January 18, 2001

PLAY OPENS SERIES TO EXAMINE BIAS AGAINST GAYS, LESBIANS

Bill Schlotter

A free performance of the nationally acclaimed play "Another American: Asking and Telling" will serve as cornerstone for a series of events at the University of California, Santa Barbara designed to create discussion of discrimination against sexual minorities.

Marc Wolf will bring his one-man show about the military's don't-ask, don't-tell policy on homosexuality to UCSB's MultiCultural Center Theater at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2.

The play, in which Wolf tells the stories of 18 gay service men and women, received enthusiastic reviews in both The New York Times and Washington Post and a 1999 Top Ten Theater Pick from USA Today.

It is scheduled for a six-week run at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles this summer.

"There is an exceptional actor at work here," said The New York Times of Wolf's performance.

"Mr. Wolf is a brilliant sketch artist."

Aaron Belkin, an assistant professor of political science at UCSB, is bringing Wolf to the university as part of a series of events titled "Discrimination, Orientation and State," for which he was recently awarded a $25,000 "Critical Issues in America" grant by the university.

In addition to Wolf's performance, the year-long series will include classes, seminars, guest speakers, films, and research reports focusing on discrimination against sexual minorities and what Belkin describes as the government's role in constructing and demonizing sexual identities.

Funds for the Critical Issues series were provided by an anonymous donation to the university in 1995.

Past topics have included "Violence in America," "Environmental Issues and Policy Reform in America," "America's Leadership in Human Rights," "Women, Employment and Globalization," and "Ethnic Studies Dialogue."

In addition to his faculty duties, Belkin is director of the UCSB-based Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, founded last year.

The center sponsors seminars and other events, and develops teaching materials and research resources.

Its Web site is .

Photographs of Marc Wolf are available on request.

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