Billie Jean King is many things: a pioneer, activist, champion tennis player and warrior for equality (for women and queer people).
In the Chicago Shakespeare Theater production Billie Jean, Lauren Gunderson has written a play that showcases the public and private struggles King fought on her journey to becoming an icon who has inspired millions. Windy City Times recently talked with Gunderson; actress Chilina Kennedy, who portrays King; and Dan Amboyer, who plays King’s first spouse, husband Larry King—and many items were revealed, including one of the trio coming out as part of the LGBTQ+ community for the first time in print.
Note: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: Lauren, there are so many people you could’ve written about. Why did you decide to focus on Billie Jean King? Also, what kind of research went into writing this play?
Lauren Gunderson: This was an opportunity that was presented to me, as opposed to something I initiated. Our amazing producers had connected with Billie Jean, and she was open to a play; she and her wife, Ilana, are big musical-theater fans. When they came and said they wanted a show about Billie Jean King, it took about half a second to say, “Oh, my God—me, me!” It was such a dream.
I have a history of writing about historical women, including a lot of queer women. She has this combination of athletic history, activism, feminism and queer iconography—it’s just everything. She’s so amazing. And there’s the cost—and the play is so much about the fight for self as well as the fight for generalized equality. And she and her wife are actively engaged citizens who are fighting not just for future generations but for the present to be all that they can, should and will be.
WCT: And then there’s research, because accuracy is so important—especially if the subject is living.
LG: It is very difficult, as most of the people I’ve written about have long passed and don’t have a single opinion to say to me. [Laughs] But the truth is that this is an incredible challenge and joy—mostly joy—for a writer to have a Zoom with your heroes. [We] get beyond the biography—which is beautifully written and very expansive—and the many documentaries that exist about her and them, and to listen to how they talk in a way that has soul and depth. There’s research that you do, but our job is to create a beautiful, engaging, powerful experience for the audience, and the way to do that is just to talk with them—and they’re so funny! Billie Jean is vivacious, hilarious, curious and so generous, so we wanted to add that effervescence as well.
I have to say that I was very embarrassed at one point with the first draft I said to her. Every reference to a tennis “game” was supposed to be a tennis “match,” so there were about 45 things that were wrong right off the bat.
WCT: Chilina and Dan, playing real-life people presents special challenges although, Chilina, you’ve portrayed Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Talk about those challenges.
Chilina Kennedy: Well, there’s a huge amount of pressure because she’s such an icon. I went through this with Carole King and also with Carole Pope, who’s a Canadian rock star. People have such specific memories of them and they are such huge fans of them. Billie Jean’s an icon on so many levels and people even know her tennis style—so there’s a lot of pressure. [Chuckles] But it’s kind of like what Lauren said: I’m not looking to recreate her in a Saturday Night Live way or a caricature; I want her to flow organically through me.
I describe it like if there’s a rainbow of personality and she’s a green while I’m a red, my version of her is going to be somewhere between those colors. Some nights, I’ll be closer to green and other nights, I’ll be closer to red just because of the fluctuations of living in the moment. But Lauren’s written a beautiful play that’s so moving, and there’s so much to play with. And I’m excited for people to learn more about her life and to be inspired. It doesn’t feel like you’re getting an education but you learn a lot; I know I have. I hope that people leave feeling excited and inspired.
Dan Amboyer: I’ve played a real-life person, too; the year that Prince William got married, I played him in a film. That felt like a big responsibility at the time because there was so much media coverage of him at the time. Like Chilina said, you have to look for the intersection where you two meet and what you can reflect back from the person who lives inside you already. But with this play, it feels like I have a little more wiggle room because Larry was so behind-the-scenes; I don’t feel like the world knew a ton about him. There’s more freedom to imagine although there’s a wealth of info that’s available in print. It’s been a joy to work with Chilina, to have that connection and to find those moments with each other. It’s a really cool experience—and it helps that Lauren gives us the words to say.
