The Purple Circuit promotes GLQBT
and feminist theater and performance.

“Who’s Afraid of Michael Kearns?” by Michael Kearns
An anthology of three plays, with an Introduction by the author, as well as Forewords by Tony Abatemarco and Mark Bringelson.

“This sprawling exercise in excess is consistently fascinating, as watchable as a train wreck and as feverishly histrionic as a Joan Crawford film festival.” - Los Angeles Times.

   ● “Bang Bang”
A visceral plunge into the heartache of a school shooting alongside an enigmatic title character with his own legacy of violence. The play delves into our society's addiction to the spectacle of carnage, power, and sex.

“The collision of sex and death, of eroticism and grief, have propelled Kearn’s stage work for about 40 years, and Bang Bang, provides no exception to that patters, which is really an artistic calling” - Steven Leigh-Morris, L.A. Weekly

   ● “Bloodbound”
The physical love between two brothers, one who’s the play's meta-speaking author, and the other who is a prisoner serving life, underscores the depths of their emotional entanglements. An indictment of the injustices of mass incarceration, inside a love story, the play also reflects the inevitability of revising our own narratives.

“Kearns has developed a uniquely descriptive, empathetic story … Bloodbound is a profound, committed journey. The writing is intense and intimate, distinctly characterized by precise use of language.” - Gia on the Move

Michael Kearns established himself as an award-winning, internationally-acclaimed artist in the entertainment industry. During the past half-century he has been an actor, director, playwright, dramaturge, acting teacher, writing teacher, author, producer, and solo performer.

As an artist-activist, he has largely focused on HIV/AIDS. Kearns is currently an Artistic Associate at Skylight Theatre Company, Artist-in-Residence at Housing Works, Artistic Director of QueerWise, and West Coast Program Director for Spoken Interludes Next.

Available at Skylight Books for $20
Available at Amazon for $20

Michael Kearns has defined nearly a half-century of American life: culturally, politically, and sexually. In many instances, he was not only at the forefront of the historical milestones, he created them:

   ● Michael Kearns wrote “The Happy Hustler” - 1975 spoof of Xaviera Hollander’s “The Happy Hooker” - under the pseudonym Grant Tracy Saxon, which sold more than 250,000 copies.

   ● Michael was the first openly gay actor in Hollywood, juggling a mainstream TV career (Cheers, Murder She Wrote, The Fall Guy) with a theater career at the legendary Déjà Vu Coffeehouse in Los Angeles.

   ● Co-founded two AIDS organizations: Artists Confronting AIDS, and STAGE (Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event), which is the longest-running theatrical benefit in the world).

   ● Accused the television and film industries of homophobia on ABC’s Nightline in 1985.

   ● Created and performs the “Intimacies” one-person series, depicting people with AIDS, which garnered international acclaim. In one of them, called “Rock,” Michael reveals his dalliance with Rock Hudson.

   ● Was the first publicly HIV-positive actor in prime time on “Life Goes On.”

   ● Adopted Katherine Kearns in 1994: the first openly gay, publicly HIV-positive, single man to become a father.

In this autobiography, Michael retells his rich life of extremes, from his roots in the Midwest, to his family life in Los Feliz where Kearns presently resides with his daughter.

Also available via Amazon:

   ● The Truth is Bad Enough: What Became of the Happy Hustler? - 306 pages, $15.95

   ● The Solo Performer’s Journey: From the Page to the Stage - 128 pages, $12.95

   ● Getting Your Solo Act Together - 112 pages, $10.99

   ● Acting = Life: An Actor’s Life Lessons - 128 pages, $15.95

   ● T-Cells & Sympathy: Monologues in the Age of Aids - 160 pages, $10.99

   ● Life Expectancies: Monologues That Challenge - 112 pages, $12.95

   ● The Drama of AIDS: My Lasting Connections with Two Plays that Survived the Plague - 128 pages, $18.69

   ● The Happy Hustler: My Own Story - 189 pages - likely out of print, used copies may be available.

