David Sabella to Headline THE PHILLIE TRILOGY at 2017 Fresh Fruit Festival

David Sabella, who originated the role of Mary Sunshine in the smash-hit revival of Chicago (currently running at the Ambassador Theatre), will head the cast of Doug DeVita's award-winning The Phillie Trilogy, opening July 19 at The Wild Project as part of the 15th Annual Fresh Fruit Festival.

Winner of Scrap Mettle Arts Emerging Playwrights competition, The Phillie Trilogy looks at homophobia through the eyes of its title character, Philip "Phillie" McDougal, over the course of more than 40 years.

Growing up gay in the "fabulous" 70s was no picnic for precocious budding writer Phillie. Through nuns, priests, bullying classmates, parents - and years later the realization his best friend may not be the person he thought she was - he lived to tell the tales, with results no one bargained for. Including him.

Sabella, playing both the grown up Phillie, and his father, Pete McDougal, is leading a cast that includes Carole Monferdini (the original productions of Full Gallop and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom), Daniel G. Cunningham, Karen Irwin, Terri Kelsey, and Maeve Press, with Bonale Fambrini (Lincoln Center's recent The King and I) as Phillie. Best known for his stint in the long-running Chicago, David Sabella has also performed off-Broadway in Jules, Kiss and Make Up, Hexed, So Long 174th Street, Foxy, and Watch Your Step. A winner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, his opera work includes productions Die Fledermaus at Lincoln Center, Giulio Cesare, and L' incoronazione di Poppe. He is currently on the Voice Faculty at Montclair State University, Fordham University, and the Open Jar Institute. He also offers private instruction at Sabella Voice Studio (www.sabellavoice.com).

DeVita, whose play The Fierce Of Now won a Fresh Fruit Award of Distinction for Outstanding Play last year, returns to the Fresh Fruit Festival with The Phillie Trilogy.
An O'Neill semi-finalist for Just A Rumor (co-written with Gary Lyons), his comedy The Gruesomely Merry Adventures of NELL DASH, An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance recently ran at the Hudson Guild Theatre as part of Winterfest '17, and Let Me Entertain You Again, the cabaret show he wrote for Lane Bradbury (the original Dainty June in Gypsy), is enjoying a highly successful engagement at Don't Tell Mama, where it will return in the fall.

Directed by Dennis Corsi (winner of a Fresh Fruit Award of Distinction for his production of The Fierce Urgency Of Now, as well as a Best Director Award for ...Nell Dash...),
The Phillie Trilogy will run for 3 performances only: Wednesday July 19 @ 6:30pm, Saturday July 22 @ 4:30pm, and Sunday July 23 @ 3:30pm.

The Fresh Fruit Festival is presented by All Out Arts to celebrate the LGBTQ community's unique perspective, creativity & diversity, and to build links between the LGBTQ artistic communities, be they local or international. Running July 10 - 23, this year's festival features an exhilarating mix of full-length plays, musicals, short works, and cabaret.

All performances take place at the air-conditioned Wild Project, 195 E. 3rd St. (btwn Avenues A & B) in the East Village. Tickets to all productions are $18 at web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/527.