MY COUSIN NELU IS NOT GAY Comes to The Brick Next Month

My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay was created by Diana Lobontiu (Brooklyn College MFA Playwright, Jane Hoppen Resident 2023) and premiered in 2022 as part of Ars Nova's ANT Fest. With a generous grant from The Puffin Foundation, My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay returns to The Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn March 9th-12th.

My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay features musings on the immigrant experience, an intimate dance with a disco ball, musings on the lesbian experience, two two-hundred-pound dogs, musings on the butch experience, and an epic yet disappointing cousin vs. cousin showdown in the space created at the ~threshold of revelation~. This is an absurdist comedy butting up against a confessional monologue. This is a bilingual play in which English clashes with Romanian and the gays wrestle the straights to take control of the stage. This is what happens when factual family history meets the stories we tell ourselves about how we grew up, or how we wish we had.

My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay features creator, Diana Lobontiu and Natalie Rich, and is directed by Lyam B. Gabel.

Diana Lobontiu has an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College, graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in Theatre Studies and Psychology, and is an alum of The National Theatre Institute at the O'Neill and the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive. In addition, Diana is an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College in the English department. Diana was recently named a Jane Hoppen Resident with Paragraph Workspace for Writers, and received the Puffin Grant for My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay. Writing includes My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay ( The Brick

Theater 2023, Ars Nova's ANT Fest 2022), and Rentabutch (Bushwick Starr Reading Series Finalist). Acting credits include Nelu in My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay (Ars Nova's ANT Fest 2022), all characters in #RomeoJuliet (New Repertory Theatre), Laertes in Hamlet (Praxis Stage), and Joy/Dottie/Myself in WELL (Wellesley Repertory Theatre). Diana performed her solo show Sfânta: Hell Bent on Heaven, about a teenage wannabe Russian Orthodox saint, at the Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Kalamazoo, Oregon, and Orlando Fringe Festivals. More at www.dianalobontiu.com.

Natalie Rich is a Brooklyn based actor and writer from Louisville, Kentucky. She is the co-creator of The Weekend Detectives (Best Actress in a Comedy, Independent Television Festival), Gimme an F, KEVIN!!!!! (New York Innovative Theatre Award nominee), The Boehner Sisters and the improv podcast Imposter Syndrome. She has developed new work with Williamstown Theatre Festival, Audible, Cherry Lane, New Georges, Primary Stages, Vertigo Theatre Co, Dixon Place, New Harmony Project, The PIT and UCB. She's a proud member of Recent Cutbacks and one half of Cookrat Productions. Natalie received her BFA from the University of Evansville.

Lyam B. Gabel (they/he) is a trans* director, performance-maker, and community organizer who creates containers for collective remembering and radical celebration. They co-directed Alleged Lesbian Activities, a musical about the history of lesbian bars funded by the National Theater Project and the MAP Fund. Now they are researching queer care from the 1980s-present with the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table which received an NPN Creation Fund commission. He has developed new plays and new work at Ars Nova, Judson Church, Pipeline, Ashland New Plays Festival, University Settlement, The Theater Offensive, and The New Orleans CAC among others. Lyam is an Assistant Professor of acting and directing at Lehigh University. 2021 Drama League Next Stage Resident, 2017 Drama League Fellow, MFA Directing Carnegie Mellon University www.lyambgabel.com.

Diana, Natalie and Lyam are joined by:

Sasha Schwartz (Scenic & Projection Design); Andre Segar (Lighting Design), Marc Jablonski (Sound Design), Kelleen Moriarty (Assistant Director), Em Stripling (Lighting Assistant), Rachel Hodes (Assistant Scenic Design), Jacob Halpern-Weitzman (Production Supervisor) and Leslie Gauthier (producer).

The show will play at 579 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY on March 9, 10th and 11th at 8:00 PM and March 12th at 2:00pm. To purchase tickets visit bricktheater.com

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