For Immediate Release
September 28, 2008
That Uppity Theatre Company Celebrates Coming Out Day With Original Theatre and Over 20 Community Organizations as Part of the St. Louis Political Theatre Festival October 11-12
Saturday, October 11 at 8 pm and Sunday, October 12 at 3 pm, That Uppity Theatre with Playback Workshop Theatre will present two free performances of “Coming Out Stories 2008” at the Missouri History Museum. For more info, call (314) 995-4600, or visit the website at www.UppityCo.com. As some audience members volunteer to share their stories on the spot, you’ll see their lives and yours illuminated on stage as they are enacted by some of St Louis’s best improvisational actors.
October 11 commemorates the day that 500,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., for gay and lesbian equality in 1987. Numerous lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizations were founded and inspired by an annual National Coming Out Day because of the march.
The day also celebrates the point when a person accepts his or her sexual orientation or gender identity and begins to share it with others.
Joan Lipkin, artistic director of That Uppity Theatre Company, has joined with Jacqueline Masei, artistic director from the Playback Workshop Theatre, to create what they believe is an ideal event to honor the occasion. The team has developed Coming Out Stories to encourage people to share stories about LGBT aspects of their lives or in the lives of someone close to them.
“I wanted this topic, coming out, to be seen as live art to emphasize that our lives are art,” Lipkin says. “And to bring people in for a performance and community celebration that might not come otherwise.”
The live art will be created from a technique called Playback Theater, which gives audience members the opportunity to share their stories and have them depicted through improvisation by professional actors. The 2008 Coming Out Stories ensemble features some of St. Louis’s most diverse and interesting improvisational actors, including Anne Farina, Anneliese Hubbard, Luke Lindberg, George Malich, Jacqueline Masei, Sreeja Smith, and Steven Vance.
Whether in public theaters, workshops, educational or clinical settings, Playback Theater affirms the importance and dignity of personal experience, enables people to view their lives in new ways, and draws people closer as they see their common humanity,” Masei says.
Following the success of sold-out houses at the Contemporary Art Museum two years ago for Coming Out Day, That Uppity Theatre returns with an all-new version, “Coming Out Stories 2008: Yours, Mine and Ours,” as part of the 2008 St. Louis Political Theatre Festival.
In addition to honoring National Coming Out Day, there will be opportunities to meet hosts and representatives from numerous community organizations at Uppity’s free Marketplace of Ideas. Participants include over twenty organizations: the Human Rights Campaign, St Louis Gender Foundation, Q-Fest, Pride St. Louis, Rustin’s Room, St. Louis Black Pride, PFLAG, PROMO, Anti-Violence Advocacy Project, Diversity Awareness Partnership, Vital Voice, MCC of Greater St. Louis, the LGBT Community Center of Metropolitan St. Louis, Charis, Gateway Men’s Chorus, Bisexual Alliance of St. Louis, Growing American Youth, SAGE, National Conference for Community and Justice and MetLife, among others.
Get their latest updates and ways to stay involved and check out a new art exhibit sponsored by the LGBT Community Center, made with students from Webster University.
Check out some great theatre unlike anything you have ever seen. See old friends and make new ones. Everyone is welcome. What could be more fun? Especially since it’s free!! Come an hour early to check out all the booths and visit. For more info, call (314) 995-4600, or visit the website at www.UppityCo.com.
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