Everything Nac

Part of the mission of the School of Theatre at Stephen F. Austin State University is to promote diversity in the study of the arts. Presenting plays with characters and themes that reflect diversity in race, culture and beliefs is one avenue to achieving that goal.

School of Theatre Director Cleo House Jr. believes it’s important for theatre arts majors, and audiences alike, to see themselves represented on the stages of the SFA campus. That’s one of the reasons House selected Robert O’Hara’s play “Bootycandy” for this year’s Mainstage Series at SFA. The play highlights an underrepresented element of theatre: the gay black man. Among the lessons House hopes his students learn in presenting the play is to recognize ethnic inequalities within the arts and to work toward improving those disparities.

“Believe it or not, theatre tends to be very white and very straight – particularly what is shown on stage,” House said. “I’m gay and black, so I know the importance of seeing yourself represented on stage, on TV and in film.

“‘Bootycandy’ is a comedy, but it is also a play that presents issues from the point of view of a particular gay black man, in this particular story,” House said. “To my knowledge, in all of our years at SFA, we’ve never done a play from this perspective. I emphasize ‘particular’ because the issues or events are in no way all-encompassing.”

The play will be presented at 7:30 nightly Tuesday through Saturday, Oct. 12 through 16, in Kennedy Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Based on the author’s own experiences, “Bootycandy” is a satiric portrait of American life told through the lens of Sutter, a gay black man on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms and even nursing homes. O’Hara weaves together scenes, sermons, sketches and daring meta-theatrics to create a kaleidoscopic portrayal of growing up gay and black.

“The play also looks at a black family and how each person deals with a family member who is so different from the rest of them,” House said. “Our approach to this play is really to relay all of the ‘funny’ that’s there in the script and to tell the story honestly. These are real people, and their circumstances for the most part are not that extraordinary. But for them, it’s everything.”

Containing strong language and mature content that involves discussions of sexuality, “Bootycandy” is a comedy that looks at attitudes towards gays in black culture.

“It’s definitely more on the ‘rated R’ side of things, but other than that, this play is for anyone who is curious about how other people live and their experiences,” House said. “The play is not a call to action. It is not trying to tell you how to behave. It’s not ‘preachy,’ but it has a lot to say. It has a lot to reveal about how these particular people live, and it doesn’t shy away from that which isn’t pretty or that which is dark.

“It may contain moments that some may find funny, but another person might find offensive,” he added. “There’s a line in the play that I’m going to paraphrase that says, ‘If it is hard for the author to write it, why should it be easy for the audience to digest it?’ For me, this really says it all, because the playwright has gone through great pains to discuss trauma and how that trauma may or may not cause a person to traumatize another. The old adage of ‘hurt people hurt people’ comes to mind.”

When asked if all directors have an agenda when they select a play to perform, House gave a definite “yes.”

“It may or may not be a political agenda, but there has to be something you want to say,” he said. “Any art we create should be personal to us. Noted feminist Carol Hanisch wrote, ‘The personal is political.’ We should see, hear and seek to understand. No one group is a monolith, no matter how much they may appear to be at first. Humans can be kind and cruel, victim and perpetrator.”

House expects audience members to leave a performance of “Bootycandy” with some questions and “a conversation on their lips.” But he also hopes “they can have some great laughs!”

“Bootycandy” contains mature themes and language that may be triggering for some viewers.

General ticket prices are: $15, adult; $10, senior (62+); $7.50, SFA faculty/staff; $7.50, youth; $5, student. Purchase tickets at boxoffice.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407. For questions about the play, contact the School of Theatre at (936) 468-4003.

Moving operations will begin Wednesday, Oct. 6, for the 36-ton Shay locomotive located outside Stephen F. Austin State University’s Forestry Building. Following its transport to Harbor Springs, Michigan, the Harbor Springs Area Historical Society and its partners will conduct much-needed renovations and display the locomotive where it will introduce visitors to the contributions of Ephraim Shay, inventor of the Shay locomotive and longtime Harbor Springs resident.

Built in October 1907 by the Lima Locomotive and Machine Works of Lima, Ohio, the two-truck Shay locomotive ferried countless loads of cut timber from East Texas forests to sawmills located in Manning and Camden, Texas, until the early 1920s. After remaining idle for nearly half a century at a railroad siding facility in Camden, the locomotive, originally owned by W. T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company, was donated to SFA in 1970. Since then, it, along with the accompanying Angelina County Lumber Company log car, has stood on the SFA campus as a symbol of the economic and cultural impact of the forest industry on the region.

“While we will certainly miss having this landmark of East Texas forestry history at SFA, we are extremely grateful it has found a new home and will be restored for display at the longtime home of the locomotive’s inventor, Ephraim Shay,” said Dr. Hans Williams, dean of SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture.

Williams said the locomotive needs extensive repairs and renovation, but the college is limited by the large cost of such operations.

Williams was first contacted by representatives from the Harbor Springs Area Historical Society in April 2021 to inquire about the possibility of the university transferring ownership of the Shay locomotive.

Since its inception in 1990, the historical society has focused on the acquisition and restoration of Ephraim Shay’s many artifacts, including the steel-clad Shay Hexagon House constructed in 1892, and the all-steel vessel, the Aha, built by Shay in 1894.

“These projects demonstrate the dedication of the historical society, the City of Harbor Springs and the local community to preserving the history of the area in general and the memory of Ephraim Shay in particular,” said Matt Parmenter, Harbor Springs Area Historical Society trustee. “The addition of a Shay locomotive to these artifacts is an important way to further celebrate the legacy of Ephraim Shay.”

The historical society has enlisted the expertise of licensed engineers and historians to assist in the transportation and renovation of the locomotive.

The Angelina County Lumber Company log car will be housed at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Long Leaf, Louisiana. This nonprofit museum seeks to develop, preserve and maintain the nation’s most complete and significant sawmill complex and promote and interpret the forest history of the South. The Angelina County Lumber Company log car will be displayed next to the museum’s restored McGiffert log loader, which was traditionally used to load harvested logs onto rail cars for transport.

Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Contact information: (936) 468-1185 or fullersa@sfasu.edu.