THE GAZE: NO HOMO New Media Series

#amplifyblackvoices

Hi! My name is Larry Powell and I love to bring people together to share in life-affirming moments of soulful storytelling and community. Yes, even in a global pandemic. The Gaze: No Homo has received 2020/2021 Finalist status at The prestigious O’Neill National Play Conference and, while sheltering-in-place, healing through traumas around the killing of black bodies, and on top of all that waiting for the world to get into the groove of this new normal, I’m adapting this urgent piece with a stellar team into a New Media Series! 

“We Can Never Go Back to Before”

This is a lyric from the musical RAGTIME, a show based on a book about America at the turn of the century. It exemplifies how in a time of radical change there is no reaching back for normalcy or the nostalgia of the comforts we once knew. We stand flat footed in the rubble of the past and look ahead, as unsure as it might be, to a future only we can write. 

We find ourselves currently on the precipice of a moment where we get to write the future. Larry Powell, a creative powerhouse who is always looking forward, has reached out to something much bigger than himself to write a future that many artists are being told doesn’t exist for them. A future, like the dawn of the 20th century, of new means of production, fresh storytelling, and community building in the midst of a global pandemic. Larry is adapting his epic play, THE GAZE: No Homo into a 12 part, multi-platform online experience unlike anything audiences have seen before.

The New Media series will feature an extraordinary cast including: Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue, Queen Sugar, Shameless), Yvette Cason (Dreamgirls, A Wrinkle in Time), Devere Rogers (Will & Grace, My Spy, Sherman’s Showcase), Galen J. Williams (Pose, Motown The Musical), Jason “Freckle” Green (The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo), Eugene Byrd (Star Wars, 8 Mile, Bones), and T.C. Carson (God of War, Star Wars:The Clone Wars, Living Single).

THE GAZE is a cycle of plays that examines the process of building culturally specific and queer works of color in historically white spaces. It tackles hard topics like racism head on. It wrestles with the question: Why strain to be free under a gaze fixed on your imprisonment when it’s you who is holding the key? Why stay? Go where? No Homo is the first play in the cycle.

We all hold the keys to our own freedom, and together, with strategic action, we can unlock brand new worlds. This story will amplify this truth over the course of 12 weeks this summer, but we need you help! 

Every story a group of artists get together to tell is a small business in and of itself. To make THE GAZE: No Homo happen, actors, writers, designers, and editors have to get back to business! For us to get back to the Business of Show and make some art that adds momentum to the movement and cover all production and post production expenses we must raise $50,000. 

So,  why is our goal $56,500? This campaign stands on the shoulders of an initial campaign Larry started the summer of 2019 to fund a workshop of The Gaze. He needed funds to pay his actors and creative team! His goal was $6,500 and he met it!So, add our new goal of 50K to that and you get $56,500!

Investment into this story world not only creates a well-produced finished product, but helps displaced black artists, in need of somewhere to put the energy, to get back to work. There is no theatre where we are allowed to tell our stories anymore, but that’s ok because our stories are bigger than buildings.

What do artists need right now? We need funding to tell our stories. We need resources to bring our communities back together so we can serve you- the audience. We artists are on the ground, spread out across the nations, sheltering in place, organizing, protesting and envisioning new ways to tell stories. We are ready to share them with you.

You are invited to help THE GAZE: No Homo show the world what’s possible. This is an opportunity for you to give directly to artists who sincerely could use your help to not only survive but to be able to thrive off of the love and passion of doing what they were brought here to do. 

We can never go back to before. 

Sincerely, 
Larry Powell
THE GAZE TEAM