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"1918: A House Divided"

Allison Tartalia wrote me:

The two central relationships of the play are both gay relationships, and much of the drama of the play centers aroung the main character, Billie, whose father disowns her after he sees her dancing with another woman. She later ends up involved with the character of Rina, who plays piano at the movie theatre ("She Plays the Piano"), and it's only after her sister dies in a subway crash (which really did happen in November 1918, when a subway strike led to the trains being driven by scabs), that her father contacts her again and seems like he might eventually be able to accept her relationship.

The other main couple in the play are Ricardo and Jamie, two of the art students Billie meets in the Village. When Ricardo is drafted into the war, Jamie finally finds the courage to admit to him that he has been in love with him all along ("Last to Die"). These aren't the only issues in the play--there are also a number of political parallels between WWI New York and the present day, addressing anti-immigration sentiment and racism along the way, but the LGBT relationships are definitely central to the plot.