‘It Gets Better’ tour cast to stay at OU in week-long residency along with performance.
For the cast of the It Gets Better show, simply performing is not enough.
The cast will be staying for a week on campus in a residency to start conversation about issues for LGBTQ individuals along with a performance on Thursday, as part of Ohio University’s Performing Arts and Concert Series.
The It Gets Better Project started in 2010 when columnist Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller created a YouTube video designed to give hope to kids who are bullied or not accepted. This started a large response of videos of others doing the same and sharing their stories. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles created one singing Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors.”
In 2012, GMCLA started touring with a musical in partnership with the project, said Liesel Reinhart, writer and director for the show.
What sets apart this show from others is the fact that the cast includes a residency along with the performance itself.
“We recently have added the first two women in the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and they’re joining our cast now,” Reinhart said. “We’ve rewritten the show to reflect a broader range of stories, including some of stories of people we’ve actually met on tour.”
The cast will visit OU classes and the Athens High School Gay-Straight Alliance and host discussions in hopes to open a dialogue on campus about these problems, said Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center.
One of the events is a World Café, similar to the set up of recent Campus Conversations.
“I’ve always found that the ability to have just a little bit more time not just to talk to people in the community but just to hear what people are saying in the community is just so important to us as artists,” Reinhart said.
The show itself will be Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and will be free for OU students. It is a musical with inspiration drawn from real stories Reinhart and others have been told.
“The show itself is very entertaining and fun and moving,” Reinhart said. “I don’t want anybody to feel like this is going to be a super heavy, like after-school special kind of experience.”
The show will also include a song written specifically for the show by Grammy winner Merv Warren and Tony winner Jeff Marx, “More Friends Than You Know,” which was also covered on Glee. Reinhart said the song will be performed by OU students and Athens residents, forming one large choir.
Andrew Holzaepfel, senior associate director of student activities for the Campus Involvement Center, said he wants to have more educational stays, as well as more programming geared towards LGBTQ issues.
“I think it’s going to be a powerful week of dialogue,” Holzaepfel said. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to take a pause for a week and have a dialogue about those conversations.”
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