Scrolling through 1972's historical markers one notes that, in January, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announced plans to run for the office of President of the United States and Hewlett Packard introduced the first scientific handheld calculator at a retail price of $395. While undergoing its conversion to "Seawise University" in Hong Kong's harbor, the former greyhound of the Atlantic Ocean, RMS Queen Elizabeth, was destroyed by a massive fire.
In February, President Nixon made his historic trip to the People's Republic of China, where he met with Mao Zedong in Beijing. In March, the figures sculpted on the wall of Georgia's Stone Mountain depicting Confederate heroes Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson were completed. Later that month, Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece, The Godfather, premiered in New York.
April marked the launch of Apollo 16 and the debut of Lockheed's L-1011 Tristar (that same month Burt Reynolds posed nude for Cosmopolitan magazine). In June, the United States formally returned the island of Okinawa to Japan and the first Popeyes Fried Chicken restaurant opened in Arabi, Louisiana. On June 17th, White House operatives broke into the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate complex that overlooked the new John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In September, 11 Israeli athletes were massacred at the Munich Olympics. The following month, the first Airbus A300 took to the skies. In November, Atari released its first video arcade game (Pong) and, in December, the crew of Apollo 17 took the famous "blue marble" photograph of Earth.
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| NASA's famous "Blue Mable" photograph of the Earth |
That year also marked a major turning point in my life. After three years in Providence, Rhode Island, I moved to San Francisco. Though I left behind many close friends, I also said farewell to a conservative climate in which one YMCA executive proudly told me that "Women's lib has no place in Rhode Island and I can assure you that gay liberation will never come to Rhode Island." His views were backed by a secretary who, following Nixon's bombing of Cambodia, told me that "Nixon's the President and he won by majority vote, so he must be right."
Before driving cross country, I checked out a map of San Francisco, recognized a grid pattern, and thought "This should be pretty easy" (I had neglected to read about the City's notorious hills). Upon my arrival at 218 Haight Street, I was greeted by my friend and future roommate who had arranged a party in my honor. The following picture shows what I looked like after changing into drag at a taco stand in Roseville on my 25th birthday.
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| Chuck Cleaves and George Heymont -- July 8, 1972 |
During my first summer in the Bay area, I did a lot of temp work (one employment counselor advised me to "dress conservative, act conservative, and remember 'Power to the people!'" An arsonist was burning down homes in the Western Addition and, late one night, the building in back of our apartment went up in flames. That year, three-story Victorian houses were selling for $15,000. The following summer, when I marched in San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade (wearing a pair of double-knit slacks), a man asked me what my "costume" was. I replied "I'm dressed as a faggot from the Peninsula!"
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Custom Made Theatre is currently presenting the Bay area premiere of Sarah Treem's drama entitled When We Were Young and Unafraid. Set in 1972, the play received its world premiere from the Manhattan Theatre Club in June 2014. Unlike Luigi Pirandello's 1921 drama (Six Characters in Search of an Author), Treem's play focuses on five deeply conflicted and confused characters in search of themselves or, at the very least, some stability in their lives.- Agnes (Stacy Ross) is a middle-aged woman who runs a bed-and-breakfast on an isolated island in Puget Sound. Though not particularly active in the women's movement, she belongs to a network that helps victims of domestic violence escape from their abusive husbands and boyfriends. A former nurse, her first aid skills often come in handy with new arrivals.
- Penny (Zoe Foulks) is a restless teenager who lives with Agnes although their relationship is not clarified until the end of the play. Tired of being perceived as the smartest girl in her class, Penny is starting to show some interest in boys but has no idea how to get their attention. While Agnes keeps pestering her to go to the senior prom with a boy that Agnes likes, Penny is far more interested in the captain of her school's football team.
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| Zoe Foulks (Penny) and Stacy Ross (Agnes) live on Puget Sound in When We Were Young and Unafraid (Photo by: Jay Yamada) |
- Mary Anne (Liz Frederick) is the latest runaway to find shelter with Agnes. Having arrived bruised and beaten, she must stay in the basement until her wounds clear. Unfortunately, like many battered wives, Mary Anne still believes that her husband loves her and aches to hear John's voice again. When Penny asks Mary Anne for advice on how to succeed with boys, she happily shares her knowledge about flirting. Unfortunately, there are strong signs that Mary Anne could easily become another statistic among the legions of battered women who return to their husbands and are subsequently murdered in a fit of domestic violence.
- Hannah (Renee Rogoff) is a fiercely independent lesbian who shows up unannounced at Agnes's home, offering to fix the B&B's hanging sign in return for some food. Having arrived on the island in search of a commune of strong "womyn" who are determined to build a self sufficient community designed to exist without men, Hannah may wear a seemingly impenetrable coat of emotional armor but, underneath all of her butch bravado, is real softie. When her infatuation with radical feminism begins to fade, her thoughts turn to more traditional creature comforts.
