“I want to share what I am privy to with others because it’s so much. In fact, it’s everything. I think maybe it’s the whole world.” – Nelson Sullivan

The Whole World

how we changed the way we look at ourselves

libretto by Diana Solomon-Glover

THE WHOLE WORLD tells a story of identity and belonging; about our impulse to create ourselves and our community despite being branded as outcasts. Set in the wild, vibrant club scene of New York City in the late 1980’s, the drama follows Truman, a charming Southerner who videos the revolution and himself experiencing it in real time. Breezy, gracious and genteel on camera, off-camera he’s moody and depressed, a gloomy harbinger of what follows. But in his hands, the portable camcorder becomes an agent of change. He and his friends don’t just preen for the camera; they launch a frontal assault on the bastions of conventional culture.

Truman points his lens at a fantastic array of characters: “La Homme” (pronounced LA HOMIE), a baby-faced, platinum blonde drag queen; Mick, a confident, mean-spirited bully; the sweetly thoughtful Luz; and “Dove,” a deaf Adonis who feels the beat through the dance floor. The fabulous Guillaume (imagine RuPaul and Farinelli in one) presides effortlessly over his court of drag queens and club kids, reaching the pinnacle of popular success and acceptance. The stylish, inscrutable Wilhemina speaks with an affected German accent, but is drugged and incoherent most of the time. In transition and estranged from her family, she attracts both fascination and contempt.

Exciting, disturbing, and at times mundane, the ways these unabashed “degenerates” challenged social norms has infiltrated the larger culture. For better and worse, they spearheaded a change in the way we look at the world and, more importantly, how we see and imagine ourselves. Truman immortalized the transformation on video and we haven’t stopped watching ourselves ever since.