Posted: 07/05/2009

Were the World Mine

(2008)

by Sawyer J. Lahr

Timothy (Tanner Cohen) is a wide-eyed hipster gay teen dying to get out of small town America to a place more accepting, but a few life lessons are in store for him as well as rewards.

The all-male prep school production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is put on by Timothy’s majestic literature professor Mrs. Tebbit, perhaps a real-life fairy. Timothy discovers his talents singing to a sweet melody, but doesn’t realize his full dramatic potential until the play becomes his life. The cast of the play is made of fellow students and the warm hearted jock of his musical daydreams, Jonathon, played by the adorable Nathaniel David Becker who fends off Timothy’s bullies.

While rehearsing for the play, Timothy discovers the ingredients for the love potion his character Puck, in the play, uses to put to sleep the young Athenian lovers. The ultimate fantasy comes true as Timothy turns the people of his small suburban town gay. The mayor goes as far as to recognize gay marriages.

Even if you’re not a fan of musicals, you can appreciate the twirling and whirling jock boys toting footballs. Director Tom Gustafson and his talented production designer partner, Cory James Krueckeberg, are heading off a trend toward a musical genre of queer cinema with gay content, not just gay choreographers and directors.

Following Were the World Mine, which was premiered last year and continues its festival screenings, recent festival programs are showing the short film musical, Boy Crazy, and the feature-length Big Gay Musical featuring Brett Corrigan.

Gustafson lives in NYC but production took place in Chicago. A graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, he also has a successful career as a casting director credited for Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3, The Good Sheperd and The Dark Knight. Were the World Mine is Gustofson’s debut feature.

Sawyer J. Lahr is Chief Editor of the forthcoming online publication, Go Over the Rainbow. He also writes a monthly film column for Mindful Metropolis, a conscious living magazine in Chicago, IL.

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