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Riverland brings back STAGE LEFT
Published 7:04am Monday, October 12, 2009An award-winning student organization at Riverland Community College is bringing back its entertainment night Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Riverland Community Gay-Straight Alliance will present STAGE LEFT (Straights and Gays for Equality-Listening Entertaining Facilitating Teaching), a presentation with a focus on awareness, advocacy and discussion.
Interim adviser Jerry Girton said the group has performed at colleges in Rochester, Moorhead and Mankato, and will also perform in Winona this month.
About 20 people are involved in RCGSA, but STAGE LEFT has a different combination of people each time.
“There are lots of adults in the community (who participate) as well,” Girton said. “Each show is different.”
STAGE LEFT will include personal accounts from gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender people; poetry; selections from the musicals “Avenue Q” and “Into the Woods;” and monologues and scenes from plays like “The Laramie Project,” a story about a Wyoming student’s murder that was an alleged homophobia-driven crime.
“It’s kind of an eclectic mix of entertainment,” Girton said.
The Diversity and Multiculturalism division of the Office of the Chancellor awarded STAGE LEFT an Honorable Mention award in the first Diversity Awards in the Outstanding Student Organization Diversity Award category last spring. The Outstanding Student Organization Diversity Award recognizes student-led groups, staff, faculty and/or administrators initiatives that foster diversity and inclusion within the campus and/or the larger community.
“We feel that by using theater, music, literature and personal stories, we inform and interact with people about gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender issues in a rather unique way,” said faculty adviser Scott Blankenbaker, who is on sabbatical, when RCGSA won their award.
The recognition included a $500 award to be used in the continued development or promotion of this best practice.
STAGE LEFT, a free show, begins at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at Frank W. Bridges Theatre in the East Building of the Riverland campus in Austin.
