Corpus Christi: The Documentary

Corpus Christi is a play by Terrence McNally that reinterprets the Passion of Christ against the backdrop of McNally's own experience as a gay teen in the 1950's in deeply homophobic Corpus Christi, Texas.

The play was met with furious protests at its opening in New York in 1998, but lately a theater group called 108 Productions has been successfully touring with the play, and is making a documentary about it.

I've never seen the play, but would love to. Probably won't ever get the chance, since Texas is full of Bible-believing, gay-hating Christianists. Just last year, there was nearly a nuclear meltdown over in Stephenville when a college drama class attempted a performance in a student workshop on a Saturday morning - not even a public performance, mind you. But that was enough to create a major outbreak of full-tilt, off-the-rails, hang-em-high Pharisaism here, I tell you what.

Gay Jesus Play Nixed Again

So on Wednesday, Fort Worth's Rose Marine Theater announced it would allow the cancelled student production of Corpus Christi to be performed on its stage.

And then on Thursday, after receiving at least one threat of violence, the theater's board of directors withdrew the offer.

Meanwhile, Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., is putting on three performances of the play this weekend.  In which the Christ-like figure is not only gay but deaf, too.  Imagine that.

Naturally, the rightwing homophobes up there are protesting too, but Gallaudet officials have not backed down.

By coincidence, I suppose, playwright Terrence McNally, who grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, made news for a different, but serendipitous reason this week, as the Washington Post reports:

Married: Terrence McNally and Tom Kirdahy Tuesday in Washington. The Tony-winning playwright, 71, and lawyer, 46, tied the knot on the banks of the Potomac near the Kennedy Center, which is running a series of McNally's plays. The couple had a civil union in Vermont seven years ago, but wanted a marriage: Rev. George Walker of the People's Congregational United Church of Christ performed the ceremony -- Kirdahy read a scene from McNally's play "Corpus Christi" -- and actress Tyne Daly served as a witness. The couple live in New York City.

Today in Texastan: "Gay Jesus" Play Cancelled

In the face of outrage from the local Christianist Taliban and criticism from the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, not to mention security concerns, student director John Otte's professor has cancelled the workshop performance of Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi, which was to have been performed this morning at 8 a.m. before a small audience of classmates and family members on the Tarleton State University campus in Stephenville.

Kudos to university president Dr. Dominic Dottavio, who while asserting his belief that the play is "offensive, crude, and irreverent," nevertheless firmly upheld academic freedom and the student's First Amendment right to produce the play.

Otte:  "Never did I choose this play to attack Christians. I am one."

If you can bear to sit through the painfully amateurish TSU student news broadcast below, you will hear interviews with local mullahs preachers, Dr. Dottavio, and Otte himself.

And get a pretty good idea of the backwards, small-minded, fundamentalist-controlled world your Head Trucker lives in out here on the prairie.



Story begins at the 4:10 mark.

Update:  Houston ABC news report interviews Tarleton State students, who say "Homosexuality is the one unforgiveable sin in our society."

And that, my friends, is what you're up against if you're a gay man living in Texas in the year 2010.

Newsbites

Well now that the BFD of healthcare reform is finally almost sorta kinda over - the Senate had to do some last-minute tweaks on the bill and sent it back to the House today for final approval, which makes me wonder how the President could sign something on Tuesday that wasn't absolutely final, but - well, here are a few other stories that have caught my eye in the last few days that I haven't had time to comment on, thought I'd post them for your information.

--Pentagon Relaxes DADT - making it a little harder for the military to boot people out based on third-party outings.



--Pope Should Resign - so says Andrew Sullivan, a devout Catholic, in light of the deepening crisis over Benedict's role in covering up sexual abuse scandals in Germany and the United States, including a case where one priest allegedly molested 200 deaf boys at a Wisconsin school.



--National party identification, registered voters and likely voters only, at this point in time:



All adults:



State of the Country, all adults:



--Legal Pot?  Come November, California voters will get a chance to legalize marijuana in that state, and not just for medical purposes - no doubt while still looking down their noses at us lowly but perfectly legal tobacco smokers.  Marijuana, of course, is as harmless as sugar candy, and doesn't rot your teeth.  Right . . . .

--Ten Democrats Attacked - Capitol Hill police are dealing with reports of bricks and bullets through office windows, vandalism, and in one case, a cut propane gas line.  CS Monitor:

Complicating matters for Republicans is the rhetoric of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), a favorite of tea partyers. On a Twitter feed Tuesday, Ms. Palin called on conservatives not to retreat, but to “RELOAD!” On her Facebook page, she posted a US map with cross-hair targets on the states where she plans to campaign against Democrats who voted for healthcare reform.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona defended Palin, his running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign, saying that such “battleground” language is typical for political campaigns.

Palin, BTW, has just signed a deal for her new reality TV show on TLC, asking $1+ million per episode.  Ah, no wonder she gave up that crappy little lowlife job as, um, what was it?  Oh yeah, Governor of Alaska.  Sales of her book, Going Rogue, are already up to $7 million, and she signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Fox News a while back too.

And here I worked my ass off all these years, slaving away through college and dead-end jobs and poverty and all sorts of difficulties, and still have very damn little to show for all that honest work - and may still be a homeless man in retirement.  I don't care what you say, boys - brazen, busty, and dumb always wins the pot hands down, always has, always will.

--And finally:  Texas Christians outraged over "Gay Jesus" play - big-ass uproar in Stephenville at the Tarleton State campus over a student workshop production of Terrence McNally's 1998 passion play, Corpus Christi, depicting Jesus and the apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas.  Local Bible-thumpers say it demeans Christianity to portray Jesus as a gay man.  Video report here.

I never heard of the play before, but I sure would like to see it now.  From the 1998 production:

Honks to Andrew Sullivan and Joe.My.God. for some of these stories/images.

Update:  9:08 p.m., Texas time:  the House just passed the reconciliation bill, 220-207, so now the healthcare reform fight is really over.  And with this week's victory, the President's balls are starting to clank a little - good for him: