A reading of playwright Jordan Seavey’s new work The Truth Will Out will be presented as part of the lineup at this year’s Playfest! The Harriet Lake Festival of New Plays, in Orlando. The 10-day annual theatre event offers readings, workshops, panel discussions and productions of new plays at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center.
The play, a 2009 semi finalist for both the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the National Playwrights conference, is the only play at this year’s festival that comes with a content warning for graphic language and graphic and explicit sexual situations. Festival organizers will not allow anyone under 18 to attend the reading without parental consent.
The Truth Will Out brings us into the world of Whitamore Walter, a popular and closeted national news anchor who finds himself confronted by the young killer of Ronald Principe, an African American gay teenage boy. The alleged killer has managed to lock himself in an office at the juvenile detention center and calls in to Whitamore’s nightly show on the NNN News Network threatening to kill himself if the famous newsman does not reveal that he is indeed a homosexual.
Walter’s life is turned upside down as he struggles to make the right decision that will keep everyone in his life happy including his boss, an old flame and the hunky coworker who has more than just Whitamore’s attention. Also thrown into the mix are Edward R. Murrow, Katherine the Great, Tina Turner, Ellen DeGeneres, and Walter’s own disapproving high society mother.
While there is no denying the similarities between Whitamore and Ronald and Anderson Cooper and Lawrence King, Seavey carefully points out that his story is merely inspired by theories regarding Cooper’s sexuality and not specifically about CNN’s golden boy, who many in the gay community consider to be ‘half out.’
“I sort of was inspired by the speculation about a real life person and I did borrow certain very specific details about his life, but I think it’s also clear in the play that I really riff on them and go away from reality,” Seavey explains. “Especially in terms of the actual storyline of what Whitamore Walter goes through. It’s sort of all just made up.”
Seavey also admits to finding inspiration after watching a segment from Cooper’s show about the King murder where he thought that the host and his guest, a child psychologist, were skirting around some of the bigger issues like homophobia by making it a very general bullying issue.
“There is a difference between bullying and bringing a gun to school and shooting someone in the head twice—I think pretending that they are one and the same or not addressing the specifics of exactly what was going on seemed really dangerous to me,” Seavey says. “I feel like that is sort of where the play came from, an effort to explore my version of the true story of what happened between those boys.”
An openly gay man himself, Seavey has some really strong feelings regarding LGBT hate crimes. He was both fascinated and appalled by the details of the Lawrence King story because it happened around Valentine’s Day at a school and that the kids involved were both so young. It is a story that Seavey thinks needs to be told now while the incident is still somewhat fresh in a lot of minds.
“I feel like it’s a play that’s about right now and I don’t really know that it will make a lot of sense to do this play in three or four or five years much less 10,” Seavey explains. “In a way I do hope that if it gets done soon it’ll keep getting done elsewhere. I feel like an initial production makes sense to happen soon because the further we distance ourselves time-wise from the crime. it becomes a problem. There’s every reason to talk about it now.”
While his play makes a case for everyone who needs to come out to come out, at the same time Seavey understands that it is a very personal decision and one that should not be forced on somebody.
“My take on how I tried to portray Whitamore is as someone who is torn about his career and holds a lot of real fear,” Seavey says. “I do think, especially for a celebrity, the decision to come out has to be theirs and it is a private and personal matter. They should all come out, which I think is what the play says, but I think that whether or not they do or how they do it or when they do it is legitimately private and personal.”
The play’s journey from submission to acceptance into Playfest has been guided by the festival’s Associate Director of Playfest and New Play Development, David Lee, who is also taking on the role of Whitamore in the readings. The Truth Will Out was one of more than 300 plays that were submitted for consideration to the festival, but Lee saw the importance of Seavey’s work right from the start.
“I think this is the strongest lineup of 10 projects we have ever had.” Lee says. “And The Truth Will Out is by far the most exciting piece I have read in the four years I have worked for Playfest.”
Seavey is excited about The Truth Will Out’s acceptance into Playfest and plans on coming down from New York to attend one of the readings. He is also looking forward to the discussions that can come as a result of provocative theatre.
“Theatre has to entertain but it also has to provoke and make you feel things and make you think about things,” Seavey explains. “I definitely am in the camp of as long as we are talking and feeling then arguing is good and disagreeing is ok as long as we are creating a dialogue and a discussion.”
Seavey also hopes that audiences will find some pure entertainment value in his play despite the heavy themes that run throughout.
“To some extent I hope the play is kind of funny and I think it has a fair amount of humor in it despite the weighty subject matter,” Seavey says. “I try to make theatre that makes you think but also is entertaining. Hopefully what people get when they see a play like this is a good time as well as an emotional time.”
What: The Truth Will Out, directed by John DiDonna
When: Sunday., April 4, 2010 at 5 p.m. and Thursday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Playfest 2010
inside The Mandell Theatre
Tickets: OrlandoShakes.org
