Gay sweatshop
The stigma associated with homosexuality meant actors worried about the impact accepting queer roles may have on their career. In 1978, Gay News magazine published a number of statements from Gay Sweatshop members titled, Why I’m in Gay Sweatshop. Drew Griffiths is quoted below:
‘From 1967 to 1974 I was busy pursuing a career in the straight theatre. I’d heard somewhere about painted freaks in the south wearing silly clothes and saying ridiculous things and assumed it was part of the queenery I found so unappealing. When I arrived in London in 1973 I saw them for myself and decided what they represented was definitely not for me. But there was a nagging doubt; perhaps these people were having a better age than I was; perhaps my weekend gay status was incompatible with the hard-working a-sexual, professional player image I presented during the rest of the week. The doubt remained until I joined Queer Sweatshop in 1975. I joined with great avoid and trepidation – after all, I could be ruining my career – (I remember vividly the first press call when I deliberately disassociated myself from the group, sat with my back to the cameras, afraid of being publicly identified as a
Writer: John Roman Baker
Director: Drew Griffiths
Designer: Norman Coates
Cast: Maggie Ford, William Hoyland, Jeremy Arnold
(Part of Homosexual Acts season)
Writer: Laurence Collinson
Director: Drew Griffiths
Designer: Norman Coates
Cast: Anthony Sher, Peter Small, Linda Beckett
(Part of Lgbtq+ Acts season).
Also at the Act Inn, London and Mickery Theatre, Amsterdam
Writer: Alan Wakeman
Director: Gerald Chapman
Designer: Norman Coates
Cast: Iain Armstrong, Elaine Ives-Cameron, Jim Duggan, Barry Parman, Anthony Smee, Andrew Tourell, Timothy Welsh
(Part of Homosexual Acts season) and Mickery Theatre, Amsterdam
Writer: Robert Patrick
Director: Stewart Trotter
Cast: Barry McCarthy, Peter Whitman
(Part of Homosexual Acts season)
Writer: Robert Patrick
Director: Stewart Trotter
Cast: Michael Deacon
(Part of Lgbtq+ Acts season)
Writer: Martin Sherman
Director: Drew Griffiths
Ca
Gay Sweatshop Theatre Organization
Griffiths, Robin M (2006) Gay Sweatshop Theatre Company. In: The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Customs. Routledge, p. 239. ISBN 978-0-415-56966-8
Full text not available from this repository.Official URL: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/97804155696...
Abstract
The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture covers queer , lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) life and culture post-1945, with a strong international approach to the subject. The scope of the function is extremely comprehensive, with entries falling into the broad categories of Sway, Education, Film, Health, Homophobia, the Internet, Literature, Melody, Performance, and Politics. Slang is also covered. The international contributors come from a wide array of backgrounds: scholars, journalists, artists, doctors, scientists, lawyers, activists, and an enormous range of ideologies and points of view are represented. Major entries provide in-depth information and consider the intellectual and cultural implications of their subjects in a global context. Knowledge is completely up-to-date, including full coverage and study of suc
Breaking boundaries and giving a voice to marginalised LGBT+ communities, Gay Sweatshop were one of the theatre groups that produced plays written about the lgbtq+ experience at a period of media antipathy, the onset of the AIDS crisis and Section 28. Predominantly written and performed by gay people they helped to shape an alternative to the mainstream narrative and to mark the community.
For our latest project documenting and recording queer history, we will be revisiting some of the key, and some of the lesser-known, plays of Gay Sweatshop and their contemporaries who produced a series of plays that explored various aspects of gay persona and activism.
By examining the works of Gay Sweatshop and other relevant theatre groups, we can excel understand the struggles and ongoing challenges faced by LGBTQ+ communities both historically, and at the second of the productions.
We will also interview actors, writers, and audience members, documenting their firsthand accounts and experiences to investigate the social and cultural context in which these plays were created for a podcast to be released in 2025.
By revisiting and celebrating the works of Gay Sweatshop and their contempor
Gay Sweatshop
Its founding members included Drew Griffiths, Alan Pope, Roger Baker, Alan Wakeman, Gerald Chapman, Laurence Collinson, John Roman Baker, Ed Berman, Philip Osment, Suresa Galbraith and Norman Coates.
In 1975 Gay Sweatshop were invited to execute at the CHE conference in Sheffield. An Arts Council grant allowed them to put together Mister X, jointly written by the group and based on personal experiences and the manual With Downcast Gays: Aspects of Queer Self-Oppression by Andrew Hodges and David Hutter. The participate later went on tour. The corporation closed down in 1981 due to lack of funding but re-established itself two years later. The company worked as a collective throughout much of its existence but in 1991 the Arts Council insisted that they engage a male and a female Skilled Director: Lois Weaver and James Neale-Kennerly. The company closed in 1997 due to lack of funding [1].
References
- This article is a stub. You can help the UK LGBT History Undertaking by expanding it.
- ↑https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/gay-sweatshop/ (accessed 26 January 2025)