LG: It’s been a real collab! Y’all have been in every single workshop so finding the flow of what is working—and working with these two brilliant, beautiful humans, you get to really push and switch things around.
CK: It’s such a delight because I feel like it’s so much bigger than any one person. We just want to make the best play we possibly can, so it’s whatever makes it better, whether it’s an adjustment in my performance or moving the scene around. It’s just really fun and collaborative; it’s a beautiful thing. I really love working on new pieces so it feels like a dream come true.
WCT: It’s nice to hear when people don’t mind getting constructive criticism because, as Chilina pointed out, teamwork is the name of the game.
CK: Yeah—it’s a constant. I don’t know about you, Dan or Lauren, it’s this reopening of “What can I learn today?” Sure, you sometimes have to take a look at some of your patterns; maybe with some of these old tricks that I pull out of my sleeve, people will call you out on them—or I may call myself out. You have to think about how you can bring more integrity to a role. And that’s just life, too, right? Every day, we just try to show up better in our relationships, even if it’s with the person at Starbucks. It’s about showing up authentically—and there are not better people to do that with than this cast. Dan is literally like the best scene partner ever. It’s so safe.
DA: It’s a big testament to this project—and to the room that Lauren and our director, Marc [Bruni], have created from the get-go. We’ve done several readings and workshops over the past year and, every time, the room was open and we were allowed to bring ourselves and to bring reflections or questions we had about the play. The room has been open, welcoming and joyful—but that’s not every experience. This one is one that I’m trying to relish every moment.
LG: And you want the freedom to swing sometimes because [it can happen] where you say, “Ooh—that was the wrong choice!” There have been so many drafts where I thought something was funny, but no one else did. It’s the vulnerability and exposure that this art form demands. We’re all showing the beauty and roughness; there’s not a single diva in our cast—that’s for sure.
It’s also the kind of play this is. It’s not just the words, the story and the wonderful acting—it’s the choreography, movement and physicality as well as a swiftness to the story that requires teamwork and acrobatics. These folks make it look easy but it’s not.
WCT: Lauren, what was one of the most surprising things you discovered about Billie Jean?
LG: Gosh—there was so much. I thought I knew the history of first- and second-wave feminism but I did not know the complexity—and, specifically, how it intersected with queer history and activism. So just walking in her footsteps was really powerful, especially in combination with this unstoppable energy. There’s an ambition to it that, for women, is often derided as being bossy or pushy. And she just put everyone in their place again and again with the measure of her worth, and that just becomes a model to everyone. She’s just a legend—but when you talk with her, she’s so grounded and curious; she’s a lover of people.
I will [add] one other thing that I think about all the time and it speaks to theater. There’s an ethos of “we” with Billie Jean, and that’s theater as well. So every time I asked her a question or a line that read, “I’m going to achieve this,” she would say, “No. It should be ‘We achieved this.’” I’m not writing this play; we are writing it. So it aligns for a sport like tennis and a person like Billie Jean.
WCT: Dan, when I saw “Larry King,” it triggered thoughts…
DA: …of a very different Larry. [Everyone laughs.] I’ll do his bio next. [Amboyer laughs.]
WCT: Did you get a chance to talk with Larry?
DA: I haven’t yet but I connected with one of his children. It just feels like a little bit of insight into him through his kids.
WCT: I want to ask each of you what representation means to you?
LG: Hmmm. I think it means everything. The reason I tell stories at all is because I went to the theater as a young person, and I noticed that all the plays I saw had men’s names beside them and were largely about men. It was the era when Sarah Ruhl’s and Paula Vogel’s plays were just starting to find their ways into theater; we’ve had Caryl Churchill and Lorraine Hansberry’s works that have become classics—but Lorraine only has one super-popular play [Raisin in the Sun] and some others, but there just isn’t that much. I kept saying, “That’s not my life. That’s not how it works for me as a woman and a feminist and a friend of women.” So it became “If you don’t see it, you have to write it.”
