by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Gay is the norm in Heartsville, USA.
The captain of the chess team is the coolest guy at school, and the kids on the football team can't seem to fit in.
In the pop-rock off-Broadway musical "Zanna, Don't!," eight UNM musical theater students portray Heartsville High School students who decide to put on a controversial performance. The play opens Friday at Rodey Theatre.
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"So, they do a musical about the controversy of heterosexuals in the military," director Kathleen Clawson said. "In this high school, there's a magical matchmaker named Zanna who helps people find their perfect mate. And while the kids are rehearsing this musical - the title is "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" - the male and female leads realize they're attracted to each other."
They are ostracized by their friends and the community, so they turn to Zanna, who casts a spell to make the world safe for
heterosexuals.
"The original impetus came when I was listening to a country-western love song," playwright Tim Acito said. "I thought to myself 'Oh, wouldn't this be wonderful to hear a beautiful country love song sung from one guy to another, but without any camp or joke involved?' And then that just got me thinking about pop music in general and how basically all pop music throughout the history of time has been written in a heterosexual context and how many people that leaves out."
Acito was accepted into Yale's playwrighting master's program in 1999 without any professional writing experience.
"To apply, you have to send them a play, so I basically wrote a play with the hope of getting in and somehow fooled them into letting me in," he said. "I mean, I had studied a lot of literature throughout my life and at least went out to see theater, but I had never officially taken writing classes."
The play was voted Best Off-Broadway Musical by Broadway.com readers in 2003.
"It takes all the conventions of high school musicals or 'Grease' and turns it completely upside down with all gay characters," said Nathan Simpson, who plays four characters in the play. "And the songs are all so upbeat and happy that you can't help but smile. So, I think that's definitely something different you don't see very often."
Acito will teach three workshops for free in the UNM dance and theater departments while he's here.
"Tim is an especially good person for us to have on campus as a guest artist because of his skill set," Clawson said. "In our department, we have a very strong modern-dance, acting and dramatic-writing program. And Tim is all three of those things. He was trained as a modern dancer, graduated from the MFA playwrighting program at Yale and has worked professionally as a singer and dancer."
Acito will attend the opening performance. Also, the play's original music director, David Geist, will be conducting the band for this weekend's performances.
"Zanna, Don't!"
Rodey Theater in Popejoy Hall
Through Dec. 2
Friday-Saturday
7:30 p.m.
Sunday
2 p.m.
$20 general, $15 faculty and seniors, $10 staff and students
