The cruelty of the classroom: "From White Plains"

Carpenter Square Theatre begins the New Year with the Oklahoma premiere of From White Plains, a compelling drama that should hold special interest for the LGBT community, as it explores the hot button topic of homophobic bullying. It will play this January in downtown Oklahoma City.

Playwright Michael Perlman finds his way into the subject, not by dramatizing a high school kid being bullied in the halls of high school, but rather with adults, and how that experience lives on in the perpetrator and the victims.

Perlman’s plot has two parallel stories that are connected by high school days in White Plains, New York, and before the play’s end, the two sets of characters finally intersect in surprising ways.

As the play opens, we meet Ethan and his buddy John watching the Academy Awards. Ethan is shocked to hear his own name during an acceptance speech. Dennis has received an Oscar for his autobiographical film called From White Plains about a bullied gay teen who committed suicide, and he names Ethan Rice as the bully.

At first Ethan tries to deny it, but soon comes clean, and has to deal with the consequences when the story goes viral. Next we meet Dennis, the Oscar recipient, and his boyfriend, Gregory, who have very different approaches to life. Gregory is quiet and self-effacing, while Dennis is emotional and full of activist anger.

When Ethan posts an online video apology, it spawns a social media war with Dennis who cannot bring himself to accept the apology as sincere. The topic exposes interesting issues for all four characters.

Ethan’s friendships, love life, and even his job are put in jeopardy. Dennis’ relationships change, also, particularly with his boyfriend Gregory as he begins to view Dennis’ need for revenge as a kind of bullying.

From White Plains doesn’t try to offer any pat answers to the problem of bullying or gay bashing, nor does it explain why some kids survive the cruelty of classmates and some don’t, but it does illustrate how deep the damage can go, but that there can be hope.

As the adult Dennis says to Ethan at one point, “It’s not because I’m holding onto it. It’s because it is holding onto me.” 

Another character iterates, “If we focus on the future, the past won’t matter as much.” Of course, the hard words are “as much.” Letting go will not erase what has happened, but it might be the first step in moving on.

Terry Veal directs the cast of From White Plains with Mark Fairchild as Dennis the vengeful screenwriter, Keegan Zimmerman as the outed bully Ethan, Matthew Barger as Ethan’s wary friend, and Clint Kubat as Dennis’ exasperated lover.

Tiffane Shorter is production stage manager; Ben Hall, set; Jay C. Schardt, lighting designer and Rhonda Clark, costumer.

Specific performance dates and times over four weeks are: 8 p.m. January 8-9 and January 15-16; 7:30 p.m. January 21, 8 p.m. January 22-23, and 2 p.m. Sunday, January 24; 7:30 p.m. January 28 and 8 p.m. January 29-30.

Regular adult tickets are $20 with $15 tickets available for seniors aged 62 and over, military, and groups of ten or more. Student and faculty tickets are only $5. Mention The Gayly and receive $5 off an adult ticket. Reservations are highly recommended for the intimate 90-seat theater, located at 800 W. Main in downtown Oklahoma City. Call (405) 232-6500 for tickets. Visit www.carpentersquare.com for more information.

Since its inception, Carpenter Square Theatre has been interested in producing plays of interest to the LGBT community. The theatre’s very first production was “The Rocky Horror Show” in 1984 and the theatre produced it several times thereafter. Other plays over the years have included “Torch Song Trilogy,” “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” “Psycho Beach Party” in which [female impersonator] Ginger Lamar performed, Charles Busch’s “The Lady in Question,” The Children’s Hour,” “Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story,” “The Little Dog Laughed,” and two productions of Del Shores’ “Sordid Lives” to name a few. Most recently, CST produced “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead,” which explored bullying and gay bashing through the eyes of the “Peanuts” characters as teenagers.

The Gayly - 1/07/2016 @ 2:03 p.m. CST