So early on, I was writing stories about women. And early on, even before I knew about my own bisexuality, I was writing queer stories because I grew up in Decatur, Georgia, which is a queer haven. It was just very common to see two mothers or two fathers, and the church I went to was super-liberal; it was kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention for ordaining gay pastors and [performing] partnership ceremonies. But, when writing a play, you’re not just storytelling; you’re borrowing people’s hearts and minds, and attuning their empathy for several hours at a time. That’s a rare responsibility.
So a fun fact about me is that although I’ve talked about my sexuality with my friends, family and community, I don’t think I’ve ever been labeled in print as bisexual—so this might be my journalistic coming-out, so that might be right for this play. [Laughs] So representation is everything, but it’s not the end; it’s the beginning. It’s how we find the differences within our differences and the sameness within our sameness. So it’s a way to go deeper in the world.
CK: Wow—that was so beautifully said that I’m not sure how much I can add. What I’ll [say] is that, for me, it’s not just about whose story is being told; it’s about the lens. We all have different lenses and versions of truth. It’s important to have all of the different angles with one truth because it’s going to mean so many different things to so many people. So, for me, representation also means diving into the different arguments around a certain person or truth so we can get to as many people and have as much truth dialogue as possible.
DA: From a very personal perspective, I grew up in the Midwest, too—in the Detroit area. I grew up as a gay kid and came out to my family at 13, and it felt like a life-or-death thing for me. At that time, gay characters were very limited in the media; there were some movies that I found inspiring but, also, a lot of characters were portrayed negatively. So I felt very alone—an out teenager at 13 in the Midwest. Even when I saw a positive gay character—like the one Paul Rudd played in Object of My Affection—the actor was straight, and that was hard.
Now, when I have the chance I feel an opportunity to be visible for kids and to let them know that it does get better. I think that, today, we’re going through another cycle where people can feel isolated so putting yourself out there can be very meaningful. At this point, I’m married and we have two kids; as a 13-year-old, I would’ve never imagined that that would be possible in a very Republican area. That’s one of the things I love about this play: Billie Jean King is such an icon of the [queer] community and she stands for the change you want to see in the world—and now I’m playing a straight man! [Laughs]
LG: You’re the anti-Paul Rudd!
DA: And Larry is such an ally, and we definitely need those; they’re the changemakers around us. He’s a great example of someone who tried to lift up people.
On a side note, even though I came out at 13, I kinda went back in when I entered the industry because I felt I had to. I didn’t officially come out there until 2017.
WCT: Is there anything anyone would like to add?
LG: One of the things we didn’t get to mention is that, in act two, there’s Billie Jean’s support of the trans community—specifically through her friend, Dr. Renee Richards. We talk about trans women in sports now, but this was in the ’80s, I believe. Billie has already been on the right side of history, and she believed that Renee deserved to play.
CK: I’ve gotten the chance to talk with Billie Jean for hours on Zoom and it’s never her who ends the conversation; it’s always, like, “What else do you need to know?”—and she doesn’t have to be that way. She’s just so warm, generous and inspiring.
Here’s a story: Last summer, I had tickets to the US Open and I had never seen a match. I texted Billie Jean and Ilana, saying that I hoped I could see them, and they asked, “What match are you seeing?” I told them and they said, “No—there are way better matches. Come to our box!” So I watched Coco [Gauff] win and [Novak] Djokovic win at the US Open! That’s just one example of how they go above and beyond to make you heard and seen—and isn’t that everyone wants?
LG: My favorite Billie Jean story was that she said to me, “Every woman I talk to says something negative about themselves—that they can’t do something or that they weren’t that good [at tennis]. But I bet you were that good.” I said, “I’m not good at tennis but I’m good at playwriting. How’s that?” She said, “I’ll take it!” [Laughs] She makes sure you’re inspiring yourself. And she and her wife are the perfect yin and yang.
Billie Jean will run July 18-Aug. 10 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. For tickets, visit ChicagoShakes.com.