Brother's Keeper Written and Performed by Wallace Norman Hudson Valley based Playwright, Actor and Director
Presented on the Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots (June 28, 1969). The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States.
BROTHER’S KEEPER by Wallace Norman, is a gripping solo play about courageous survival and the delicacy of friendship. Playing 13 characters Norman shares the journey of two young boys who are abused by a member of the Catholic clergy. Norman shifts between the two main characters as they grow up and apart. One does not survive the trauma. The other bravely confronts his abuser. This cathartic act leads to healing, love and a kind of peace.
About the Performer/Playwright
WALLACE NORMAN is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Woodstock Fringe. Beginning in 2002 and for more than a decade. Woodstock Fringe produced the annual Woodstock Fringe Festival of Theatre and Song. Wallace is a playwright, director, actor and singer. He has appeared in more than sixty-five productions in Off-Broadway, Regional, Stock and Hudson Valley theaters. Wallace has been a soloist at Carnegie Recital Hall and participated as a singer in the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference Cabaret Symposium. For years prior to moving to Woodstock, Wallace was a denizen of the Off-Off Broadway arena in New York City. In his city days Wallace produced over 30 works for the stage. He was a founder of The Gilgamesh Theatre Group, part of the “At The Beckett Theatre Campaign" on 42nd Street in NYC. Norman also has enjoyed a long and artistically rich association with Golden Fleece, The Composer Chamber Theatre. At the beginning of his theatrical career he was mentored by Lou Rodgers, Artistic Director of Golden Fleece both as a performer and theatre producer.
Wallace trained extensively at the Herbert Berghoff Studio in NYC and at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He taught acting at Nassau Community College.
**** Norman is a magnificent Actor and Powerful Writer ****
Four Stars! The Scotsman, The Edinburgh Fringe
Dates:
June 28th, 2024 Doors: 6:30pm Show: 7:00pm
June 29th, 2024 Doors: 1:30 Show: 2:00pm
TICKETS:
$18 (seniors / students / veterans)
$20 (General Admission)
Cultural Context - LGBTQ+
The themes and events of Brother’s Keeper are very much informed by the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community. 65% of middle school LGBTQ+ youth report that they have been bullied. For transgender youth some studies show that 80% suffer the abuse of bullies both in person and online. The trauma of bullying can be devastating and deadly. It leads to suicides. Equally, or perhaps more profound, is the damage done to the young and powerless by adult sexual predators. This play was completed just before the news broke this fall reporting that priests and others involved in the French Catholic Church sexually abused more than 330,000 children over a period of some years. My central character William grew up to be gay. When younger he anguished: “I felt that there was something about me, something wrong about me that made Brother James do it.” The feeling of defectiveness and shame for victims of sexual abuse is scarring. For many the wounds never fully heal. Brother’s Keeper is William’s personal journey. I believe my play also sheds light on the toxic, hateful and contemptuous culture that the LGBTQ+ community, my community, continues to live in. Some perish. And others, like William, courageously survive.
