The assignment was to write a 10-minute play about marriage equality, and nine nationally known playwrights ― from Moises Kaufman to Wendy MacLeod to Jose Rivera ― answered the call, turning out what collectively has become known as Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays.
After benefit performances around the country and a successful commercial run off-Broadway, the celebratory evening of short plays arrives at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center on Thursday for a four-day engagement, produced by South Florida’s 10-minute play experts ― City Theatre.
No, these are not a collection of liberal diatribes. “As writers, we’re more interested in complicated human feelings than we are in political points of view per se,” says Doug Wright, whose plays include Quills, I Am My Own Wife and the book to the musical Grey Gardens. “While it is undeniable that the plays are sympathetic to gay marriage, I don’t think they’re necessarily political dialectics. A lot of the pieces are just human portraits of what it means to be living in the midst of our own civil rights moment.”
The playwrights were asked to address the subject of gay marriage, but after that, there were no further restrictions on them. “They were certainly going after a wide variety of voices, which was part of what was so exciting about the idea,” explains Paul Rudnick, known for such gay-themed comedies as Jeffrey and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. “And I assumed if they were after me, they wanted something funny.”
Being something of an overachiever, Rudnick wrote not one play, but two. “Actually, there was a little bit of a time lapse between them,” he says. “I wrote one play, ‘The Gay Agenda,’ for the original evening (in 2010), and then once gay marriage had become legal in New York, it seemed like another great opportunity and something that should be included. So that’s when I wrote ‘My Husband,’ the second piece, to reflect the change in the political climate.”
The Gay Agenda is described as “a sadly hilarious plea for understanding by an Ohio homemaker and member of Focus on the Family,” while My Gay Husband puts a comic twist on the stereotype of the Jewish mother desperate to marry off her children.
LaBute’s play, Strange Fruit, is about two men whose plans to get married “the old-fashioned way” are stymied when reality rears its ugly head. “I don’t think of myself as a contrarian but I certainly didn’t write the happiest of pieces,” he says. “There’s kind of a love story there and yet it ends sadly.”
Wright’s On Facebook chronicles one long fight among friends on the subject of gay marriage, adapted from an actual thread on the social network site. “I thought, ‘Why write a play? There’s a wonderful play here already on Facebook,’” says Wright. “So I simply changed names and varied the wording enough to protect myself from a legal perspective.”
Although many of the playwrights are openly supportive of gay marriage, they was no requirement that they push that agenda in their plays. “If there was, they certainly never told me about it,” says Neil LaBute, whose stage works include The Shape of Things, Bash and Reasons to be Pretty. “There was no pointing us in the direction of being pro. I think you would have assumed that the venture was sympathetic to the cause, and yet I’ve always been probably the wrong person to choose for those things, because it makes me, as a writer, say ‘What’s the other side?’ ”
Adds Rudnick, “I think one of my favorite things about the entire evening and all of the playwrights’ work is that it never turns into a lecture, it’s never kind of liberal, good-for-you medicine. It’s very touching, it’s very funny and it’s hugely entertaining. If you want an editorial, you can read that in the paper.
“I wanted first to make people laugh and, even more, to surprise them. If you can surprise an audience, you can get them thinking.”
Besides, these writers are not really sure that theater can change minds. “That’s a tall order for 10 minutes, I’ll tell you that,” responds LaBute. “It’s a tall order for two hours or three hours. I think it has the ability to open our eyes to various points of view and, therefore, has the possibility of changing minds. And that alone makes it worth doing.”
“I think theater, along with most of the other arts, can become part of a climate of change,” offers Rudnick. “I don’t know that any one play ― or novel or movie ― can cause a revolution per se, but if you get enough of them, if legitimizes a debate at the very least.”
Appearing in the staged readings are such headliners as Bruce Vilanch, Bryan Batt and vocalist Nicole Henry, plus such Summer Shorts favorites as Steve Trovillion, Elizabeth Dimon and Elena Garcia. Tickets are $35-$45, including a post-show wedding reception, with wedding cake. A portion of all ticket proceeds will be donated to Equality Florida.
Asked why South Floridians should see Standing on Ceremony, Rudnick does not hesitate. “Oh, cause they’ll have a blast. Aside from any political concerns, they will have the best time,” he says. “It’s a wonderfully funny evening and it’s very moving. And on top of that, on a sheerly practical level, if you don’t like one writer’s work, if you wait a few seconds, another one will be along right away.”
“Because I think it’s all the things that I am drawn to as an audience member and certainly as a writer,” says LaBute. “It entertains, it informs, it has the ability to educate and it’s of the moment. I don’t know how much more you could ask.”
STANDING ON CEREMONY, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Thursday, June 21, through Sunday, June 24. Tickets: $35-$45. Call: (954) 462-0222.