INTERVIEW: New play finds gay fathers facing prejudice from their own family
Photo: Hector Matias and David Stallings star in The Baby Monitor, a new play written by Stallings. Photo courtesy of Michael Dekker / Provided by Kampfire PR with permission.
There are several plays in New York City at the current moment that are tackling issues that are seemingly ripped from the headlines. Whether it’s New York Theatre Workshop’s What the Constitution Means to Me with Heidi Schreck or Broadway’s Network with Bryan Cranston, the political and social climate of 2018 has inspired many writers to put pen to paper.
Joining this topical conversation is David Stallings’ new play, The Baby Monitor, produced by Different Translation and playing through Dec. 16 at The Theater at the 14th Street Y in New York City. The show depicts two gay fathers and a highly charged allegation against the raising of their child. From within their own family they encounter prejudice and discrimination, and social services becomes involved when the accusation is reported.
Stallings’ play touches upon many important themes, including acceptance, tolerance, interracial marriage and the fears of many people in the LGBTQI community. The production first came about because of the playwright’s real-world worry over this issue.
“The Baby Monitor was really written based on fear,” Stallings said in a recent phone interview. “A few years ago I was asked to be part of an evening of short plays and write an original short piece inspired by the theme of ‘naked,’ whatever that meant. I decided to write about a gay couple who is discriminated against from within their own family and how they deal with that family member once all the dust has settled, and it’s a gay couple who is raising a small child that they have had through surrogacy. I had seen many cases of gay parents being targeted and being reported for potential abuse when there really was none there. That was really just coming from bigotry and deep, deep, deep, hidden ignorance, from deep ignorance, and them not being seen as a real family. And so what I did was I decided to say, what if, and I put my own relationship on stage. I said, if my husband and I were to have a child, what’s my biggest fear?”
The Baby Monitor started as a short piece and was presented several times throughout its development. Now it’s at a full 100 minutes, and the actors are performing it at The Theater at the 14th Street Y with no scripts in hand. As it stands today, the show deals with heavy subject matter, but the takeaways are meant to be constructive.
“We’ve been putting so much love and emotion and acceptance and hope into this piece, hoping to create dialogue, hoping to create new allies and hoping to really address some of the prejudice that we’re seeing, especially today,” Stallings said. “Unfortunately this is more timely now than when I started writing it four years ago.”
Although the events of the drama are fictional, life and art are intersecting in interesting ways. For this production, Stallings is actually playing the character he based off himself. His real-life husband, Antonio Miniño, is directing the play.
“I did myself the favor of not acting in any of the previous versions, so whenever it has been workshopped or staged, I haven’t been reading this role,” he said. “And so when we decided to stage it, Antonio, my husband who is directing, said that he wanted me to play the character I’m playing. I felt confident in that because it had been developed with so many wonderful actors playing this role over the past four years.”
Miniño and Stallings have personally been together for 12 years, and the playwright said they’ve been working together simultaneously since the beginning. In the rehearsal room, the division of labor between the two has been positive and collaborative.
“We’re partners in every way,” he said. “He will preface any question with ‘Writer David’ or ‘Actor David,’ and it has become a lot of fun in the room. I haven’t acted in one of my pieces in over 10 years, so it is learning for me, too. … He’s like, ‘I have a writer question for you. I have an actor question for you.’ When I’m in the room, I act just like any of the other actors until he wants me to put my playwrighting hat on, and if I see something in the room that needs to be addressed by a playwright, I address it after rehearsal with him, as a director, which is how it should be done anyway.”
The cast joining Stallings on stage consists of Leo Goodman, Mel House, Amanda Jones, Hector Matias and Greta Quispe. Many of the actors have been helping the playwright develop the piece for a few years.
“We love our cast,” Stallings said. “Amanda Jones plays Claire; she starts a lot of the trouble. I wouldn’t call her the antagonist because I think it’s an ensemble piece, and I hope a lot of people will understand where she’s coming from. Amanda has worked with us many times over the years, and she was in my play two years ago, in the same venue, Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell, which Antonio directed. Similarly, Mel House, who is playing Shelly, she was in that production two years ago. We also did Macbeth together even before that. We tend to work with a group of artists who we collaborate with continually, and so we really create a shorthand. And there’s a lot of trust from day one when we do that.”
He added: “That collaboration has just gone so well. It feels like family when we’re working together, so when you’re doing a story about family, that trust and that honesty is there from the start.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Baby Monitor, written by and starring David Stallings, plays through Dec. 16 at The Theater at the 14th Street Y in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
