THE 24 HOUR PLAYS: VIRAL MONOLOGUES Celebrates Pride Month With Larry Owens, Lea DeLaria and More

Tonight, The 24 Hour Plays and Pride Plays will unite to mark the end of Pride Month with a special edition of The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, available on IGTV @24hourplays, on The 24 Hour Plays' Facebook and YouTube channels, and at https://24hourplays.com/viral-monologues/. The evening will feature twelve new monologues by writers from the New York-based Pride Plays plus the event's West Coast partner artists Lovell Holder and Roger Q Mason, who also helped The 24 Hour Plays assemble the all-star cast of LGBTQIA+ talent. Together, this extraordinary group will write, rehearse, perform and produce new pieces in just 24 hours. Beginning at 6 PM ET, the new monologues will be published, one every 15 minutes.

Pride Plays writers Preston Max Allen, Omar Hantash, Rodney Hicks, Audrey Lang, Carmen LoBue, Ted Malawer, Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Hayley St. James will join West Coast partner artists Lovell Holder and Roger Q Mason to form this week's all-star team of playwrights. The performers bringing their work to life will include Philippe Bowgen, Yin Chang, Travis Coles, Lea DeLaria, Drew Droege, Scott Evans, Lola Kelly, Jordan Kisner, L Morgan Lee, Larry Owens, Josh Rivas, and Ianne Fields Stewart.

"I love watching and participating in The 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues and I am thrilled Pride Plays is partnering with them for this special Pride edition!" said Pride Plays festival director Michael Urie. "During the month of June, our Pride Plays LGBTQIA+ playwrights developed plays via virtual workshops and readings. All of those plays were written before the world changed, however, so I cannot wait to see what their brilliant minds are up to tonight. As Pride Plays continues to expand the representation and visibility of the entire queer theatrical community, we are grateful for The 24 Hour Plays' support in furthering that endeavor."

Proceeds from this round support Pride Plays, whose aim is to expand representation of the entire LGBTQIA+ theatrical community. Presenting and developing work by both writers who helped lay the groundwork for queer theatre and writers who'll be leaders of the next generation, Pride Plays is committed to telling the stories of the LGBTQIA+ past, present, and future, and honor those who showed up then and are still showing up today.

Last night at 6 PM, actors shared brief orientation-style videos to allow the writers to get to know them better. By 7 PM, writers and actors were paired, and writers got to work on crafting new monologues especially for their assigned actors. Actors received their monologues this morning at 10 AM, are filming their performances throughout the day, and at 6 PM their videos begin to be released to the world, completing the 24-hour cycle. The monologues will be available to view on IGTV and online for four days after their initial airing courtesy of an agreement with Theatre Authority, a nonprofit organization managed by Actors' Equity.

The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues are produced by Coleman Ray Clark and Madelyn Paquette. The artistic director of The 24 Hour Plays is Mark Armstrong.

The Pride Plays Festival producers are Doug Nevin and Michael Urie. Nick Mayo is the festival director; George Strus serves as literary manager.

The 24 Hour Plays are known for their work on Broadway, off-Broadway and around the world. Since 1995, their events have brought together extraordinary artists to create time-limited theater. Past participants include Jennifer Aniston, Laverne Cox, Billy Crudup, David Cross, Rosario Dawson, Daveed Diggs, Peter Dinklage, Rachel Dratch, Jesse Eisenberg, Edie Falco, America Ferrera, Greta Gerwig, Oscar Isaac, John Krasinski, Anthony Mackie, Julianne Moore, Tracy Morgan, Cynthia Nixon, Anna Paquin, Rosie Perez, Phylicia Rashad, Chris Rock, Sam Rockwell, Liev Schreiber, Amanda Seyfried, Michael Shannon, Gabourey Sidibe, Sarah Silverman, Marisa Tomei, Naomi Watts and more!

More information for those who would like to support The 24 Hour Plays or attend a live performance in the future is available at https://24hourplays.com.

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy