Roy Cohn / Jack Smith

January - Febrauary 1992 & May - June 1992
At The Performing Garage
Photo © 1992 Paula Court

Vawter's two-part solo performance was a double portrait of two complex minds and two opposing approaches to gay sexuality. Roy Cohn, written by Gary Indiana, was a fictitious adaptation of an after-diner speech delivered by lawyer Cohn in 1976 to the American Association for the President of the Family. Jack Smith was a portrait of the gay performance artist and filmmaker who was an influential "underground" figure in the New York arts community in the 1960's and 1970's. With Creative Time's support in the development of this work, Vawter and producer Marianne Weems put together a commissioning/presenting consortium that included Creative Time, The Fan Fow & Lesile R. Samuels Foundation, The Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A., San Francisco Artspace, University Art Museum and Pacific Film Achieve at UC Berkley, the Walker Art Center, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and The Wooster Group. In New York, the show ran for a month as a work-in-progress during January and February; then in a revised version for the months of May and June. Over 2,500 people saw the production. Vawter was awarded an OBIE for his performance.