When Lilacs Last is A hard-hitting confrontation: two promising young men struggle with abusive fathers, sexual orientation, and bigotry while coming of age. Set against poetry of Walt Whitman: a searing experience of devastation--innocence and desire overwhelmed by ignorance and brutality.
The work is the melding of an original script and the improvisational work of students at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA. The strong language and theme of homosexuality did not deter the school's Headmaster, Steven Piltch, who encouraged the play from the start as a means of opening dialogue to a most serious question.
The title is drawn from Walt Whitman’s poem, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Whitman’s verse is interwoven into the play. Each scene is introduced by a passage from “Leaves of Grass,” and the poet, whose ties to the Philadelphia area were close, figures in the drama in other key ways.
This piece was originally presented by student actors at The Shipley School. A special performance was then called by the Headmaster for the faculty alone. "Lilacs" was then entered in the West Chester University Theater Competition where it received a standing ovation from the audience. The adult two act version will be presented at The New York International Fringe Festival in August. It has also been selected for the New York Fringe High, intended for young adults.
"When Lilacs Last," will be of significant interest not only to Philadelphia's Gay community but to all those interested in the safe environment of young people who face verbal and physical violence because of their sexual orientation
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