Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

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where the visibility of gay presences may be changed, but this change is due to long held or
traditional practices. In both regards, gay themes may be either brought to audience’s
attention, or theatrically distanced and made less visible, depending on their proximity to
the mainstream.
Histories of the development of each play and media campaigns of promotion are
areas where the representation of homosexuality are contained and managed. Over the
course of development MacLennan admits gay material was “stepped away from” in The
Shooting Stage (MacLennan “Drafts”). In development Alexandrowicz removed his
characters’ embodied sexualities from his script. In both these plays’ developmental
processes, gay sexuality becomes less visible. In contrast, Grignard actually increases the
amount of embodied sexualities in The Orchard Drive over the course of development. The
media generated for each production similarly affected the visibility of each play’s gay
themes. His Greatness’s media material focussed exclusively on the play’s inspiring figure,
Tennessee Williams, and gave no overt indications of the play’s gay contents.
Contrastingly, The Shooting Stage’s media offers many indications of the play’s sexual and
sex-related themes. Beggars Would Ride own low-cost media acknowledges and at times
celebrates the play’s gay content, whereas its more expensive media from the PuSh Festival
contained only the phrase “sexual overtones” to offer a hint at any of the play’s gay themes.
Lastly, The Orchard Drive’s simple photocopied pages for both its program and poster
explicitly warns of the play’s sexual contents and offer both overt and subtle indications of
homosexuality.
Other aspects of production and reception appeared to influence the ways in which
the plays’ gay themes were realised in performance, but these generally appeared to do so