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Show I IN THE B SECTION Calendar B-2 Classifieds B-12 Crossword B-4 Restaurant Guide B-6 Scene & Heard B-5 Sports B-7 Field Notes B-7 Park Record www.newschoice.com SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1998 SCENE EDITOR Melissa O'Brien 649-9014 ext 104 erne 3 Trie Gimmick: theater for the sake of theater MELISSA O'BRIENfiARK RECORD Glenn Close (left) and Dael Orlandersmith. Sundance Theatre Lab gives artists a 'safe' place to create their work by Melissa O'Brien OF THE RECORD STAFF In 1981, Robert Redford forever changed the opportunities available to independent filmmakers by taking over creative direction of the U.S. Independent Film Festival. But, in creating cre-ating the Sundance Film Festival, Redford has not only provided a venue for independent filmmakers to show their work, but a safe place for artists of almost all visual-art disciplines to practice and perform their craft. "What tends to get lost during the next two weeks is the larger ideal of the Sundance Institute, that goes way beyond the Film Festival. The point of the Institute is to support artists. We have built a community to support all forms of the arts theatre, visual artists, and dancers. The Film Festival is just a part of the1 overall plan," said Redford at a press conference on Saturday, Jan. 17. The Sundance Theatre Lab, showcased show-cased for the first time at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, is one small, but growing, part of this plan. "The Lab helps artists find a voice for their work. We provide a safe place for theater artists, away from the pressure pres-sure of production," said Crelly C. Holt, production manager of the Sundance Theatre Lab. For over 10 years, the Sundance Playwrights Laboratory provided this 'safe' environment for new play development. devel-opment. The Lab helped to launch such award-winning and widely acclaimed works as Robert Schenkkan's The Kentucky Cycle, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers' Boy and Tony Kushner's Angels in America. In 1997, organizer's of the Playwright's Lab changed the format of the project to include several different disciplines of the theatre directors, choreographers, performers, adaptors and composers. According to Holt, the changes to the newly-renamed Sundance Theatre Lab have resulted in artistic growth and national recognition for the Lab and gave birth to a slate of innovative theatrical projects. Last summer, Holt, producing director direc-tor Philip Himberg and general manager manag-er Beth Nathanson accepted 8 -10 pro- Please see Glenn Close, B-4 Filmmaker addresses plight of homosexuals Controversy at East High School depicted in Dupre's Out of the Past by Melissa O'Brien OF THE RECORD STAFF In 1996, Kelli Peterson founded a Gay-Straight Gay-Straight Alliance at East High School in Salt Lake City. Her efforts provoked a state-wide backlash, resulting ultimately in the banishment of all non-curriculum related clubs within the Salt Lake City School District. Her story is retold in Out of the Past, part of the Sundance Film festival fes-tival documentary competition, in which director Jeff Dupre illustrates the history of gays and lesbians in America, highlighting high-lighting some of the more universal aspects of their experience. Dupre became aware of Peterson and the struggle she was experiencing at East High as he was working with Michelle Ferrari and Kevin Jennings on a documentary docu-mentary based on a slide show Jennings had developed about gays and lesbians in American history. "We realized that Kelli's story could serve as a thread linking link-ing the historical biographies together. More importantly, if we could relate her story to the biographies, it would underscore under-score the relevance of history not just to Kelli's life, but also to the lives of our intended audience, high school students," Dupre said. Through interviews with Peterson and her friends who started the Gay-Straight Alliance, Dupre put his historical documentary docu-mentary current perspective. News clips from Salt Lake City television stations and national stories about East High by Tom Brokaw and Bryant Gumble, supplied sup-plied the film with additional validity. "I have this shot of Kelli and a group of her friends on the front lawn of the school, protesting just so they can have a safe place to meet. I couldn't believe the school district could find these kids any kind of threat," Dupre said. He also enlisted the support of several distinguished scholars who discuss these often unknown histories and the common threads they share with many current situ ations. Those interviewed include, George Chauncey, historian and author of Gay New York, John D'Emilio, historian and author of Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, Lillian Faderman, historian and author of Surpassing the Love of Men and Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, Barbara Gittings, lesbian activist, Reverend Peter Gomes and John Lewis, congressman from Georgia and an architect archi-tect of the Civil Rights Movement. Dupre