Cover Story
Gay play 'Sombody Else's Life' on stage this weekend at IAO
by John Roberts
Staff Writer
jroberts@HNokc.com
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Jerry Rabushka is living somebody else's life, on stage at least.
The playwright and actor, a native of St. Louis, will bring his one-man show "Somebody Else's Life" to the Oklahoma City stage this weekend with two 8 p.m. performances tomorrow and Saturday at the IAO Gallery.
Tickets are $10, $5 for students and can be purchased in advance or at the door by calling 232-6060.
Rabushka, who has written more than 80 plays and scripts, founded Ragged Blade Productions in St. Louis in 1996. This production premiered in Tulsa last year and has had successful runs in New York and California as well as numerous play festivals across the country.
"I hadn't really been on stage in 20 years, but we (Ragged Blade Productions) started running out of people to fill roles, so I just stepped in," said Rabushka. "The funny thing about being on stage is you start doing it, and you just want to do more. I come from a writer's angle, but I love performing."
"Somebody Else's Life" is set in Tulsa and features three short vignettes focusing on different aspects of modern gay life. According to Rabushka, the first section explores dating a guy and losing your sense of self in the process.
"The first part makes fun of the wannabe cowboys, and that part of the play is sort of autobiographical," he said. "I dated this guy in the early '90s who was a homophobic homosexual, so everything we did we had to do so we wouldn't 'look gay'. He lived his whole life by these rules, and he made me live that way, too, and although it gave me a little bit of a complex, he makes really good fodder for a play about people who are neurotic."
The remaining two vignettes are taken from experiences, both real and hypothetical, of Rabushka's friends. One section focuses on the sanctity of marriage; the other on young, gay love.
"I keep hearing people talk about protecting the sanctity of marriage, and I just couldn't figure out how gay marriage was going to ruin straight marriages," he said. "So I wrote a little piece that pretends that it does. Someone else being marriage shouldn't have anything to do with other marriages. But so many people play that card all the time."
Although the production is set in the Sooner State and is filled with references that only Okies will appreciate, he said that the message of the play resonates no matter where it is performed.
"I have discovered that audiences in New York and California, or places where it really is overwhelmingly 'OK' to be gay, tend to forget what it's like in other parts of the country like the Southwest and the Midwest. There is real prejudice out here, and this is one way to bring awareness to that," he said.
Although Rabushka is a seasoned theater veteran, he said it is still very difficult to prepare for the challenges of a one-man show.
"The first thing you think is 'what the hell am I doing.' At least when there are other people on stage if you forget a line there are people that can kind of guide you along," he said. "In a one-man show it's just you up there. It's fun, but it is a little tiring. You have to build up stamina."
Although the play is written from a gay perspective by a gay man, Rabushka said that the themes in the piece are universal.
"I am gay so I have to have an agenda, but I really want people to look at kids in high school and how when we don't protect the kids who get picked on they may act out," he said. "Straight people sometimes come away from the play saying that 'they are just like we are,' which humanizes us all."
