Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

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Chapter Five: A Battle of Values on the Streets
Chris Grignard's play The Orchard Drive opened on July 19th 2005, and ran for
four days at the Kelowna Community Theatre as the premiere full-length theatrical
production in the theatre's new Black Box Space. The play originated as a project for
Grignard’s Masters of Arts at the University of Guelph. Grignard submitted the play to
Theatre BC’s 2002 National Playwriting Competition in which he was a finalist. The play's
production run also included four additional dates of performance with the same cast and
production team at the Walterdale Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta, that same month.
The Orchard Drive is "a piece of historiographical metadrama" concerning an
incident in 1997 when Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray refused to make a proclamation of
"Gay and Lesbian Pride Day" (Harkness 1). In Grignard's play, set shortly after the mayor's
refusal, four male teenagers react to his inaction while rehearsing for a production of
Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard which they intend to mount during the city's
(unproclaimed) pride celebrations. The play’s production operates at the fringes of
theatrical practice, incorporating a number of non-mainstream methods and a miniscule
budget. However the play features discussions of the physical details of and stages gay sex,
at times rooted in sado-masochist practice. The play further challenges social orthodoxies
of teenage sexuality, particularly teen gay sexuality, by creating sexually active characters
with agency.
Historical Background
In 1997 the Okanagan Rainbow Coalition asked Mayor Gray to proclaim "Lesbian and
Gay Pride Day" in Kelowna. Gray’s dropping of the word "pride" from the proclamation
led to him and the City of Kelowna being found, on March 21 st , 2000, to have violated the