Hit the Wall
Description
It’s the summer of ’69, and the death of music icon Judy Garland has emboldened her gay followers. A routine police raid on an underground Greenwich Village hotspot erupts into a full-scale riot, the impetus of the modern gay rights movement. That’s the well-known, oft-rehearsed myth of Stonewall, anyhow. Smash that myth against the vivid theatrical imagination of playwright Ike Holter, add a howling live rock ‘n’ roll band, and you get HIT THE WALL. Remixing this historic confrontation reveals ten unlikely revolutionaries, caught in the turmoil and fighting to claim “I was there.”
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Press Quotes
“The words ‘I was there,’ intoned repeatedly by the characters in HIT THE WALL, give Ike Holter’s play about the 1969 Stonewall riots the self-consecrated holiness of solemn testimony. But the crucial refrain is: ‘The reports of what happened next are not exactly clear.’ Given the extent to which urban legend and documented research of the events have blurred together over the decades, any dramatic consideration of Stonewall must embrace the mythology. So Mr Holter’s impassioned evocation of the sparks that ignited the gay rights movement … are strongest when stylized interpretation eclipses conventional realism … Watching the characters strut through a liberating dance that erupts into chaos and violence when police lights pierce the smoky haze gives the sense of being caught up in that momentous clash … Among the most fully realized figures are Carson, a black drag queen as fearful as he is imperious; Peg, a ‘stone butch’ lesbian ostracized by her family; and the ‘Snap Queen Team’ of Tano and Mika, throwing shade at passers-by from their perch on a Christopher Street stoop. The play is deeply affecting at times, notably when Carson is bitterly rebuked during a rare foray outside in daylight to pay his respects at the funeral of Judy Garland. Or when Peg’s uptight sister insensitively suggests how much better off she would be if she could just ‘hold it in.’ … [We] feel the unendurable pain of self-denial … What’s perhaps more significant is that Mr Holter is working in a vernacular that speaks sincerely and directly to today’s gay youth. His freewheeling play invites them to honor the earlier generation that broke the chains of marginalization and invisibility.” —David Rooney, The New York Times
Author
Ike HolterIke Holter is a resident playwright at Victory Gardens Theater and has been commissioned by The Kennedy Center, South Coast Rep and The Playwrights' Center. His work has been produced across the country from the Goodman and Steppenwolf in Chicago to the Lily Tomlin Center in LA to Primary Stages Off-Broadway. In 2017 he was awarded the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 7/22/2019 |
| Pages | 80 |
| ISBN | 9780881458459 |
Special Notes
The world premiere of HIT THE WALL was presented by The Inconvenience
and performed as part of GARAGE REP:
three productions presented in rotating repertory in The Garage at Steppenwolf, Chicago, IL.
Chris Chmelik, Artistic Director and Missi Davis, Executive Director
Originally produced Off Broadway by the Barrow Street Theatre
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com
