Out Lines – Episode 2

Episode Transcript

0:00:00.0 Jay Thomas as Bill: Refuse salvation, and I’ll punch you in the face.

0:00:05.3 Christopher Borg as The Actor: Tricky business seduction, requires the same meticulous attention to detail as a military campaign.

0:00:12.7 Chris Weikel as Lane: William! Bring on the garden!

0:00:15.0 Karen Stanion as Gladys: Something tingling with excitement is about to take place.

0:00:19.8 Jordan Schildcrout: Welcome to Out Lines, the show where a trio of passionate nerds dig into fascinating texts from the LGBTQ theatre cannon for the revelations waiting for us between the lines. I’m Jordan Schildcrout, author, professor, and professional theater nerd.

0:00:33.9 Virginia Baeta: I’m Virginia Baeta, actor, playwright, and amateur theater nerd.

0:00:37.4 Mark Finley: And I’m Mark Finley, Artistic Director of TOSOS in NYC, certified nerd for life. In the last episode of Out Lines, we explored the why’s of diving into this particular play. In this episode, we walk through the opening moments of this play with you introducing the characters and illustrating the action.

0:00:57.0 VB: With occasional appearances by the characters themselves.

0:01:00.4 JS: Along with the diversion or two to help complete the picture.

0:01:02.2 VB: You won’t hear every line of Now She Dances! in these episodes, but you can find the full text of the play as well as cool supporting material for each episode at outlinespod.com.

0:01:12.9 JS: Shall we get started then?

0:01:14.3 MF: Let’s shall.

[music]

0:01:19.6 VB: Doric Wilson’s Now She Dances! Act One. We open on an empty stage lit by a work light, scattered about is shabby rehearsal furniture and a rack with costumes on it to be used later in the play.

0:01:33.8 MF: An aging actor, who will later play Herod, and a young and haughty actress, who will later play Salome, arrive and survey the performance space.

0:01:42.8 VB as The Actress: Is this?

0:01:45.4 CB as The Actor: A theater!

0:01:47.5 VB as The Actress: Disgusting!

0:01:49.0 CB as The Actor: Atmospheric.

0:01:50.4 VB as The Actress: Claustrophobic.

0:01:52.0 CB as The Actor: Intimate.

0:01:54.4 VB as The Actress: Not at all what I was led to expect.

0:01:57.1 CB as The Actor: I think it’s what they term experimental.

0:02:01.5 VB as The Actress: I sincerely hope not.

0:02:03.9 CB as The Actor: You’re here, I’m here. We can still make this a meaningful experience.

0:02:12.7 VB: What I particularly love about this, just to start off before we dive into the characters, is that we’re setting the scene. In this case, it is a theater, but we are telling the audience that it is not an acceptable performance space right off the top. Right off the top, there is something that is wrong and that is, this is not a suitable place for what is going to happen, to happen.

0:02:36.9 JS: I think Doric also sets up what we would now call meta, that it’s a world in which we are in a theater, talking about the theater, that people are aware that they’re in a theater, and that what we’re gonna see is ultimately a play within a play within a play, and that is not necessarily a term that would have been used much in 1961, but now we see the line from Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author through to so much of today’s contemporary comedy that were very self-reflective and Doric was way ahead of the curve on that.

0:03:07.0 MF: Yeah, it’s also, as I was looking through it again this time, the play is just about imbalance, and it creates an imbalance with the audience immediately by telling you the truth. We’re telling you that we’re in a theater, therefore we’re immediately breaking down the accepted relationship that an audience has with people on stage by talking about it. So automatically, the balance is off. You’re automatically going, “What?” Right as it starts.

0:03:38.9 VB: Now, let’s let these characters describe themselves through Doric’s words.

0:03:44.6 CB: The Actor is an aging matinee idol deteriorated into a rouged and rugged roué. His wardrobe is frayed foppish, he wears his topcoat casually draped over his shoulders. Later, as Sir Herod, he is Algernon well past his prime.

0:04:01.9 VB: Dressed in anticipation of fame and fortune, The Actress is an ingénue with a future. Later, as Miss Salome, she is an uneasy blend of Gwendolen and the ecdysiast of the New Testament, on the surface, a diffident daughter of propriety; in her soul, a carnivorous priestess of Moloch.

