County blushes over gay comedy

J. Craig Anderson

Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

The Las Vegas Little Theatre company has staged hundreds of plays in its 28-year history, including a handful that involved bare flesh.

But when it presented a gay-themed comedy in December with glimpses of male nudity, theater organizers say a Clark County official ordered the production shut down.

"Who knew Sin City would be so conservative?" theater President Walter Niejadlik said.

The play, "Making Porn," has had successful runs in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and elsewhere without incident. But it was too much for Clark County Business License agent Dawn Barlow, who apparently overstepped her authority trying to bring down the curtain.

Barlow, who issued a notice of violation to the theater, cited county regulations prohibiting "the showing of human male or female genitals" at establishments that serve liquor.

The Little Theatre does not serve alcohol.

"The hardest stuff we have is caffeinated coffee," Niejadlik said.

The comedy in question, about an unemployed, straight actor who turns to gay pornography out of desperation, contains brief scenes of male nudity, he said.

But Niejadlik and theater Vice President Paul Thornton said the only real difference between "Making Porn" and other racy comedies they have hosted or produced is that it deals with homosexual themes.

"I think that's got everything to do with it," Thornton said.

The play, produced by a touring theater company and hosted by the Little Theatre, only had one day left in its scheduled run when the citation was issued, so Niejadlik and Thornton chose to violate the county order.

But auditions begin next week for another play, "Take Me Out," which also contains male nudity, so Thornton said he doesn't know whether the company can perform it as planned.

"Do we need to start submitting scripts to the county for approval, to make sure it conforms with somebody's moral code?" he said.

It is unlawful to change another author's play, Thornton said, so removing or altering the nude scenes could put the theater in as much legal trouble as leaving in those scenes.

After the Las Vegas Sun inquired about the incident Thursday, county officials scrambled to correct the situation. County Manager Thom Reilly said that the whole thing was a big mistake.

Reilly said Barlow cited the wrong code, and he promised that the county would retract the violation notice. He also said staff would review the decades-old ordinances pertaining to community theaters and consider updating them.

"The county will not be in the business of regulating the artistic content of plays in our community's theaters," Reilly said.

But despite Reilly's statement, Thornton said he continued to get mixed messages from the county late Thursday.

Thornton had sent an e-mail to County Commission Chairman Rory Reid on Dec. 19, in which he explained the situation and the theater's dilemma.

For two weeks, he received no response.

But on Thursday, a member of Reid's staff called Thornton and told him actors would have to wear G-strings in the new play.

The staff member, Kevin Carey, also told Thornton there is another county code that could be used to prohibit nudity in the theater aside from the liquor code.

"Now this really is censorship of an arts group," Thornton said. "I didn't know we lived in such a place."

County Business License Director Jacqueline Holloway agreed with Reilly that the county does not plan to "regulate artistic content," but she stopped short of guaranteeing the theater would receive no future violation notices for male nudity.

"I can't say for sure that that's the case," Holloway said, adding she still needed to confer with the district attorney's office. Sylvia Lazos, a professor at UNLV's Boyd School of Law, said there is ample precedent to raise doubts about the legality of the county's actions. Courts have ruled overwhelmingly that plays and other forms of artistic expression are protected under the U.S. Constitution, Lazos said.

"I don't even think this is a hard enough issue to put on an exam question," she said. "It's a slam-dunk."

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Allen Lichtenstein said case law around the country differentiates between legitimate theaters that occasionally show nudity and those that are adult-oriented exclusively.

"I think the people in Business License need to get better guidance before they run into significant constitutional problems," he said. "We would be happy to represent the Little Theatre," Lichtenstein added.

The theater, which is privately funded and receives no taxpayer money, typically performs a dozen plays a season, most of which are appropriate for all ages, Thornton said.

When the company does perform an adult-themed play, it places appropriate warnings in advertisements and checks ID cards at the door to ensure minors are not permitted, he said.

Thornton said he cherishes the freedom to host and pro- duce material that challenges both actors and audiences, despite the risk of offending some theatergoers.

"There is still a very heavy prejudice against gays and lesbi- ans in Las Vegas," Niejadlik said. "I just find it sad that a non- profit theater that's doing legiti- mate plays got slammed with something like this."