The Life and Trials of RBG

Bay Street Theater has announced that its 2022 “Literature Live!” presentation will be “All Things Equal: The Life & Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” written by Tony Award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes. The production opens Thursday, November 3, with public performances running through Sunday, November 27.

Holmes is a playwright and two-time Tony Award-winner for his play “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” Laley Lippard is set to direct the show. Additional team members include producer Scott Stander and tech supervisor Brian Graham. Additional cast and crew will be announced at a later date.

In “All Things Equal,” Supreme Court Justice “RBG” welcomes a friend of the family to her cozy chambers to convey, over the course of 90 fascinating and often funny minutes, a sense of her life and its many trials. An evening with a great and compassionate icon of straight-thinking American justice emerges — an RBG who is not only “notorious,” but victorious as she takes a stand for ordinary people facing the many challenges of a changing world.

Free admission for the play is available to all school students, teachers and administrators who can reserve weekday performances at times that work for them on a first-come, first-serve basis. “Literature Live!” is an annual BOCES-approved Arts-in-Education program where teachers are provided curriculum guides in advance to help with content and additional aspects of learning. Each student performance will be followed by a talkback and Q&A session with various members of the team and the audience.

Now in its 13th year, “Literature Live!” was started by Bay Street Theater Executive Director Tracy Mitchell.

“This program came about when seeing how little of the performing arts were being incorporated into my own daughter’s curriculum,” Mitchell said. “I was shocked because my own exposure to theater had been so life-changing, and I can’t imagine if I hadn’t had that, what experiences I would have missed out on in my own life.”

Bay Street Theater is committed to supporting students with little or no access to the performing arts in schools. To date, the theater has served over 80 schools and over 35,000 students, including those with special needs, homeschoolers and students from as far away as New Jersey and New York City in person, and numerous others with digital access during COVID-19.

For public performances, tickets start at $35 at baystreet.org or 631-725-9500. As part of the programming of “Literature Live!,” eight free performances are available to school groups. Teachers and administrators may register their school groups by contacting the theater’s director of education, Allen O’Reilly, at allen@baystreet.org or by calling 631-725-0818.