I look for plays that are not only mission driven and speak to our LGBTQ community at large, but that are also inclusive in their themes and stories, allowing the work to reach beyond our own community," Volkoff told ChicagoPride.com. "I wanted to bring the piece to Chicago because this is the land of Lincoln and to AFT because I think Bixby [Elliot] has put an interesting queer spin on one of history's most beloved presidents. It felt like the perfect match of writer, subject and theatre company."
"Andrew has really nurtured this play to life -- working with me to develop the script... and I owe him so much for all his support," Elliot said. "AFT has been amazing to me and to the play... I would be remiss if I didn't say how much I love doing theater in Chicago - it is such a wonderful theater town... the love of theater oozes out of everyone! And there is nothing like a Chicago theater audience -- they are the best!"
The Louisville premiere of ALWAF was on a much larger scale than the production currently up at AFT, after Elliot decided what the play wanted was to exist as a smaller, more intimate production and worked with AFT to workshop a new version last June.
Originally set on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the rewrite pares down the setting to 6 chairs, a table, a bed and a column of books in the center of the stage. Throughout the show, characters withdraw books from this 360-degree library when quoting historical facts and figures related to Lincoln's life and evidence of his hushed up homosexuality. Projectors change the images shown on the walls with each scene's setting, occasionally featuring the text of written letters as well as the lyrics of the Michael Jackson songs peppered throughout the show.
These include songs Cal, an avid fan, sings while listening to his iPod and rewored songs such as a wonderful version of Thriller in the style of mid-1800s that plays while Lincoln, Mary Todd and other Civil War-era characters break it down to the Prince of Pop's famous dance routine.
"I love Michael Jackson - one might say I am 'obsessed,'" Elliot admitted. "One of the joys of being a writer is getting to indulge your obsessions in your work. Incorporating MJ music in the play started as a very small idea that got bigger and bigger and then just made such perfect sense to me. The connection between Abe and MJ is so strong -- these two huge public figures who (in many ways) were unable to be their authentic and true selves, in my opinion."
The cast was also made more intimate. Featuring 13 actors in its premiere, ALWAF's Chicago production is performed by only six, most of whom are cast in double roles one would never know weren't part of the show's original conception for all the insightful parallels they draw.
The only roles not double cast are those of Cal (played by Matthew Farrabee) and Skylor (Lane Flores), an openly gay student at Cal's school who encourages Cal in his search to prove Abraham Lincoln's homosexuality for a class assignment. The growing relationship between Cal and Skylor creates tension with Cal's mom, who is not ready to accept her son's being gay as he struggles to find a way to come out and searches for a hero in whose footsteps he can follow.
"Discovering and accepting who we are as human beings in high school is a nearly impossible task," Farrabee told ChicagoPride.com. "The bravery of Cal and Skylor is an incredible thing. The desire to find a role model that is like you in many ways and also has made a difference in our society, stood for something great in the face of adversity, made a change for the better, striven for equality, and fought for rights he believes in is something I believe anyone can relate to."
Running parallel to to this story is that of Geoffrey, Cal's uncle played by Nathan Hosner, who begins the show visiting for his nephew's birthday with his "roommate" Buck, actor Derrick Trumbly. Geoffrey's struggle to come out to his sister and nephew is paralleled in his double cast role as Abraham Lincoln, who also struggles to live as his authentic self in a time when language fails his self-identification. Trumbly similarly plays both of Lincoln's reputed lovers, a mattress salesman named Shua with whom he shared a bed for years, and later Captain Derickson, who, like Buck, are the only characters Geoffrey and Lincoln seem truly themselves around.
Cal's mother, Geoffrey's sister, Susan struggles through the show to acknowledge her brother's sexuality as she deals with the increasingly obvious fact that her son is also gay. The show is set in 2008 and the recent shooting of Lawrence "Larry" King provides a fresh fear for the worried mother, who is paralleled with Mary Todd Lincoln, who tried to protect her husband and fortify his future.
"I believe Susan and Mary just want to protect the ones they love in a scary world where being your authentic self can be met with confusion and violence," Jamie Fisher, who plays Susan and Mary Todd, told ChicagoPride.com. "I think Mary could be viewed in a Lady M[acbeth] kind of way, but I make sure to humanize her and her love for her husband... playing an historical figure is a challenge because you feel like you have a duty to honor someone else's truth. But at the end of the day, this play, like most plays, is about relationships and humans trying to/failing to connect. So that is what I focus on."
The cast is rounded out by Dana Black, who takes on the rest of the roles as Actor 6. Acting as a sort of one-man Greek chorus, Black takes on a myriad of characters ranging from a sign language interpreter (who signs the dirty and offensive words to follow in the show), to a feed store owner; a Days Inn receptionist to Ellen Degeneres. When characters produce academic evidence, she appears as the professor reading his findings and when they take a drive she personifies the GPS. Black frequently steals the scene with her distinct and memorable impressions and frequently vaudeville-like humor that never fails to have the audience laughing out loud.
"I think for each character I had to visualize what they looked like first and then play around with their physicality and voice," Black told ChicagoPride.com. "I find it fun, now that's it open, for people to say 'I love your Christiane Amanpour' when there is nothing in the text that says that's who I am playing. That's fun. Someone recently asked if one of my characters had a little Doris Kearns Goodwin in her and I said 'No, but it sure could!'"
The chemistry between what is clearly a tight-knit the cast is palpable as they play through an amazingly fast-faced 65 scenes, switching between the 1800s and 2008. They take the audience from hilarious comedic heights to soul-wrenching and troubling depths. Punchlines are hit every bit as hard as heart strings are tugged on as the play touches on themes of language, self-discovery and the struggle of living as one's most sincere self as well as the consequences of not doing so.
"The theme of the show is really about truth and authenticity," Elliot said. "How can we be true to who we are? The play starts with Cal literally not having the 'voice' to say that he is gay and then ends with him being strong enough, empowered enough to say, out loud, to everyone at Ford's theater [where he is chosen to present his paper making the case for Lincoln's homosexuality] that he thinks Abe Lincoln is gay and that he himself is gay. That is the journey of the play; for Cal and all the other characters."
"Abraham Lincoln Was A F*gg*t" runs in the Upstairs Studio at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., through Sunday, July 5. Shows are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $35 for adults or $20 for students and seniors, with discounts for groups of 10 or more. You can buy tickets online at www.aboutfacetheatre.org, by calling (773) https://gopride.com/Zaee404-7336 or in person at the Greenhouse Theater Box Office.
When asked whether or not, after being presented with the evidence and research in the show, they thought Abraham Lincoln really was a f*gg*t, the cast and crew's answers were mixed -- with many carefully treading the line of labeling another person's identity and circumstantial evidence, something they've no doubt discussed countless time in the past months, but also hinting at a possibility of something not entirely UN-queer about Abe. Playwright Bixby Elliot, however, rang in with a resounding affirmative:
"ABSOLUTELY!" he told ChicagoPride.com. "I think the only person who might believe it more than I do is Larry Kramer, but it is close! For me the letters are the smoking gun. I can still remember the day I read them. I was vibrating. Those letters reveal MORE than a very close connection between two men. They are letters between two men that LOVE each other - that had an intimate sexual bond. I am definitely in the 'he was a big ol' mo camp!'"
Get to About Face Theatre's production of "Abraham Lincoln Was A F*gg*t" before it closes to witness a truly hilarious, touching, all around fabulous production and decide for yourself.
