Friends and fellow Bennington College alumni will honor the memory of late artist and AIDS activist Spencer Cox with a special performance of The 24 Hour Plays: A Bennington Tribute to Spencer Cox at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City.
The group, which includes Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Obie Award winners and nominees will write, cast, rehearse, and present six one-act plays within a 24-hour period, leading up to the performance starting 8 PM February 20. Ticket sales and donations will benefit the Spencer Cox ’90 Scholarship for student activists at Bennington College.
Participating artists include playwrights Jonathan Marc Sherman and David Drake, actors Joel Marsh Garland, Julia Prud'homme, Brandi Nicole Wilson, Jim Cairl, and Marion Markham.
Cox, who died in 2012, was a performer, artist, and activist, and a pivotal member of ACT UP, the direct-action advocacy group with a mission to end AIDS. Cox played a central role in the formation of the Treatment Action Group (TAG) to focus on accelerating AIDS treatment research and, the the words of the college, “lent creative intellect and intense focus to help fight one of the most pressing social and public health crises of our time.”
“We’re in a moment now where we’re looking to activists to lead the way,” said Mark Armstrong, executive director of The 24 Hour Plays. “ACT UP and Spencer Cox represent the most successful activist movement of our time and The 24 Hour Plays is proud to celebrate that legacy, as well as to partner with the great actors, directors and playwrights who are part of the vibrant Bennington community.”
“Dr. King said, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’ Spencer taught me by example how never to sit silent,” said Julie Tucker, the Emmy Award-winning casting director who is participating as a director of one of the plays. “I believe, wholeheartedly, it is up to us to pass this ethos on to each and every generation. I am overjoyed to do my part in celebration of our tribe’s fallen warrior—and the warriors to come.”
The evening will also include a tribute to music journalist and playwright Marc Spitz, who passed away earlier this month. He had been slated to participate as a playwright.
Tickets cost $150, with limited discounted tickets available for young alumni. Available through Ticket Central.
SHOP FOR BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS MERCHANDISE AT PLAYBILLSTORE.COM.
