Scarlet Masque Theatre Journal New Beginnings and Fond Farewells Vol. 1 | Page 27

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and evaluate some of the initial praise and reviews without the impact of the highly-charged
temporal environment of its initial opening. 20
Putting it Together (2016)
It is evident from looking at productions of queer drama throughout the years that the
sociopolitical climate was much different for Jonathan Larson going into writing RENT than it
was for Mart Crowley when he wrote The Faggot, just as it is different for myself in my own
work, academic or otherwise. We often imagine progress for civil rights actions in terms of
“steps,” and we have certainly seen many steps going in the direction of a more complete sense
of acceptance and tolerance of queer drama in the specific climate of New York City and its
responses to the works that we see here. We also see plenty of missteps, whether it be false
accusations of intent, the suppressing of art from overtly public performance because of gender
differences, or plain prejudice against people for something they cannot control: their sexuality.
This formal addressing of the sociopolitical climate shows not just a “transcendence” of a
singular entity over time, but rather a complex integration and transformation of many individual
subsections of this sociopolitical climate into a response that we oftentimes misconstrue for no
other reason than we don’t take into consideration every aspect of the experience. We focus too
much on traditional conventions of a particular art form, or the critical response, or the response
of the target audience, or the creator’s intent, and not enough on how these things inform one
another. Here, we see that the process of production, the histories of the creators, critical
response, political landscapes, and locally affected responses of the LGBTQ+ community
activists truly worked together to inform our current understanding of queer drama as a genre,
and how this understanding is inherently linked to our temporal relationship and locational
proximity to the subject material.
Sebesta, Judith. 2006. "Of Fire, Death, and Desire: Transgression and Carnival in Jonathan
Larson's Rent." Contemporary Theatre Review 16, no. 4: 419-438. International Bibliography of
Theatre & Dance with Full Text, EBSCOhost.
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