Guilford to Have Reading of Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays Nov. 7
Guilford will join more than 25 theatres and universities nationwide to host the premiere of the new play Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays Monday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. in Sternberger Auditorium (located in Founders Hall).
The Department of Theatre Studies will present a live, staged reading of the play, directed by theatre studies professor David Hammond. Admission will be free on a first-come, first-served basis. Donations will be accepted by Equality North Carolina.
The performance will be preceded by a video prologue via internet from the New York theatre where Tectonic Theatre Project will be opening the play that night. Following Guilford’s live performance, we will join a discussion from New York, also broadcast via live internet streaming, in which panelists will address questions submitted via Twitter.
Hammond said that Standing on Ceremony examines the subject of gay marriage from multiple perspectives and includes works by some of America’s leading playwrights. “Both because of the contemporary significance of the subject matter and because of the excellence of the writing, it’s a theatre piece we felt compelled to do,” Hammond said. “We
participated in Tectonic’s The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later a couple of years ago, and it was a very powerful and thought-provoking evening for our audience.”
Audience members will be able to watch a live streaming introduction before the play, as well as a post- performance Q&A, from the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City, where Standing on Ceremony begins preview performances that night. Attendees will be able to participate in the Q&A, regardless of their locale, by submitting questions via Twitter in real time.
To date, more than 25 theatres and universities are confirmed to participate in 19 states across America including North Carolina, where the vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was moved to May 2012. Other performance venues are in Texas, North Dakota, Florida, Kansas and Michigan, where both gay marriage and civil unions are banned; California, where gay marriage was legalized and then overturned by the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008; and other states where marriage equality is not yet a reality. Beyond America, theatres as far away as Sydney, Australia will also participate.
For more information, visit the website or the Standing On Ceremony Facebook page.
