INTERVIEW: ‘Electricity’ tracks journey from Stonewall to today
Photo: Electricity stars Terry Ray and Mel England, and Ray also wrote the show. Photo courtesy of Mike Pingel / Provided by Kampfire PR with permission.
Terry Ray’s play Electricity charts the emotional and personal journey of two gay men from the time of the Stonewall riots, 50 years ago, all the way to the present day. The show will have two special performances June 27 and 29, which is timed perfectly with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and World Pride Month in New York City.
Ray also stars in the piece, alongside Mel England. They are both directed by Steve Rosenbaum, and performances take place at the Revelation Gallery at St. John’s in the Village Church in Downtown Manhattan.
In the play, two young men meet up in high school and begin a relationship, and they continue that relationship each time their high school hosts a reunion. Throughout the years they find that their relationship evolves as does the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community around them.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Ray about the production and his inspiration for writing the play. He is the writer and co-star of the film Gaydar. His other film and TV projects include The Cost of Living, From Here on Out and Modd Couples. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What inspired you to put pen to paper and create Electricity?
I had been writing TV and film scripts for years, but I love theater and had been secretly longing to write a play with some real meat on its bones. I had two images in my head as jumping off points, and finally I decided — maybe I should combine them. I wanted to write about that feeling that we can all relate to when you’re seriously attracted to someone, so much so that you can feel a tingle, an ‘electricity’ coming from their body when you get close.
The other story I was interested in was the journey that I, and nearly every gay person has taken, from believing there is something wrong with you for being gay to the point where you demand equity, which for so many of us took years. Electricity takes us on that journey by the way Brad and Gary, two men who can’t hide the ‘electricity’ between them.
How would you describe the story for someone looking to check out the New York performances?
For this very important week of Pride, I’m telling people that Electricity celebrates Stonewall by illustrating how far we’ve come in the 50 years since in a story that spans nearly that same period of time. Brad and Gary meet in 1969, the year of Stonewall, as high school freshmen. The play starts in 1983 after their 10th high school reunion.
Gary is so closeted he has made up a wife who ‘couldn’t make it’ to the reunion, and Brad, high from booze and pills, is as brazenly out as he can be. The unlikely pair decide to share a hotel room and experience an electricity that brings them back to that some room after each reunion for the next 30 years. You see how the world changes by how they change. It’s funny and sexy and shockingly relatable.
What’s it like to serve as both playwright and actor? Is it difficult?
I’ve been an actor all my life. I’ve been a writer for 20 years, and since I’m ‘slightly older’ than 20 — acting is the winner in the longevity department. I don’t find it too difficult to do both because for the most part I put the jobs in the separate compartments.
Writing the play, of course, is the beginning. There’s a point where that is mostly done, which is before the acting begins. Though, of course, since I’m living the play every night, I might come up with something I want to tweak. I really enjoy being the one that gets to decide that that’s OK.
Once I start working on the play as an actor though, I really sort of don’t think that much about the fact that I wrote it. I’m just busy trying to live the story. But when starting the process the one thing that I really make sure of is that the director isn’t afraid to nail me as an actor if I need it.
Steven Rosenbaum directed Electricity. He’s a good friend and has directed me several times in both things I wrote and things I didn’t. I knew he would be fearless in directing me. During rehearsals when he was talking to me as an actor, he called me ‘Terry;’ if he wanted to discuss something with the playwright it was ‘Mr. Ray.’ That was his way of letting me know which hat to wear.
This month, with the celebration of World Pride and the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, there is a lot of important programming taking place, especially in New York City. How important a month is this, and are you excited to have Electricity be part of all these cultural offerings?
It’s hard for me to describe how thrilled and honored I am to have Electricity’s first public performances in New York be the week of not only Gay Pride and World Pride but even more importantly, the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. I’m not good with sports terminology, but this is one jamming hot trifecta! As I mentioned, the story I wanted to tell with Electricity is the journey we’ve taken as part of the LGBTQ+ community, and what could illustrate that better than celebrating a half century since the spark of the resistance that is Stonewall. We’re doing the play in the Village. We are part of the party. Part of the history. I’m over the moon to be here doing this play in this moment in this place.
When did you first fall in love with theater and film, and realize you wanted to pursue it professionally?
The honest answer is I really can’t remember not being love with it. I think I was 3 years old when it all hit me. We watched reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Then one day I got to see Mary Poppins, and I recognized that Bert the Chimney Sweep was Dick Van Dyke from television. I told my mom that was the same person, and she said, ‘Yes, he was pretending.’ I remember my head kind of exploding and thinking, that’s a thing?! You can do that?! Ever since, I wanted to be an actor.
But at the same time, I always made up stories and acted them out, so it eventually occurred to me, hey, you’re a writer, too, and it’s OK to do both. I never saw a play until I was in one. No one in my family was in entertainment, and I was from a small town in Ohio. But somehow it was just in my bones and part of my DNA.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Electricity, written by and starring Terry Ray, will play June 27 and 29 at the Revelation Gallery at St. John’s in the Village Church in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
