ANITA BRYANT'S PLAYBOY INTERVIEW Returns to the Cavern Club

Back in Silverlake by popular demand, and after a Hollywood Fringe Festival run, Anita Bryant's Playboy Interview returns to the Cavern Club Celebrity Theater at Casita del Campo restaurant for only six performances, opening on September 16. This funny, touching, and thought-provoking play chronicles Anita Bryant's campaign to repeal gay rights in Dade County, Florida in 1977.

Less than 10 years after the Stonewall Riots, Anita Bryant's nationally notorious campaign gave legitimacy to a new style of right wing politics and helped launch the Moral Majority and other right-wing movements that continue to the present day. But she also had a major impact on the modern gay rights movement, propelling Harvey Milk onto the San Francisco City Council and reviving enthusiasm and anger at a time when it was most needed.

For those who don't know, Anita Bryant is a former Miss Oklahoma and was runner up in the Miss America beauty pageant. She was a singer and former spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission. She scored four Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Paper Roses. She later became known as an outspoken opponent of gay rights and for her 1977 "Save Our Children" campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Organized boycotts of orange juice, and demonstrations outside of her concert venues significantly affected her popularity and career in show business.

In 1978, Anita Bryant sat down for an outrageous and memorable 8-day interview with Ken Kelley of Playboy Magazine. This is that interview, recreated on stage with additional material that sets the historical scene and brings the issues raised by the interview to the present day. Anita didn't hold back in her interview, and neither does this funny, touching, and thought-provoking piece.

While Anita Bryant may have been largely forgotten over the past 35 years, her rhetoric has endured. The language from the Playboy interview sounds shockingly familiar to modern audiences, because it's the same language used by conservative politicians to defend anti-gay legislation today. Nowhere is this more striking than with the current republican vice presidential candidate, Mike Pence. In March 2015 Pence signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allowed anti-LGBT discrimination as long as it was based on a religious belief. Protest rallies were held, and calls for state-wide boycotts were immediately announced, and Pence had to reconsider his legislation.

John Copeland (Anita Bryant) - was raised in rural Indiana. For many years he has divided his time between acting and public service. Previously at The Cavern Club, he performed in The Plush Life, a popular weekly improvised soap opera, which ran for six years featuring denizens of a low-rent trailer park. John has also performed a great deal of Shakespeare.

Stephen Simon (Ken Kelly) Recent LA theatre includes The Mother Ship and Hamlet Shut Up (SacRed Fools), and A Mulholland Christmas Carol, Copy, and Potential Space at Theatre of NOTE. TV and film work includes Criminal Minds, Water for Elephants, Eagle Eye, and the upcoming feature Diani and Devine Meet the Apocalypse. Stephen is one half of the physical comedy duo Ten West.

Madelynn Fattibene (Gail) played Anita Bryant in Brian Christopher William's Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins, directed by Richard Israel for West Coast Ensemble in 2009. She has also appeared in productions at The Getty Villa, [inside] the Ford and The Pasadena Playhouse. Madelyn is a member of VS Theatre Company.

Paul Stein (Director) - is Artistic Producer and Conceiver of The Car Plays, a critically acclaimed site-specific event; Artistic Director of The Solo Collective, L.A.'s only Solo Performance Theatre Company; and Executive Producer at the Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood. Directing highlights: Leonard Nimoy's solo play Vincent starring Jean-Michel Richaud at Symphony Space, New York and CAP/UCLA; Antonio Sacre'sLet Them Eat Meat at United Solo (Winner, Best Storyteller); The Car Plays at RADAR LA, Off Center Festivals for Segerstrom Center, and La Jolla Playhouse's WoW Festival (Winner: Best Special Event, Noel Award); W. Kamau Bell's Ending Racism in About an Hour at P.S. 122.

Ron Klier (Sound Designer) - recently wrote, directed, and sound designed Cops and Friends of Cops, the inaugural production of the VS. Theatre Company. Additional sound designs include The Creditors, Julius Caesar, Bedfellows, As Is (co-designed with director John Farmanesh-Bocca) and Five Beauties for The New American Theatre, State of the Union for Interact Theatre, Sugar Daddy at the Lounge Theatre, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball for West Coast Ensemble Theatre, Hard as Nails for Moving Arts Theatre, and for the VS. Theatre Company: The Mercy Seat, Blackbird (2009 LADCC Award Winner and LA Weekly Award nominee), Eagle Hills, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Landing,Pugilist Specialist, On an Average Day (in Los Angeles and Chicago), Eric LaRue, Waste of Shame, and Navy Pier. He is the resident Sound Designer of the VS. Theatre Company.

Jonathan Bryant (Costume Designer) - originally studied film history and criticism at USC, but several twists of fate lead him to other creative arenas. First to the art world, where he and two friends opened a small but successful gallery. Mr. Bryant worked as a stylist and creative director for several companies and also worked as a freelance writer for various publications such as BPM and Mean Magazines. Mr. Bryant, also an avid photographer, has shot fashion campaigns and directed his first fashion 'film short' Stalked a few years ago. He continues to write and his photography will soon be available through Fine Art America. This is his first foray into costuming for theater.

Anita Bryant's Playboy Interview opens for press on September 16 for only six performances, continuing through October11. Performances take place Fridays at 9 p.m., Saturdays at 9 p.m., and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. All tickets are $20 presale online and $25 cash at the door, The Cavern Club Celebrity Theater is located at Casita del Campo restaurant, 1920 Hyperion Avenue, Silverlake, CA 90027. For reservations and information, please visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2591134 or call (213) 308-1108.

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