Frontiers Feature
by Robert Sokol
Aug. 8, 2002
Paper, Scissors, Stone: Gay Playwright Carves Up a New Perspective
Excerpt
...Hartgraves recalls, "A couple of years ago, Leon [Acord] and I were working on a solo show of his and he called one night with this idea that he wanted to play Quentin Crisp in something and that I should write a one-man show for him. About 20 minutes later I called him back and said, 'Well, the good news is that I have an idea. The bad news is that it is not a solo show.'" In Hartgraves' vision, Crisp was joined by fellow literati Capote, Williams and Wilde ... Hartgraves essays Tennessee Williams, with creative muse Leon Acord assuming his desired role of Quentin Crisp...
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| Bay Area Reporter Feature
by Richard Dodds
Aug. 1, 2002
Gay Icons Meet Eternity
Excerpt
...it is the actor playing Quentin Crisp who spurred him to write the play in the first place.
"Leon Acord called me one night and he said 'I would really like to play Quentin Crisp and you should write me a solo show.' Twenty minutes later, I called him back and said, 'I really have an interesting idea, and the bad news is that it's not a solo show.'"
If Acord flinched, it was only momentarily. He is not only still playing Crisp, but he is also co-producing the play with Hartgraves.
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Bay Area Reporter "Backstage" column
by Richard Dodds
Jan. 24, 2002
It doesn't open until August at the Eureka Theatre, but an early press release makes Carved in Stone at least sound intriguing. Jeffrey Hartgraves' new play brings together P.A. Cooley as Truman Capote, Leon Acord as Quentin Crisp, Matt Weimer as Oscar Wilde, and Hartgraves as Tennesse Williams. On top of all that, John Fisher is the director.
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| SF Chronicle "Lively Arts" column by David Wiegand
Aug. 15, 2001
Most actors are lucky to land one gig, but Leon Acord was getting his exercise last weekend, running between two productions at Theatre Rhino. He started his evening Friday and Saturday playing a pregnant man in Cyclops, a new one-act by Prince Gomovilas, staged as part of Rhino's new-play festival. As soon as he was done being pregnant downstairs, Acord had to run upstairs to pop into Ronnie Larsen's A Few Gay Men, already in progress. He says it's a good thing he's a Gemini.
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Acting in the Gay Bay
June 23, 2000
By Leon Acord
SPECIAL TO THE SF EXAMINER
"If you're gonna be an actor, you better butch it up!"
How many times did I hear this in my early career? It even led me to give up my dream for a while. Growing up in Indiana, I never saw gay characters on TV or in the movies -- much less openly gay actors. What hope did I have?
I knew if I went to Los Angeles, I could either be a closet case (not really an option), or a "professional homosexual" like Paul Lynde -- better, but still not for me.
Thank God I moved to San Francisco! Yes, it's an uphill battle to make it as a working actor in the Bay Area. Though there are lots of independent films made here, few actually pay real money. And there aren't enough commercials, CD-ROMS and Nash Bridges episodes for everyone. But the trade-off is certainly worth it to me.
In the past year, I've played leads in three plays, two of which were gay-themed (Dream Boy, Message to Michael). My most successful film role (so far!) was the "gay best friend" in Some Prefer Cake, a lesbian comedy feature shot in the Bay Area. And my one-man show Last Sunday in June, which I performed last year, was a comical exploration of the San Francisco Pride Parade.
Alas, gay theatre is no longer the cutting-edge avant garde it once was. As fewer & fewer people -- gay & straight -- attend live performance, more gay theatres resort to a "soft-core" mentality to get people in the seats (i.e., Jeff Stryker's Doing Time, All-Male Peep Show, Barebacking.)
Theatre Rhinoceros, once San Francisco's preeminent gay theatre, seems to be quickly slidng down that slope. New Conservatory, however, seems to be making conscious efforts to lose its "Nude Conservatory" nickname -- their just-completed Millennium Pride Season offered several thought-provoking productions with nary a bare butt in sight.