0:04:21.8 VB as The Actress: You truly are, aren’t you?

0:04:23.3 CB as The Actor: Dashing? Dauntless? Debonair?

0:04:26.0 VB as The Actress: Wholly and altogether without redeeming social content.

0:04:29.8 CB as The Actor: We are joined by Bill who starts removing rehearsal furniture. He is the new stage hand.

0:04:36.2 VB as the Actress: The fifth in the last month.

0:04:38.1 Jay Thomas: Bill, the new footman, is heartily young and blatantly American. Self-centered in his narrow sense of masculinity, he corresponds with the Young Syrian in Wilde’s Salome. He wears Levi’s and a T-shirt reading: “Nuke ’em All.”

0:04:56.2 MF: So, it’s rather wide in interpretation, but I think he’s setting up like an archetype here, you know? You’re looking at a big frat boy, I think.

0:05:08.5 VB: We’re gonna learn a lot about Bill. Bill is Bill from beginning to end. He has a role, and his role is basically being Bill, which is particularly interesting as we go through the rest of the play and we see how the people, characters, morph around him.

0:05:30.0 JS: I agree. I think part of what we see happening here is that the playwright is already beginning to set up what I would describe as the three main levels of world-building, that there’s the story of Salome as we classically know it, but also then from Wilde’s play, which is why there’s that reference to the young Syrian, the captain, who is a major figure in the Salome story.

0:05:50.1 JS: But then we’re also seeing it through the prism of The Importance of Being Earnest, so Victorian-era England, and thus he’s referred to as the new footman, but then also as contemporary America. And so, as you say, Mark, he’s kind of just like a frat guy. The way I think of him is, he’s like ineptly heroic, like he wants to be the knight who saves the day, but he’s also a little bit of a lunkhead. So he’s likeable, but maybe not too, too swift and yeah, I agree with your casting, Mark. I had on my list someone like Cheyenne Jackson or like a young Brendan Fraser, could definitely see that, him playing the role.

0:06:25.0 MF: Yep.

0:06:26.5 CW: Lane, temporarily acting as stage manager, enters from offstage, carrying a clipboard. A butler with excellent references from The Importance of Being Earnest, Lane is smug and guarded, the quintessential closet queen. He wears pin-striped trousers and a work apron. The rest of his butler’s rig, vest, stiff collar, and swallow-tailed coat, wait on the costume rack.

0:06:48.4 MF: Lane, the name is from Earnest, the butler, in Earnest. But here, and responding directly to Doric’s play, he’s acting as stage manager. I mean, he literally comes out with a clipboard and he’s telling people, “You do this and you do that.”

0:07:05.4 JS: Shades of Our Town.

0:07:06.9 VB: So what’s the fantasy casting for Lane?

0:07:09.4 MF: For Lane, what do you think, Jordan, about this one?

0:07:12.1 JS: You know, so he’s such an interesting type that has a long lineage that I think Doric’s very aware of. If you’ve ever seen like old movies, you’ve seen old character actors like Franklin Pangborn who were always cast as officious, a little prissy, but not unpleasant, right? But there’s a certain kind of queer archetype that goes all the way from that through to Daniel Davis as the butler on “The Nanny”, so just sort of like old style homo character…

0:07:39.9 MF: Absolutely.

0:07:40.9 JS: That he is going to contrast with, if you will, the new gay character. I think he’s definitely playing with these different archetypes from different eras, so, yeah, Franklin Pangborn, definitely gonna go with that.

0:07:51.9 MF: Yeah, I love Daniel Davis for that, ’cause I was thinking Ian McKellen, probably a little old for it but maybe not.

0:08:00.9 VB: And it could be any age Ian McKellen, too.

0:08:02.6 MF: Oh, yeah. You know, if we’re gonna do fantasy.

0:08:04.9 JS: Yeah, and I’m thinking like my initial go-to was John Gielgud in “Arthur”, you know?

0:08:11.4 CW as Lane: William will know his duties all in good time.

