Sunday, June 19, 2016

Berkeley Rep Flies Rainbow Flag for #Orlando & Pride


Last night, our favorite regional theater company, the Berkeley Rep, was flying the LGBT Pride Flag on their facade facing Addison Street. It was a sight quite pleasing to my queer eye and I was moved by the mix of the company's flags and the rainbow colors.

Folks in the box office informed me the Pride flag flew in honor of the 100-plus dead and wounded in Orlando, and for Gay Pride Month. Feeding two birds with one seed, as I like to say.

Just the uplift I needed at the end of very emotionally and politically wrought week.

I was in Berkeley to see my first play by Athol Fugard, "Master Harold . . . and the boys" at the Aurora Theater also on Addison Street. They displayed a chalk version of the rainbow flag in their entrance way.

This modern classic drama was well-acted, enthralled the audience who cheered the actors and production with a standing ovation at the end and gave me the theatrical catharsis I was looking for and needed this weekend.

Life is so much better thanks to the performing arts, those who create it and the audiences that enjoy live theater.

Thanks, my friends at Berkeley Rep and Aurora Theater, for all that you do on your stages and in the communities in which you live.

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