Rainbow Snippets: Pride and another bit of Upstaged!

Happy Saturday! As promised, here are some pictures from last week’s Pride.

Now for today’s snippet. I’m sharing again from UPSTAGED! An anthology of women who love women in performing arts. None of these are my stories, but I had the privilege of curating and editing the anthology.

Just to give an idea of the wide range of styles and stories, I’m sharing from something radically different from the previous one. Last week, I shared a bit of JL Merrow’s excellent steampunk. Today, I’m giving you a poetic, lyrical contemporary YA, “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Queer,” by Allison Fradkin.

I love this story first because my kids were utterly delighted by it. They had fun trying to spot all the Broadway shows referenced in it. Second, I’m a fan of Broadway myself. And third, it’s such a different writing style from anything else I’d included.

The narrative of any good musical always, like Oliver!, requires a twist, and Reyna’s is that she’s psychic.

Like, Disney sitcom psychic—just your average adolescent doin’ what comes supernatur’lly.

For her part, Melinda knows, believes, and accepts the prophetic proponent of Reyna’s identity.

But how would she feel if she knew that seer was also queer?

Because it may be five to places, but it’s ten to one that Mel finds it soothing that the soothsayer is so secretive, keeping her gift hidden from possible naysayers—and impossible bullies. If no one knows Rey has a penchant for the paranormal, then she and Mel can just be a pair a’ normal girls.

So she definitely can’t go singin’ in the rainbow that she prefers dolls to guys, not when she’s been crooning about each and every crush—letting everyone hear it’s for the boy—since junior high. And she certainly can’t contemplate how loverly it would be if she and a certain non-boy crush could pair their thespian tendencies with lesbian tendencies.

No, she has no choice but to negate, fabricate, overcompensate.

Blurb: I Think I’m Gonna Like It Queer, Allison Fradkin – Theatre is an ensemble of inflection, projection, and rejection. So when 16-year-old Reyna—a performer who’s part prima donna, part dreamgirl next door—desires a duet with Melinda, the ingénue who plays her best friend, she can’t just run and tell that. Or even run and tell Melinda. But with the arrival of a triply threatening romantic rival, it’s five to places and ten to one that Reyna had better act on her feelings before the curtain closes on her chances.

About the Author: Allison Fradkin is a playwright with thespian tendencies. She makes her stage presence felt in community theatre productions of musicals (State Fair, Big Fish, Spamalot), as well as straight plays (The Miracle Worker, The Women, Children of a Lesser God). In addition to performing, she plays the part of Dramatist for Special Gifts Theatre, adapting musicals for actors of all abilities; and acts as Literary Coordinator for Pride Films & Plays, curating new works by female-identified screenwriters and playwrights. Scriptly speaking, Allison’s plays, which include “Girl, You Know Its True Colors” and “I Love Lezzie,” not only surpass the Bechdel Test but have come out onstage at 10-minute play festivals nationwide. Although she has a soft spot for short plays, Allison is currently developing her first full-length work: a feminist tribute to The Golden Girls entitled Say Cheesecake! The Musical about Girls of a Golden Age. To give her props, please visit allisonfradkin.blogspot.com.

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!