Hal Luftig, Jamie deRoy & More Join Houses on the Moon Theater Company's Newly Created Advisory Board

Houses on the Moon Theater Company has announce the formation of a new Advisory Board and fundraiser Tales From the Moon celebrating Houses on the Moon's Education Program set for Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 6:00PM.

Members of the newly created Advisory Board include prominent theater professionals and community partners, including Broadway producers Hal Luftig, Jamie deRoy, Nelle Nugent, Cheryl Wiesenfeld, writer/director/choreographer Warren Adams, Dorset Theatre Festival artistic director Dina Janis, director Lisa Rothe, Fortune Society founder David Rothenberg, and Executive Director of PFLAG/NYC Drew Tagliabue.

"We're thrilled this group of distinguished members of theater and community organizations has joined us to supplement our resources and enhance the work that we do," says Houses on the Moon Board Co-President and Broadway producer Jane Dubin. "We create and produce theater that's inspired by a social need. Our advisory board members join us in this mission to create engagement with our audiences and our community."

The objective of this new board will be to support the company in its mission of telling untold stories, rooted in a project begun in 1998 by co-founders Weiner and Jeffrey Solomon, articulated by Weiner:

Jeffrey Solomon and I met in 1998 as teaching artist partners working at a school in Queens with a group of developmentally delayed teenagers. We were saddened by the amount of homophobia we were witnessing in the school environment and wanted to create a piece of theater that spoke to the isolation of LGBTQ+ students and educators. We set off on a creative development journey that included interviews with young people and educators around the country and beyond. As part of our research we interviewed a lesbian teenager in New Haven and asked her about her role models. Having never had an adult gay role model, she talked about the impossibility of envisioning her own future life as an adult.

The young woman stated:

It's like trying to imagine your future taking place on the Moon. How can I picture what my house would look like on the Moon? I've never been to the Moon. Nobody's ever tried to build a house at such a low gravity. How do I know whether to picture it on the surface, or floating? Trees and grass, or just rocks?

This young woman so clearly articulated the need for our play and the space it should fill. She provided us with a title for our pilot theater piece, Building Houses On The Moon, which led us to the name of our theater company in its founding year of 2001, and captured the essence of our mission in a metaphor. By telling previously marginalized stories, we were 'building a house on the moon.' We were creating a safe place for new stories to be told and heard in previously alien, uncharted or even hostile terrain.

This work with students continues. Celebrating Houses' Education Program, the company will present Tales From the Moon, a virtual reading of work created during our residency with students at Hostos/Lincoln Academy of Science in the Bronx. Weiner and Houses' company member Camilo Almonacid have worked with the students for the last 4 years. "The work Houses on the Moon has done with our students is invaluable. Our students are so excited to be able to have their work presented in a professional environment." says Hostos-Lincoln Assistant Principal Vincent Marano. Free and open to the public, the presentation is set for Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 6:00PM. Donations will be accepted during the reading with proceeds going toward the Education Program. To reserve tickets visit www.housesonthemoon.org

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