Several of Salt Lake City’s most prominent arts groups are joining forces with Equality Utah to kick off a broad campaign to urge the Utah Legislature to pass the six-point Common Ground Initiative which seeks to formalize essential domestic rights for the state’s LGBT community.

Plan-B Theatre Company, SB Dance, Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) and Ririe Woodbury Dance Company will perform Saturday, Jan. 17, in the Black Box Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts, beginning at 8 p.m.

The show will feature dance pieces from SB Dance and Ririe Woodbury Dance Company; letters to the editor from various publications read by more than a dozen actors from Plan-B/SLAC, and the world premiere of a new, 10-minute play entitled “What You Get” by Plan-B’s resident playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett. The show will be hosted by Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah.

In November after the tense Prop 8 campaign in California, Equality Utah’s officials have challenged leaders of the Mormon church to make good on their word that they are not “anti-gay” and do not object to rights for same-sex couples extending to hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment, and fair hearings in probate cases. At the core are six proposed points of legislation that are expected to be debated during the state’s legislature session which begins during the week of Jan. 19 and will run for 45 days.

A suggested donation of $10 is being requested for the show and reservations are available here.

Details about the six bills are available here.

As I noted in November when the initiative was announced:

These are modest, reasonable yet politically momentous proposals, especially for the state. From the perspective of the church and Mormons and non-Mormons alike in Utah, the agenda stacks up as a win-win proposal. Indeed, Utah, for once, could set the stage for marking the boundaries of a civil unions bill, one that ultimately could make its way into the federal environment, especially in the new Obama Administration. And, it would indicate to all of us — as a broad demonstration of credibility and affirmation — that Mormon leaders are men of honor who keep their word and look out for the welfare of all of Utah’s citizens and residents. Indeed, in a changing national political climate, the Mormon leadership has been forced out into the open, painfully and awkwardly, and completely of its own choice. Hoping to step out of the margins into a broadly accepted environment of political and ecclesiastical legitimacy, the LDS leaders may now find themselves seeking to preserve their Mormon Belt in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and a few other pockets in the U.S. West.

This is a first-class political strategic move on the behalf of Equality Utah.