0:08:16.6 CB as The Actor: Shortly after The Actress exits, Gladys appears from the street, she’s late, full of excuses and mischief.

0:08:23.6 Karen Stanion: A maid with references from many other plays, she is arbitrary in her commitment to this one. A single woman of uncertain age, Gladys is sister to Miss Prism. Dressed in contemporary street clothes, she carries her make-up kit, a PBS tote bag and her maid’s costume on a hanger.

0:08:43.8 JS: What I love about this character is that once again, Doric’s playing with a very stock character type, that’d be very well known to theatergoers. In the classical theater, and actually still today in opera, this kind of character is often called the soubrette. And she’s a stock character, often like you know, a maid or maidservant. Bold, clever, definitely more sassy than any ingenue you can come across, she just doesn’t have time for your nonsense, and she’s often very forward, plain-spoken, tells the truth, and she’s probably actually more clever than any of the people that are employing her.

0:09:16.5 KS as Gladys: I don’t need this job, you know? I’ve played more maids in more plays than you’ve had arrests for moral turpitude in Piccadilly tearooms.

0:09:25.5 MF: I’m gonna go back to, again, old Hollywood for this, I’m thinking Eve Arden would be a really nice choice or if you need a more contemporary version, someone like Christine Nielsen.

0:09:34.9 MF: It’s funny that you mentioned that because I’m working right now on Tartuffe, in Theater History and it’s Dorine, you know? It goes all the way back there.

0:09:44.0 JS: Absolutely.

0:09:45.9 KS as Gladys: This one here is the butler, very pompous he is, our Lane, and the terror of the footmen. Grabs them above the knee in the pantry.

0:09:56.0 MF: I was thinking if you could go even with drag on this role, because I think you need… That what speaks to this is the fact that this character has one foot in this play and one foot in reality. She’s sympathetic to some characters and non-sympathetic to others. And she’s also the voice of the audience, she’s got a big question mark over her head the whole time, and yet you can go all the way back to the beginning and going, “Oh, sassy maid,” you can go anywhere with casting on this.

0:10:27.4 KS as Gladys: Ain’t he a picture of days gone by, what with his wavy rug and cheeks of rouge? Used to be a matinee idol, he was. Before electricity. Had hair and teeth and everything, didn’t you? Practically everything.

0:10:48.0 MF: It’s funny when we were recording this, it just worked for me to have Karen use a Cockney accent. I’m not sure that I would do that in production, you know? It just kind of worked for our purposes here. What do you think, Virginia?

0:11:01.4 VB: So the thing that I think about, when I think about Gladys, the first thing that you see with her is that she’s carrying her own costume. That beyond all of the sass and all of the irreverence, that she has this dignity to the role. That she cares about the fact that her costume is clean, that she actually cares about the fact that this is going on. She’s irreverent in so many other ways, but to have that detail chosen by Doric for her is extra telling. It tells the audience right away that although this is at this moment the most ridiculous figure on the stage, watch her because she’s got our backs.

0:11:46.6 MF: And it’s that same feeling when you have a character like this, going back to Tartuffe, when Dorine comes out, the audience is always like, “Oh, thank God, she’s back.”

[music]

0:11:57.6 VB: So Now She Dances! as a play is wholly a child of off-off-Broadway. This play arguably would not exist if off-off-Broadway did not exist, but what exactly is off-off-Broadway?

0:12:09.3 MF: So off-off-Broadway is technically a division of theater in New York City, which has 99 seats or less. Off-Broadway and Broadway, of course, being everything above that, that’s the technical classification of it. But what off-off-Broadway has really come to be, largely through places like the Caffe Cino, is because you only have 99 seats or maybe much less, you’re not beholden to try to choose material that’s gonna please the most amount of people. To put it snobbishly, you don’t have to appeal to the lowest common denominator, you’re not trying to get the most asses in seats. Therefore, you can speak to specific audiences, you can cover specific themes, and that’s I think what off-off-Broadway really pioneered and still pioneers.

0:13:12.0 CW as Lane: The wrong music… No summerhouse… A dubious gramophone… Fractious fairies making spectacles of themselves on the public thoroughfares…

0:13:25.1 VB: How did that happen? If we start with off-Broadway, how did off-off-Broadway happen?

