Pages

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

LGBT Dystopian One Act as Part of Take Pride, Bloomfield!

HD

by Gregory J. Allen

WHEN: Saturday, May 19, at 3pm
WHERE:
The Little Theater at the Bloomfield Library, 90 Broadway Street Bloomfield NJ.
ADMISSION:
free and open to the public
973-566-6200
http://www.bplnj.org/take-pride-bloomfield

Playwright Gregory G. Allen will have the NJ premiere of his one act play HIDING IN DAYLIGHT presented as part of the Take Pride, Bloomfield! festival happening in Bloomfield, NJ . The dystopian LGBT tale shares the story of two couples who come together to remember life before the gay purge and must decide if they can continue the risk of a weekly dinner together.

The event will be a semi-staged reading and members of Bloomfield’s professional theater company 4th Wall Theatre will perform and partake in a Q&A afterwards with the playwright. The piece features: Beth Baur (co-founder of New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts in Bloomfield), Ted Cancila, Bruce McCandless and Gwen Ricks-Spencer (Executive Director of 4th Wall).

Allen has is an award-winning author who has been in the entertainment industry for 30 years as a writer, actor, filmmaker, and director. His plays and musicals include: Well With My Soul (Seeing Place Theater Reading Series, NYC), Invisible Fences written with Stephen Kitsakos (4th Wall Theatre M.I.D. Stage Series), Ashokan: The Story of a Reservoir written with Stephen Kitsakos and Perdita Finn (commissioned by the Catskill Watershed Corporation), and three children's musical all produced by the Garland Children's Theatre in Garland, Texas. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. He has been a vocal advocate for many groups from autism to arts advocacy to equality and has been featured and interviewed in The Advocate, Huffington Post, PBS One-on-One with Steve Adubato, Sirius Radio The Morning Jolt, and Next Magazine.

“I’m always juggling several projects, but knew I needed to get this story out of me,” Allen says. “With The Handmaid’s Tale such a hit and 1984 recently on Broadway, I wanted to share a fictionalized projection of what could possibly happen in the future for the LGBT community  if we’re not careful. We’ve had many strides in our community, but we’re on a swing the other way and as someone who has been with my husband for 18 years, I don’t want to see our rights taken away from us.”

Take Pride, Bloomfield! is a program that runs January through June, 2018 at the Bloomfield Library and was made possible by an Incubation Grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. The festival examines the LGBTQ community through literature, film, and other experiences while building upon the energy and initiative of the LGBTQ organization Bloomfield Pride.

The playwright has reached out to organizations around the country to use the play as a conversation starter and several are reading the play now. Confirmed Reading/Discussions will be at The Studios of Key West, FL on May 22 and part of Community Conversations in Dallas, TX on July 23. http://www.gregorygallen.com/hidingindaylight.html