Tales of the City

Two years after Princess Bitch Productions staged a night of five short plays under the title Quintet, Bill Nelson and Robin Delaloye’s company has been renamed and is back in business. As Burning Moon Productions, the pair will stage Tales From Gaydom, another quintet of shows, this time all with gay themes.

“People are definitely more aware of gay culture,” says Nelson, who wrote the plays. “Being gay is still hip. But as mainstream society soaks up [aspects] of gay culture, will it lose its cohesion with more acceptance? That would be sad.”

Nelson, a professional graphic designer, wrote one of the pieces in Quintet. In the two years since, he says, he’s sharpened his writing to the point where “my skills are catching up with my dreams. I think there’s a niche and need out there for gay theater. And I kind of wrote these pieces considering my friends’ [acting] talents. I looked at what they could do and wrote around that.”

On the itinerary are four comedic playlets with titles that sound like Matthew Perry movies — Clearing the Sinuses, Aloha Means Goodbye, Three to Tango, and Sleepwalking in Suburbia — and a minimusical Nelson calls Bob Makes a Splash, subtitled A Musical Extravaganza Starring Me, Bob. The stories mostly explore the issue of coming out because, as Nelson says, “Coming out is still a big thing.”

All of the characters in Tales From Gaydom are gay men, and Nelson says most of the actors are gay. One is not. Sam Gershman, who has been doing community theater since 1993, plays a father in one of the scenes. As a heterosexual, he says, it is important for him to be involved in the project.

“Gays get a bad rap, and these skits point out many misconceptions,” Gershman says. “I think theater should teach and illuminate as well as entertain, and I’m glad to be involved with something that has some social relevance.”