Cynthia Nixon, Ana Gasteyer, and Kathy Najimy are teaming up to protect reproductive rights. The trio are part of the cast for a reading of Paula Kamen’s documentary play “Jane: Abortion and the Underground.” Scheduled to take place September 24 in New York, the event is benefiting A is For, a nonprofit org “dedicated to advancing reproductive rights and ending the stigma against abortion care,” Playbill details.
Julie Kline (“Spoiled”) is directing the play.
“Jane: Abortion and the Underground” revisits Jane, the feminist abortion service that operated before abortion was legal in the United States. The play is is “based on interviews with the women who ran and used this service, as well as the men who supported it,” the source notes.
The reading “will be followed by a panel discussion with Pascale Bernard (vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of New York City), playwright and journalist Paula Kamen, reproductive rights historian Felicia Kornbluh (professor of history and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at University of Vermont), and Angelique Imani Rodriguez (senior editor, fiction and short story for Raising Mothers) as well as women who had underground abortions referred by or related to Jane in the late 1960s: activist Sunny Chapman and Jackie.”
Multiple features inspired by the Jane Collective are in the works, including Kimberly Peirce’s Michelle Williams-starrer “This Is Jane” and Elisabeth Moss-led “Call Jane.” Rachel Carey’s portrait of the group, “Ask for Jane,” opened earlier this year.
All proceeds from the “Jane: Abortion and the Underground” reading benefit A is For. Tickets are $50 and are available here. Donations can be made here.
