'Standing on Ceremony' makes personal, humorous case for gay ...

By the end of ?Standing on Ceremony,? the audience feels naturally compelled to stand for the ceremony. Art and reality converge as the strains of the Grand March from ?Tannhauser? fill the church with a flourish (the sanctuary serves as the stage) and the young couple processes up the aisle. The twist ? the couple is Pablo and Andrew.

While same-sex marriage has become one of the most politically and socially divisive issues of the day, ?Standing on Ceremony? makes its strongest points by presenting simple, personal and genuine stories of love. Subtitled ?The Gay Marriage Plays,? ?Standing on Ceremony? is an omnibus collection of 10 brief scenes written by nine playwrights. Each looks at various aspects of love and marriage, from fears of commitment to expectations of parents to pre-wedding jitters, all of which will seem familiar to anyone who has approached the altar, regardless of gender.

The evening opens with a semantically pointed exposing of what same-sex couples miss out on by not being able to marry in Jordan Harrison?s ?The Revision.? Nate and Wallace, played with youthful delight by Nelson Gonzalez and Ben Carbo, deconstruct their traditional wedding vows to better match the legal pitfalls such couples find themselves faced with. ?In sickness and in health? better include clearly defined health care directives. The writing is clever without being preachy, setting the tone for most of the evening. Carbo and Gonzalez also cap the evening off with a finale sure to elicit smiles.

Veronica Russell and Diana Shortez charmingly work their way through pre-wedding jitters in ?This Flight Tonight? by Wendy MacLeod. Mirroring the challenges of the lack of a national consensus, the pair are flying away from their California home to marry in Iowa. The tensions and fears played out by Russell and Shortez ring heartfelt and true.

The most overtly funny piece of the evening is Paul Rudnick?s ?My Husband,? in which Carbo plays Michael, a single gay man, whose ?liberal Jewish Democrat? mother seeks to speed along her son?s settling down, while one-upping her friends. To achieve this, she sends a marriage notice to the Times reporting that he?s now engaged to a ?cardiac surgeon who only operates on gay children from Third World countries.? The clich?d stereotypes are broad, but Karen Shields plays it well.

Richer insights are revealed in several of the works that examine relationships that go beyond the depth of an Entertainment Weekly approach of who?s out and who?s not.

Rebecca McNeill Meyers and Doug Mundy bring out subtle nuances in ?White Marriage,? by Jeffrey Hatcher, in which a longtime, contented married couple question the implications of the husband?s ?gay sense of humor.? Meyers and Russell also bring a distinctly genuine feel to Mo Gaffney?s ?A Traditional Wedding,? in which one woman rejected by her own family is embraced by her new spouse?s family.

Neil LaBute is not a playwright one expects to encounter in such a lineup. His ?Strange Fruit? is the most direct in addressing sex before taking a melodramatic turn. In the dual monologues performed by D. Michael Stevens and Jeff Mallon, he also cruelly reminds the audience that gay men and women are victims of violence, despite whatever civil rights advances have taken place. It is a jarringly effective piece.

STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS

• What: Conceived by Brian Shippner, the collection of 10 brief plays by a variety of playwrights address same-sex marriage, each offering a unique take on the moments before, during and after, ?I do.? Glenn Meche, Frederick Mead and Karen Shields direct.

• Where: St. Anna?s Episcopal Church, 1313 Esplanade Ave., 947.2121.

• When: Final performances at 8 Friday and Saturday.

The most poignantly touching piece of the night, ?London Mosquitoes? by Moises Kaufman, takes the form of a eulogy. As Joe, mourning his partner of 46 years, Mundy gives a sublimely beautiful performance asking whether they needed official recognition of their long union.

The less successful pieces address the subject primarily using political talking points, which is unnecessary, considering that anyone choosing to attend the performance will already be convinced of the argument. In addition, while reasonable people can disagree on the issue of changing the definition of marriage, dismissing those on the other side purely as ignorant homophobes is not an engagement in honest debate. As a result, Rudnick?s ?The Gay Agenda? and Joe Keenan?s ?This Marriage is Saved? stack their satiric deck with too much mean-spiritedness.

Directors Frederick Mead, Glenn Meche and Karen Shields present the pieces simply, as somewhat more than staged readings but keep the production focused on the individual couples and their words. As a result, it is an insightful, entertaining and ultimately quite moving evening.

Source: http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2012/07/standing_on_ceremony_makes_per.html

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