Actor, Writer, Activist Michael Kearns Joins ‘Old Dogs And New Tricks’.
lamdaliterary.com
Wow.
Kearns is a significant figure in the worlds of performing arts and gay politics, beginning in the early 1970s with his appearance in the LA production of Tom Eyen’s The Dirtiest Show in Town. His role as “Grant Tracy Saxon Warner Books” in 1974’s The Happy Hustler earned Kearns the title of “the first openly gay actor in Hollywood.” His long and historic career is detailed in his 2012 autobiography The Truth is Bad Enough (available on Amazon).
Kearns has appeared in mainstream TV and film (The Waltons, Murder She Wrote, Cheers, Body Double, Beverly Hills 90210, Knots Landing, And The Band Played On) while achieving international acclaim as an award-winning solo performer (intimacies, Rock, attachments, Tell Tale Kisses, Make Love Not War, Once Upon a Time in South Africa), a stage actor (an international tour of Dream Man; LA appearances in Camille, Bill and Eddie, Rubicon, the 10th anniversary reading of The Normal Heart, and the 20th anniversary reading of Boys In The Band), and theatre director (world premieres of Eric Bentley’s Round Two, Robert Chesley’s Jerker, James Carroll Pickett’s Bathhouse Benediction, the Off Broadway solo pieces The Porcelain Penelope Freak Show and Elevator Sex, and an international tour of Dream Man).
He’s produced more than a dozen plays, and also co-wrote the screenplay of Nine Lives, based on his play, complications. Author of six theatre books published by Heinemann (T-Cells & Sympathy, Acting = Life), his most recent—The Drama of AIDS, My Lasting Connections with Two Plays that Survived the Plague—was released in the fall of ’09 in conjunction with the 20th anniversary tour of intimacies.
Openly gay and publicly HIV-positive, he is recipient of several Lifetime Achievement Awards and Humanitarian Awards. Kearns is currently Co-Artistic Director of the Katselas Theatre Company and an Artist-in-Residence at the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles’s Skid Row.
“Michael is a key figure in the short history of Out Gay Hollywood, so naturally we’re thrilled and honored—it feels appropriate to have him on our show,” says show creator/actor Acord. “On a personal note, we shared a role on stage in Ronnie Larson’s A Few Gay Men, me in San Francisco, Michael in LA. So I’m really looking forward to finally working with him!”
EXCELLENT INTERVIEW WITH HIM HERE.
Among his philanthropic accomplishments is the creation of Southland Theater Artists Goodwill Event (STAGE), which since 1984 has raised millions of dollars for HIV/AIDS services and charities throughout Southern California. Kearns lives in Los Angeles with his daughter Tia.
‘Priscilla, Queen Of the Desert’ To Close On Broadway After A Year.
http://www.boneaubryanbrown.com/
Is better than ‘Mamma Mia’.
The New York Times is reporting that PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT will play its final performance on Broadway on June 24, 2012 after 23 previews and 526 performances. The production had been averaging both 60.79% attendance and 41.59% of its gross potential in 2012, down from 70.41% attendance in 2011 and 53.18% of its potential. It’s unknown at this time if the production recouped its initial investment.
PRISCILLA opened on March 20, 2011 at The Palace Theatre (1564 Broadway) and stars Tony Award® nominee Will Swenson, Tony Award® nominee Tony Sheldon and Nick Adams as the trio of friends on a road trip who hop aboard a battered old bus searching for love and friendship in the middle of the Australian outback and end up finding more than they could ever have dreamed.
‘Priscilla’ Director Stephan Elliott Likes Cock – DUUUUH.
http://www.zimbio.com
Director Stephan Elliott came out of the closet for the first time publicly yesterday at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, ABC reports:
MEET – Leon Acord – Creator, Writer And Star Of ‘Old Dogs And New Tricks’ – THE WEB SERIES OF 2012.
therealstevegray.com
FIRSTLY, IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED ‘OLD DOGS AND NEW TRICKS’ YET, GODS YOU ARE NOT EVEN A SLOW ADAPTER, LET ALONE A DOUBLE ADAPTER. WATCH IT HERE RIGHT NOW, AND WILL MEET UP FOR THE INTERVIEW IN 5 MINUTES. IF YOU HAVE SEEN IT, FUCK, ISN’T IT GOOD?
JUST BRILLIANT. FUNNY, REAL, GAY, NOT PANDERING, THEY ARE NOT ALL AIR BRUSHED AND ‘WANNA BE HETEROS’, BUT ARE ALL REALLY WELL WRITTEN AND RESONATE ARE REAL MEN. AND DID I MENTION FUNNY AS A FIT? SO BEFORE THE FIRST SEASON STARTS ON JAN 8, I HAD TO TALK TO THE MIND BEHIND THE PROJECT, WHO I AM SURE WILL HAVE HATED THAT I CALLED HIM THE STAR, LEON ACORD…….
FIRSTLY, HOW ARE YOU DOING LEON? AND WHAT IS YOUR ‘BACKSTORY’?
I’m great!
I was born and grew up in Indiana, but escaped to California pretty quickly. I lived in San Francisco for about 20 years, working constantly as an actor, averaging about three plays a year and almost as many films. But when I moved to LA in 2007, the work really slowed down for me, and I thought, “Oh, god, I really have to take action here!” And that’s what prompted me to write the show.
HOW LONG HAS ‘OLD DOGS’ BEEN SIMMERING IN YOUR MIND?
I had always wanted to do a show about gay men who actually spoke and behaved like gay men, but I didn’t have a specific show in mind until I sat down and created these characters. Once I did, the show began to write itself very quickly.
Plus I’m a huge fan of traditional, three-camera sitcoms so it took a while to let that go and move into the future.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED THAT FINALLY MADE YOU WRITE THE PIECE?
By the summer of 2009, Los Angeles had really worn me down, and I went back home to Indiana for two months. It was to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, that maybe it was time to give up acting and have a real life. I found myself without internet access and cell phone reception, so I had a lot time on my hands. I started sketching out the characters and the whole show kind of exploded in my head, and I pounded out 12 episodes in two months. Before I knew it, I had created this series. I came back to Los Angeles with a renewed mission in life.
therealstevegray.com
IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT THE SHOW DEPICTS ‘REAL GAY’, RATHER THAN PANDERING TO A STRAIGHT AUDIENCE?
Well, the show is, in a way, a response to the way gay men have been portrayed on network television. They are homogenized, watered down. I hear the gay characters on Brothers and Sisters could be wicked, but for the most part, gay men are always heroic and long-suffering and a bit bland and tragic. If they are sexual, then they have to be funny. If, god forbid, they are ‘of a certain age,’ then they are noble beyond belief. And they almost always only exist in relation to the lead characters—the brother, the co-worker, the neighbor. I wanted to do a show where gay men were the leads, where they spoke like gay men, and found themselves in the type of situations that they would talk about with their gay friends. I wanted characters that made mistakes, who didn’t ‘act their age,’ who weren’t always noble, who had sex and didn’t have to pay a price or seek redemption
WATCH – Madonna Talks W.E. Being A ‘Masterpiece’, Nicki Minaj, MIA, the New Record.
towleroad.com
MASTERPIECE? HAHAHAHAAHA BLESS.
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