The Kinetic Presence of Alexis Gregory

The Kinetic Presence of Alexis Gregory

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Alexis Gregory (photo by Jay Barry Matthews)

Alexis Gregory is one of the most electric and versatile young actors working today. As a favorite in seminal British filmmaker and playwright Rikki Beadle-Blair’s Kick Off, FIT and Stonewall, Gregory has created characters who combine intense vulnerability and steely strength with a healthy sprinkling of sexiness and ruthless pragmatism. As Beadle-Blair might put it, Alexis Gregory knows how to be “in the room.”

When asked how he got into the acting industry, he says he found his agent at the age of 15 and got to work immediately amassing an impressive résumé in film, TV and commercials. “Looking back,” he says, “I can see that as a child, I made it all happen. I was a determined young thing when I wanted to be.”

This determination helped him create his most challenging role to date, a feisty transgender woman named Dominique, in his play Slap, which was performed at Theatre Royal Stratford East and showcased on Channel 4 as the channel’s first-ever on-site theatrical presentation. Regarding his professional experience as an openly gay actor, Gregory says that “it doesn’t come without complications or hurdles, but I am very honest in my work as a writer, and in my own life too. I couldn’t do it any other way at this stage. I have struggled with it in the past, though, and have had to go on my own journey with it all, as well.”

This journey has led him to write and perform the lead role in his second play, Bright Skin Light, which is currently in development. The piece is about a gay son reunited with his gay father, who abandoned the family 20 years earlier. It is a play that examines the early years of the AIDS crisis in London and current responses to the virus, as well as themes of art, family, love, addiction, loss and redemption, set over the course of a morning in a critical-care unit in a London hospital.

“I am also developing Safe,” he says, “a piece of verbatim theater for the Albert Kennedy Trust, which is a charity that supports homeless and at-risk LGBT youth. The piece will be made up of the actual words spoken to me in the interviews, including those of a trans woman whose story of survival is quite astonishing; a gay trans man who is not only having to learn to navigate society as a man now but as a gay man too; and also a young Nigerian-born gay man who, when living over here with his family, was outed to them and had to escape from being sent back to Nigeria for ‘curing.'”

When asked whether he feels that there is still a long way to go for gay actors and performers in the UK, his answer is yes. “Obviously it’s getting better,” he says, “but being out and gay can stop you getting auditions for straight roles, and I have actor friends who are advised by industry figures to stay in the closet and not post pictures of themselves with their boyfriends on Facebook. It is a complicated issue, though, and I am by no means pointing a singular finger at the industry. I think you just have to get on with it and do your own thing. I have been writing about a world that I inhabit and my own take on it, and this is what has got me noticed as a writer, so I have no complaints. Embracing and writing about my truth has opened doors for me. I hope it continues to do so.”

www.huffingtonpost.com/diriye-osman/the-kinetic-presence-of-alexis-gregory_b_6023946.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Pat Robertson: Gays are acting like 'terrorists – they’re radicals and they’re extremists'

Pat Robertson: Gays are acting like 'terrorists – they’re radicals and they’re extremists'

Anti-gay TV evangelist says it’s time pastors fight against this ‘monstrous thing’ of being forced not to discriminate

read more

gregh

www.gaystarnews.com/article/pat-robertson-gays-are-actng-terrorists-they%E2%80%99re-radicals-and-they%E2%80%99re-extremists221014

Bryan Singer Expecting First Child With Queer As Folk Actress Michelle Clunie

Bryan Singer Expecting First Child With Queer As Folk Actress Michelle Clunie

Screen Shot 2014-10-22 at 1.29.11 PMWe didn’t see this one coming. Now that his legal worries seem to be behind him for the moment, X-Men director and lover of twinks Bryan Singer is about to become a daddy.

No, that’s not what his lovers will seductively call him (call it a gut feeling but we don’t think he’s into that). He’s expecting his first child with Queer As Folk actress Michelle Clunie.

Bryan’s rep Simon Halls told E! News:

“Best friends for 25 years, mother and father are both very excited about the upcoming birth and look forward to co-parenting the child together. The pair have been planning this baby for years and have been trying for the last two.”

In even more shocking news, E! also reports that Michelle is not acting as surrogate, meaning the two conceived naturally.

Bryan told Out earlier this year:

“I’m quite bisexual. In the last five years, I’ve had two girlfriends—one for two years, one for eight months…In the end, it’s probably going to be a guy. I emotionally lean towards male relationships, so I’m happy to say I’m gay, too, if it’s a one-syllable, easy answer.”

Funny how we’ve never once heard of him trotting around town with a woman, but hey, maybe that’s just media bias for you. Or, you know, maybe not.

It’s worth noting that Halls also announced the pregnancy in the same way you’d expect a big-budget blockbuster to be teased:

“I can confirm that Michelle Clunie and Bryan Singer are happily expecting a baby together in early 2015,” he told press.