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| Zoe Foulks (Penny) and Liz Frederick (Mary Anne) in a scene from When We Were Young and Unafraid (Photo by: Jay Yamada) |
Paul (Matt Hammons) is the only male character. Afrustrated songwriter who fled San Francisco after his wife left him for a pot-smoking hippie and enthusiastically embraced a culture of free love, Matt epitomizes the confused straight white man who doesn't understand how American culture is changing around him. Though he has a soft heart, upholds traditional values, and wears Sansabelt slacks, he can't comprehend why his efforts to "be nice" to women keep spooking them.
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| Matt Hammons (Paul) tries to restrain Renee Rogoff (Hannah) in When We Were Young and Unafraid (Photo by: Jay Yamada) |
Though Treem may be an accomplished playwright and Golden Globe-winning writer for television, When We Were Young and Unafraid falls into an easily recognizable genre of plays that have been carefully constructed and may read well in print, but fall short in performance. I was seriously underwhelmed.
I find no fault with the work of director Tracy Ward, set designer Bernadette Flynn, costume designer Coeli Polansky, or sound designer Jerry Girard. Instead, this strikes me as a story that would fare much better as a feature film or television movie) where quick cuts could eliminate the between-scenes downtime that sucks the dramatic momentum out of the performance. Even with an accomplished actor like Stacy Ross as Agnes, the only time there is a sense of electricity onstage occurs when Hannah barges in and, refusing to behave with any semblance of restraint, makes the moment her own.
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| Stacy Ross (Agnes) tries to reason with Liz Frederick (Mary Anne) in When We Were Young and Unafraid) (Photo by: Jay Yamada) |
Performances of When We Were Young and Unafraid continue through February 9 at the Custom Made Theatre (click here for tickets).
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Down in Mountain View, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is presenting a slickly-staged production of Peter Morgan's 2006 political drama, Frost/Nixon. Beautifully mounted by Leslie Martinson against a backdrop of television monitors, Morgan's tug-of-war between the disgraced former President and British talk-show host David Frost acquires an intensely heightened sense of relevance in light of the bumbling incompetence of the Trump administration. As Robert Kelley (the artistic director of TheatreWorks) notes:“Spin can be personal as well as a public function. But, for a world leader, failure may be impossible to accept or acknowledge. We selected Frost/Nixon for TheatreWorks’ season last January, certain that its focus on the presidency and the media would be relevant no matter what happened in the year to come. That wasn’t a great moment of prophecy (the play has remained relevant since its first performance) and our deeply conflicted America was clearly focused on the drama, trappings, and limits of power -- just as we were in the days of the Nixon presidency. What we couldn’t predict, however, was that the intensity of our debate and division would reach a boiling point at this exact moment; that we would join all Americans in wondering, day to day, what the future might hold, what unimagined truths might emerge at any moment, and whether the truth, once known, would actually matter at all.”
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| Allen McCullough as Richard Nixon in a scene from Frost/Nixon (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
“The contentious relationship between the government and the media has always been a feature of American politics. Self-deception is common to all of us. We are tempted to weigh our failures against our successes and find in our own favor. As the tools of reporting have progressed (from broadsides to editorials to tweets, from illustrations to photographs to videos), the intensity and depth of scrutiny of our leaders has dramatically increased. If readership of the press has declined, viewership of the media has multiplied exponentially. Many believe Richard Nixon was the first President to be deeply affected by television, and it seems only appropriate that our exploration of his most extensive TV interviews should include significant use of video and projections as well. Current politics aside, Frost/Nixon offers an intimate engaging exploration of both the lure and the limits of power and denial. After decades to learn from the past, to contemplate our belief that the truth will eventually come out, we’re left with one question: could such honesty possibly happen today?”
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| Jeremy Webb (David Frost) and Allen McCullough (Richard Nixon) in a scene from Frost/Nixon (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
With costumes by Cathleen Edwards, lighting by Steven B. Mannshardt, and sound design by Gregory Robinson, Martinson keeps her ensemble moving through the constantly-changing scenes at a rapid clip. In the midst of all the action (combined with the superb scenery and media design by David Lee Cuthbert), it's easy to overlook some beautifully crafted work by familiar Bay area actors in supporting roles.
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| Craig Marker (Jack Brennan) and Allen McCullough (Richard Nixon) in a scene from Frost/Nixon (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
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| Patrick Russell (Mike Wallace) and Jeremy Webb (David Frost) in a scene from Frost/Nixon (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
The crux of the show, however, is about two men with gigantic egos whose lust for ratings, wealth, and fame can never really be sated. As Nixon, Allen McCullough keeps fidgeting about how much money is at stake while revealing himself to be remarkably unworldly for a first-class diplomat while trying to outfox the garrulous talk show host. By contrast, Frost (Jeremy Webb) seems like a tireless party boy with nerves of steel who is willing to risk everything for a big payoff. Although Frost's formidable research team (including Stephen Muterspaugh as Robert Zelnick) keeps pestering him to hit Nixon with hard questions from the onset of their four interviews, Frost knows all too well that the trick is to take enough time so that a notoriously cagey subject like Nixon starts to feel comfortable before springing the trap.
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| Allen McCullough as Richard Nixon in a scene from Frost/Nixon (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
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| Allen McCullough as Richard Nixon in a scene from Frost/Nixon (Photo by: Kevin Berne) |
Performances of Frost/Nixon continue through February 10 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (click here for tickets). Here's the trailer:
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