Mae West: Diamond Tex

A 95-minute serious-minded comedy, "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — based on true events when actress-author MAE WEST was arrested and jailed for trying to stage two gay plays on Broadway (New York City) — — combines real-life people and fictional personae. The story begins in December 1926, when Mae West is celebrating the 300th performance of her play "Sex" at a Greenwich Village speakeasy where she has hired some gay males and drag-queens to star in her upcoming production "The Drag." The final scene, set in December 1932, shows Mae West in her Hollywood dressing room, preparing to shoot a scene for a Paramount Pictures motion picture called "She Done Him Wrong" — — a screenplay based on her 1928 Broadway smash "Diamond Lil."
• • The cast of "Courting Mae West" includes some colorful characters. Meet Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan [1884-1933], called "Texas Guinan" in the play.
• • Born in Waco, Texas, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan was an amiable hell-raiser who lived in Greenwich Village with her mother, father, and younger brother, and had an unusual career that required two armored cars. Active in vaudeville and musical theater, Texas starred in dozens of silent films (often as the gun-toting lawmaker in 2-reel westerns, a match for any cowboy or revenue agent). During the prohibition era, Texas's talents for whooppee-making and shameless self-promotion came together for a successful reign as the queen of the night clubs and speakeasies, where her job was to help people spend money.
• • Learn about her: TexasGuinan.blogspot.com
• • In "Courting Mae West," Texas Guinan's counterpart TEXAS GUINAN is witty, confident, stylish, wealthy, and diamond draped; as MAE WEST observes, being together means "basking in the glow of your investment grade jewelry." Frequently arrested for violating the Volstead Act, Texas is riveted on opening new gin mills each time the feds padlock her nightspots. Therefore, she views the penitential perils as part of the game. In her mid-forties and an influential Broadway backer, TEXAS GUINAN provides a contrast to MAE WEST, an onstage outlaw who is generous with everything — — except sympathy.

• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets"
• • Cast size: seven [4 females, 3 males play rotating roles — — except for the MAE WEST role]
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• • SYNOPSIS [100 words] • •

• • Based on true events during the Prohibition Era, this 95-minute play follows a vaudeville veteran whose frustrations with the rules of male-dominated Broadway have led her to write her own material and cast her own shows. Is the Gay White Way ready for love stories that feature New York City drag queens instead of card-carrying members of the union? Is the legitimate theatre ripe for racially integrated melodramas set in Harlem? Is the Rialto raring to reward a working-class heroine determined to sin and win?
• • Come up and see Mae West as she challenges bigotry, fights City Hall, and climbs the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

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• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage during July 2008.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Texas Guinan • • 1930 • •
NYC
Mae West.