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Charlotte's Very Own Gay Soap Opera 

Southern Disclosure, a homegrown answer to All My Children, gets ready to crank up again

Page 4 of 5

Three months later, two episodes were in the can.

"It doesn't always take money to make a dream happen," says Pompey.

The completed episodes were to be shown in local gay bars, on local access cable channel 21, and they were publicly and formally premiered at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design downtown. Invitations and press releases went out, inviting the curious to the premiere event -- scheduled for September 13, 2001.

On September 11, Pompey, Lari, and Henry knew they might need to cancel the premiere, but phones rang off the hook with inquiries as to whether or not the episodes would be shown.

"People kept saying, we can't let terrorists stop us from living our lives," says Lari. So they went forward with the premiere, expecting about 50 people. Over 300 people gathered on the Mint's swanky rooftop reception area for Southern Disclosure's debut. Under the sheltering but eerie post-9/11 presence of our city's tallest buildings, life went on.

A diverse group of newly converted Southern Disclosure fans -- straight and gay, black and white, parents and neighbors, friends and allies -- mixed, mingled, and ate cookies on the terrace overlooking Tryon Street. They got the jokes, howling at the introduction of Miss Sharon Amity, the show's resident drag queen, and erupting in laughter over the in-jokes about the movie Boys Don't Cry. And a star was born -- the hit of the evening was Patterson, who ducked around the screening room with an ill-concealed smile of wonder, playfully cadging drinks and enjoying a spotlight shining decades later than hoped for, but focused on her nonetheless.

The character of Flea, and Patterson's over-the-top scene of ripping apart Lisa's pregnancy test kit with her teeth, had really hit a nerve. With the hangdog, butch, rail-thin lesbian auto mechanic, Southern Disclosure had dared to flaunt PC paranoia and create a gay character who was inwardly unattractive. Yet Flea's skanky charisma is undeniable. It's hard to take your eyes off Patterson when she's onscreen -- she steals scenes by simply stalking across the room, hunched and hurting, a cigarette dangling from her lips, her gaze burning into her lost and distant angel, Lisa.

Southern Disclosure has changed since that September 13 premiere. In March, a reluctant Julie Henry transferred to Spokane after the call center where she worked was dismantled, regretfully leaving six unfinished episodes behind. A new director, Shonne Henry (no relation), will helm upcoming episodes, and Pompey may return to direct some episodes this fall. Plans for local access cable, and the original 12-episode arc, have been scrapped now that Lari has given lengthy consideration to the reality of his show's freewheeling volunteer production schedule, the loss of Pompey and Henry, the show's gigantic cast, and sprawling storylines. New installments, possibly focusing on a single storyline rather than the soapy jumble of the first episodes, are planned for showing in Charlotte-area gay bars after being premiered at the Mint. Lari also hopes that someday OutCharlotte can sell videos of the show. "Fans ask for tapes," he says. The idea of a local gay soap is catching on elsewhere in the country, even in areas without our Old South/New South tangle of issues to supply such ample fodder. An LA friend of Pompey's contacted her about starting his own version. Lari has also received inquiries. "I think it will expand beyond Charlotte," he says.

Patterson is now recognized in her apartment complex as villainness Flea, and, energized and empowered by her soap experience, has renewed her commitment to acting and plans to audition for shows in town.

"We were all in love with the project," says Henry. "It's one of the best experiences I've ever had. It was worth every bead of sweat. . .To write something and see it filmed, and see people laugh, and to connect that way and make something out of nothing. . .It's the most incredible thing I've ever done."

Filming will resume this fall. Lari is still in Charlotte, and still committed to making new episodes. The Flea/Lisa episode may be ready for its Mint Museum premiere by late 2002. Lari hopes that Southern Disclosure will become "a source of pride. I'm hoping it'll be a way for us to tell our unique stories."

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