‘STAGE LEFT’ takes tour statewide

Published 10:41 am Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A group of students and community members sharing personal stories and seeking tolerance of gay and lesbian issues is getting statewide attention for its unique presentation.

Last year, Riverland Community Gay-Straight Alliance (RCGSA) partnered with Q&A, an Austin-based community group of parents of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered children, heterosexual allies and GLBT persons from Austin, Albert Lea, Rochester and the region, to educate people about sexuality.

“Our college group had talked about doing some kind of drama presentation for the past few years,” advisor Scott Blankenbaker said.

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Instead of hosting a panel or speakers, the group opted to get their message of awareness tolerance and personal experience across with a performance of music, poetry, monologues and readings.

“We thought this might be more interesting way of getting information across,” Blankenbaker said. “Several personal accounts (were) written by kids who have grown up in Minnesota and talked about their experiences, what it is like to grow up gay or lesbian.”

“STAGE LEFT” (Straights and Gays for Equality-Listening, Entertaining, Facilitating, Teaching) evolved, with presentations in Austin and Albert Lea. The group also sponsored a movie.

“We are sort of just getting started, but word seems to be spreading across the state,” Blankenbaker said. “I think this is very unique.

“There are other colleges in the state who have these same kinds of groups, but not with a drama standpoint,” he said. “…a little less in your face than having a speaker. We mix in the serious stuff but also have quite a lot of humor.”

The first presentation is scheduled for Friday at the League of Minnesota Human Rights Commissions Conference in Rochester during the opening session.

On Monday, the group will perform in Austin for the Riverland Community College Diversity Series. The performance will be held at noon in Lecture Hall C100 in the East Building, and his open to the public.

“STAGE LEFT” will also perform Oct. 11 at the OutFront Minnesota conference at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D.; Oct. 28 at the South Central College Diversity Series on the Mankato campus; and Nov. 1-2 at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids, Minn.

Other presentations are already booked for spring, Blankenbaker said.

The tour in October coincides with National Coming Out Day Oct. 11. National Coming Out Day is an internationally-observed civil awareness day for coming out and discussion about GLBT issues.