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July 6, 2023
Dear Friends and Patrons of JPAS,
This week we celebrated our nation's birthday - a day to celebrate our independence, our freedom from Great Britain and the tyrannical treatment of her colonies. We are the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave". We Americans cherish our freedom.
Likewise, we recently commemorated a dark, more sinister date in history - the 50th Anniversary of the June 24, 1973, fire of The UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in the French Quarter. There was much media coverage and a 3-day symposium hosted by the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana at the Marriott Hotel, Historic New Orleans Collection, and other New Orleans venues. The fire killed 32 innocent individuals who were simply seeking a safe haven to enjoy moments of happiness and dare I say it, FREEDOM - freedom from harassment, arrest, violence and persecution simply for being "different". Hopefully, because of all the media coverage, I trust that you are aware of the details and surrounding stories concerning this tragedy. JPAS will commemorate and do our best to recognize the tragedy and honor those individuals who perished and suffered so violently. Let us not forget their families and their grief as well.
Last year I was contacted by Concord Theatricals and was informed about a musical written by Mr. Max Vernon entitled The View UpStairs. They reminded me that The UpStairs Lounge fire will be acknowledged 50 years in 2023 and that since this was a New Orleans story, I "might want to look at the script and listen to the score". I did so and was immediately intrigued and excited about this project.
A musical about The UpStairs Lounge fire, you may ask? Yes, and it's not what you might think. The View UpStairs is a musical work that depicts the patrons of the bar enjoying life as any other members of society. There are eleven named characters and each tells their own life story. They offer their dreams, desires, fears, and frustrations but most of all their wish to live a free and happy life like the rest of America. This musical depicts those desires in all its rawness and honesty, circa 1973, pre-AIDs, post-Stonewall. The music is genuinely heartfelt rock and roll filled with fine vocal flourishes, harmonies and rhythms. I look forward to conducting the score with great anticipation and working with our fine cast and leadership, all members of the local LGBTQ+ community.
But what I look most forward to is sharing with our community a small insight into the 1970s local gay life that perhaps you may not beware of - a glimpse of life that hopefully opens eyes and more importantly, hearts, to what it must feel like to be a free American on the inside but a closeted one to the outside world.
I hope you will join me, JPAS and your fellow FREE Americans-- all Americans of all backgrounds and persuasions— in an evening of love and solidarity for all human beings.
The View UpStairs runs September 8-17 at the beautiful Jefferson Performing Arts Center. I hope you will be in attendance.
See you at the theatre!
Dennis G. Assaf
Founder & Artistic Director
504-885-2000, ext. 201
dennis@jpas.org
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