Dramatists Legal Defense Fund (DLDF) will present the second season of its special podcast Banned Together: An Anti-Censorship Podcast, available to stream through November 30.
The podcast features songs, scenes, and monologues from plays and musicals that American communities have banned or censored, including The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Company, Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, Indecent by Paula Vogel, Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, Fun Home by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron, Parade by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn, Hairspray by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and Rent by Jonathan Larson.
The episodes will feature performances by Tony winners Danny Burstein (Pictures from Home, Moulin Rouge), Gabriel Ebert (Passing Strange, Matilda), Nathan Lane (Pictures from Home, Angels in America), Audra McDonald (Ohio State Murders, Shuffle Along), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Miss You Like Hell, Rent), and Brandon Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt, An American in Paris); along with Ephie Aadema (Funny Girl), Courtnee Carter (Parade), Claybourne Elder (Company, Sunday in the Park…), Adam Chanler-Berat (I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Peter and the Starcatcher), Judy Kuhn (I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Fun Home), Douglas Lyons (Parade, Chicken and Biscuits), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton, In the Heights), the Stonewall Chorale, and more.
DLDF board members Lydia Diamond (Stick Fly, Smart People) and Cheryl Davis serve as hosts for the podcast, which is directed by four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza (Oliver, Leap of Faith), with Greg Jarrett (Assassins, Cradle Will Rock) serving as music director.
“We are no longer dealing with one-off cancellations driven by the squeamishness of a particular high school principal,” said Dramatists Legal Defense Fund President John Weidman. “We are dealing with deliberate, orchestrated efforts by institutions, from local school boards all the way up to state legislatures, to dictate the ideological boundaries within which theater will be permitted, the space within which the unique, idiosyncratic voices of Americans writing for the stage will either be tolerated or suppressed.”
Visit TheDLDF.org to learn more.
