OUTzone talks to Playwright Adam Bock!

October 13, 2006

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OZ: Coming Out Day was Wednesday, October 11. You want to tell us your story?
I came out twice. I came out once at theater school, where I had a girlfriend. I didn’t totally understand the deal about sex and love. I thought, “this is nice. She’s really nice. I really like her.”

And then I went to theater school and I saw this guy and the second night I was there, I lunged at him. And I kissed him and I thought, “OH! This is what they’re talking about, I feel this wow, that’s why it’s so … huh.” So I went out with him for three months, and we broke up and went out and broke up and went out. Like seven times. And by the time I moved to New York, when school was over, I thought “this sucks I don’t want to be gay.” I was not going to be gay anymore. Gay men are terrible. I was completely over it. So I did’t go back in the closet, but I just didn’t do anything about. And then I came out again.

OZ: And it’s gone well?
(Laughs.)
So far so good. Coming Out Day was a really important day for me because I had done theater and then I quit right after I got out of grad school. I decided that theater didn’t feel like what I wanted to do. And then there was a Coming Out Day Celebration, in Providence and I was living there. These three guys in this café said they wanted me to write them something for this cabaret they were going to do. They wanted to play Chanel models. And I said, “Sure.” So I wrote them a piece called The House of Chanel Joins Act-Up. They dressed in Chanel, with little triangle things with the chanel sign. It went so well that I thought, “Oh my Gosh, this is why I write theater. This is why I do it.”

And I started writing again, and that actually led to my writing the next thing I wrote which was the gay boy nutcracker. That ended up having a run for like, four different years. All amateurs. The second biggest gay thing in Rhode Island after the pride parade. I did it for four years and then I quit. I was exhausted.

OZ: Okay, time now for our Outzone rapid fire questions.
Middle name: William David
Hometown: Montreal
High School Mascot: We didn’t have one. It was prep school.
Name of first crush: Tracy Monk and her boyfriend Steven. I liked Steven so I went out with Tracy.
Favorite color: Orange.
Best Movie Ever: Babette’s Feast.
What are you listening to: A lot of Annie Lennox. I was in Utah and my play was being done, and they had put me up and I was lonely. The TV was on, and I heard “Do you love the sound of the seventies?” And I was like “yes I do.” And I bought 160 dollars worth of seventies music.
Celebrity Crush: Any boy? I’m pretty shallow so it’s probably Brad Pitt. For the gays, though, Rufus Wainwright. I’m kinda dating someone right now, so I’m kind of trying not to have the other crushes.
How’s that going? Really good, actually.
First kiss with a boy: Theater school.
TV show you love: "Lost."
If you had to take one person with you to a desert island: My fella.
If they banned all works of literature, and you had to memorize one play, which would it be? Midsummer Night’s Dream. Or Hamlet.