Just Mingling: A Queer Theatrical Salon
It’s an exciting time to be a queer history nerd.
Not only are books on the subject practically growing on trees, but we’re delving into lesser-known areas too. It’s not all Oscar Wilde and Stonewall — It’s that 17th-century Spanish nun-turned-lesbian pirate; It’s the real extent of homosexuality in the Nazi movement; It’s what the slang term “trapeze artist” meant to American lesbians in the 1930s.
And for Ottawa playwrights Sarah Waisvisz, Lawrence Aronovitch and Margo MacDonald — who, together, make up the 321 Writing Collective — it’s not just a field of study, but a playground. It’s something to be not only reconstructed, but at times re-imagined.
Suddenly you have the story behind this or that event. Or the meetings and conversations that never took place, but maybe could have. Or should have. And now that they have — at least up there, on the stage — what do we learn from them and about ourselves? Is there insight to be gained? Are there laughs to be had?
At the upcoming Just Mingling: A Queer Theatrical Salon, each of the three playwrights will present a new short play they’ve written based on lesser-known historical gay or lesbian artists, or lesser-known details in the lives of better-known figures. And at times with some re-imagining or wishful thinking thrown into the mix. Each play is set between the 1920s and 1960s.