9 Gay Marriage Plays Close in STANDING ON CEREMONY Program Tonight

Artists Rep will add a short run of Standing On Ceremony to their 11/12 Season with eight performances of plays. This run is a follow up to a one-night event last November where over 30 theatre companies internationally presented the plays in solidarity to increase public awareness about marriage equality. Enthusiastic audiences from that event encouraged Artists Rep to bring the show back. Performances will be offered April 6 through April 21.

Standing On Ceremony consists of nine, 10-minute plays written by a variety of playwrights on topics and issues surrounding gay marriage, performed in a staged-reading format by local performers. The playwrights whose short plays are featured in the Standing On Ceremony anthology are Obie and Ace Award winner Mo Gaffney, Heideman Award winner Jordan Harrison, Edgar Award winner Jeffrey Hatcher, Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman, Tony Award nominee Neil LaBute, Sundance Jury Prize winner Wendy McLeod, Obie Award winner José Rivera, Obie and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Paul Rudnick, and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright. To produce these plays rights-holders require that a portion of the proceeds be donated to a local organization working toward marriage equality and request that a wedding cake be served after each show. Standing On Ceremony is the brainchild of Los Angeles’ Brian Shnipper who began producing it in 2009, as a series of benefit events.

Artists Rep’s Standing On Ceremony will be directed by Jon Kretzu and Stephanie Mulligan. Casting is underway. Artists Rep has partnered with Basic Rights Oregon, who will share the proceeds of this production.

“This compelling collection of plays is a powerful way to open up the conversation on why marriage matters,” said Juan Martinez, Development Director at Basic Rights Oregon who attended the benefit performance in November. “Basic Rights Oregon is proud to be working with Artists Rep to shine the light on this issue through this presentation that will undoubtedly change hearts and minds.”

The plays will be:

1. Traditional Wedding by Mo Gaffney, a long-married lesbian couple reminisce about their wedding.

2. The Revision by Jordan Harrison, an amusing look at how two men might rewrite their vows to more accurately reflect the limited options available to a gay couple.

3. This Flight Tonight by Wendy MacLeod, which asks if there is any hope for happiness when a lesbian marriage begins in Iowa.

4. On Facebook by Doug Wright adapted from an actual Facebook thread chronicling one long fight among friends on the subject of gay marriage.

5. Strange Fruit by Neil LaBute, the story of two men in love whose plans to get married “the old-fashioned way” are stymied when reality rears its ugly head.

6. The Gay Agenda by Paul Rudnick, a sadly hilarious plea for understanding by an Ohio homemaker and member of Focus on the Family.

7. My Husband by Paul Rudnick, which puts a hilarious gay twist on the stereotype of the Jewish mother desperate to marry off her children.

8. London Mosquitoes by Moisés Kaufman, a poignant story in which a widower tries to make sense of the loss of his longtime lover.

9. Pablo and Andrew at the Altar of Words by José Rivera, a moving play about two men who use their marriage vows to “say the things we never really say.”

More information specifically about Standing on Ceremony can be found here:
http://www.artistsrep.org/onstage/2011--2012-season/standing-on-ceremony.aspx

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