0:13:30.6 JS: I think it’s interesting to realize that there have always been people that seek alternatives to whatever is perceived to be the mainstream. So in the US, particularly like in the 1910s, there were already these movements like the Little Theatre Movement, which you know, something like the Provincetown Playhouse and Eugene O’Neill is coming out of and they become some of the innovators of the arts. Even also, in the 1910s, you have really an organic Black Arts Movement with W. E. B. Du Bois really advocating for a Black theater, that’s for us, by us, about us, and near us. Then this is happening, like in the early part of the century so there are these models for alternatives before we really solidify terms like off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway.

0:14:13.2 JS: But by the time we get to the mid ’50s, there’s this real need for alternatives. And my understanding of that is that the mainstream culture becomes increasingly commercialized. Like if you think about the very early ’60s, what are the biggest hits on Broadway in terms of plays? It’s Neil Simon and Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr. And these are fun comedies, I don’t mean to bash them, but they were extremely aiming for what you describe as the kind of the lowest common denominator. How are we going to appeal to as large an audience as possible? The term niche is sometimes used pejoratively but actually that’s a beautiful thing, right? There are people that feel a need to have their stories told, to hear their voices in the theater. And that’s what these smaller theaters can really do in a way that frankly, yeah, the larger Broadway theaters and television and film, definitely not. This is really where those audiences could come to see the plays, that really spoke to them and about them.

0:15:09.1 JS: Also, at that time, New York theater is still censored. You could still be busted by the police for producing what they called an indecent play. And if you’re working on the margins of what became off-off-Broadway, you don’t have those same commercial interests, you don’t have those same legal concerns. You know, and also by the time you get to the late ’50s, early ’60s, a lot of folks are saying “Yeah, you know, like Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller they’re kind of past their heyday, where are the new voices? Where’s the new American theater coming from?” And that really becomes off-Broadway and then off-off-Broadway.

0:15:39.2 VB: It sounds like the margins keep moving, right?

0:15:42.2 MF: Right.

0:15:42.2 VB: Like you have whatever the newest exciting thing is that’s being made for a specific group of people becomes then more mainstream, and then there needs to be a new fringe that gets added on to that. And so then you end up with a fringe of a fringe. I mean, are we looking at possibly right now, the invention of off-off-off-off-off-Broadway…

[laughter]

0:16:02.8 VB: coming our way in this next few years?

0:16:05.5 JS: I actually think that’s true. I mean, I’ve already, have many friends that make theater and they’re not doing it in Manhattan at all. They’re doing it in the further reaches of like Queens and Brooklyn, and so forth, where yeah, they kind of jokingly refer to it as off-off-off-off-off-Broadway. But it’s sort of true, there’s always going to be people that feel that need for, I mean, the way I think about it is freedom. And where can you find that freedom as an artist, and as someone who has something to say to our society? So yeah, let’s keep finding those margins.

0:16:34.6 KS as Gladys: Where’s the set? Finance company repossess it? Fire department find it too inflammatory? National Endowment revoke our grant?

0:16:45.2 MF: Another thing that off-off-Broadway still does is it offers a unique theater experience, because you’re not in a traditional theater space, like the Caffe Cino was that, it was a cafe. And if you’re thinking about your 1958, theatergoer, “Let’s go down to the village and see a play.” That’s part of the experience. It’s a little bit like in the 20s and 30s, when Harlem was big, that’s part of the experience of going downtown and going to this bohemian, slightly dicey neighborhood, and we’re gonna go see this play that happens in a coffeehouse, and anything can happen. That’s part of the theater-going experience in a way that you know, “Let’s go see Hello, Dolly” is not, it’s very prescribed what you’re gonna get. At the Caffe Cino and venues like that there was a real sense of anything goes, which was part of the draw.

0:17:49.9 VB: So as far as the non-traditional space goes, I think about which came first chicken or egg, right? I mean, the Caffe Cino didn’t start out as a theater.

0:18:00.1 MF: No.

