This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 25, 2009 - That Uppity Theatre CompanyArtistic Director Joan Lipkin likes to joke that this year's birthday made her a highway. "I'm 55," she noted. If that's the case, then her theater company is half of another popular St. Louis concrete stretch: 40.
Showing that the stage may be mightier than the sword or the pen, Lipkin's company has for 20 years merged theater with social justice, concentrating on disability, reproductive rights, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues and representation.
Two decades ago, she produced the first LGBT-focused theater piece ever performed in St. Louis, "Some of My Best Friends Are ... ." In honor of the anniversary, Lipkin is working on "Beyond Stonewall: Why We March," commemorating the 1969 Stonewall Riots that launched the LGBT rights movement and promoting the Oct. 11 Equality March on Washington. At the request of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, she's producing a piece on LGBT issues for the company's diversity week.
With the St. Louis Actors' Theatre, Lipkin is also devising, directing and co-producing "The State of Marriage," which examines the institution and comes to the stage in the appropriate month for a bride/groom, bride/bride or groom/groom production: June.
Nancy Larson is freelance writer who has covered theater over the years in St. Louis.
