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| Jens Rasmussen & Michael McKeogh in The Twentieth Century Way |
In 1914, two actors hired themselves out to the Long Beach Police Department. They pretended they were gay in order to entrap “social vagrants” seeking sexual encounters in public restrooms.
“I’d read the story in a book called ‘Gay L.A.,’ ” says playwright Tom Jacobson. “When I mentioned it to a friend he said I ought to turn it into a screenplay.”
But Jacobson thought it might end up more like a documentary, so he put the idea on a back burner. The idea kept rumbling around in his head, though, and finally, it dawned on him that it might have the makings of a good play. Eventually, it became “The Twentieth-Century Way,” which opens at Know Theatre on Friday.
“It’s the first case of entrapment, as far as I’ve been able to learn,” he says.
“It really is an important story.”
Besides, the more he researched the largely forgotten episode, the more he realized that it made for a dreamy writing project. There were enough facts available from news reports and trial transcripts to outrage contemporary audiences. But because the factual materials were limited, it left Jacobson free to spin it into a powerful piece of theater.
And that’s what caught the attention of Andrew Hungerford, the Know’s incoming producing artistic director. Hungerford doesn’t officially take over the position until Eric Vosmeier steps down at the end of the Fringe Festival in June. But this play, he says, represents the first production of his debut season running the theater.
With Hungerford living in southern California the past few years, it’s probably no coincidence that “The Twentieth-Century Way” is written by a Los Angeles-based playwright and had its premiere in a Los Angeles-area theater.
“There is an underdog scrappy-ness in the L.A. theater community – kind of like the Know,” says Hungerford. “As a result, there is a lot of really compelling work happening there.”
Perhaps, he suggests, Los Angeles suffers from a second city syndrome. Because people widely perceive New York as the center of American theater, Los Angeles always needs to prove how good it is.
“New York knows that it has amazing theater,” says Hungerford, “but that can lead to complacency. Because of the many small theaters, you see a lot of what I call ‘passion projects’ in Los Angeles. As a region, there’s always a continual need to prove one’s self. It’s amazing how it keeps things fresh.”
And that, he says, makes for extraordinary theater that the rest of the country rarely sees. With Hungerford in Know’s driver’s seat, though, that is likely to change.
“Oh, I expect we’ll see a more theater from L.A. But not everything. Great theater can happen anywhere. L.A. theater hasn’t gotten the respect it deserves, though,” he said. “I think we can help change that.”