0:18:00.7 VB: And there are other non-traditional spaces, I imagine, that the intention was, “We are going to make theater happen in this space.” I just made that assumption. I’m wondering, you know, Jordan, Mark, do you have any thoughts on any of the other off-off groups, companies, that were happening at the time? Were they more space-based? Did it kind of happen organically accidentally? What were some of the stories of the other off-off-Broadway houses?

0:18:25.0 JS: Well, I think that there’s actually a lot of hazy lines, like things aren’t as well-defined, so to say like, “Oh, that’s an art gallery, that’s a theater, that’s a poetry place.” It was all kind of in the mix in so many cases. And there’s an excitement to that, right? This kind of like overlap visual artists making plays, and vice versa, and so forth, that we kind of had these well-defined roles. And therefore the well-defined space is also, yeah, not necessarily the way that I understand the movement at the time. And so there were coffee houses, churches, bookstores, art galleries, all these places in which theater could happen, which and I think this is important, didn’t have to make their money through selling tickets to plays. So if you’re making your money through coffee, or selling alcohol or books or something else, [chuckle] then does that liberate you in terms of the theater that you’re creating?

0:19:14.1 JS: So I think that it’s a combination of, yeah, in some cases, it’s accidental, like they’re just theatre artists that want to take over a space, and there’s an opportunity. But in other cases, it’s just really part of the ethos of the time, that there could be such a thing as a creative artistic space and theater is simply just one component of that.

[music]

0:19:37.1 KS as Gladys: Gladys exits.

0:19:43.2 CB as Herod: And Herod returns to confirm with Lane that the plot to seduce Salome is in place. The preparations?

0:19:52.0 CW as Lane: Are proceeding.

0:19:53.7 CB as Herod: Tricky business, seduction. Requires the same meticulous attention to detail as a military campaign.

0:20:01.7 CW as Lane: I’ve been briefed with tonight’s battle plan.

0:20:04.4 CB as Herod: The troops?

0:20:05.2 CW as Lane: Deployed.

0:20:06.5 CB as Herod: The artillery?

0:20:07.7 CW as Lane: Primed.

0:20:08.8 CB as Herod: The lady in question?

0:20:10.4 CW as Lane: Unsuspecting.

0:20:12.8 CB as Herod: My technique d’amour is derived entirely from the principles of armed conflict as delineated by Attila the Hun.

0:20:20.5 CW as Lane: I might never have guessed.

0:20:23.2 VB: Herod comes in for this; but, in my script, he’s still the actor. He doesn’t actually enter as Herod yet.

0:20:28.3 JS: But how can you tell? [chuckle]

0:20:30.2 VB: Exactly! Where does it matter, in this case?

0:20:33.3 MF: Right.

0:20:33.5 VB: You know… He’s The Actor, they’re making the plan; but The Actor clearly, from the beginning of the play, has designs on The Actress.

0:20:40.1 MF: Mm-hmm.

0:20:40.9 VB: It’s not just a Herod/Salome thing.

0:20:42.1 MF: Right.

0:20:42.6 VB: So, which one is happening?

0:20:44.3 JS: And that’s what’s so great about the whole meta-structure. If you ask, “Well, is it Herod? Or is it The Actor?” The answer is yes.

0:20:50.8 VB: Yes. [chuckle]

0:20:51.1 JS: It’s both, right?

0:20:51.3 MF: Yeah.

0:20:53.0 JS: That, you’re watching all the layers simultaneously, so it’s always, like, a sort of, “Yes, and,” rather than an “either/or,” and that just adds to the fun of it all.

0:21:00.7 MF: Yeah.

0:21:00.8 VB: Right.

0:21:01.3 MF: Yeah.

0:21:03.2 VB: Exactly.

0:21:03.2 CB as Herod: Herod exits.

0:21:05.5 JT as Bill: And Bill enters. As they work to set the stage, Bill tries to pump Lane for information about his job.

0:21:11.9 CW as Lane: While Lane tries to pump Bill for information about Bill.

0:21:16.8 JT as Bill: I’ve been born again!

0:21:19.1 CW as Lane: How uncomfortable.

0:21:20.8 JT as Bill: Have you been saved?

0:21:22.7 CW as Lane: From what?

0:21:24.2 JT as Bill: Eternal damnation!

