Michelle Clunie Takes the Stage in 'Us' A Progressive Love Story

Michelle Clunie, best known for playing no-nonsense lesbian Melanie Marcus on Showtime’s Queer as Folk, has an acting résumé chock-full of heavy-hitting performances, but she's also a  fierce advocate for full LGBT equality and women’s equality, having lent her time and efforts to events like Meet in the Middle and the National Equality March in Washington, DC, following California's passage of Proposition 8 in 2008.

Michelle Clunie, best known for playing no-nonsense lesbian Melanie Marcus on Showtime’s Queer as Folk, has an acting résumé chock-full of heavy-hitting performances, but she's also a  fierce advocate for full LGBT equality and women’s equality, having lent her time and efforts to events like Meet in the Middle and the National Equality March in Washington, DC, following California's passage of Proposition 8 in 2008. Now she can add playwright to her list of accomplishments, as her first play, Us, is about to open off-Broadway in New York City.

Set in 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, Us is a 21st century American love story about how people meet, communicate, have sex and fall in love in a media-fed world of technology. By focusing on a man and woman, who are madly in love, at such an intense time for the progressive movement, Us examines the power struggles that exist in both the world of politics and a private bedroom.

Clunie didn’t just write the play, she also stars in the production, opposite Jeff LeBeau. Us will run at Theatre Row’s Lion Theatre in New York September 9-29. Despite having the pressure of opening night coming up soon, Clunie took time to chat with SheWired about why she was so inspired to write this particular story, why we (the LGBT community and our allies) need to remember what we, as a movement, can accomplish when we come together, connect (even through social media) and fight like hell, and why the world won’t change until at least 50% of the leaders in all of America's industries are women, until equality becomes a reality.

Tell us about Us - what’s the story that isn’t in the synopsis?

It's so hard to answer that. I'm finding out every day what the play is about. Today my answer will be different from tomorrow because every rehearsal I learn more about it. Right now I feel it's a story about the power of forgiveness, about loving in spite of all the reasons we're given not to. It’s about the power we have when we come together and connect. It's a story about taking responsibility, about accountability. It's about who is to blame – the abuser or the abused? Is it so wrong to skip the fine print in life because you want so badly to believe in the fairytale? But at its heart, it is a love story between two people who are undeniably American. They are both passionate, engaged in their country, in love with life, not afraid to mix it up, and however horrible things get between them, they seem to share that very American trait, optimism. They're both fighters.

Ask me tomorrow and I'm sure I will say it's about the odd sort of entitlement that is ingrained in wealthy, powerful white men. I think of Mark Sanford, John Edwards, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think of the women who put up with them and I am floored. Everyone who met Elizabeth (Edwards) knew she was the brains behind John. Maria (Shriver) would have made an incredible governor and yet she stood behind this man who was not even close to her equal. I am astounded and perplexed as to why these men feel they are entitled to do anything they want, and why we let them get away with it – in the bedroom, on Wall Street, with our economy, with our laws – at what point do we say “enough,” in our personal lives and in our country? The world will not change until females take a stronger position in leadership roles.

To do that, we have to gain equality, passing the ERA might be a nice start. Not allowing wealthy white men to run the country and get away with any and everything will help. I am interested in equality and until 50% of the leaders in this country are women – in politics (right now it's only 17%), as writers, as artists, as CEOs, involved in every aspect of the country – until that day I will more than likely think, speak and write about it.

What made you write about this particular time in America, and this particular part of the way culture is changing in America, as opposed to any other subject?

It was a very special year. We had, for the first time, an African-American and a woman as the frontrunners in a primary, and eventually elected the first African-American President. Social media made that possible, people were empowered like never before. We felt as though there was nothing we could not do. After eight years of feeling hopeless it was like the walls opened up and the ceiling blew off and the sky was the limit. I think it was one of the greatest years in American history. It's interesting to me that no one has tried to capture that year in theatre and film until now. There was Game Change (HBO's film about Sarah Palin), but that was about the other side. I wanted to capture the hope and the love that was felt that year. I have traveled and there is no doubt that as a people fighting to take back our country, we inspired the world. At the same time we ran smack into the worst financial collapse since the great depression. So in the face of being brought pretty much to the brink, we kept our heads held high and we fought like hell. We can never lose sight of what we can accomplish when we come together. That year deserved to be written about.

It’s the first play you’ve written. How long were you thinking about writing it before you actually got around to putting it on paper? How long did it take you to write it? What were the biggest challenges you faced while writing it?

I have wanted to write since I was a young girl. My brother is a poet/writer as well as my mom's cousin, Jim Cash. Jim was a lovely man. He wrote Top Gun and plenty of other blockbusters. Writing was always around, it was being talked about, and a possibility that I knew of. I wrote a lot growing up, mostly poems and stories, and as soon as I went into the theatre I knew I would write a play one day. I did a workshop of Arthur Miller's After the Fall and fell madly in love with it. I always wanted to do a female version.

My play was fashioned by his structure many drafts ago but has now become it's own animal. It's an idea that I have had for about twelve years. I wrote the first draft in five days. I would then go off and do acting jobs and whenever time permitted I would do another draft. I have no idea what draft we are on now because it all blends. I do know now that writing is like a private hell that only the writers’ footsteps know. Acting is so very different. Writing is private and internal. Rewriting is like surgery – you have to be delicate. At the same time you can't be afraid to be messy and bold and to not underestimate your audience. My biggest challenge was that I wanted to find a structure that communicated the various realms we live in, including the virtual realm. I also wanted to create something magical that jumped from past to present and beyond time.

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