Opening the Curtain

It’s 8:15 on Saturday night in Echo Park and I’m in a bedroom with a scientist and a hooker and I’m watching TV.  This, of course, is the Filament Theater Company’s production of a play called “Second” by Neal Utterback.

In 1914, Long Beach Police Department hired two actors named Warren and Brown as “vice specialists.” Their job was to go into private clubs and public changing rooms and arrest gay men in the act of being . . . gay.
That appalling and tantalizing little historical detail is the kernel of Tom Jacobson’s new play – “The Twentieth Century Way.” It’s currently premiering at the Boston Court Theater in Pasadena.