THE 24 HOUR PLAYS Benefit to Honor Artist and Activist Spencer Cox

On Monday, February 20th at 8 pm at The Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City, Bennington College, in association with The 24 Hour Plays, will present The 24 Hour Plays: A Bennington Tribute to Spencer Cox.

This one night-only event will take place at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre and will bring together Bennington College alumni and friends-including Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Obie winners and nominees-to write, cast, rehearse, and present six one-act plays within a 24-hour period.

Ticket sales and donations will benefit the Spencer Cox '90 Scholarship for student activists at Bennington College.

Participating artists include playwrights Jonathan Marc Sherman and David Drake, actors Joel Marsh Garland, Julia Prud'homme, Brandi Nicole Wilson, and Marion Markham. The full list of participants is available on the Bennington College website.

Cox, who died in 2012, was a performer, artist, and activist, and a pivotal member of ACT UP, the direct-action advocacy group with a mission to end AIDS. He played a defining role in the formation of the Treatment Action Group (TAG) to focus on accelerating AIDS treatment research and lent creative intellect and intense focus to help fight one of the most pressing social and public health crises of our time.

"We're in a moment now where we're looking to activists to lead the way," said Mark Armstrong, executive director of The 24 Hour Plays. "ACT UP and Spencer Cox represent the most successful activist movement of our time and The 24 Hour Plays is proud to celebrate that legacy, as well as to partner with the great actors, directors and playwrights who are part of the vibrant Bennington community."

"Dr. King said 'In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' Spencer taught me by example how never to sit silent," said Julie Tucker, Emmy Award-winning casting director who is participating as a director of one of the plays. "I believe, wholeheartedly, it is up to us to pass this ethos on to each and every generation. I am overjoyed to do my part in celebration of our tribe's fallen warrior - and the warriors to come."

"Spencer showed us that change happens when passion is given the opportunity to act, said Sekka Scher, talent manager/producer and co-chair of the scholarship committee. "That passion is all around us today. Our goal is to feed that passion with opportunity."

The evening will also include a tribute to music journalist and playwright Marc Spitz, who passed away earlier this month. He was slated to participate as a playwright.

Tickets are $150, with limited discounted tickets available for young alumni. Available through Ticket Central.

Bennington College is a liberal arts college in southwestern Vermont that distinguished itself early as a vanguard institution within American higher education. It not only was the first to include the visual and performing arts in a liberal arts education, but it also was the first to integrate work in the classroom with work in the field. To this day, Bennington stands apart in requiring that every student-every winter term-get a job or complete an internship. Students have recently spent Field Work Term at social justice organizations including the Sierra Club (Oakland, CA), the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund (Brooklyn, NY), the International Rescue Committee (Denver, CO), Global Visionaries (Seattle, WA), and at WriteGirl (Los Angeles, CA). Princeton Review has recognized Bennington students on the "Most Politically Active Students" list, the "LGBTQ Friendly" list, and highlighted its theater program as among the best in the nation. Visit www.bennington.edu for more.

Since 1995, The 24 Hour Plays (Mark Armstrong, Executive Director; Tina Fallon, Founding Producer) have brought extraordinary artists together to create time-limited theater around the world. In addition to The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals in New York City, regular events take place in London, Los Angeles, Dublin, Germany, Athens, Finland, Denmark, Mexico City, and Florence. Through collaborations with organizations worldwide, The 24 Hour Company's productions have raised millions of dollars for charities. Each summer, The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals bring together young actors, directors, playwrights, and producers for an intensive professional experience that culminates in their own production of The 24 Hour Plays. Licensed affiliates produce their own versions of The 24 Hour Plays in regional and professional theaters, colleges, and universities, and just about everywhere you can find a curtain and a stage. Go to www.24hourplays.com for more information.

The Pershing Square Signature Center, the permanent home of Signature Theatre, is a three-theatre facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature's three distinct playwrights' residencies and foster a cultural community. The Center is a major contribution to New York City's cultural landscape and provides a venue for cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theatres, the Center features a Studio Theatre, rehearsal studio, a bookstore, and the Signature Café + Bar, open to the public from noon-midnight Tuesdays-Sundays.

Photo Credit: Walter Kurtz