Independence Community College invites the public to the performance of ‘The Body’s Rapture,’ written and performed by Shannon T.L. Kearns and directed by Paul W. Cruse. The performance is on September 3rd at 7:00 p.m., in the Black Box Theatre. Admission is free.
Using home videos and photographs, “The Body’s Rapture” is a funny and heartbreaking unraveling of who we feel we must be and what happens when we are ourselves. Playwright Shannon TL Kearns unwinds the tangled threads of his history, from his fundamentalist homeschooling to becoming the first transgender priest ordained by the Old Catholic Church.
“I started this piece while I was a playwright in residence at the William Inge House, so it’s incredibly meaningful to be sharing it with the community who helped me to write it,” said Kearns. “This is a different kind of theatre piece, centered in deeply personal storytelling, and I’m so excited to share it with folks!”
Kearns was the 2021 Playwright-in-Residence through The William Inge Center’s Playwright Residency Program. He spent the summer at William Inge’s boyhood home. Now in its second decade, the residency allows playwrights to write and develop their new plays in the same surroundings that inspired young William Inge to his Pulitzer Prize-winning work.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Further support is provided by the William Inge Festival Foundation and Independence Community College.
WARNING: This play mentions suicide and describes suicidal ideation. It also explores trauma associated with living as a trans and Queer person.