“Gilgamesh & Enkidu” - drama
Feature Film Script by Demian

King Gilgamesh’s heavy rule is challenged when the gods create Enkidu. As comrades and lovers, they are invincible, until Enkidu is killed by the goddess Ishtar. Gilgamesh then abandons his throne, and wanders far, searching for immortality. Based on multiple translations of the “Gilgamesh” tablets, the oldest epic poem on Earth. 106 pages.

“Gilgamesh & Enkidu” from Amazon.com

A youthful, vegan vampire escapes from the murderous ways of his blood sucking kin. However, he can’t hide from the violence, and destructive forces of humans, as he lives through the centuries. He attempts to use his powers to protect the human men and women, with whom he has created families, and grown to love. Not a horror movie, in spite of being about a vampire. 91 pages.

“Blood Relatives” from Amazon.com

Four men in one ship, and four women in the other, raised in a nurturing, polyamorous, naturist, commune, travel to find a planet that supports organic farming. The Monstroso Corp. destroyed their Homeworld, and infiltrated one ship with a traitorous agent. Can the sweet, singing and dancing men and women of these ships withstand a potentially fatal assault, when there are no expendable crew members? aka: “Streaking Across the Universe.” 117 pages.

“Space Opera” from Amazon.com





Three of Demian’s Feature Movie Scripts have same-sex relationships that are integral to the plot; “Gilgamesh & Enkidu,” “Blood Relatives,” and “Space Opera.”

“Space Opera” has a multi-race cast, while “Blood Relatives” has Latino and white cast members, and a Native American healer cast member.

Besides the script itself, each book has the movie’s Logline, Plot Synopsis, Cast List and the number of scenes they play, graphical representation of the Character Relationships, and Production Notes. There is also the Genesis of each story; describing the inspiration, and why Demian worked on that particular story.

For more information about Demian’s feature movie scripts on paperback: Sweet Corn Shop

St. Louis, MO. 1858.

Charlotte Cushman’s opening night as Romeo, one of her most famous male roles, leads to a case of the jitters, and encounters with an amorous young female fan and a frontier woman and her mail-order bride.

Charlotte’s hectic life on and offstage is held together by her trusted assistant Sallie Mercer, a free and educated black woman during the time of slavery in the U.S.

Based on the life of the most famous actress in the English-speaking theater in the 19th century, who lived her life loving other women, including sculptor Emma Stebbins, designer of Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain.

“The Lady Was a Gentleman” was first produced in New York City in March 20, 2003. Published in book form in 2021.

Read a sample, or purchase a copy of the playbook, or obtain production permission from Next Stages Press

A collection of 22 plays originally produced at the Cafe Cino in Greenwich Village, circa 1959-1967, with memoir-style essays by many of the pioneers who helped to launch the revolution that took place in American theatre on the Cino’s 8-by-8-foot stage. Contributors include such Broadway legends as actress Bernadette Peters, playwright Edward Albee, and director Tom O’Horgan.

Steve Susoyev writes for the legal community on the child-custody rights of gay and lesbian parents and other human rights issues. His bestselling memoir, “People Farm,” won a 2004 Writer’s Digest “Culture Award.” Steve practices law in San Francisco, specializing in the needs of people with life-threatening conditions.

George Birimisa was the first openly gay playwright to receive a Rockefeller Foundation Grant. He later won the Drama-Logue Award for his 1978 play “Rainbow in the Night.” “Daddy Violet,” the 1967 play included in this collection, opened at the Cafe Cino and went on to tour college campuses in the U.S. and Canada. George is the founder and director of Intergeneration Writing Workshops in San Francisco. He won the “Harry Hay” award in 2005.

Published November 6, 2006 by Moving Finger Press. Their Web site - movingfingerpress.com - appears to be vacant.
You might try Half Price Books search for “Return to the Caffe Cino”
It’s free on the Wayback Machine: Digital copy of “Return To The Caffe Cino.” Click on the Ellipses icon to download.

Josie and Molly, an urban, lesbian couple move to the country to save money, and enable one of them to pursue her writing career. They are nominated as couple of the year. An unwitting young man arrives to notify them of this honor, only to find a very different couple than he assumed.

