Torch Song Trilogy: Part I/The International Stud by Harvey Fierstein
September 29-30, October 5-7, & 12-14
 

Torch Song Trilogy is a play that straddles genres, existing as both a comedy and a melodrama. Harvey Fierstein's play opened at New York's Richard Allen Center in October, 1981, and moved to the Off-Broadway Actors Playhouse in January of 1982.  The play opened on Broadway in June, 1983, at the Little Theatre and continued for a along and successful run, having won several awards, including two Antoinette "Tony" Perry Awards.  Torch Song Trilogy began as The International Stud, a one-act play that was produced Off-Off-Broadway in 1978.  this early work was combined with two other one-act plays, Fugué in a Nursery (1979) and Widows and Children First (1970), to create Torch Song Trilogy.  Each element of the play focuses on an important passage in the life of its protagonist, Arnold.  Although the play is about homosexuals, at its heart it is a play about family, love, and survival.  Fierstein's play appeared just as AIDS was recognized as a major medical problem.  His reinforcement of the importance of love in all relationships, hetero and gay, served to counter the attacks against homosexuals as promiscuous pleasure seekers.

Metro Spirit article by Stacey Hudson.

Augusta Chronicle article:  'Torch Song ponders Romantic Questions' in a New Light