"Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays" at New Century Theatre

Planning a wedding. Writing your vows. Pre-wedding jitters. Pressure from one’s parents to get married. The loss of a loved one. All of these things are associated with a common milestone in life – getting married. The one tiny difference in the series of short plays called Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays is that the couples living through these common experiences are same sex-couples. But the emotions conveyed in this funny, touching, and at times heart-breaking play are universal human emotions that everyone in the audience can related to, no matter their sexual orientation or marital status.

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays began as a series of benefits in L.A., continued Off-Broadway last fall, and is now being produced in theaters across the country. Nine playwrights contributed to the work, and their collective body of work is impressive, including some plays I’ve seen recently: I Am My Own Wife (Doug Wright), Compleat Female Stage Beauty, What’s the Word For (both Jeffrey Hatcher), reasons to be pretty (Neil LaBute). Wendy Knox of the innovative Frank Theatre directs six talented local actors who portray a variety of characters in the nine stories. In one a couple is writing their vows, and discovering that the traditional words don’t really apply. Another is in the airport on their way from L.A. to Iowa (of all places) for a hometown wedding and coming to terms with the gravity of what they’re about to do. A New York mother pressures her single gay son to find a husband, because all of her friends' gay kids are getting married now that it’s legal. A heterosexual couple amusingly deals with the possibility that the husband is gay and worry that their son may follow in his father’s footsteps. A crazy woman begins hearing voices in her head and feels that her traditional suburban lifestyle is being threatened. A man delivers a heart-wrenching eulogy for his partner of 40 years. And finally, a happy couple celebrate their union with all of their friends.

About that talented cast of six. Jim Lichtsheidl (recently seen in the delightful fairy tale Vasa Lisa with Ten Thousand Things) is always a delight to watch, especially when he gets to play several characters in one piece. Shanan Custer brings her very funny style to stories both serious and ridiculous (the aforementioned crazy woman, in a hilarious monologue). Shawn Hamilton (Ragtime and Avenue Q) and Aimee K Bryant (Hairspray at the Chan) unfortunately don’t get to sing, but they do play a hypocritical evangelical couple determined to stay together despite her husband’s indiscretions and scandals. Mark Rhein is the man whose wife tells him he has a “gay sense of humor,” and in the most moving vignette, talks about his 40-year love story. Last but not least, Laura B. Adams is strong and funny as the Jewish mother and a woman planning a wedding, something she never thought she'd do.

Mark Rhein and Jim Lichtsheidl

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays is playing at the newest of the Hennepin theaters – the New Century Theatre in City Center in downtown Minneapolis. It’s the first time I’ve been there and I quite like the space, which includes little cocktail tables among the seats in the audience, reminiscent of Hennepin Stages (Hey City Theater) down the street. The plays are staged very simply staged, with a row of chairs on the stage and a few tables to the sides. The actors occasionally hold scripts; its more like a reading than a fully staged production.

I very much recommend this show (it runs for two more weekends). It’s an entertaining evening of theater that tells universal human stories, and it might get you thinking and talking about the subject of marriage equality. Which is something that we as Minnesotans need to think and talk about in light of the upcoming vote on the Marriage Amendment. For more information on that check out Minnesotans United for All Families.

"I Am My Own Wife" at the Jungle Theater

The final play in the Jungle Theater's 2011 season is the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play I Am My Own Wife, directed by Joel Sass, who also designed the set.  It's a wonderful end to what has been a very enjoyable year of theater.  The play tells the fascinating true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, German transvestite, antiques collector, museum curator, and gay icon.  Charlotte lived through the Nazi and Communist occupations of Berlin.  She provided a haven for the gay community in East Berlin during a time of persecution, but also worked as an informant for the Stasi (the Communist secret police).  She was truly a singular individual, and the play explores not just her life, but also the playwright Doug Wright's investigation into her life, and his conflicting feelings about her complicated life.

The play is presented as a series of interviews that Doug conducted with Charlotte in her home in Berlin, the Gründerzeit Museum, in the early 1990s.  Charlotte tells the story of her life, and Doug tells the story of writing this play.  Charlotte was born a boy in 1928 but always felt more comfortable as a girl.  She collected furniture and things from abandoned homes, and eventually started the Museum to house them and share them with people.  She moved the Mulack-Ritze Cabaret into her basement when the Communists shut it down.  The Museum was her life, and she received a commendation from the government because of her work.  She moved to Sweden in the 1990s when the news came out about her work with the Stasi (which she somehow justified to Doug), and died in 2002.  The museum is still operating, and I will definitely visit it next time I go to Berlin, which I hope to someday.

The roles of Charlotte, and Doug, and a dozen other characters are played by one man - Bradley Greenwald.  I have been a fan of his for several years and was particularly moved by his portrayal of the Emcee in Cabaret (that other great theater piece about Berlin) earlier this year.  Dressed in a simple black skirt, shirt, kerchief, and a string of pearls (Charlotte was not the stereotypical transvestite with flashy clothes and make-up, she dressed like a grandmother), Bradley transforms himself into all of these diverse characters with just the carriage of his body and his magnificent voice (if you've never heard him sing, which he unfortunately doesn't really do in this play, you're missing out).  When he's Charlotte, he speaks German* effortlessly, mixed with heavily accented English, and often slips back and forth between the two languages almost unconsciously (a mix that my friends and I used to call "Germlish" when I studied abroad in Salzburg many years ago).  When he's Doug or his friend John Marks, he speaks German with an awful American accent, or plain old English.  He's a Nazi, a Stasi, a politician, a TV show host, a reporter; it's truly a beautiful performance.  One that helps you see inside this very human individual who lived an authentic life in the face of much adversity.  (The Iveys agree - Bradley won an Ivey Award for this performance in 2006.  Listen to a great interview with him here.)

I Am My Own Wife is playing now through December 18.  With this wonderful play the Jungle Theater's 21st season comes to a close, and the 22nd season looks to be just as intriguing.



*I should warn you that I love the German language.  I think it's beautiful, maybe because it's the only language other than English that I ever learned and that I can still somewhat decipher.  So it's fun for me when I hear it coming from the stage and feel like I have a little bit more insight into the characters because I can understand it.  Some things are lost in translation.  But don't worry, if you don't speak German you'll still get most of it.  :)