0:21:26.8 CW as Lane: Probably not.

0:21:28.0 JT as Bill: You deny Jesus?

0:21:30.1 CW as Lane: Nothing personal. He goes his way, I go mine.

0:21:32.7 JT as Bill: Refuse salvation, I’ll punch you in the face!

0:21:36.5 CW as Lane: Threatening me bodily harm?

0:21:38.8 JT as Bill: Only because I love you.

0:21:41.2 CW as Lane: William.

0:21:42.3 JT as Bill: I’m a Christian. I love all creatures, great and small… Except the humanists.

0:21:47.6 CW as Lane: And punching me in the face is how you express affection?

0:21:50.9 JT as Bill: If it’ll save your soul!

0:21:53.0 MF: The stage direction isn’t “offended,” it says “intrigued.” So, you’re getting the attraction here, and it goes on… It’s two pages of this stuff. So, clearly, we’re setting up the bromance, at least one-sided bromance, of what’s going on in this scene. Just in that little repartee there, that’s just so Doric. I mean, that’s like, his badinage in just about every single play. That’s Doric-speak. It’s great.

0:22:22.8 VB: The whole Bill/Lane sequence, I feel is quintessential Doric.

0:22:26.9 MF: Mm-hmm.

0:22:27.3 VB: And this is a very long scene for this play.

0:22:30.8 MF: Yeah!

0:22:31.6 VB: We spend a lot of time with this Bill and Lane, getting-to-know-you, getting-to-know-all-about-you, getting-to-poke-around-you that happens between the two of them. Why do you think that Doric gave this exchange so much weight? Besides the fact that it gave him a chance to have a little trading-of-the-dialogue, as he does so well.

0:22:51.9 MF: Because I think… It’s so Doric, in that he wants to tell you about the characters without giving you actual exposition. He’d much rather give you jokes. So, that’s what he’s doing. He’s revealing both characters: Bill as this kind of almost stereotypical, knuckle-headed, hot, straight guy; and Lane as this older opera queen, kind of telling us who he is through action, by trying to find out more and more about Bill. You know? But he does it through satire and action. And I think it’s genius, the way he does it. And the fact that it goes on… Because again, he kind of… And through these quips, he’s allowing the audience to make up their own minds about the character, not necessarily telling you what his point of view is. Although he kind of is.

0:23:43.2 JS: I would also say that the kind of quips going back and forth… That there’s also something erotic about this, as it has been in comedy from time immemorial, going back to Beatrice and Benedick, all the way through Hepburn and Tracy. Right?

0:23:55.2 MF: Absolutely.

0:23:56.2 JS: And so, there’s a certain crackle to it that is absolutely about the characters, but also about the relationship between the characters. There’s a rapid exchange of energy between them that actually could be really exciting in the theater.

0:24:07.8 VB: Actually, it climaxes in this sequence with the musculature.

0:24:13.9 JT as Bill: Real men don’t get broken hearts, they have coronaries.

0:24:18.3 CW as Lane: You’ll look most impressive in uniform.

0:24:21.8 JT as Bill: Yeah, I know.

0:24:23.5 CW as Lane: You definitely have the physique for it.

0:24:26.2 JT as Bill: Yeah, I do, don’t I?

0:24:30.8 CW as Lane: Awesome musculature!

0:24:30.9 JT as Bill: Wanna feel my biceps?

0:24:32.9 CW as Lane: This hardly seems the time or the place.

0:24:37.3 JT as Bill: Aw, c’mon! It’s just between us guys.

0:24:40.8 CW as Lane: The possibilities are most intriguing.

0:24:43.3 JT as Bill: Here, grab a hold of this!

0:24:46.8 CW as Lane: The probability fraught with…

0:24:48.9 KS as Gladys: I hope I’m not intruding?

0:24:52.2 JS: It’s a gay flirtation, right?

0:24:54.1 MF: Oh yeah.

0:24:55.2 JS: With one side kinda being very knowing, and a little lecherous, and the other one being completely oblivious.

0:25:00.8 MF: Mm-hmm.

0:25:00.9 JS: And again, that’s the comedy.

