The cast of ‘It Gets Better’ performs show on the fourth day of its residency in Athens
“It Gets Better” brought laughs and tears to the audience at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.
The “It Gets Better” cast performed on Thursday evening, four days into a residency that has taken the cast into the community and the classrooms of Athens.
The show has musical aspects woven through real stories of individuals who have shared their stories with the show and project. The show, stemmed from the It Gets Better Project of 2010, started in 2012 with members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and attempted to bring light to the issues that the online-sharing project couldn’t do just from the web.
The cast portrayed stories of LGBT individuals all over the spectrum at different points of their lives and their family members. A good portion of the performance also tackled how parents react to their children coming out.
Following the performance, the cast participated in a Q&A with the audience members that wanted to stick around. But that wasn’t the end of the interaction. The cast came into the audience as lines of people formed to talk to them one-on-one. This is something Liesel Reinhart, writer and director, said just comes with the job.
“Being here a whole week even though we just do one show is about having the time to talk to people to tell the stories and share our stories,” Reinhart said. “...I cast a group of people who are both performers (and) singers but they also each have a story to share…I cast people who are listeners so we spend a lot of time just hearing.”
One cast member, Jason Currie, portrayed a trans man, Jay, and said the experience was eye-opening to the issues surrounding trans individuals.
“(Being a part of the show) made me a lot more aware of the trans community,” Currie said during the Q&A. “And as a gay man, it’s part of the LGBTQIA community that gets sort of secluded … it really made me have a huge eye-opening awareness on how much work needs to be done in the area of trans education — just people understanding and knowing what it means to be trans and what different forms of gender variation can mean.”
The show featured music like a rendition of “Freakum Dress” by Beyonće that coincided with a story of a mother trying to accept her son for dressing up and later in life, dressing in drag. The show culminated in residents of the Athens and Ohio University choirs coming together to sing “More Friends Than You Know” written for the show by Grammy winner Merv Warren and Tony winner Jeff Marx.
Joseph Metcalf, an Athens high school student, performed as part of the choir and enjoyed the experience, as a well as hearing a story that focused on discomfort about having a higher voice. Metcalf said it was encouraging to hear, having had anxieties about his own voice throughout his life.
Andrew Holzaepfel, senior associate director of student activities for the Campus Involvement Center, said he wasn’t sure about the exact number of the tickets sold but about 950 to 1,000 purchased or obtained a ticket, as the show was free for OU students.
Holzaepfel brought his family and kids to the show.
“My son when I brought home the brochure about a year ago said ‘I want to see this show,’” Holzaepfel said. “It was great to bring them and let them experience and we’ll digest it now and probably have questions tomorrow and we’ll talk about it. It’s a great starting point.”
Athens resident Amy Coombs said the show was a good reality check and really enjoyed the community choir.
“I really appreciate the message of hope,” Coombs said. “Sometimes I need to be reminded that these stories are still current. ...It’s a good reminder in a lot of ways.”
The cast will be hosting a party and cabaret starting at 7 p.m. on Friday at MemAud. Billy Thompson, pianist for the performance, will play songs for participants to sing karaoke with and attendees will hang out and enjoy refreshments with the cast.
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