THE ADVOCATE REPORT Acabin of OneSown New Englands MacDowell Colony celebrates .l00 years of artistic utopia.</p><p> And the gay and lesbian artists who prospered there celebrate its role in their careers hough not founded or necessarily intended to cater to LGBT artists, the MacDowell Colony has a rich history of doing just that.</p><p> The Peterborough, N.H., retreat center for creative types-along with New York's Yaddo, the most famous of its kind-celebrates 100 years of existence 1n 2007, and scores of queer residents, both past and present, are among those pay- ing homage. (A documentaty on the colony premieres at the Mu- seum of Modern Art in New York City on May 2.) "I can't overpraise them," says writer Sarah Schulman, who's now at MacDowell for the sixl"h time, working on the musi- cal adaptation of her novel Shimmer. "In 1984, I published my frrst novel, and it was at a time when modern lesbian frc- tion was not published by anymainstream publisher in this country, was not carried in mainstream bookstores, was not reviewed il mainstream maga- zines," she says. "I wouldn't have had a career if I hadn't gone there.</p><p> They were able to see the quality of writing with- out being swayed in aly way by the lesbian content. "And as far as I know," she adds, "they were the only insti tution where that was true at the time." Artist Doug Wright worked on both his Pulitzer Prize-wrn- ning play I Am My Own Wife and the current Broadway hit musical Grey Gardens at Mac- Dowell. "Ttrey have all these lit- tle studios spread out across the beautiful New Hampshire woods," he recalls. "I was rn a gorgeous little cabin, and every day they delivered my lunch and they delivered some fire-wood.</p><p> I'd make a little fire in my fireplace and I'd go to work. '"There was this quiet aura of industry about the place." Wright continues. 'You never felt obligated to work, and yet you knew the time was so rare and the surroundings were so lush that you had betler seize the moment and produce some- thing.</p><p> I found it an extraordi- narily muse-friendly spot " Filmmaker Ira Sachs, who worked on the screenplay for his new movie.</p><p> Married Life, while at MacDowell, notes the influential ghosts of residents past. 'You can't help thinking about it when you're in one of those studios," he remembers. "Thornton Wilder was Lhere, Leonard Bernstein was there, and you're there You're part of a great tradition." The studios have a perma- nent record: "They have theseClockwise from above: a Mac- Dowell resident at work; the Omicron studio; past resident Leonard Bern- stein; the Watson studio wonderful 'tombstones' on the wall, and everyone who has been irr your studio or cabin pre- viously inscribes them before leaving," says Wright, who owes "a real debt" to MacDowell "You find [names] like Aaron Copland, these titanic frgures from the history of American arts and letters.</p><p> So if you're lacking inspiration, you just have to pemse the walls." Or a pornographic DVD: "I think you should get everyone to describe how they masturbat- ed while at MacDowell," says Sachs with a laugh, remember- ing that a steamy flick was once passed around. "I can promise you its a primary part of the ex- peience." -Michoel Giltz L4 | lVay 8, 2OO7 aovocare com THE ADVOCATE
