A one-act play that will have its Loudoun premiere next weekend has a timely subject: rumors floating around a high school about sexuality.
The play, "The Wrestling Season," by Laurie Brooks, will be presented by Arlington Outreach at Unitarian Universalists of Sterling March 5. While efforts to bring the play to Loudoun have been underway for a while, the recent brouhaha over a student-written play at Stone Bridge High School makes "The Wrestling Season" all the more poignant.
Earlier this month, Stone Bridge hosted its student-directed one-act plays, "Postcards from Paradise." One of the plays, "Offsides" by Sabrina Audrey Jess, focused on a football player who discovers that he may be gay. In a pivotal scene, the football player and another male student appear to kiss as the lights go out.
Within hours, e-mails and phone calls were being fired off all over the county. Del. Richard Black (R-32) joined the fray, urging his constituents not to allow their tax dollars to go to promoting "homosexual activities in our schools."
But there was a large misunderstanding: in the various e-mails and letters from Black and Supervisors Mick Staton (R-Sugarland Run) and Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling), there was a claim that not only did the two students actually kiss, one turned to address the crowd immediately following.
This was not true. None of the complaining officials had actually attended the play. In "Offsides," the students lean towards each other halfway into the play as if to kiss and the lights go down; the football player doesn't address the audience until the finale.
IT'S A PERFECT example of how rumors can warp meaning. That's the theme of "The Wrestling Season," which is the story of four high-school boys competing for two slots on the wrestling team. Two of the boys start a rumor that the other two are gay, and the action snowballs from there.
Dave McLellin, who plays one of the wrestlers accused of being gay, actually participated on the wrestling team in high school. Since he was in performing arts as well, other students often thought he was gay.
"Sexuality in general wasn't a factor in my life," McLellin said. "It was the label that was placed on me."
"There's a lot of labeling going on in the play," said Vincent Worthington, producer and artistic director. "It's not just about being gay. It's about 'slut,' 'jock,' 'cheerleader,' all the stereotypes that you think of in a school."
In the end, though, the students portrayed prove themselves to be more than just a label.
"Laurie Brooks portrays them all with a lot more depth than the stereotypes she bases them on," said Heather Haney, who plays a girl who helps spread the rumors.
"AFTER THE whole thing with the Stone Bridge play broke, we had to bring [the play] here," said David Weintraub, president of Equality Loudoun, which is sponsoring the play's presentation.
Eventually, the goal is to take the play into high schools. Students are, after all, its target audience. Worthington, a teacher, knows too well how teenagers can treat each other.
"Teenagers need to be more aware of the power they have over each other," he said.
When & Where
"The Wrestling Season" will make its Loudoun County premiere at Unitarian Universalists of Sterling, located at 22135 Davis Drive, at 7:30 p.m., March 5. Admission is free.