Following FUN HOME Controversy at College of Charleston, Original Off-Broadway Cast to Reunite for Concert, 4/21

The cast and creative team of The Public Theater's FUN HOME will soon be bringing the Bechtel Funeral Home to College of Charleston.

Following the Charleston Reads! committee's decision last year to make Alison Bechtel's graphic novel, the source material for the Off-Broadway show, which was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the suggested reading for the freshman class, lawmakers spoke up against the school's decision, and the "S.C. House budget-writing committee moved to withdraw $52,000 of school funding, the cost of the summer reading program."

Now, Bechtel and the original cast of the Jeanine Tesori-Lisa Kron musical, including Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn, will stage a concert of the production in protest next week, according to The Post and Courier.

Tickets to the performances, set for 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Monday, April 21, at Memminger Auditorium are now on sale.

Todd McNerney, the Department of Theatre and Dance chairman, said that the event is "an incredible academic opportunity for our students and the chance for our community to see off-Broadway stars sing inventive and complex works from a popular musical fresh from the New York stage."

Lawmakers have already issued statements about the planned concert, with State Sen. Larry Grooms saying that the move will be addressed during the Senate's debate over this year's budget.

"If lessons weren't learned over there, the Senate may speak a little bit louder than the House. There would be a number of members in the Senate that would have a great interest in fixing the deficiencies at the College of Charleston," Grooms told the publication.

In FUN HOME, when her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family's Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father's hidden desires.

The complete cast of FUN HOME features Griffin Birney (Christian Bechdel), Michael Cerveris (Bruce Bechdel), Roberta Colindrez (Joan), Noah Hinsdale (John Bechdel), Judy Kuhn (Helen), Sydney Lucas (Small Alison), Beth Malone (Alison), Joel Perez (Roy), and Emily Skeggs (Medium Alison).

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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