Temple University Awards $36,500 Grant to Mauckingbird Theatre Co

With support from Temple University, Mauckingbird Theatre Company co-Founder and Artistic Director Peter Reynolds, in collaboration with Scott Gratson, was recently awarded a 2010 Provost Seed Grant in the amount of $36,500 to delve into a new project entitled Queer, Get Used to It.

Queer, Get Used to It will collect personal narratives from Queer youth in Philadelphia and New York City to investigate the ways in which today's young people are redefining Queerness and labels of sexual identity. The project will result in the creation of an original theatrical piece and live performance, a public discussion of the nature and future of sexual identity politics, and a presentation of personal stories revealing the complexity of Queer identity (which will be collected, filmed and screened for the public).

Temple University's Provost Seed Award is part of a dedicated effort to foster and expand collaborative interdisciplinary research and creative works at Temple. Peter Reynolds is currently Head of Musical Theater at Temple University and Assistant Chair of the Department of Theater. Professor Scott Gratson is Director of Undergraduate Studies and the Director for the Interdisciplinary Communications program at Temple.

Since 2008, Mauckingbird has been leading Philadelphia theater in exploring themes of sexual identity. The company's current gender-bent reimagining of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, both acclaimed by critics and a hit with audiences, will complete its run at Temple University's Randall Theater on September 12, 2010. A Philadelphia Inquirer theater critic recently wrote, "Wherever the line is between the classical and the contemporary, between sex and sexual politics, between a campy wink and a theatrical nod, Peter Reynolds, artistic director of Mauckingbird Theatre Company, walks it," calling the production, "a perfect way to spend a midsummer night." Past productions include the critically acclaimed all-male versions of Shakespeare's R & J (2008) and The Misanthrope (2008), the lesbian adaptation of Hedda Gabler (2009), the dark crime drama Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story (2009), and TRU and The Threshing Floor (2010), a repertory of two one-man shows about influential gay writers Truman Capote and James Baldwin.