Transcripts

MARIANNE COMBS: Outward Spiral Theater Company is inviting the public to answer what for it is a very scary question. Does Minnesota need a GLBT theater?

JEFFRY LUSIAK: Maybe we're not really connected to the community like we think we are. So this is us to take the temperature of saying, well, what do you guys want?

MARIANNE COMBS: That's artistic director Jeffry Lusiak. He's had the job for just over a year, a year marked by poor ticket sales. It's a volunteer job. The last artistic director left because the theater could no longer afford to pay him. Lusiak says it's difficult to develop a strong audience when your theater is trying to please several distinctly different groups.

JEFFRY LUSIAK: Outward Spiral has always tried to balance. We have our gay boy show, we have the lesbian show, we have the trans show, the bisexual show. But you look at that and where is there-- where's that consistent audience that will go to all of those? So we're not reinventing the audience with each show. That's the big challenge that we have now.

MARIANNE COMBS: Outward Spiral Theater Company was founded in 1995 on the heels of a number of other Twin Cities gay theaters that led relatively short lives. While mainstream theaters were often staffed by gays and lesbians, their stories remained backstage. GLBT theaters provided a place where they could see works that reflected their own lives.

Now, such stories are much more common on the stages of theaters that don't bill themselves as particularly gay or straight. Some at Outward Spiral say its economic failure may indicate that it's actually achieved part of its mission to bring stories of GLBT lives into the mainstream. But former Outward Spiral theater director Jef Hall-Flavin isn't convinced.

JEF HALL-FLAVIN (ON PHONE): If you're there to feed the homeless and there are no more homeless people, then you really shouldn't exist anymore. And if one of our goals is to assist in ending homophobia, then if homophobia were gone, then Outward Spiral would not need to exist.

MARIANNE COMBS: Hall-Flavin says there's a Penumbra, and a Theater Mu and a Teatro Del Pueblo for good reason. He says a healthy community needs to have diverse artistic outlets. Hall-Flavin says while it's important for Outward Spiral to check in with its community, it's just as important for Outward Spiral to present exciting GLBT theater that will draw crowds regardless of their sexual orientation.

SPEAKER 1: (SINGING) My father's a homo. My mother's not thrilled at all.

MARIANNE COMBS: In the past few years, Outward Spiral has had a couple of successes. One was the Falsettos, the story of a very non-traditional family. The other was Hedwig and the Angry Inch, about the victim of a failed sex change operation. While both attracted big crowds and Hedwig's run was extended three times, both were large-scale musicals, which took a lot of time, money and direction.

Minneapolis Star Tribune theater critic Graydon Royce says Outward Spiral Theater Company has three major problems, a minuscule budget, a minuscule audience, and the inconsistency of the company's work. It's hard to tell which is responsible for the financial woes. Royce says he admires outward spiral for deciding to hold a public forum. He says it's a sign that they're desperately searching for answers.

GRAYDON ROYCE (ON PHONE): Desperation is not always a bad thing. Desperation is just a recognition that you are in a crisis. And I think that there's great clarity that comes out of crisis.

MARIANNE COMBS: Royce says, to Outward Spiral's credit, while other theaters May produce, shows that deal with queer community themes, they might not do so with the same passion as Outward Spiral. While the forum is billed as a discussion about whether Outward Spiral is needed in the community, artistic director Jeffry Lusiak would like the conversation to be more about what kind of GLBT theater company, the community wants. Even with such a small budget and so many challenges, he'd rather face this work than come to terms with the closing of the only GLBT theater in the state.

JEFFRY LUSIAK: I finally have very clearly seen that fire within myself and saying, all right, here we go again. Let's get back up on the horse. Let's try, but let's now try in a new way.

MARIANNE COMBS: Outward Spiral hosts its community forum this coming Monday evening at 7 o'clock at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. I'm Marianne Combs, Minnesota Public Radio.