All-Star Cast to Perform
All-Star St. Louis Cast to Perform in Beyond Stonewall: Why We March on September 20th 1:00 pm
ST.LOUIS, MO – SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 – On Sunday September 20, 1:00 pm Show Me No Hate and That Uppity Theatre Company present Beyond Stonewall: Why We March, a new play written by Tennessee playwright Sharon Bandy and St. Louis playwright Joan Lipkin. The play will be presented at the new home of Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) at 1919 S Broadway. Admission is free, with general seating and will be followed by a short discussion after the performance. The play has been launched on the Internet and has performances scheduled at college campuses and universities across the country.
The amazing cast of Beyond Stonewall: Why We March spans from 16 year old Kaitlin Wright, a junior at Metro High School to Dieta Pepsi, one of the region’s leading female impersonators. Other performers include Carol Robinson, former president of St. Louis Pride, AIDS activist Steve Houldsworth, Theresa Masters and Howie Hirshfield from the Howard Brinkley sketch comedy troupe, Rich Scharf formerly with the DisAbility Project, Equity actors Tyler Vickers and Travis Estes, and deaf interpreter / actor Scott McMasters. Bert Coleman St. Louis activist who serves on the national steering committee for the Oct 11th National Equality March, former St. Louis Judge Susan Block and artist Claire Medol Hyman will also be performing in the roles of community bloggers.
Beyond Stonewall: Why We March was inspired by actual online blogger comments posted in response to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story published this spring. The article was about the new face of gay activism among St. Louis professionals. The online link of the newspaper’s story drew over 300 negative attacks on the locals featured in the story, as well as LGBT issues. The play follows a newscaster who tries to do a story about an out-of-the-closet, white, gay prominent banker when his interview on the street is hijacked by the ghosts of Stonewall, bloggers, two college students and an African-American lesbian activist. It uses actual comments from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website.
Both funny and informative, the 30-minute play presents multi-generational perspectives and differences of opinion in the LGBT community, and explores gay marriage; the Employee Non Discrimination Act; Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; and gay bashing, among other issues. Ultimately, it suggests that LGBT rights are human rights and should be of concern to all people, regardless of sexual orientation.
Playwright and director Joan Lipkin was launched into national prominence twenty years ago with the production of her play, Some of My Best Friends Are . . . which was the first piece of LGBT theatre to be produced in St. Louis. The play was a runaway hit, and Lipkin, Artistic Director of That Uppity Theatre Company, used the occasion of the play to call attention to Missouri’s Sexual Misconduct Law. Since then, Lipkin received the James F. Hornback Ethical Humanist of the Year Award, among other honors, and, in October will receive the National Conference for Community and Justice Award. She has been produced internationally and created numerous other projects including the groundbreaking DisAbility Project.
Sharon Bandy’s full-length play EXIT 136, written shortly after she moved from California to Tennessee, examines homophobia in the south. The play was presented at the Barter Theatre in Virginia as part of its Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, and has received readings across the country.
One of the gay St. Louisans included in the Post-Dispatch article is the former CEO of Pulaski Bank, Bill Donius. “Joan and Sharon’s play addresses timely topics within the LGBT community involving our struggle to obtain the elusive equality we have sought in the four decades since Stonewall,” shares Donius.
Show Me No Hate is a coalition of Missourians seeking Marriage Equality in our state. Professional comedian and actor Ed Reggi started the grassroots organization last November shortly after he learned that Proposition 8 narrowly passed in California. Show Me No Hate recently chartered a bus to Iowa City where 17 Missouri same-sex couples became the first to get legally married in Iowa.
For information call (314) 995-4600
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