Mainers

First, good news from Carolyn Gage:

Maine Playwright Receives National Lesbian Writers' Grant

Portland playwright Carolyn Gage has just been named the recipient of a $3000 national grant from the Lynda Hart Memorial Fund of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.

Lynda Hart was a teacher and theorist in the field of Queer Studies who wrote about performance, sex and faith. Following her death from breast cancer on December 31st, 2000, the Lynda Hart Lesbian Memorial Grant was established to honor Hart's life and work and to enable other lesbians to further their writing. The fund is administered by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the largest lesbian organization in the world, a global foundation committed to feminist principles, and racial and economic justice and human rights.

Gage, a resident of Portland, is the author of five books and more than forty-eight plays. She has taught playwriting this year at USM's Continuing Education Program and at the Stonecoast Summer Writers' Conference. Portland productions of her work have been fiscally sponsored by Dragon Farm, a feminist organization based in Camden, and by Acorn Theatre's Cassandra Project and their Maine One-Act Play Festival.

"Grants like this are so critical for lesbian writers, and especially for us playwrights," says Gage. "There has been a reluctance on the part of traditional theatres to produce our work, and grants like this make it possible for us to fund productions of our own work. That final rewrite only happens when the playwright can see the play 'on its feet.'"

This fall, Hardy Girls Healthy Women and Greater Waterville's Communities for Children and Youth, non-profit organizations in Waterville, will be staging a production of Gage's play Ugly Ducklings, which was nominated for a "best new play of the year" award last year by the American Theatre Critics Association. A documentary film about the play will be marketed nationally along with an educational kit, in a campaign to confront homophobia and prevent lesbian and gay teen suicides.
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Second, Maine Won't Discriminate asked me to donate a Woman-Stirred Sonnet for their upcoming auction. I wrote For Every LGBT Mainer, then I asked Carolyn Gage to donate an autographed script of Ugly Ducklings to the auction. She said yes! And I don't live in Maine! Although I used to vacation there as a child.

For Every LGBT Mainer

The health inspector’s knocking on your door.
He wants to take a peek inside your bedroom.
It’s such a shame his wife finds him a bore.
Let’s try to save him from his doom and gloom.
Let’s raise a rainbow flag and celebrate
our happy state of LGBT health,
our lovely state that won’t discriminate,
our freedom from the harmful games of stealth.
Monsieur Inspector grumbles and looks grim.
“You can’t be gay if I’m not gay!” he orders.
“You can’t come out unless you let me in!
That’s how it is and how it stays for Mainers!”
But we will vote against this form of hate.
We will vote “No!” Maine won’t discriminate!


© 2005 Mary Meriam