Joanie Schultz, the still-new artistic director of Addison’s WaterTower Theatre, announced that the theater company will host a free screening of the documentary Raid of the Rainbow Lounge on July 10 at Landmark’s Magnolia Theatre in the West Village.
The 2012 documentary, by local filmmaker Robert L. Camina, chronicles the events in Fort Worth on June 28, 2009 — coincidentally, the 40th anniversary of the start of the Stonewall Riots that launched the modern gay rights movement — when Cowtown police raided the new gay bar, bludgeoning at least one patron and triggering a national dialogue about police and the targeting of gays. Many local activists are profiled in the film, which won numerous festival awards. The Rainbow Lounge was just again recently in the news when a fire burned down the club, a hub of gay life in Fort Worth.
The screening is planned to coincide with Hit the Wall, Ike Holter’s play about Stonewall, which Schultz added to the theater company’s schedule and which she will direct. Hit the Wall opens July 28.
The free Raid screening will take place at the Magnolia at 7 p.m., and will be followed by a Q&A with Schultz and Camina. Seating is limited, and on a first come, first served basis.
