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Jill Hames leads the cast of ‘Journeys,’ the latest gay-inclusive
production from the Process Theatre Company under the direction of the troupe’s
Artistic Director DeWayne Morgan.
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‘Journeys’
April 30 – May 23
Dad’s Garage Top Shelf
280 Elizabeth St.
404-586-9860 |
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HOME > SOVO SCENE > THEATER
By: JIM FARMER
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The close bond between a heterosexual woman and her gay best friend is the basis
of the new play “Journeys,” debuting this week at Dad’s Garage
Top Shelf Theatre via Process Theatre Company.
Evan Guilford-Blake, a veteran writer who relocated to Atlanta four years
ago, penned the play. “Journeys” is based on a true story about
the decade-long friendship between Karen Skinner, a Chicago theater professional,
and Wayne Buidens, her best friend — both of whom were also colleagues
of the playwright.
“Karen and Wayne met when Wayne was teaching her daughter, and they
immediately bonded,” Guilford-Blake says. “Wayne was very instrumental
to Karen, who was recovering from an abusive relationship. He really helped
her stand up for herself and get over what had happened.”
Buidens died from AIDS complications in 1993. This memorial service included
readings from transcripts of actual telephone conversations between heim and
Skinner.
“They were very funny and powerful, but I knew it was very personal
for [Skinner],” Guilford-Blake says.
Later, the playwright met with Skinner, and she suggested that their story
would make a good play. Guilford-Blake enthusiastically agreed to write it.
“She gave me journals, and I interviewed her for hours,” he says. “I
must have 20 hours of tape of her talking about Wayne.”
Guilford-Blake also talked to other friends and Skinner’s daughter.
In the play, the two characters, are called Jerri and Ben and are played by
Jill Hames and Jeffery Brown.
“Journeys” has an important non-sexual scene in which the leads
strip naked.
“Ben takes Jerri up a mountain. They climb for two hours. When they
finally get to the top of the mountain, Ben looks down and shows her a beach.
Jerri looks down and says, ‘There are naked people down there!’” Guilford-Blake
says. “Ben responds, ‘That’s why it takes so long to get
here.’ Ben quickly strips in front of his friend, and after some hesitation
so does Jerri. That is a key moment, where the two really bond.”
But the turning point of the show and of the characters’ relationship
is when Ben acquires AIDS and initially refuses to tell Jerri. According to
Guilford-Blake, in real-life Buidens actually created an argument between the
two. They didn’t talk for a while, but one afternoon Wayne went to Karen’s
apartment and almost forced her to follow him to a restaurant.
“You know, don’t you?” he asked.
She did.
“He wasn’t very good at covering up when something was wrong,” Guilford-Blake
says.
“Wayne was not discriminate about his sexual relations. Some of the
people he had sex with used drugs,” Guilford-Blake says. “And Karen
knew how he lived his life.”
As Buidens died, he only let one person be his primary caretaker — and
that was his friend Skinner.
“He didn’t even let his mother take care of him,” Guilford-Blake
says.
“Journeys” debuted in Chicago in 1995, but the author was not
happy with that production. He later retooled the show.
“I’ve tightened it up a bit, especially the second act,” he
says. “It’s a better production now.”
He hopes audiences don’t see the show as a depressing tale.
“These two people became as intimate as possible without having sex,” Guilford-Blake
says. “The irony is that Wayne’s relationships with men never lasted
very long, but his friendship with Karen lasted 10 years.”
Guilford-Blake’s upcoming projects include “Wilde, at Heart,” an
adaptation of three Oscar Wilde fairy tales as part of a reading with Theatre
Gael next year, and the drama “Easter Sunday,” which he is shopping
around at various venues.
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