A.R.T. to Host 'TRANS SCRIPTS' Panel Discussions

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Director Diane Quinn, announced today that during the run of its production of Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women, written by Paul Lucas and directed by Jo Bonney, each performance will be followed by a second act of moderated discussions, featuring a roster of activists, students, medical professionals, artists, and scholars.

These discussions, which run from Jan 19 - Feb 5, are free and open to ticket-holders of any Trans Scripts performance. For more information, please contact the Loeb Drama Center Ticket Services at 64 Brattle Street, or online at AmericanRepertoryTheater.org. Schedule is subject to change.

ACT II MODERATORS:

Bethany Allen

Bethany M. Allen is the Director of Statewide Initiatives for the Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth (BAGLY), one of the nation's oldest and largest LGBTQ youth organizations, and co-chair of the Board of Directors for the Hispanic Black Gay Coalition (HBGC). Her work focuses on creating opportunities for radical, deep connections within and across communities to promote transformational social change rooted in racial justice. She raised three queer black children (who are now young adults) while attending Harvard, an experience she often wrote about in a biweekly column for Africana.com from 2000-2005, Brown Eyed Girl. She is currently working on a memoir and her second screenplay.

P. Carl

P. Carl is the Director and co-founder of HowlRound - a think tank and knowledge commons actively making community among theatremakers worldwide through online resource sharing and in-person gatherings. Carl is also the co-artistic director of ArtsEmerson at Emerson College where he develops, dramaturgs, and presents an eclectic array of theatre from diverse artists from around the globe. Operating from the core belief that theatre is for everyone, Carl seeks to use the power of live performance in concert with opportunities for international dialogue and activism to foster personal and political transformation through the shared experience of art. Carl is a Distinguished Artist in Residence on the Emerson faculty, and a frequent writer and speaker on the evolution of theater practice and theory. He is the former Producing Artistic Director of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and the former Director of Artistic Development at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.

Lorelei Erisis

Lorelei Erisis is a writer, performer, activist, adventurer, improviser, and a genuine pageant queen! Lorelei is the President of the board of directors for Transcending Boundaries Inc. and she co-chaired the 2015 Transcending Boundaries Conference. She was also, much to her own surprise, the very first and still most famous Miss Trans New England (2009). For the past seven years Lorelei has written a popular monthly advice and opinion column called "Ask A Trans Woman" for The Rainbow Times newspaper. Prior to her life as an activist pageant queen, she studied improvisational acting and sketch comedy at The Second City in Chicago and Los Angeles, performing in many sketch and improv shows at their L.A. theatre. While in Los Angeles, Lorelei directed and performed with The Fully Functional Players: perhaps the first (and certainly one of the only) all-trans improv group. For the past several years she has often worked with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition and other organizations to help improve the lives of trans and gender variant people through advocacy, outreach, and legislative protections, helping to pass historic civil rights legislation and raise awareness of trans issues in Massachusetts and beyond. Lorelei was also a founding board member of the first fully 501(c)3-certified iteration of Northampton Pride. She was the first trans woman to serve at that level in the history of the Northampton Pride organization. On top of all this, for the past three years she has been the co-host and tech director of the show, "Tammy's Twist" at The Broadway Comedy Club in NYC. Tammy's Twist is the only trans-produced, hosted, directed, and focused comedy show in a mainstream Comedy Club in the country-maybe the first of its kind. Lorelei also speaks and performs regularly about gender, sexuality, and improv for various organizations, conferences, and universities.

Cei Lambert

Cei Lambert is the Transgender Health Program Patient Advocate at Fenway Health. He brings over ten years of experience in LGBTQ advocacy to the role, from peer group facilitation to policy revision and strategic planning for inclusion. Cei moved to Boston in June 2015 from Colorado, where he was born and raised. Prior to joining Fenway, Cei worked in university campus recreation, auditing facilities and policies for LGBTQ and disability inclusion, and assisting university athletics organizations in prioritizing diversity. He has held a wide array of positions-- adjunct professor of fine art, community organizer/group facilitator, volunteer bird of prey rescuer, loom and spinning wheel builder, graphic designer, freelance illustrator, and Tae Kwon Do instructor, to name just a few. In his free time Cei enjoys hiking and birding, practicing Tae Kwon Do, and listening to audiobooks. Cei holds Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Colorado State University and a certificate in Design Thinking from the Harvard Extension School. He lives in Cambridge with his wife, Jordan.