One of Chambers funniest plays, it was the season opener for the Glines’ Second Gay American Arts Festival in 1981. Chamber directed the premiere on June 3, 1981 at the Shandol Theatre, New York, New York.

Jane Chambers’ irrepressible comedy, “My Blue Heaven” is originally published by TnT Classic Books, which also has published Chambers’ “A Late Snow,” “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove,” “Burning,” “Chasin’ Jason” and “Warrior at Rest,” as well as plays by Doric Wilson, Sidney Morris, Robert Chesley and Arch Brown.

A trade paper back, the library-type edition of “My Blue Heaven” has author comments, and information on the first New York production. The three-character play was designed to be easily produced with a simple set.

Available from Amazon for $2.99

Based on real events, down-to-earth, debunking stories that form a novel, told by a long-term, snarky gripman on San Francisco’s cable cars, made salty, honest and very funny, as told by the “grumpy gripman” narrator, who finds himself in the so-called “Land of Free Speech,” but where it is other people who tell you what you can say and think, despite your own experiences.

The tale of One-Tooth, the little ghost boy, the outrageous elderly twin sisters, the Chinese dishwasher, Bitty the pet rat, Machete Man, or a Sister of Perpetual Indulgence will alternately put a lump in your throat, or blow up your P.C. meter.

“ ‘Halfway to the Stars’ will thrill an audience seeking entertainment untouched by editorial censors. This is stand-up comedy at its literary best, with controversial pieces included to strike the strongest blow where needed. Race, gender, religion, culture, and sexual orientation are all targets in Curzon’s cable car chaos. In this brilliant work, the ‘equal opportunity offender’ theory applies. Only adults should board Curzon’s cable car.” – Julia Ann Charpentier, Clarion/Foreword Reviews Five Stars

Daniel Curzon has never been afraid of controversy, and has been on the cutting edge of several major social and political issues. He is the author of many books of fiction and plays, including the landmark gay protest novel “Something You Do in the Dark” (G.P. Putnam, 1971). With his new book, he dramatizes how political correctness stops problems from being dealt with honestly, instead of facilitated with the platitudes of a “liberal bubble.”

“Halfway to the Stars” - ISBN: 9789187751110 - Published by l’Aleph (A Member of Wisehouse)
Avalable from Amazon
     Paperback: $14.34
     Kindle: $5.59

“1001 Beds” by Tim Miller.

Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed performance artist. Miller’s creative work as a performer and writer explores the artistic, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man.

This book contains Tim Miller’s essays, performances, manifestos, journals, and performance touring stories from Tokyo-to-Chattanooga.

For a signed copy, send a $18 check to:
Tim Miller, PO Box 794, Venice, CA 90294-0794

Published in 2006 by the University of Wisconsin Press, 328 pages (ISBN 978-0-299-21694-8). $19.95
Information: Tim Miller

“A Body in the O” by Tim Miller.

This book contains performances and essay/stories. The title of this new collection plays with the Shakespeare “Wooden O” notion from the “Henry V” prologue, an indication of the possibilities of all that we can make happen in that “O” shape of Shakespeare’s wooden theater space.

Tim States: “If we are not going to try to “cram within this wooden O” the Battle of Agincourt, along with daring to take up the battle to confront racism, the resistance to Trump, the struggle against homophobia, the challenge to imagine a better future, then why bother making theater?” - Tim Miller

“Tim continues the unabashed and purposeful sex-positive, embodied conversational style that remains a lifeline by appropriately demystifying queer experience, protest, and encounters with power. ... His memoir-driven work does more than attempt a realist account of the events he speaks to; it also includes surreal, dream-inspired evocations of fear and possibility.” - from the foreword by Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, Southern Illinois University

“For an entire generation of queer artists working in the experimental theater world - including me - Tim led the way. His imagination, daring and vision continue to inspire us.” - Moisés Kaufman, playwright, director, artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project

Published in 2019 by the University of Wisconsin Press, 176 pages (ISBN 9780299322601). $19.95
Information: Tim Miller

“Body Blows: Six Performances” by Tim Miller.

