Bathroom Scene from "Strange Fruit" , c 1977 San Francisco

In maybe 1977 I had run away from NYC and ended up in San Francisco. It was pre-AIDS. It was Fags and Dykes land. In the prettiest city in the country. Unbelievable. On T'giving there was this exquisite drag queen ladling the gravy to my potatoes on the dinner service line for homeless people in 330 Grove St, the liberated building people made into the Gay Community Center. His name was Tede Mathews. I had really never performed before. Long story. But I was roped into performing in the live vaudevillian transitions between screenings of early gay-world filmmaker Marc Huestis.
"Strange Fruit" was a vessel to feature some of the many shorts he had made up till that point in his prolific film career.
Now, at the time, there were more than a few Lesbians in SF that had a hard time with men who dressed in drag. There was a sense that they were ridiculing women. I didn't feel that way, so I asked Tommy Pace, the funniest man I probably will ever know, to fashion a piece together that would speak to this problemo. The "Bathroom Scene" is the result. First sketch I ever wrote and performed in. I was so uptight. You'll see.
However, It was kind of a big hit and we were asked to do it about 4 million times. I don't recall why, but Tommy wasn't in it on this night that it was filmed, the man in the scene is Donald Corren, an actor living I hear in New York these days.
Unfortunately, dear Tommy succumbed to complications due to AIDS and died in the mid 1980's. You would not have believed how BRILLIANT he was. Godamnit.
Silvana Nova is seen briefly in the opening moments.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• queer theater
• LGBT
• San Francisco
• Castro Street
• Angels of Light
• camp
• gay
• lesbian
• drag queens

[Martu49]

Fantastic:)

[Martu49]

Fantastic, Reno!