Tagged: Pandora Productions

Louisville’s Pandora Productions will produce a staged reading of Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black’s marriage equality docu-drama “8” this week. 

Black wrote “8” using trial transcripts, interviews with participants and first-hand observations of the 2010 Federal District Court trial that overturned California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that stripped California residents of their right to same-sex marriage. The playwright won an Oscar in 2009 for his screenplay “Milk,” about the life and assassination of San Francisco activist politician Harvey Milk.

Many of the arts season’s holiday shows are tried-and-true classics, but one Louisville theater company prefers a less reverent approach. Pandora Productions' plays and musicals typically examine some facet of LGBT life, and holiday programming is no exception. But when artistic director Michael Drury went looking for gay-themed Christmas fare to produce, he came away disappointed.

It’s no wonder the wedding has been a staple of stage comedy since Shakespeare’s time. A wedding has all the elements of a stage production: a supporting cast and two romantic leads, an audience, costumes and even a script. The effort of producing a real spectacle can bring even the most experienced stage manager–or wedding planner–to his knees. 

Sexually active teens getting high under the not-so-watchful eye of a Catholic boarding school sounds like a salacious premise, but Pandora Productions’ pop opera “Bare” is a sweet heartbreaker about emotionally neglected teens who just want someone to love, darn it.

The kids at St. Cecilia’s aren’t terribly interested in the church’s authority, but they are desperately seeking a close relationship with God. Mostly, they want to be seen and heard for who they truly are, and all of their decisions are guided by that desire.