And things are slowly improving in Hollywood -- see Ellen, Rupert Everett, et al.
Just the same, I'm staying here. San Francisco's agents and casting directors are an enlightened bunch -- they allow gay/besian actors to be themselves between roles.
And as artists, we get to explore in our work themes that are important to us. I've been allowed to play characters who speak to my heart and sole, who are experiencing things I can truly relate to.
I've worked more here than I might have in Los Angeles. And the more I've worked, the more I've grown. As a result, I've become a much stronger actor and, ironically, am able to play further and further "outside" myself. And as it happens, this summer I'm playing a "straight" lead in the independent feature film Dating the Devil. Okay, okay -- so I'll need to butch it up a tad.
Leon Acord, a Hoosier by birth, has been a Californian by choice for 15 years. He lives in the Castro with his vast collection of Wonder Woman memorabilia.
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Acting Up
Local Man Making His Dream Come True in California
(Kokomo, IN Tribune, Jan. 4, 1999)
By Nancy Newman
Maybe it started when he was 12 and he and a friend made a series of short movies called The Wonder Twins.
Maybe the urge strengthened as the self-professed "sitcom fiend" honed his skills in comedic timing in front of the TV, soaking in the Norman-Lear humor of the '70s.
Maybe it took hold when he was in high school and as part of a class project wrote and shot his version of a slasher movie -- using an abandoned house, several screaming teen-agers and "lots and lots of ketchup."
And maybe that passion for theatre was locked in securely with all those plays he did at Lewis Cass High School.
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Whatever started it, Leon Acord has held on and followed his dream -- a dream that comes to life when he is on a stage.
Moving to Indianapolis the day after graduating from Cass, Leon got his feet wet in productions for Footlite Theatre there and Ole Olsen Memorial Theatre in Peru. It's good training, he says. "I've done a lot of stuff in San Francisco that was no more 'professional' than things I did in community theatre," he says, "even though it might pay a little."
For the first time since moving to San Francisco 13 years ago, Leon will actually claim profit earned from acting on his taxes this year. And that, he says, is a good sign that he's making inroads in that elusive profession.
After moving back home from Indy and attending Indiana University for a while, Leon and a friend headed for San Francisco and careers, they hoped, in the the movies. They had no jobs, no contacts, no place to stay. "I had saved $1,200," Leon says. "It wasn't enough."
His friend gave up and came back to Indiana in a couple of months. Leon stayed, found a temporary job and a cheap apartment, and began the rounds of auditions. He didn't like it. "Auditions unnerved me," he says, laughing.
So he decided to become a filmmaker, "basically to keep from auditioing." He made three films. One, a drama called OUT, about a terrorized agoraphobe, he is especially proud of. But he realized that acting was really what he wanted to do. "So I told myself to grow up, get over it, and start auditioning."
He's supported himself with office work while honing his craft. And his face is getting known. "It's a slow process. There's a lot of learning involved. You do a play, get an agent, start auditioning, get a play ..."
Most actors who finally make it have worked a long time, he says. "The thinking tends to be you're either on the cover of People magazine, or you're starving and unemployed. It can happen, but it's hard work."
He's been in several independent features and shorts, including Some Prefer Cake,a comedy that was distributed theatrically through Great Britain and in the U.S. on video.
He's also written and performed a one-man show, Last Sundy in June, which he's performed in San Francisco.
But what he really, really wants to do is a television sitcom. All those shows he watched growing up have stuck with him. "I love comedy," he says. "I much prefer comedy to drama."
Leon's next project is co-producing and starring in an original play, Carved in Stone, to be presented in San Francisco.
After that, he's decided to move to Los Angeles, to look for that sitcom that's out there somewhere, just searching for a blond, funny guy from Indiana who can act, sing if he has to, and yes, even wield a mean bottle of kethcup.
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