Hi, Are You Single? Content Transparency

In an effort to be more transparent, Woolly is now providing a fuller description of the plot and contents.

Content Transparency: Depictions and description of sexual content, explicit language, and discussion of ableism, racism, ageism, and the stigmatization of HIV status.

Content Summary:

Ryan enters onto the stage as notification sounds play along with pop music. The lights change and he is rubbing his dick and facetiming someone from the couch. The two negotiate what would happen if they met up, Ryan explains difficulties around different sex acts and why he wants to date someone before going all the way. He ends by asking if the guy just wants sex or if he wants to go on a date and is rejected.

The lights come up more and he notices the audience and begins talking to them. He explains that he was just looking for a boyfriend on Grindr, a hookup app for gay sex. He talks to the audience about sex and intimacy, telling everyone that they are horny and that he can relate. He is horny all the time which shocks people because society desexualizes people with disabilities. Ryan talks about how characters with disabilities having sex goes unrepresented in the media and begins telling a story about Dillon. The two had planned to meet up but Dillon rejected Ryan when he found out that he had Cerebral Palsy. Ryan talks about his brothers and how they always had girlfriends, but he didn’t have anyone until college. He reflects on the times when he was discriminated against, and his mother’s fear over him now being different in two ways: being disabled and being gay.

The lights shift bringing us to a gay bar. Ryan talks about his first time navigating a gay bar while he was performing for a week in New York. He demonstrates a strategy he invented that he calls parading, where he struts around the bar and says hello to everyone. Ryan then takes a sip from his margarita before transporting the audience to different NYC gay bars and telling the audience about his interactions at each. Halfway through the week, he sits outside the bathroom in The Boiler Room and asks all the men going in and out if they are single. Ryan’s experiences in the NYC gay bars leaves him feeling unwelcome, but he doesn’t give up and goes to gay bars back in Ohio. At Twist in Ohio, he has a string of equally disappointing and uncomfortable interactions.

Ryan details a conversation with his dad, explaining that he is not upset about being disabled, but about the way people treat him. Ryan takes a video camera into the gay bars near his college town and asks men if they would be open to dating someone with a disability. One man laid out an answer for him. He has a member of the audience read the role of him and Ryan reads as the man, explaining to the audience member that dating someone with a disability would not be compatible with his own needs and that his house is not handicap accessible. Disappointed by this exchange, Ryan decides to go to therapy.

The lights shift and Ryan tells us we are in Therapy, the gay bar. He tells the story of how Sherry Vine, a drag queen, brought him up on stage for a lap dance, and how he received more attention from guys after that. He sings I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston and brings an audience member on stage to dance with. He talks to the audience member about their relationships, before sending them back into the audience. He tells a story about a previous time he danced with an audience member in Catskill, NY. When he brought the audience member up, he realizes that he also has cerebral palsy. Ryan tried to follow the general structure of the scene as before but ended up diverging and asking the man more questions than usual, particularly since the man had a boyfriend. The story ends with Ryan realizing that he cannot remember the man’s name.

The lights shift and we are in Ryan’s bedroom. He tells us about a time when he came close to having a relationship in high school, while cuddling with a former football player. The man says that he would be open to dating Ryan, and Ryan says maybe, but rejects the possibility in his mind. Ryan tries to work through why he rejected the football player but can’t explain it. He talks through a couple other interactions with guys before landing on one where, after the guy sees Ryan for the first time, he discloses his HIV positive status. Ryan is frustrated about him not disclosing this earlier and fakes a text from his friend to get out of seeing the guy. Ryan turns to the audience and explains his thinking behind his own patterns of disclosure.

The lights shift and we are back in the gay bar. Ryan recounts a conversation he had with a Black man who commiserated with his experience of being treated horribly by men. Ryan disagrees that he could know how Ryan feels, and they go back and forth about it. The man tells Ryan, “If you don’t want people to judge you, why do you get to judge them?” and leaves. Ryan is standoffish in his response but reflects on what the man said to him. Ryan thinks about his judgement in previous interactions told in the show.

Lights focus on Ryan. He talks through a sexual experience with a man in his gorgeous apartment. The man helps him undress when asked and adjusts positions as needed. The man gives Ryan too much stimulation, so he says, “I want to be able to focus on you.” Ryan goes as fast and as hard as he can, but it’s not enough to get the man to finish, so the man jerks off to cum. He turns to Ryan to help him orgasm, but Ryan must pee due to limited bladder control pronounced due to CP. When he comes back ready to go, the man is ready to sleep.
The lights are restored, and Ryan addresses the audience, telling them that there is their sex scene, but he is still unsatisfied. He proposes a toast to the single people, compassion for others when they’re afraid, and thinking about how his happy ending hasn’t happened yet, but he’s going to enjoy the ride. He ends stating that he’ll keep sipping his margarita until someone asks him, “Hi, are you single?”