Lost + Found

[magid]

A couple of weeks ago I went to Queer Soup's 10th anniversary production, Lost + Found, an evening of short pieces at the Boston Playwright's Theater. It was in the side theater (the one that had Veronica Vavoom, Vulcanologist in it), and the set included pretty much everything needed for all the different pieces. It was interesting to see how the focus shifted to different parts of the set for each play. The only constant was a calendar on one wall that was changed for each play.

The lineup:

1. Honey, I'm So Lonesome I Don't Know What to Do (Betsy Phillips)
   A reporter interviewing a popular country singer, who's trapped in what the industry thinks she should be, rather than who she is, sharing booze when offered, until the barriers break down, a serious kiss shared.
   
2. October (Ginger Lazarus)
   A couple canoeing on a Vermont lake in October, 2001, one a nature lover, the other a city person, both feeling vulnerable in the aftermath of 9/11, when one was hurt in NYC while the other was out of town, unable to help for days. This was the first time I've seen a canoe on stage (carefully padded underneath).
   
3. Magillicutti (Renee C. Farster)
   A woman at an AA meeting, mentioning at the end of her time that she usually goes to all-women meetings. A man starts talking with her during the break about why she avoids mixed meetings, and it turns out it's to avoid any chance of meeting her dad, who gave her her first drink as a kid.
   
4. The Sanzibel Putt-Putt Rally (Jess Martin)
   Yes, a piece about the cut-throat world of competitive mini golf, complete with a huge piece of fake grass surface. Not only mini-golf, but a romantic tangle as well, competing for the attentions of one focused mini-golfing champion.
   
5. Queer Soup: The True Homogenized Story - Parts 1 and 2 (Kathy Wittman)
   A documentary/reality TV show-style fake history of the group. It was amusing, but I wasn't in the mood for video stuff, really, however outrageous.
   
6. Paris (Lyralen Kaye)
   A romantic anniversary in Paris... or at least, pretty lights, and a pretend haughty waiter, murdered in the course of the trying-to-be-ideal anniversary evening of two women with somewhat different communication styles.
   
7. gutting (Mal Malme)
   A college kid goes down to New Orleans to help with the clean-up, gutting wrecked houses. This was the longest of the pieces, and in some ways the most intense, showing the ongoing issues of New Orleans recovery. The playwright had gone down to gut, and it had stayed with her, the stories of the displaced, the losses, the bureaucracy, the smells, the trying for any kind of hope, a way to continue living.