DISCUSSION GUESTS:

Jan. 19, 7:30PM: Discussion with Jessica Mink, Astronomical Software Developer, Data Archivist, and Positional Astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Jan. 20, 7:30PM: Discussion with Mason Dunn, Executive Director, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition

Jan. 21, 7:30PM: Discussion with Michelle Tat, Health Science Specialist, VA Boston Healthcare System

Jan. 22, 2PM: Discussion with Deborah J Drew, Director, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO, Drew Quality Group, Inc.; Vice President, Worcester Pride

Jan. 22, 7:30PM: Discussion with Pam Klein and Sara Reid, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Transgender Program

Jan. 25, 7:30PM: Discussion with Grace Stevens, Co-Director, First Event

Jan. 26, 7:30PM: This performance will begin with a welcome by Eve Ensler.

Jan. 27, 7:30PM: Mimi Lemay, parent, activist, author, and educator.

Feb 2, 7:30PM: Connie Englert, Principal & Managing Director, TrueNorth Transit Group LLC

Feb 4, 2PM: The A.R.T. of Human Rights and the Harvard College Office of BGLTQ Student Life are excited to present a public conversation on BGLTQ identity development and intergenerational dynamics in college and beyond. Presented in conjunction with the A.R.T.'s production of Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women, the panel features playwright Paul Lucas, special guests from Harvard, and will be moderated by Professor Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Program Director at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School. This performance will begin with a welcome by Harvard BGLTQ Office Director Sheehan Scarborough.

Other dates and speakers will be announced on AmericanRepertoryTheater.org.

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The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater, producing groundbreaking work in Cambridge and beyond. The A.R.T. was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, who served as Artistic Director until 2002, when he was succeeded by RoBert Woodruff. Diane Paulus began her tenure as Artistic Director in 2008. Under the leadership of Paulus and Executive Director Diane Quinn, the A.R.T. seeks to expand the boundaries of theater by programming events that immerse audiences in transformative theatrical experiences.

Throughout its history, the A.R.T. has been honored with many distinguished awards, including the Tony Award for Best New Play for All the Way (2014); consecutive Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical for Pippin (2013) and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (2012), both of which Paulus directed; a Pulitzer Prize; a Jujamcyn Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent; the Tony Award for Best Regional Theater; and numerous Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards.

The A.R.T. collaborates with artists around the world to develop and create work in new ways. It is currently engaged in a number of multi-year projects, including a new collaboration with Harvard's Center for the Environment that will result in the development of new work over several years. Under Paulus's leadership, the A.R.T.'s club theater, OBERON, has been an incubator for local and emerging artists and has attracted national attention for its innovative programming and business models.

As the professional theater on the campus of Harvard University, the A.R.T. catalyzes discourse, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative exchange among a wide range of academic departments, institutions, students, and faculty members, acting as a conduit between its community of artists and the university. A.R.T. plays a central role in Harvard's newly launched undergraduate Theater, Dance, and Media concentration, teaching courses in directing, dramatic literature, acting, voice, design, and dramaturgy. The A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training, run in partnership with the Moscow Art Theatre School and the Harvard Extension School, offers graduate training in acting, dramaturgy, and voice.

Dedicated to making great theater accessible, the A.R.T. actively engages more than 5,000 community members and local students annually in project-based partnerships, workshops, conversations with artists, and other enrichment activities both at the theater and across the Greater Boston area.

Through all of these initiatives, the A.R.T. is dedicated to producing world-class performances in which the audience is central to the theatrical experience.

For further information, visit americanrepertorytheater.org.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Daniel