Kate Clinton, Paul Rudnick Set For Standing On Ceremony Talkback

Producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel announced today that Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will welcome Award-winning comedian Kate Clinton and playwright Paul Rudnick (who is receiving rave reviews for his Standing On Ceremony short plays "My Husband" and "The Gay Agenda") for a post-performance Q&A following the 8:00 PM performance on Wednesday, December 7 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane).

Responding to one of the defining issues of our day -- the on-going battle for marriage equality throughout the United States -- some of America's most illustrious and Award-winning playwrights, including Obie Award winner Mo Gaffney, Heideman Award winner Jordan Harrison, Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman, Tony Award nominee Neil LaBute, Sundance Jury Prize winner Wendy MacLeod, Obie Award winner José Rivera, Obie and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Paul Rudnick, and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright, have created a hilarious and poignant 90-minute evening of short plays that celebrates the courage to be in a relationship – any relationship.

Conceived by Brian Shnipper and directed by Stuart Ross, Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays features a cast that includes Theatre World Award winner Craig Bierko (The Music Man), Daytime Emmy nominee Mark Consuelos ("All My Children"), Emmy Award nominee Polly Draper ("thirtysomething"), Tony Award winner Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Emmy Award-winner Richard Thomas ("The Waltons").

Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, which will play its final performance Off Broadway on Sunday, December 18, 2011, has become an active voice in the fight for marriage equality. The show, which opened to rave reviews on November 13, 2011, has donated a percentage of all ticket sales to Freedom to Marry, Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, and other organizations promoting marriage equality. To launch its Off Broadway run, Standing on Ceremony joined with Tectonic Theater Project (Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director; Greg Reiner, Executive Director) for Standing on Ceremony: The National Event, to help take the play's message across the country (and the globe). For one night only on Monday, November 7, more than 50 participating theaters across America and beyond presented their own productions of the play to raise awareness and funds in support of marriage equality. Audience members across the country watched a live streaming introduction and post performance Q&A, and submitted questions via Twitter in real time.

Tickets for the Off Broadway run of Standing on Ceremony, priced from $25.oo to $79.00 (plus a $1.00 theatre facility fee), are now on sale via Ticketmaster.com and at the Minetta Lane box office (18 Minetta Lane). The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday - Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 3:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.; Sunday at 3:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Standing on Ceremony is produced Off Broadway by Joan Stein, Richard Frankel, Annette Niemtzow, Fakston Productions, Harley Medcalf, Jon Murray, Harvey Reese, in association with Diana Buckhantz and Niclas Nagler; Associate Producers, Luigi Caiola, Rebecca Falcon and Mary C. Solomon and Executive Producer, Joe Watson.

Bios

Kate Clinton. Born in Syracuse, New York in 1947, the self-described "fumerist" (feminist + humorist), "Madame President of Comedy," and "sister of Bill Clinton" (not the President), Kate Clinton first began her career as an English teacher. After teaching for eight years and after having taken a women's writing workshop, Clinton changed careers. She began performing stand-up comedy professionally in 1981. Although she has described herself as a late-bloomer who had been in the closet with "a foyer, a turnstile, [and] a few locks," Clinton has been comfortably open about her lesbianism from the beginning of her career in the entertainment field. As an out lesbian, however, she could not work in mainstream Comedy Clubs. Her unwillingness to alter her material for mainstream venues may have initially impeded her career in some ways, but she nevertheless quickly found an appreciative audience among lesbians and gay men.

Paul Rudnick's plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world. They include I Hate Hamlet, Jeffrey, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and The New Century. He has won an Obie, an Outer Critics Circle Award and the John Gassner Playwriting Award, and his collected plays have been published by HarperCollins. His novels are Social Disease and I'll Take It, and he's a frequent contributor to the New Yorker. He's rumored to be quite close to Premiere magazine's film critic Libby Gelman-Waxner, and his screenplays include Addams Family Values and In & Out. HarperCollins has published a collection of his essays entitled I Shudder.

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