Greetings,
I'm currently working on a screenplay about gay, bisexual, queer, and
transgender men's experiences as bottoms. I was hoping you could
circulate the press release among
interested students with information about the project and how to
submit. That would be wonderful! Thanks!
Trevor Hoppe
Co-Organizer
"The Bottom Monologues"
WHO: All gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender men
WHAT: A screenplay about bottoms is being developed and needs men's
narratives
WHEN: Deadline is March 31, 2008
WHERE: Submit your stories online at bottommonologues.wordpress.com
PRESS RELEASE
Bottom Monologues Organizers Seek Men's Narratives
Play will reflect diversity of gay, bi, trans, and queer men's lived
experiences as bottoms
December 8, 2008: The organizers of The Bottom Monologues invite
gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer men to log-on to http://
bottommonologues.wordpress.com, where they can submit their stories
to be used in the production of a groundbreaking play about – you
guessed it -- bottoms. In the spirit of Eve Ensler's The Vagina
Monologues, The Bottom Monologues will feature provocative and
challenging stories from GBTQ men about sex, desire, identity, and
the politics of men proudly proclaiming their desire to get fucked.
To bring the play to life, The Bottom Monologues is asking GBQT men
from around the world to log-on to and submit their thoughts through
an anonymous online questionnaire. "We're hoping to get stories from
men who identity as top, bottom, versatile – or not at all. Any queer
man who has something to say about bottoms is welcome and wanted,"
says one of the project's organizers, Trevor Hoppe. Questions range
from the basic ("So… what's a bottom?") to the more complex ("Are
tops, bottoms, and versatile guys all that different?"). Guys who log-
on can choose to respond to the questions as-is, or step outside the
box and develop their own prompts.
The Bottom Monologues began at the recent 2008 Gay Men's Health
Summit in Seattle, where the project's three organizers – Alex
Garner, Trevor Hoppe, and Erik Libey – met for the first time. In
Seattle, Garner organized a reading of the late Eric Rofes'
screenplay, Test / Positive / Now, a beautiful collection of stories
from gay men who have recently tested HIV-positive. The next day,
Hoppe presented his research findings on bottom identity in a session
title, "What Makes a Bottom?" During the Q&A, Garner commented that
bringing the narratives described in Hoppe's research to the stage
would be a much needed public proclamation of bottom desire – a topic
typically seen as taboo even for many GBTQ men. With some
encouragement from Libey after the summit wrapped, the project was born.
Once the stories are collected, the organizers will sift through the
submissions to look for common themes, major differences, and
particularly exciting stories. "We're basically going to take a few
hundred submissions and distill them into a handful of composite
characters," Hoppe says. "In this way, guys who log on and submit
their story will have a direct hand in the stories well tell on
stage." The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2009. Those
interested can log on to the project website at http://
bottommonologues.wordpress.com for more information about the project
and to submit their story.
Organizer bios can be found at:
http://bottommonologues.wordpress.com/about-the-organizers/
