Standing On Ceremony, a collection of short plays bowing next week at the Broward Center, is about the traditional values of love and marriage. Specifically, gay marriage.

“Any kind of marriage is a celebration of the very best that human beings have to offer,” said Paul Rudnick, one of the playwrights contributing some of the nine playlets being presented in staged readings June 21-24.

Produced by Miamiâ€s City Theatre, the slate of works, droll and poignant, aims to win over or solidify public sentiment for marriage equality. Often the way to win hearts and minds is not to lecture, Rudnick said, but make people laugh or cry – and few efforts are as effective as the communal experience of theater.

“One of the things that theater does best is create a town hall feeling – that there really is something shared going on,” said Rudnick whose comedies have been produced across South Florida including Jeffrey, I Hate Hamlet, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and The New Century.

“Even when thereâ€s a real temptation to scream at people — and there is because of the frustration level — I find an evening like this, real entertainment, is more effective,” Rudnick said. “These plays are deeply joyous and if you can get people laughing and crying, then all of a sudden, barriers collapse.”

City Theatre Producing Artistic Director John Manzelli will direct actors from its Summer Shorts programs, Steve Trovillion, Elizabeth Dimon and Elena Maria Garcia.

The trio will join headliners Bruce Vilanch , the six-time Emmy winner and head writer for the Oscars, and Bryan Batt, memorable as Salvatore Romano on TVâ€s Mad Men and whose theatrical credits include Rudnickâ€s Jeffrey. The performances will be followed by a wedding reception complete with wedding cake and music by New York chanteuse and UM grad Nicole Henry.

The anthology that has played around the country for two years usually benefits an organization supporting marriage equality. A portion of all proceeds from this edition will be donated to Equality Florida, which bills itself as the largest civil rights organization in Florida dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The plays are penned by a roster of playwrights whose mantles hold Tonys, Obies and Pulitzers. In addition to Rudnick, the other writers include Jeffrey Hatcher (Tuesdays With Morrie), Mo Gaffney (The Kathy and Mo Show) , Jordan Harrison (Maple and Vine), Wendy MacLeod, (House of Yes), Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife), Neil LaBute (Reasons to be Pretty), Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project) and José Rivera (Cloud Tectonics).

Standing On Ceremony originated about two years ago as a one-night-only benefit in support of gay marriage. Other productions followed, including a one-month run Off-Broadway with a rotating cast. Since then, producer Joan Stein has mounted several productions around the country including this one in concert with City Theatre.

The program comes at a key moment in a national controversy over policies that allow same-sex domestic partners to formalize their relationship with a civil union. On one hand, North Carolinians recently amended their state constitution, refusing to recognize anything but a heterosexual couple as marriage. On the other hand, Rudnick quipped, “It also helps when the President is on your side.”

Batt remembers a few weeks ago when a friend told him that President Obama had just endorsed gay marriage. It was the weather that stuck in his mind like a hopeful harbinger. “I looked up in the sky and it was a beautiful sunny day. And I thought, thereâ€s a positive beautiful moment.”

Rudnick also sees signs of hope in a recent CNN poll that found support of gay marriage around 65 percent, a steep increase from a few years ago. Another poll taken in the 1990s found very few people claimed to know someone who was gay. A new poll puts that figure in 70 to 80 percent range, he said.

Rudnick sees Standing On Ceremony as contributing to “a climate of change.” But he notes that gay marriage still is not often portrayed on television or in film. “Itâ€s kind of up to theater to lead the way.”

Participating in the benefits resonates for Batt. His resume documents a lengthy history of social activism including work on the N. O. AIDS Task Force in his native New Orleans where he ran a theater company and still operates an interior design store in the French Quarter with his partner of 23 years.

Batt is in no hurry to get married although the couple toyed with the idea of doing it in Los Angeles before the recent amendment to the state constitution threw the possibility into limbo.

But one of the things he and Rudnick like about Standing On Ceremony is how it depicts a variety of views on the institution regardless of sexuality. “Marriage is not for everyone,” but then he added, “I would love to get married in New Orleans.”

Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays play June 21-24 at the Amaturo Theatre at the Broward Center for the Performing, 201 SW Fifth Avenue, Fort Lauderdale. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $35 to $45. Call (954) 462-0222 or visit www.BrowardCenter.org.

