Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays is an exciting, provocative evening of new plays by some of America's most illustrious playwrights. Responding to the on-going battle for marriage equality throughout the United States, these American writers have created an evening that is at once as insightful and stirring as more...
it is funny and heartwarming.
Standing On Ceremony is conceived by Brian Shnipper and features new works from playwrights including Jordan Harrison, Moises Kaufman, Neil LaBute, Jose Rivera, Paul Rudnick, and Doug Wright. A veritable battalion of great actors has performed the plays including Matthew Broderick, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alfre Woodard, Jason Ritter, Jason Alexander, Jean Smart, Judd Hirsch, Bradley Whitford, Julie Hagerty, John Benjamin Hickey, Camryn Manheim, Amy Brenneman, Jon Tenney and Debra Messing.
Standing On Ceremony is a theatrical event that serves as a lightening rod for raising consciousness - an advocacy piece that will also enjoy a long theatrical life as a funny, heart-felt and illuminating evening that celebrates the courage to be in a relationship - any relationship.
Standing On Ceremony will include a rotating cast of all-star actors to be announced shortly.
The nine short plays that make up Standing On Ceremony include:
- 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.
- This Flight Tonight by Wendy MacLeod, which asks if there is any hope for happiness when a lesbian marriage begins in Iowa.
- On Facebook by Doug Wright, adapted from an actual Facebook thread chronicling one long fight among friends on the subject of gay marriage.
- White Marriage by Jeffrey Hatcher, in which a wife and husband discuss his "gay" sense of humor.
- This Marriage Is Saved by Joe Keenan, a satiric vignette about a disgraced evangelist and his wife who insist that his extra marital flings has only strengthened their marriage.
- 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.
- The Gay Agenda by Paul Rudnick, a sadly hilarious plea for understanding by an Ohio homemaker and member of Focus on the Family.
- London Mosquitoes by Moisés Kaufman, a poignant story in which a widower tries to make sense of the loss of his long-time lover.
- 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".