hopes the positive attention Out of the Past received at the Film Festival will have a trickle down effect on teachers, teach-ers, and ultimately, students. "I want people to realize and see how, throughout history, all minority groups have been pushed to the side in one way or another," Dupre said. The film has quite a bit of personal relevancy rel-evancy for Dupre r he grew up in Kentucky and went through adolescence about the time Rock Hudson came out and, shortly thereafter, died of AIDS. "It was a very dark time. I was afraid that if I came out I would die soon after," he said. Dupre explained how he thinks even though society has come a long way in accepting the gay and lesbian population, there still exists large pockets of America where a gay man cannot be comfortable living. Because of this societal paradigm, soon after he graduated from high school, Dupre moved to New York City. He expressed his admiration for Peterson's strength from her response when he asked her when she planned on moving to either of the Coasts. "She said, 'Why should I move when there's so much work to be done here.' It made me feel good that there are people out there like her galvanizing our community," commu-nity," Dupre said. According to the Salt Lake Board of Education Equal Access Act, the school district "does not allow or permit student groups or student organizations which are not directly related to curriculum to organize orga-nize or meet on school property." Students are allowed, however, to rent rooms at a cost of $6 per hour, but are Please see Out of the Past, B-6 : I ' i i I NT It 7 V- .Issi J3'T-5' ' . J f I & f -TH.AIfir fed i ' Is a f i n ; ai lis si I -'; i Sr I I . .; :) i , ;.; I I m , - t I ?a..p ' Unit iuxfm n I ikid 0) ten, ST- " -, o, MELISSA O'BRIENPARK RECORD Jeff Dupre, director of Out of the Past, stands in front of the Shadow Ridge Resort Hotel and Conference Center, headquarters of the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. a Park City Writes A Book project Old Woman by Mark Menlove RECORD GUEST WRITER Editor's Note: The 1997 version of Park City Writes, The Chaos Anthology, is an annual collaborative creative writing project published pub-lished in The Park Record featuring the work of Park City residents. I might not have noticed her except for the hint of dull grey metal that traced the edge of my vision. She had the quality that grows on those accustomed to back alleys and shadowed corners of making herself Oat against the background, and when I looked at her straight on there was no sign of the metal. Just an old woman standing a few paces up the Fifth Street stairs, occupied, occu-pied, it seemed, in her own world. Embarrassed at being caught in a gawky intrusion, I was about to look away and continue my walk up Main Street but something some-thing in her gaze held me. She smiled, with just one corner of her mouth, and then turned away. When she moved it was with a grace and quickness at odds with her bent-over bent-over stature. It was then that I saw the metal that had first caught my attention. She raised a large iron crowbar and brought it down forcefully between two slats on the stairs. The crowbar was taller than she was and I wondered how she had concealed it from my view only a moment before. "Did you lose something?" I asked as I took a tentative step up the stairs toward her. Though I pass by these stairs on a regular regu-lar basis, I hadnt noticed until my foot hit the first step that the stairs had been rebuilt. She responded in a voice just soft enough that I couldnt make out the words, then lifted the crowbar again. "I'll help you look." I took another step toward her. She laughed as she brought the crowbar down, wedging it tightly between the slats. From the next stair up she leaned against the bar, trying to gain leverage that her small frame simply didnt offer. "Here," she waived me over, "grab a hold, there's not much time." "Tune?" I took another step forward. She rolled her eyes and waived me toward her again. "For the seam, the opening." open-ing." As she spoke, a last warm streak of sunlight bounced colors off the opposite building that were altogether different than just a moment before. "What ..." I began to formulate a question ques-tion but instead moved forward, pulled by her urgency, and reached for the crowbar. With my weight against the bar from below and her pushing from the stair above, the slat began to give. The large nails groaned but the splinters laughed as the wood pulled away from itself leaving a dark crease between the stairs. I looked around, uneasy with the fact that I had just participated in what was clearly an act of vandalism. Dropping to my knees I peered into the dark opening between the stairs. "What did you lose? A ring or something?" some-thing?" I looked up at the old woman but she ignored my question. She stood above the broken stair, head tilted back, and took a deep breath. As she exhaled she looked down at me and smiled, this time with her whole face. "Oh my, oh yes, that's better." "But, what did you lose?" 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