arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Rainbow Theater Festival 2004
Monologue Submissions Begin

Bread & Water Theatre is currently in pre-production for Rainbow Theater Festival 2004 (RTF), a series of performances dedicated to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender themes.

As part of an ongoing effort to create new works of theatre and promote involvement in the arts, Bread & Water Theatre is currently asking for the community to contribute their stories of sexuality to this year’s festival. These stories will be molded into a series of monologues, which will be a part of this year’s final performance.

Some may be familiar with this style of theatre from the works of other well-known artists. Studs Terkel, an actor and radio host, has spent his life traveling all over the world interviewing people. These interviews have been compiled in Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, American Dreams: Lost and Found, Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession, Hard Times, The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two, and more. In 1985 Terkel won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good War. The monologue story has also been a part of making The Vagina Monologues an international phenomenon and a rallying cry for women everywhere. Eve Ensler, the playwright behind the success of The Vagina Monologues, spent years traveling the world interviewing women for this very important piece of theatre.

Bread & Water Theatre is accepting stories through http://www.breadandwatertheatre.org where participants can submit their stories through an online form. These submissions can deal with any aspect of sexuality and anyone can be a participant.

Rainbow Theater Festival was first started in 1999 by a group of Nazareth College students as a medium to showcase plays with homosexual themes, foster tolerance and awareness for the gay and lesbian community and as a way of giving back to the greater Rochester community.

Founded in 2001, The Bread and Water Theatre, under the artistic direction of J.R. Teeter, develops theatre that speaks to our new and evolving world through new works of dramatic literature and adapted classics. In the next year, BWT will be applying for non-profit status and aspires to be a major force in American theatre, providing audiences with challenging contemporary drama and innovative community outreach programs.

A series of new theatrical works devoted to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender themes, The Rainbow Theater Festival 2004 will be presented during the 2nd and 3rd weekends of January 2004 at a time and location yet to be determined. A press release listing show dates, performance location(s), and play details will be sent out in the next two weeks.