This book explores the tangible body blows - taken and given - of Miller’s life and times as explored in his performances: the queer-basher’s blow, the sweet blowing breath of a lover, the below-the-belt blow of HIV/AIDS, the psychic blows from a society that disrespects the humanity of lesbian and gay relationships. Miller’s performances are full of the put-up-your-dukes and stand-your-ground of such day-to-day blows that make up being gay in America.

Here are six of Miller’s best-known performances that chart the sexual, spiritual, and political topography of his identity as a gay man: “Some Golden States,” “Stretch Marks,” “My Queer Body,” “Naked Breath,” “Fruit Cocktail,” and “Glory Box.” Each performance script is illustrated with striking photographs, accompanied by Miller’s notes and comment.

“Tim Miller sings that song of the self which interrogates, with explosive, exploding, subversive joy and freedom, the constitution and borderlines of selfhood. ... You think you don’t need to hear such singing? You do! You must! Read the book!” - Tony Kushner, playwright of Angels in America, from the foreword.

“The power of Tim Miller’s performances lies in his sharp mind and gentle heart, his capacity for being angry and funny and self-critical all at once. One senses immediately that he can be trusted, even when he leads us into unknown territory. His passion is utterly contagious.” - Armistead Maupin, author of “Tales of the City”

Published in 2002 by the University of Wisconsin Press, 272 pages (ISBN 978-0-299-17684-6). $19.95
Information: Tim Miller

Tim Miller Consolidated Works, Seattle, Washington February 16, 2006 image: Demian

Performer, teacher, activist, writer, internationally acclaimed performance artist, Tim Miller explores the artistic, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man. His performances have toured throughout North America and Europe.

design by Andrew Caldwall

For comments on “Hollywood at Sunset” and “Michelangelo’s Models,” please see this report from Bill Kaiser and Doric Wilson: Bi-coastal Robert Patrick

For “Michelangelo’s Models”
= $12 check or money order
= Robert Patrick, 1837 N., Alexandria Ave., #211, Los Angeles, CA 90027
= Please write on check: “I am over 18”
= Please include your e-address
Foreign sales: rbrtptrck@aol.com

Film Moi - the Data CD

The disk contains more than 1,000 illustrations in chapter-length critiques of 14 favorite films. Patrick is the author of “Kennedy’s Children,” “Blue is for Boys,” “T Shirts,” and “Untold Decades.” In “Film Moi,” he analyzes his life and times (1937-ongoing), the trends and traumas of Hollywood, and “the whirled we live in.”

Chapters include:
“Broken Blossoms,” “Fantasia,” “All About Eve,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “The Ten Commandments,” “Vertigo & Marnie,” “Gigi & Damn Yankees,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” “Judgment at Nuremberg,” “La Dolce Vita & 8 1/2,” “Porn,” “Nashville,” “All That Jazz,” “Aliens & Prick Up Your Ears”

Selected Quotes:
“American culture is eating itself in front of a mirror, like a porn star.”
“Charlton Heston is indisputably the lead in The Ten Commandments - no matter how you pronounce ‘lead.’ ”
“Pornography recaptures the original thrill of film - simply seeing ordinary things moving on a screen.”

“Patrick, a founding father of gay drama in America, writes with intelligent perception about movies … Patrick’s candid commentary on his own precocious sexual and artistic life is equally absorbing … Patrick’s prose is so smart and fluid that it’s hard to, well, put the ‘book’ down.” - Richard LaBonte, in his syndicated column, September 2003.

Robert Patrick, Playwright on WordPress
Robert Patrick (playwright) on Wikipedia

On CD-ROM formatted in MS Word.
$15 check
Robert Patrick, 1837 N., Alexandria Ave., #211, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Please state you are 18+ and aware you are ordering adult material.
Please include your e-address.
Info: rbrtptrck@aol.com

“Temple Slave” (1994) is a novel about the origins of Off-Off Broadway. It has gone into a second printing and been optioned for film. In 1997, Robert Patrick received the Robert Chesley Award for “Lifetime Achievement in Gay Theatre.”

