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Producing Educational & Fundraising Political Theatre

POLITICAL COMMENTARY - by G.L. Horton

MP wrote: "The Producer in me thinks that [Under Seige aka Choices] could be underwritten through Planned Parenthood and used as an educational and fundraising piece of theatre in the same vein as 'Vagina Monologues' is for V-Day."

Anyone who thinks this would have my wholehearted and openpocketbooked support. Certainly Planned Parenthood and nurses and clinic workers and such people were exceedingly helpful to us when we were working on the script and mounting a workshop production. They volunteered for talk-backs, came in groups, etc.

The play has too many (all female) characters to "make sense" as a commercial enterprise. I am disappointed that it hasn't been taken up by colleges, where female actors generally outnumber the available parts that are able to play. However, the structure of "Under Siege" is such that while the 5 counselors would have to be played by "professional" (or excellent seasoned community theatre) actors, the 20 patients who have "cameos" could be played by community activists or "celebrities" who connect in a visceral way with the patient's individual stories, just as is done in the fund-raising events organized around The Vagina Monologues. The Producer in me is a totally ineffective person-- pessimist and skeptic, and temperamentally unable to pick up the phone and Ask Nicely for What Is Needed. I'm fine at supporting an Optimist, though! And the play itself is a comedy, full of hope and idealism and suffused with the admiration and even awe I felt for the courageous women I met while I was working on it. (4/26/05)

 

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