DAVID KENAS
“Zanna Don’t — The Reboot” creator Tim Acito, seated, with Theater Q executive artistic director John Pantozzi, third from left, and “Zanna Don’t” cast and crew members.
John Pantozzi offers a rhetorical question: “Where is the National Gay Theater?”
He then goes on to suggest a few candidates in New York and California, but is quick to note that none of them presents a full repertoire of gay plays or has “national reach.”
Which makes Pantozzi dream all the more that Theater Q, his new LGBTQ+ theater company in Asbury Park, could one day become the nation’s repository for gay theater. But for now, he is much more consumed with getting Theater Q through its first season and establishing it as a viable member of New Jersey’s theater scene.
“Success for me is community acceptance that we are something that’s needed,” says Pantozzi, the theater’s executive artistic director and producer. “It’s about building a stage where everyone is accepted.”
As an Asbury Park resident — and before that, a longtime visitor to the city’s gay entertainment scene — Pantozzi believes this is the perfect place to plant his artistic flag. “There is a very good population of gay citizens here, and my feeling is if you’re starting a niche (project), you should be in the vicinity of an audience that can help you.”
He hopes the theater will also draw patrons from surrounding towns with robust gay populations and from what he calls the “OGs” (original gays). “They’re the folks you used to meet at the bars. Now, you’re more likely to meet them at house parties,” he says. “So why not have another place for them to come out to? I can’t tell you the number of people who have subscribed already and how excited they are about having this type of representation.”
Curating the first season has been a challenge, mostly because Pantozzi isn’t interested in staging the same old gay theatrical chestnuts, but wants to introduce audiences to new and unfamiliar works. And discovering unique content isn’t easy. “It would be wonderful to have an archive of gay plays because there aren’t very many places you can go to find material,” he says.
Theater Q will present “Zanna Don’t —The Reboot!,” Oct. 11-13.
However, he has managed to assemble a diverse inaugural season that represents what he calls “a rainbow within the rainbow.” Theater Q will open Oct. 11-13 with “Zanna Don’t — The Reboot!,” a pop musical by Tim Acito that targets a younger audience and features a gender-nonconforming superhero-in-training. The second production — “…what the end will be,” a comedy by Mansa RA to be presented in March — explores the dynamics among three generations of gay Black men. Next, in April, will be “Liberace & Liza,” described as “a mash-up of two over-the-top icons.” And finally, in June, “Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix,” a comic rock musical that imagines Thelma and Louise in a fantasy afterlife.
“When you come here, you’re going to see something new. You’re not going to see things you can see anywhere,” says Pantozzi. “Sure, it’s a challenge to market. But we hope that if you enjoy the first one, then you will trust us. At the same time, we won’t give up on what brought us here. There are classics that constantly need to be brought back, as well.”
Theater Q also plans to embrace new work by local playwrights. The staff is evaluating about 25 scripts for a December reading series at The ShowRoom, Asbury Park’s art film cinema. “Our goal is to produce one of these new plays next year,” says Pantozzi.
The theater’s main stage productions will be held at House of Independents, the concert hall on Cookman Avenue with a recessed bleacher system that can be used for seating. But while the facility has superior lighting and sound systems, there are certain challenges to theatrical productions, such as the lack of wing space for entrances and exits.
“I would love for us to have a permanent home and not worry about that part of producing,” says Pantozzi. “But I’d also like to see us be a home for LGBTQ+ plays and musicals that folks around the country would want to insert into their own programs.”
Acito, the writer and director of “Zanna Don’t – The Reboot!,” says Pantozzi “is a real warrior in his commitment in making Theater Q a very important part of the LGBTQ+ cultural landscape.”
Acito says getting “Zanna” in shape for its run has been a rewarding experience, even though he has spent the past four months working 15-hour days in preparation. “It’s truly been the thrill of my artistic life,” he says.
Acito, a native of Millstone Township who has lived in Manhattan for the last 25 years, first staged “Zanna” more than 20 years ago in a three-month off-Broadway run. He then revisited the script in 2015 to create what he says is “a more well-rounded, three-dimensional characterization.”
“I write things that have an element of magical realism in them, but hopefully not at the sacrifice of character,” says Acito. “Everyone who tries to write musical theater has to learn in a brutal, ruthless way, that it’s always about story.”
In the rewrite, Zanna changed from a matchmaker to a character with political aspirations, working to keep their community diverse and safe. Inspiration for the play began in 2000, when Acito was listening to a Clint Black song called “Something That We Do.”
“The idea of the song is so exquisite,” he says. “Every verse ends with something like ‘Love isn’t someplace that we fall, it’s something that we do,’ (or) ‘Love’s not just something that we’re in, it’s something that we do.’ And I remember thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great, someday, to hear a beautiful country song, but in an LGBT context.’ ”
Then when Acito was looking for inspiration for the “Zanna” rewrite, he heard an interview with transgender actress Laverne Cox, in which she said, “Don’t ask what I am. Ask me what I’ve been doing.”
“So the word ‘do’ subconsciously has been a guiding principle in all of this, and I think it might, dare I say, be the overall message of the piece,” he says. “Personally, I don’t think we should care what people are. We should care what they do. Are they good citizens? Are they good neighbors? Do they treat their pets well? Are we politically engaged? That’s what should matter to Americans.”
And that “generosity of spirit” is what Acito says he is trying to capture in the songs and story. “I hope audiences will embrace the overall positive vibe that’s being dealt and the idea that we’re all Americans, and ‘Let’s work together to make our country even better.’ ”
Pantozzi says he’s excited about staging “Zanna,” especially following the rewrite, which added a political message that he says is being delivered at just the right time, before the presidential election.
“I think of theater as activism,” he says. ” ‘Come, enjoy, sit and laugh with us.’ If you know a gay person, your thoughts kind of change. It’s about entertainment and art and what that can do.
“So I don’t think success has to do with the number of people who come see this show or even how fantastic the show is going to be. The success has to do with the conversation and having another place to wrap that conversation around that isn’t divisive.”
As for Acito, he’s thrilled that “Zanna” lives on. “I had long ago given up hope that this show would ever rise again,” he says. But here he is in Asbury Park stressing over opening night, when both he and Pantozzi will finally get to see what Theater Q can “do.”
For more on “Zanna Don’t — The Reboot!” and Theater Q, visit theaterq.org.
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