From chapter one:
“And I see you’re actually producing a gay play - about A.I.D.S., of course. That should work for your subscription audience: They love to see us dying of a withering disease. Got time at the top to read long letters? Beware. I have the motive, the means, and the opportunity: I have twenty years of vintage bile, just fermenting to boiling point; I have Flair pens and Prism notebooks from every school where I’ve ever lectured on The Origins of Underground Theatre, and I have diddledy-squat-zilch else to do. I caught my latest producer today, you see, pick-pocketing the big bucks my latest, late, play raised to benefit that new gay high school; she chose to close our show rather than face audit; and since I returned to New York only to benefit the kids, here I sit idol-idle, reflecting in the glass wall of Phebe’s Bar and Grill, sucking my coffee and blowing my Kool while schools of topical, tropical punks flush by.”

The data CD contains the (adult content) complete novel, along with annotations in MS Word.
$15 US postage paid - checks only - allow two weeks delivery
Robert Patrick, 1837 N. Alexandria Ave., #211, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Please state you are 18+ and aware you are ordering adult material.
Please include your e-address.
Info: rbrtptrck@aol.com For more information on Robert Patrick, see his: Resume and Links to Online Works

photo by Andrew Caldwall

Read on-line, new fiction, poetry, and drama by some of today’s finest gay and lesbian writers.

“Lord Alfred’s Lover”
“The road will be red with monstrous martyrdoms, but we shall win.” Oscar Wilde wrote these words at the end of the nineteenth century after serving two years at hard labor for the crime of being homosexual. This modern martyrdom is the subject of this play, Eric Bentley's Brechtian dramatization of Wilde’s last days.

“H for Hamlet”
Another variation on the modern martyr play, this time in homage to Pirandello. The protagonist thinks, or once thought, he was Hamlet. Fantasy? Perhaps. But, to paraphrase Marianne Moore, there was a real toad in the imaginary garden--a real martyr in the toy theatre.

“German Requiem”
Bentley takes inspiration from Heinrich von Kleist’s play “The Schroffenstein Family,” which in turn is a version of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The young star-crossed lovers in his play are martyrs of an internecine conflict much like those seen in recent history in Ireland and the Middle East.

Winner of 2006 International Association of Theatre Critics Thalia Prize
Winner of 2006 Village Voice OBIE Awards Lifetime Achievement Award
Recipient of 2007 The Robert Chesley Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in Playwriting

Available from Northwestern University Press for $18.95
From Amazon for $26.16

The show is a mix of a 1959 Judy Garland Christmas TV special and “The Twilight Zone.” Among Judy’s guests are: Bing Crosby, Liberace, Ethel Merman, Richard Nixon, Lillian Hellman, Joan Crawford, and Death.

This CD recreates the show, which premiered at the Victory Theater Center (Burbank, California), and played at the Court Theatre (West Hollywood, California), and in Portland, Oregon. It plays in Chicago and Des Moines in winter, 2005.

Cast includes: Connie Champagne, Sean Smith, Don Lucas, Lauri Johnson, Eric Anderson, Jan Sheldrick, Joanne O’Brien, Mark A. Cross, Dustin Strong, Jonathan Neeley, Terri Homberg-Olsen, Allen Everman II.

Connie Champagne recreates for the CD her performance as Judy Garland, for which she won an Ovation Award.

The CD was available for $19.95 on judyschristmas.com - however, the Web site appears to be vacant.
Now on Amazon - MP3 $8.99 | Audio CD $39.99

The book includes material on the theater’s first ten seasons, as well as thoughts about New Line from Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, and Post Dispatch critics Judy Newmark and Gerry Kowarsky. It contains a show-by-show history of the company, including cast and staff lists, review quotes, director’s program notes, and reminiscences from actors, designers, directors, choreographers, and audience members.

