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QUEERING BROADWAY: 120-Year Legacy of LGBT Performers & Creators
A free virtual talk to celebrate the Tony Awards + Pride!
When and where
Date and time
Starts on Thursday, June 8 · 3:30pm PDT
Location
Online
Refund Policy
About this event
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Mobile eTicket
FREE to all; please consider a suggested donation $5 or more.
Where did LGBT Hollywood stars like Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift get their start? Where were plays by Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and Tony Kushner premiered? And where did Lorraine Hansberry make African American theater history with her landmark 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun? Join co-director Jay Shockley, the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project’s resident theater guru, for a virtual tour of the Broadway Theater District, ahead of the 2023 Tony Awards!
The theater constitutes one of the city’s primary creative and economic forces, and the LGBT community has had a significant and disproportionate impact on the Broadway stage. This included the contributions of major LGBT performers, playwrights, directors, composers, lyricists, librettists, choreographers, and set, costume and lighting designers who created many of Broadway’s most iconic shows. Despite the New York Legislature-enacted Wales Padlock Law (1927) that made it illegal for theaters to show plays that featured gay and lesbian characters through 1967, some productions managed to get around this restriction and some became stage classics.
This talk highlights a fascinating history of Broadway, and the theaters themselves, seen through the lens of the LGBT community, beginning in the early 20th century.
Photo: Poster for "A Chorus Line," the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that had its Broadway premiere at the Shubert Theater in 1975.
About the NYC LGBT Historic Site Project
The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project is a nonprofit cultural initiative and educational resource that is making an invisible history visible by documenting extant historic and cultural sites associated with the LGBT community throughout New York City. For more, visit www.nyclgbtsites.org, or follow on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
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About the organizer
The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, launched in 2015 by preservation professionals, is an award-winning cultural heritage initiative and educational resource documenting and presenting historic sites connected to the LGBT community throughout New York City. Its website, including an interactive map, features over 265 diverse places from the 17th century to 2000 that are important to LGBT history and illustrate the community’s influence on NYC and American culture.
The project researches and nominates LGBT sites to the National Register, advocates for the official recognition of LGBT historic sites, provides walking tours (also accessible through a free-app), presents lectures, engages the community through events, develops educational programs for New York City public school students, and disseminates its content through robust social media channels. Its goal is to make an invisible history visible while fostering pride and awareness.
For more, visit www.nyclgbtsites.org, or follow on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.