Related articles

• Bruce Vilanch to Star in Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays (wegotbruce.com)

The post Reminder: Bruce Vilanch: The Gay Marriage Plays play June 21-24 at the Amaturo Theatre at the Broward Center first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Even in a year-round arts community like South Floridaâ€s, annual theater festivals that materialize, entertain, then vanish ‘til the following year help make the summer season special. City Theatreâ€s Summer Shorts festival, which begins this weekend in the Arsht Centerâ€s Carnival Studio Theater, is the first of those special summer events.
Now in its 17th year, Summer Shorts has evolved from a two-program mini-marathon to a multi-faceted event. This yearâ€s festival includes the program of short plays (nine are on the bill, which runs through June 17), an annual playwrights†conference (set for June 15-17, featuring Christopher Durang and Leslie Ayvazian), a special theater event ( Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays June 21-24 at the Broward Center, starring Bryan Batt and Bruce Vilanch) and programming for kids (a production of the musical The Brand New Kid, which will play the Carnival June 9-17, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach June 19-22 and Fort Lauderdale Childrenâ€s Theatre June 29-30).

John Manzelli, City Theatreâ€s producing artistic director, says the ongoing evolution of Summer Shorts has to do with location and economics.

“Weâ€re always asking how to take what was a fun theater event…and turn it into a show that belongs in [the Arsht],” he says. “Ideally, weâ€d like a second program, but economically this was the only choice.”

Still, this yearâ€s lineup doesnâ€t skimp on the quality of its plays or the acting and directing talent involved. Manzelli, Mark Swaner and Margaret M. Ledford are sharing directing chores. In the five-person acting company are Carbonell Award winners Irene Adjan, Elizabeth Dimon and Todd Allen Durkin, plus newcomer Katherine Wright and the man who has been in nearly every Summer Shorts festival, Stephen Trovillion.

“A smart producer gets the best people,” Manzelli says. “And Steve [Trovillion] is a staple of the company. Heâ€s the best person Iâ€ve ever seen in this format. He gets this like no one else.”

Adjan, Dimon and Durkin have all participated in Naked Stageâ€s annual 24-Hour Theatre Project, in which short plays get written overnight, rehearsed the next day and performed that evening. Summer Shorts, says Adjan, is different.

“At Summer Shorts, you get time to delve into the plays and the characters, and actually make them full short plays,” she says. “At 24-Hour, you go with your instincts.”

Trovillion, who spends most of his year teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has become a Summer Shorts fan favorite. The short-play format is the only acting he has done over the past decade, but he has his process down pat.

“You have to work hard and fast, get to the essence of who the character is,” he says. “You find differences physically and vocally. You make simple but big choices, and then you fill it in with whatâ€s real. Finally, you get out of your head so youâ€re actually talking to the other person.”

Durkin, who plays assistant district attorney Doug Feehan on the new STARZ series Magic City, is having his first Summer Shorts experience and finds playing five characters in different genres an interesting challenge. Dimon, a Summer Shorts veteran who is acting in four plays, loves that challenge.

“Itâ€s fun to put yourself out there in different plays. Itâ€s like being in college and going from class to class. The audience sees you, then youâ€re immediately different,” she says.

That variety, says director Swaner, is the spice of Summer Shorts.

“You let each play and playwright have their own rhythm and style, and the audience sees all of that variety,” he says. “Yet itâ€s all performed by the same cast.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/01/v-print/2825669/summer-shorts-not-just-a-few-plays.html#storylink=cpy

The post Reminder: Bruce Vilanch To Star In “Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays” June 21-24 at the Broward Center first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Preliminary casting has been announced for Broadway Backwards 7, which as previously reported, will be held at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Monday, March 5 at 8pm.

The show features performers singing material usually performed by members of the opposite gender. It is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefits Broadway Cares and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

The cast will include Bryan Batt, Sierra Boggess, Mario Cantone, Robin De Jesús, Shawna Hamic, Telly Leung, Adam Pascal, Andrew Rannells, Chita Rivera, and Bruce Vilanch, with more to be announced.

Robert Bartley will again direct and choreograph the event, which will feature musical direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell. The creative team will also include lighting designer Ryan O’Gara, costume designer Philip Heckman and co-choreographers Stephanie Klemmons and Patrick O’Neill.

Click here for more information and Broadway Backwards 7 tickets.

The post Bruce Vilanch, Others To Perform In Broadway Backwards 7 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.