In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Cathy Renna, managing partner at Target Cue an LGBTQ focused public relations firm about the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death next month, the events she is working on nationwide to honor this sad milestone and her spin on our LGBTQ issues. In October 1998 Matthew Shepard a twenty-one-year-old openly gay student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, beaten, tortured and left to die tied to a fence in the middle of a prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming, simply for being gay. At that time Renna was the Community Relations Director at GLAAD where she played a central role in shaping the media coverage onsite of both the beating death of Matthew Shepard and the trial that followed, a tragedy that became a cultural marker for a shift in the level of media visibility of our LGBTQ issues. After leaving GLAAD Cathy has partnered with dozens of different organizations including the Matthew Shepard Foundation. One of the projects that Cathy is involved with in recognition of the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death was at the Iron Crow Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland with a production of the groundbreaking and award-winning play “The Laramie Project” written by Moisés Kaufman with members of Tectonic Theater Project.
Cathy also talked about the Tectonic Theater Project celebrity reading of “The Laramie Project” that took place on Monday September 24th at 7P at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College in NYC which is a benefit to honor the progress made over the last two decades to erase hate. Performing in this event included Judy and Dennis Shepard, Emmy Award winner Michael Emerson (Lost, Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde), six-time Tony Award nominee Danny Burstein (Fiddler on the Roof, The Drowsy Chaperone), Purva Bedi (Dance Nation, An Ordinary Muslim), Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Newsies, Tuck Everlasting), Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Mary Louise Parker (Proof, Weeds), Tony Award winner Billy Porter (Kinky Boots), Olympic bronze medalist and U.S. Figure Skating champion Adam Rippon in his stage debut, Emmy Award nominee Samira Wiley (The Handmaid’s Tale, Orange is the New Black), Critic’s Choice Television Award nominee Asia Kate Dillon (John Wick 3: Parabellum, Billions), YouTube star and comedian Randy Rainbow and the original company of The Laramie Project: Stephen Belber, Amanda Gronich, Mercedes Herrero, Andy Paris, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts McAdams and Kelli Simpkins with Tectonic Theater Project company member Scott Barrow. Tectonic Theater Project founder and Artistic Director Moisés Kaufman and company member Jimmy Maize directed this event and Emmy and Peabody Award winning journalist Anderson Cooper hosted the evening’s benefit reception. Proceeds benefited both the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Tectonic Theater Project.
For More Info: laramiealegacy.org
For More Events Nationwide: matthewshepard.org
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing Cathy's voice. Her positivism and hope are important in times like these.
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