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BOSTON'S ENCORE THEATER COMPANY BRINGS PAUL RUDNICK'S GAY COMEDY OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS TO THE BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS STARTING JUNE 23
Founded in 2002, its mission is simple - to bring about personal awareness and growth through the demands and joys of acting, performing, and improving the aspects of the theater craft within an inclusive cast and production team. If the show features nudity - even better. Paul Rudnick's "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told," opening in Boston this week, and featuring stage-nudity, offers an alternate take on Old Testament lore and modern-day miracles with the world's first two couples - Adam and Steve and Jane and Mabel. Within the span of two hours, these two couples start civilization, survive a flood of Biblical proportions, witness the rise and fall of Egypt, and making their way through history, settle in 21st century New York. Under the direction of Christina Hanson, and mixing together pigs, go-go boys, and Santa Claus, the show "sort of challenges your beliefs," said Producer Jennifer Palange. "People just assume things that they learned as kids are true," she said. "Why should we believe that it was Adam and Eve? It could just have easily been Adam and Steve." (Of course there's the whole procreation issue, but that could very well be a topic for another, much racier play.) Though if it's skin you're after, "Fabulous" doesn't disappoint. "Oh, good, they're getting naked." This is Hanson during a recent evening rehearsal. After running through a scene in which Mabel gives birth - ruining a perfectly fine set of Calvin Klein periwinkle sheets - Hanson asks the actors to flashback to a flash flood. Before they board the boat and make nice with the animal pairs - some of which are also GLBT - there's the post-coital "I love you scene," as the out Albert Chan, who plays Adam, calls it. This is a play about big questions - asking them and struggling with the answers. Chan and Jason Fenton, who plays Steve, stripped down to flesh-colored barely-there briefs, discuss one of life's major questions - the importance and ramifications of love. Another big question - is there a God? - is perhaps answered by the presence of a stage manager, headset and promptbook at hand, who after cueing creation, is in control of everything. "I actually auditioned for it over at MIT three years ago," said Chan, "and ever since, I've kind of identified with the role of Adam. I've even used some of his monologues in my auditions." It is when Jane and Mabel stumble upon the two men romping in the Garden of Eden, and the couples somehow become tied together throughout history, that the play attempts to answer another big question - is there room in the world for both men and women. "I hope it starts a dialogue," said Chan. "It has some deep and interesting issues about religion and law, and while it doesn't give us any easy answers, it does get us thinking about things." It's possible that the company is turning over a new leaf (fig, perhaps?) with "Fabulous." In its first three years, it focused solely on big-league musicals - "Chicago," "Anything Goes," "A Chorus Line," but the decision to go with a straight show ("Not that there's much straight about it," said Paul Conroy, another of the show's producers), is an attempt to broaden its reach. "We're searching for a more permanent home right now," said Palange. The show's run is taking place at the Calderwood Pavilion in the South End, "because we really wanted to bring this play specifically to the South End, and this is the perfect space in which to have an intimate theater experience." "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told" opens June 23 and runs through July 1 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. Performances are at 8 p.m., with a 3 p.m. matinee Saturdays and Sunday. Tickets are $19.50. For more information, connect to www.encoreboston.org. Used with permission from In Newsweekly, New England's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender newspaper.
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In Newsweekly
One show a year, that's been the goal of the Boston-based Encore Theater Company, in part because that was all it could afford.