At rise, Bryan is downstage,
lost in thought:
"Am I gay man who happens
to be Deaf? Or a Deaf man
who just happens to be gay?"
So begins Reading Lips, a play about being gay, being deaf and the challenges of being on the cusps of two different cultures.
It is one of ten comedy-dramas Michael Conley has written about his own experiences growing up in the Midwest, living in New York and as a Deaf man.
In a collection of two-character one-acts, you'll meet gay men negotiating the perils of sex first and dating afterwards: First Date. In Frank Talk, a man is horrified to learn that a friend is straight and he never recognized it. Epidemic Episodes covers the AIDS crisis from the 1980s into the new century in four pithy and angry scenes.
(Each of the plays above has been produced separately, and have been combined to make up an evening of theater under the umbrella title, Men About Town.)