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| Gay playwright Frank Blocker plays multiple roles in his one-man show, ‘Southern
Gothic Novel.’
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HOME > SOVO SCENE > THEATER
By: JIM FARMER
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GAY PLAYWRIGHT FRANK Blocker returns to Atlanta this week, where his “Southern
Gothic Novel” is part of a double-feature at Whole World Theatre.
Blocker’s “Southern Gothic Novel” is a one-man show in which
he plays a number of characters in a Mississippi town where young girls are
disappearing. The play premiered last year at the New York International Fringe
Festival with respectable notice, and Blocker plans to take it to a gay theater
festival in Ohio later this year.
The production at Whole World is teamed with Murray Scott Changar’s “The
Gates of Helen,” a psychological thriller that features Blocker in a
supporting role as a gay therapist.
“The reason we brought these two shows here is Changar was antsy to
do ‘Helen’ somewhere before he took it off-Broadway, and I thought
it would be a good idea to bring ‘Southern Gothic Novel’ as well,” Blocker
says.
He premiered “Eula Mae’s Beauty, Bait & Tackle” in 1991
at the 14th Street Playhouse, and it lasted in some form or fashion in Atlanta
until it closed in August 2000 at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
“We only booked it for two weeks; we did the show really out of fun.
There was demand to bring it back, so we opened it for six weeks later and
then brought it back another time,” Blocker says.
Blocker, who relocated to Atlanta in 1990, moved to New York City after “Eula
Mae” closed. He attempted to stage the play there but encountered some
obstacles.
“We decided to give it an off-Broadway shot and we made some mistakes,” Blocker
says. “A few New York people were interested, but they wanted us to rewrite
the show. They thought the Southerners were appearing too smart. The producers
felt audiences weren’t going to appreciate it unless it was dumbed down.”
Frustrated, Blocker says he even turned to a producer and told him he wouldn’t
work with a director who was trying to dramatically alter the work.
Eventually, Blocker opened the show off-Broadway at the Jose Quintero Theatre,
where it ran for six weeks.
“
We expected bad reviews and great audiences and got the opposite,” he
says.
Besides “Eula Mae,” Blocker is also known in Atlanta for originating
the role of Mrs. Divine in the original version of “Veranda.” In
March, Blocker publishes a book, “Queer Chronicles: The Flaming of Atlanta,” on
the Web.
DAD’S GARAGE’S SHORT PLAY fest “8-1/2 X 11” is always
one of the company’s riskier propositions. This year’s version, “Punk
Rock Will Never Die,” contains plays by some hot playwrights.
Greg Kotis, the whiz kid behind “Urinetown,” has one of the most
successful offerings in the festival: “Theater” finds a group of
actors onstage ruminating about their craft. At various times, they go off
into the audience and ask about the shows and their individual performances.
Yet most of the pieces — two of which are by gay or bisexual writers — aren’t
terribly memorable. Chay Yew’s “Second Skin” takes a scary
look at life post 9/11, but playwright Alice Tuan contributes a really strange
piece involving aromatherapy and actor John Benzinger in drag. This is a hit-or-miss
proposition with an emphasis on the latter.
Elsewhere, the hip Out of Hand theater troupe remounts its “VD Show,” described
as an event for angry singles and the couples that torment them. Blind dates,
poetry and the Kama Sutra Challenge are promised.
Through Feb. 22
Whole World Theatre, 3rd space
121 Spring St.
1-877-238-5596
Through Feb. 22
Dad’s Garage
280 Elizabeth St.
404-523-3141
Through Feb. 14
CJ’s Landing
270 Buckhead Ave.
404-522-6194
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