MY LIFE AS ART

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BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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Welcome to Grindr

I WROTE my newest play, Welcome to Grindr, in March and April 2015. I started grinding in February last year, and immediately knew I had a play there in the Grindr app waiting to be written. I knew I just had to write about my first grinding experience, but I wasn’t sure if I should write it for the American audience, or my Filipino readers. Somehow I knew that it would take years, maybe decades, before Filipinos put up my kinds of plays on stage.
When I finally decided I should start writing for the American stage, everything just fell into place. I knew that I wanted a strong Filipino character in there, and so I kinda invented Peter Araña. Kinda because, well, I wanted Peter to be very much like me, but also not very much like me. In the end, I’m not sure if Peter Araña is more like me, or very much unlike me. I mean, he’s a schemer; I’m just a prankster. Okay, I’m a go-getter, too; but… Oh, just buy my book, and read for yourself.
I like that my central character is named Araña. The name means spider. So the allusions of Spiderman, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, the black widow, and the weaver of tales are really very precious in the play. As for the Americans in the play, well, I gave them the names of the real life characters that inspired them. Or not. I mean, who cares?
I submitted the play to a competition, but it didn’t win. It’s okay. This competition has a history of snubbing my works in my early submissions, and awarding it prizes years later after multiple resubmissions. It’s really okay. Maybe I’m just a little ahead of my time. Maybe I should just resubmit the play next year. Haha.
I also submitted Welcome to Grindr to the Baltimore Footlights Reading Project. It was accepted for a staged reading in the fall of 2015, but as luck would have it, I was invited to be the first Filipino author-guest of the Sharjah International Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates. Of course, I went to Sharjah!
The play didn’t move for the rest of 2015 and the first half of 2016. Then, I resubmitted it to the Baltimore Footlights in late June, and it was again accepted for a Fall reading. I asked to have my play featured in Spring instead because I wanted to spend Christmas and New Year’s in the Philippines. They gave me an April 2017 schedule.
The idea of the Footlights Reading Project is for playwrights to hear their unproduced play as performed by actors on a real stage. They also get to receive feedback from an audience composed of theater regulars and enthusiasts.
In August this year, I decided to publish Welcome to Grindr so you can now order the book online at Amazon.com. Of course, I bought some copies for sale in the Philippines, and they’re selling pretty fast at only P500. Call me at 09150937100, if interested.
Here’s how Welcome to Grindr was first reviewed:
“Welcome to Grindr is a story of the sexual and romantic odyssey of a Filipino writer lost in his first winter in America. It is a realistic exploration of the gay subculture that inhabits the sexually depraved world of the geo-social phone app called Grindr, and all the disconnections in the modern technological society’s search for true connection and relationships. At the heart of the play is a fetching operatic character and Everyman hurting and looking for love in all the wrong places.
“In turns heartfelt and hysterical, mundane and surreal, insane and heartbreaking, the play celebrates a wanton lust for life; and the convoluted quest for love, sex, and happiness in the age of Grindr, Facebook, and Google.
“Enter Peter Araña, a dinosaur in the Grindr demographics, battling for respect, acceptance, and validation. Betrayed by a husband who inadvertently disinherited him (after the former’s death), Peter copes by hating and dedicating his first winter in Maryland looking to find chats, dates, friends, relationships, and – in Grindr-exclusive terms, the “right now” hookups. Enter a parade of horny blue-eyed blondes, twinks and geeks, Greek gods and Spartan musclemen, racists and ageists, and self-hating, body-worshipping gay chauvinist pigs.
“A man gets pregnant, someone falls in love, Ashton Kutcher is in the house, a trick lays down the etiquette for f*ck buddy affairs, the Marlboro man sings, sex with incestuous Siamese twins, and it’s a guaranteed romp! Yes, the word “f*ck” peppers the dialogue, but this is Grindr.
“Welcome to Grindr, welcome to the play!”
Okay, so now you understand why this play may not see a performance on the Philippine stage? (A strong reason why I published the play so you can read it, and the bigger reason why you should buy and keep a copy!) But wish me luck. I’m just excited to see my play performed on an American stage!/PN
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