The Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City is the first place Standing on Ceremony—The Gay Marriage Plays will appear before it sweeps across the country simultaneously on Monday, Nov. 7. Twenty-five theatres in 19 states are putting on this event in tandem, as well as three theatres in Australia and France.
The goal is to raise awareness and funding to bring about marriage equality. Fortunately for Portland, the Artists Repertory Theatre has made itself one of the participants for this noble cause.
The event was originally created by Brian Schnipper as a series of fundraisers in Los Angeles, but the success is now carrying them across the world to raise money for the campaign for marriage equality. The event consists of nine 10-minute plays by esteemed playwrights with a combined track record including two Pulitzer Prizes, four Obies, one Emmy and three Tony nominations.
And there’s wedding cake and champagne after the show.
Serving cake and champagne was one of the two stipulations carried over from the Los Angeles series. The other? Every theatre has to find a beneficiary that’s actively working toward marriage equality and donate a portion of the proceeds to them. ART selected Basic Rights Oregon, an organization using awareness of LGBT issues to win the freedom to marry for everyone.
“The theatre came to us to let us know that they were putting together this show and wanted to designate some of the revenue to support Basic Rights Oregon’s work for gay and transgender equality,” said Juan Martinez, development director at BRO. “Our role in this exciting event is very simple—we are helping to promote the event to our supporters out in the community. And we will also be the beneficiary of the event.”
Sounds good, right? Supporting human rights and eating some cake? That sounds like something I could stand to do for the community. The only catch is that admission is expensive: $50 in advance (available at artistsrep.org) and $75 if you procrastinate and buy your ticket at the door. For students, this is steep.
According to Cathlene McGraw, PSU’s Queer Resource Center coordinator, BRO usually offers student rates at their events, but as this is strictly run by ART, there’s no such luck this time around. “I don’t see a lot of students who are asking about this event because I mainly see students who are struggling in school or who are experiencing discrimination,” McGraw said.
This is understandable, but if you’re balking at the price like I initially did, Nicole Lane, marketing and public relations director at ART, reminds you: “It is a fundraiser.”
The main focus for the evening is to raise money, after all. BRO is supposed to walk away from this event armed with dollars to back their campaign to sign marriage equality into law by popular vote.
While those who can’t afford to go to this event may feel excluded from furthering the cause or even from seeing some great theatre, I urge them to consider the fact that ART is providing a greater source of funding this way.
If you’ve really got your heart set on seeing this one-day worldwide event, maybe you can forgo the Starbucks this month and shell out for a good cause. And if you can’t pare down, ART’s thought of you, too. “Our intention is to do a run of this in the spring,” Lane said. “This will happen at a later date, with a lesser ticket price. It’s important for many, many people to see.”
Either way you can manage, make this fundraiser a success and see some poignant, amusing plays while you’re at it.