For years, conventional wisdom has held that theater companies have to produce brainless, well-known, flashy shows to make money and stay afloat. But one regional theater company, out in the middle of America, has been proving since 1991 that conventional wisdom is wrong. New Line Theatre consistently challenges its audiences, taking them on wild, intense, roller coaster rides, assaulting them with issues, challenging them with complex characters and themes, demanding that audiences not remain passive, sometimes producing shows very few people have heard of, daring to be controversial, aggressive, confrontational. And not only has New Line survived its first ten years, it’s sailing into its next ten years as healthy and as heartily supported by its public as ever.

New Line Theatre has, once and for all, shattered the myth that audiences only like what they know, that audiences don’t like to think when they come to the theater, that television has made us all into passive couch potatoes. On the contrary, New Line has proven that audiences-even those in the supposedly conservative Midwest-love to be challenged, shaken up, confronted, involved. This is New Line’s story.

Scott Miller has directed in theater since 1981. He’s written eight musicals, and two plays. His books on musical theater include: “From Assassins to West Side Story,” “Deconstructing Harold Hill,” “Rebels with Applause,” and “Let the Sun Shine In,” as well as the novel “In the Blood.”

“You Could Drive a Person Crazy” is available from iUnivers for $17.95.

Actor, writer and photographer Karvoski has authored three books with gay content about performers.

“A Funny Time to Be Gay: Hilarious Gay & Lesbian Comedy Routines from Trailblazers to Today’s Headliners” Traces the evolution of gay and lesbian comedy from the few pioneers in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 70s - to the mavericks who played San Francisco’s famed Valencia Rose in the 80s - to the comics who starred in their own TV specials in the 90s and continue to headline comedy clubs. Cover quote: “There’s not a closet big enough to hold this book! The performers, many of whom I’ve worked with, are here and now. You’ll get to hang out and laugh. Enjoy this!” - Whoopi Goldberg Cover quote: “The sex may be safe, but the comedy isn’t. This is the kind of funny, bias-bashing book that all of America - gay and straight - should be reading.” - Bill Maher, HBO’s “Real Time” host. Among the more than 30 humorists spotlighted:    Tom Ammiano - longtime San Francisco elected official    Judy Carter - three-time author including “The Comedy Bible”    Kate Clinton - three-time author including “Don’t Get Me Started”    Sabrina Mathews - star of own Comedy Central special    Bob Smith - three-time author including “Openly Bob,” star of an HBO special    Jason Stuart - frequent TV guest appearances    Robin Tyler - performer, producer and proprietor of a women’s cruise line    Suzanne Westenhoeffer - star of own HBO special    Danny Williams - longtime MC at RSVP Cruises. Available via Amazon. “Award-Winning Men: Up Close and Personal with Gay Honorees” Learn about the American Leatherboy who ran for a state Senate seat. And the Mr. New York City Bear who has appeared on VH-1’s Behind the Music. And the openly gay actor who had a day named in his honor by a city mayor. And the athlete in his 60s who won 17 medals at Gay Games. These are just a few of the 48 intriguing gentlemen, from coast to coast, profiled and photographed. Get the inside scoop from numerous titleholders, such as Mr. International Gay Rodeo Association, Mr. Ebony Leather, Mr. Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, Mr. Gay Wisconsin All-American, and the Emperor of San Francisco’s Imperial Court. Other award-winners include singers, comedians, filmmakers, authors, athletes, erotic performers and everyday activists. A unique opportunity to meet recipients of a wide array of accolades - ranging from a fun nod for Best Buns from Gay Naturists International to Broadway’s coveted Tony Award! Available via Amazon. “The Movie Queen Quiz Book: A Trivia Test Dedicated to Fabulous Female Film Stars” Do you know which movie queens were the first mother and daughter to each receive an Oscar® nomination in the same year? Who appeared in advertisements for products ranging from Coppertone tanning lotion to Depends undergarments? Who delivered the following line of dialogue, and in what film? “There are only two things I dislike about you. Your face!” Classic Movie Queens: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn! Contemporary Movie Queens: Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon! Award-Winning Movie Queens: Elizabeth Taylor, Meryl Streep and Judi Dench! Funny Movie Queens: Whoopi Goldberg, Lucille Ball and Mae West! Musical Movie Queens: Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and Judy Garland! And many more fabulous female film stars, past and present! Available via Amazon.