On August 28, at the Cherry Grove Community House, the Arts Project of Cherry Grove presented Gay Nathan’s reading of Elise Forier Edie’s “The Pink Unicorn,” portraying Trisha Lee, low-key Texas grandmother of teenage Joe, born Jolene, who proudly comes out as “a gender-neutral person,” a “gender queer”—“I’m trans,” Joe declares—who uses the pronoun “they,” and leads Trisha to become an accidental activist. We were moved, we laughed, and we became infuriated at the villains that Trisha encountered on her journey. Matt Baney directed.
Joe persuades Trisha to buy her an all-black outfit, including black leather jacket and boots, for their high school yearbook picture and tells Tricia that they will be joining the school’s new Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). All hell breaks loose when Joe relents and says they’ll wear the blue blazer and tie required of boys for the photo, but not the blue dickie for the girls; principal Cyril bans the GSA and then all extra-curricular organizations; and the interestingly-named Pastor Dick preaches a sermon against the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for starting to allow openly LGBT ministers.
The ACLU gets involved and Trisha’s finds herself hosting sister congregant Enid and her friends and Joe and their friends, who are planning a demonstration in front of the school superintendent’s office. Along the way, Gay effectively evoked not only the aforementioned diverse panoply of characters, but also narrow-minded sister Alma, alcoholic brother Junior, late husband Earl, Elijah Breckenridge who came out to his class at a tender age, pet tarantula Betelgeuse, and eponymous pink unicorn Star Dancer. Count on Gay to give us a wonderful evening of theater!