funny

Latest Gayland reading delivers fun and insights

| Evan Hammond

The Gayland reading on Wednesday, February 15th in New York delighted the audience of 25 with plenty of laughter. The new “Young Buck/Old Buck” delivered lots of belly laughs by using classic operatic allusions to highlight the competition between Zack and Gaige during Zack’s first day on the job at the Willow Show. The new “#BringBackZack” came across as a bundle of joyful energy. And the audience named the revised “I Wanna See Your O Face” as its favorite song. Creators King and St. John were also able to see spots where new music wasn’t working as well, and in need of revision.

The learning overall was that the Gayland 6.0 revisions solved the earlier structural problems. So now there’s a sturdy scaffolding in place, and the next round of revisions will be fine-tuning particular musical pieces.

New musical comedy flips your world: Interview with Twist Online

| Evan Hammond

screen-shot-2017-01-30-at-3-03-26-pm

Interview with Twist Online.

We recently had a conversation with Christopher St. John and Scott King about their new project, ‘Gayland’. It’s a musical comedy that will be lots of fun.

Twist Online: So give me the premise for Gayland in a nutshell.
Christopher St. John: It’s a love story set in an alternate universe in which almost everyone is gay. And there are just a few breeders. They’re this marginalized group, struggling for their rights.

Twist Online: So it’s our world, backwards.
Christopher St. John: Exactly.

Twist Online: And what’s the meaning of this rainbow Confederate flag logo? {Editor’s note: This logo was changed later in 2017.}
Scott King: In the recent history of the Gayland version America, there was a group of states that held breeders in subjection. The females were used as breeding stock, and the males were used for labor.

Christopher St. John: That was the Rainbow Confederacy.
Scott King: And in the present, there are some states where lot of people hold anti-breeder views.  For a local politician, anti-breeder rhetoric is the gift that keeps on giving.
Christopher St. John: Sound familiar?

Twist Online: Ouch! A little too familiar. So when you did you first have Gayland on the stage?
Christopher St. John: In the New Orleans Fringe Festival in 2013.

Twist Online: In the south? Was it controversial?
Christopher St. John: There were some rumblings. But a lot of people loved it.  Of course, it was a Fringe audience.
Scott King: We were in the largest Fringe Festival venue, Marigny Opera House. And by the end of the Festival, it was standing room only.
Christopher St. John: One of the local papers, NOLA Defender, called Gayland “the must-see of Fringe Festival.”

Twist Online: So this is about a gay world, but I understand that one of you is gay, and one of you is straight.
Scott King: Correct.

Twist Online: Which is which?
Christopher St. John: You can’t tell by looking?
Scott King: Maybe you need to change the batteries on your gaydar.
Christopher St. John: Here’s something even weirder: One of us is a Republican, and one of us is a Democrat.

Twist Online: Okay, now you’re freaking me out. How did you two meet?
Scott King: We met in a church in San Francisco.

Twist Online: In a church?
Scott King: Yes, an Episcopal church.
Christopher St. John: St. Gregory’s. And there were like tons of composers there. All the music was a capella. We did a lot of chant and modal music.
Scott King: Actually, the first big piece that Christopher and I worked on together was a Passion. We harmonized the gospels. Literally.
Christopher St. John:  And then we did an opera set in the world of pharmaceutical marketing. A comedy, of course.
Scott King: Oomph! it was called.

Twist Online: What’s happening with Gayland now?
Scott King: We’ve been workshopping it in New York. We had a great read on the main stage at the York Theatre.
Christopher St. John: They’re a very forward-thinking company. They were part of the development for Avenue Q.
Scott King: Every time it’s in front of an audience, we learn more.
Christopher St. John: We get a lot of good response to the fact that we have so many strong women characters. There’s still a hunger for that.
Scott King: The whole Gayland world is female-led. Breeder guys are at the bottom of the heap.

Twist Online: Next public performance?
Scott King: We’re having a table read at 224 Studios in Manhattan on February 15th.
Christopher St. John: Our aim is to create a version that can work on Broadway.

Twist Online: Are you having to make a lot of changes to go from edgy to mainstream?
Christopher St. John: Well, one of the songs went from “Don’t Forget Your Cock Ring” to “Don’t Forget Your Bible,” which must be one of the hardest U-turns in the history of theatre.

Twist Online: Okay, readers: Follow the Gayland gala on Facebook, Twitter and WordPress. Ciao!

“Breeder Love Promo” Rehearsal

| Evan Hammond

Here’s our wonderful cast rehearsing one of the new songs, “Breeder Love Promo.”

Performers
Danielle Erin Rhodes
Ivan Griffin
Sam Given
Shaleah Adkisson
Stephen Elkins
Blake Zolfo
Troy Valjean Rucker
Natalie Pavalek

Music Director
Mark Hartman