0:25:01.4 MF: It’s like, almost, the beginning of a bad porno. You know… It’s like you’re waiting for the… Well, our theme to come in.

[music]

0:25:10.2 VB: But also, this is one of those places where Doric also provides those fun stage directions, internal directions to the actors, where there’s a series of them: “Lane: (Tempted),” “Bill: (Ingenuous),” “Lane: (Uncomfortable),” “Bill: (Flexing),” “Lane: (About to succumb),”

0:25:28.5 JS: Mm-hmm.

0:25:29.6 VB: “Gladys: (As she enters)”

0:25:31.5 MF: Yeah, it’s like before Lane can make his move, Gladys pops out from behind the just-placed stage-right flat. So…

0:25:38.7 JS: I would just add the other thing that that scene sets up, right, is the whole notion of social propriety. How one is supposed to be behaving; but how, of course, what the social standards are and what we actually want to do, our actual desires, don’t always align. And this is true in Importance Of Being Earnest, and it’s true in Doric Wilson’s comedies.

0:25:56.5 MF: Mm-hmm… Mm-hmm.

0:25:58.0 VB: Yes.

0:25:58.0 MF: So, Scene 7, Gladys comes in and lets everybody know that nothing’s where it’s supposed to be, but she’s come up with an interesting solution.

0:26:07.6 KS as Gladys: Before you go all red in the face and start stomping about in a snit, I’m well aware this phonograph isn’t strictly period. So I scrounged around in the attic and found this old morning-glory horn. Isn’t it a hoot?

0:26:21.1 CW as Lane: A transistor radio?

0:26:23.7 KS as Gladys: As they say in the vestibule, a ghetto blaster. I liberated it from a nubile number in pink spandex who almost ran me down on his ruby red roller skates.

0:26:36.4 CW as Lane: This is in no way suitable.

0:26:38.9 KS as Gladys: Sure, it is! We simply insert jam, this into ‘ere, and we have an almost-plausible facsimile Gramophone, circa here and now, which by I mean then, and… There, you’re male. You’re mechanically inclined.

0:26:56.4 VB: I love this moment so much because it’s, again, Doric reminding us that the outside is inside, that time and space don’t matter, and that… Here’s Gladys, who’s solving a problem in a very “Gladys” way, but also we have that… What is it? The “nubile number in pink spandex,” and the “ruby red roller skates?” Like, painting that picture of what is happening on the street right now.

0:27:21.4 MF: Which I always… I know it probably isn’t right, but I always think about Rollerena. You know… But, could be! Who knows!

0:27:28.5 VB: Could be!

0:27:29.2 JS: Absolutely.

0:27:30.2 MF: Yeah.

0:27:30.2 VB: But this is also really important because of what happens next.

0:27:34.0 MF: When, what happens next is…

[music]

0:27:37.7 JS: Wait, what? What happens next?

0:27:40.4 MF: You’ll have to wait until the next episode of Out Lines to find out.

0:27:43.3 VB as Salome: Are you’re making me wait? I don’t like to wait.

0:27:46.9 JS: How about a little tease? We meet another character…

0:27:50.1 MF: The plot thickens…

0:27:51.5 VB: And we get a brief refresher on LGBTQ+ history.

0:27:55.1 Gail Dennison as Lady Herodias: Here it tells what GDF stands for: Gay Defensive Front.

0:28:01.7 VB: Mark, how about talking about TOSOS?

0:28:03.6 JS: What do you say we begin in 1961?

0:28:07.5 KS: Thank you for listening to Out Lines! Subscribe, get lost in our show notes, and check out some awfully cute kitty pics at outlinespod.com. Season One of Out Lines features conversations and readings recorded between September 2020 and April 2021. This episode selections from Doric Wilson’s “Now, She Dances!” were directed by Mark Finley, and feature Jay Thomas, Chris Weikel, Christopher Borg, Virginia Baeta, and me, Karen Stanion, and my little, sweet, orange kitty, Lily. Thanks to Sarah Wardrop for the production magic, to the dastardly Morry Campbell for the theme music, and to Free To Use Sounds. You are all stars!

0:28:51.5 VB: Out Lines is a production of The Weakest Thing.