‘Abraham Lincoln's Big, Gay Dance Party' comes to Sonoma State University

Advance publicity for a new college production of stage play with a catchy name created some buzz this week.

“Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party” is the kind of title that prompts conversation. The political satire, written by Aaron Loeb, opens next week in the Person Theatre at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park.

Playscript.com offers this succinct synopsis: “Illinois schoolteacher Harmony Green has told her fourth grade class that Menard County’s most beloved homegrown hero, Abraham Lincoln, was gay. When Honest Abe is “outed” in a reimagined Christmas pageant, controversy and chaos engulf the town. As the trial of the century begins, big-city reporters and Congressional candidates descend, and family skeletons are forced out of the closet.”

The play, first seen in San Francisco in 2008, went on to the New York Fringe Festival in 2009, and premiered Off Broadway in 2010.

While the issue evidently wasn’t raised during Lincoln’s lifetime, according to historians, there has been speculation since then about the 16th president’s sexual orientation.

In “The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln,” published in 2005, psychologist C. A. Tripp described Lincoln as having distant relationships with women, and warmer relations with men.

The SSU production, directed Doyle Ott, opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, and runs until Oct. 24. For those interested in learning more about the historical background of the play, there will be an interactive discussion following the 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Oct. 18.

Ticket prices range from $5 to $17. Information: 664-4246, sonoma.edu/tix.

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.