Coming soon to a delivery room near you.

Dan Tracer

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NEWS: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tesla, Bryan Singer's Baby, Ottawa Attack

NEWS: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tesla, Bryan Singer's Baby, Ottawa Attack

Ben RoadNASA creates Soundcloud account: “More than 60 samples have been added to the agency’s new dedicated Soundcloud account, but listeners are unable to leave comments underneath the files. Astronaut communications, including “Houston, we’ve had a problem” and “the Eagle has landed”, can be heard – as well as some more abstract noises made by working spacecraft and debris. In space itself, sound is unable to travel as there is no air.”

RoadBenedict Cumberbatch continues to look historical as he plays Richard III in The Hollow Crown.

RoadThe Hunt for Red October: “Last Thursday, a Swedish newspaper reported that the Swedish military had intercepted Russian-language radio traffic on a Russian emergency channel, and that the communications were between Russia’s European enclave at Kaliningrad and a source somewhere in the Stockholm Archipelago. What followed were a slew of news and allegations — including alleged photos of a Russian submarine just off the Swedish coast not far from Stockholm, and reports about a mysterious man swimming ashore.”

RoadLindsay Lohan posts tweet voicing support for Brazilian presidential candidate then deletes it. Internet speculates motives.

RoadMichigan Governor bans sale of Tesla cars.

RoadMichelle Clunie, a.k.a. Melanie from the U.S. version of Queer As Folkis having Bryan Singer’s baby.

RoadFormer Executive Editor and iconic newspaperman Ben Bradlee has died. Obituary from The Washington Post.

Into RoadFirst Look: Johnny Depp as the Big Bad Wolf in Into The Woods.

RoadMonica Lewinsky is speaking out about internet bullying apparently inspired by Tyler Clementi.

RoadMore photos from the set of Magic Mike XXL.

RoadSarah Jessica Parker angers owners of Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment with unauthorized photo shoot

RoadRepublican Congressman Trent Franks bemoans secular liberal America: “IS [the Islamic State, a.k.a. ISIS] may succeed in committing violence against Christians because “the secular left” in America is diluting the country’s Christian heritage. He said that IS may rise into power just as the Nazis did even though at one point they were just “a bunch of idiots riding across France [sic] in their brownshirts.”

RoadFBI said to be working closely with the Canadian government to determine if today’s attack was a terrorist action.


Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/news–4.html

Anderson Cooper Destroys Pat Robertson's 'Towels Have AIDS' Warning

Anderson Cooper Destroys Pat Robertson's 'Towels Have AIDS' Warning
Anderson Cooper tore straight into conservative Christian media personality Pat Robertson on Tuesday night for his ridiculous and offensive claims about AIDS.

While responding to a “The 700 Club” viewer, Robertson cautioned traveling to Kenya, not because of Ebola, but because “the towels could have AIDS.”

During the latest edition of the “Ridiculist” on “Anderson Cooper 360,” the visibly infuriated host set the record straight:

“Just to be clear, if, like Pat Robertson, you somehow missed all the evidence, all the research, the depth and breadth of all the knowledge garnered about HIV and AIDS over the past three decades, you cannot get HIV if you share towels,” Cooper said.

The CNN host went on to tease that maybe the best thing for all of us to do is to just stay in the United States and not travel at all.

“Except steer clear of San Francisco,” he added. “Because that’s of course where all the gay people live and Pat Robertson thinks they have an ingenious way of giving you ‘the stuff.'”

Cooper for the win.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/22/anderson-cooper-pat-robertson-aids-ridiculist-cnn_n_6030022.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Antoine Dodson Unveils Butch New Look, Sticking By That Whole “Ex-Gay” Story

Antoine Dodson Unveils Butch New Look, Sticking By That Whole “Ex-Gay” Story

Screen Shot 2014-10-22 at 11.40.13 AM“Human rape whistle” Antoine Dodson became somewhat of an underground gay celebrity with his “Hide your kids, hide your wife” platform, until May of last year when he revealed he was “no longer into homosexuality” and had become a Black Hebrew Israelite. It’s a natural progression.

He’s also accepted paychecks and the hope of more fame by appearing on Tosh.0 multiple times, where he knows he’s repeatedly subjecting himself to national ridicule. Anything to sell T-shirts, we guess.

Here’s some highlights from his most recent interview:

Tosh: How has your life changed from being on my show?

Antoine: A whole lot. I have a girlfriend.

T: That’s very confusing. What’s his name?

A: (Haha.)

T: Have you told your family you’re back in the closet?

A: When I told my family I was back in the closet, they kind of believed it.

T: I hope you become gay again.

You can watch all the awkwardness here:

Tosh.0
Get More: Comedy Central

Dan Tracer

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