Rights of Passage: Honoring Paula Ettelbrick

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Honoring Paula Ettelbrick

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Photo: Paula Ettelbrick and Ed Decker at IGLHRC headquarters in New York.

Paula Ettelbrick, a courageous leader in the queer civil rights movement, passed away on October 7, 2011 in New York at the age of 56 from cancer. I met Paula when she was the director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission as we began our research for Rights of Passage in 2008. Paula was an amazing force of nature whose tireless work on behalf of global human rights was inspirational. Many of the stories in our play are based upon people from around the world that Paula introduced us to. We are eternally grateful for her support in helping us bring the struggles and triumphs of queer and allied activists to the stage. We dedicate our final reading of the play in San Francisco on October 23, 2011 at the New Conservatory Theatre Center to her. There is no doubt in our minds that Paula is still guiding us towards the world premiere of Rights of Passage planned for August 2012.

Thank you Paula Ettelbrick for making our world a better place. Safe journey.

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What is Rights of Passage?

Rights of Passage is a new play about courage and love. About people all over the world who want to be who they are and why that simple concept is not always so simple to make real. The play is both personal and universal as it illuminates the lives of LGBT people from different cultures and backgrounds. The storytelling style of the play is based on the ageless performance techniques found on the Indonesian island of Bali; these same theatrical techniques, in somewhat different forms, also represent cultures throughout the world. Monologues, scenes, puppetry, masks, and dance will bring the play’s stories to life. Rights of Passage has been developed through extensive research, hundreds of interviews, and the unyielding support of LGBT citizens and activists around the world. Rights of Passage will have its world premiere at The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, beginning its run on August 17, 2012.

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Project Background

In the summer of 2007 we began our research for Rights of Passage, a new play project for The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco http://www.nctcsf.org/. At the same time, The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) http://www.iglhrc.org/ in New York enthusiastically offered their support to the development of the play. Their assistance ignited our relationships with the vast international LGBT human rights network . ILGHRC continues as a primary guiding force for Rights of Passage, as does the work of Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/ and Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/

The themes in Rights of Passage are based upon the Yogyakarta Principles http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/ a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. This document is a universal guide to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply. They promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfill that precious birthright.

Thanks to the power of the internet we are able to reach out to LGBT organizations, individuals, and our allies around the globe. We have also traveled traveled througout the US, Europe, Canada, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia conducting research for the play. Our future travel plans will take us to the Middle East, Africa, China, South America and the Ukraine.

Rights of Passage is supported in part by The James Hormel Small Change Foundation and the generosity of individual donors world wide. We welcome new sponsors at http://www.nctcsf.org/donation