Award Winning Equity Theatre Coyote Stageworks Announces DIRTY BLONDE and THE COCKTAIL HOUR For Their 2017-18 Season

Coyote StageWorks, the Coachella Valley-based award-winning Actors' Equity professional theater company, announced that its ninth season will include productions of two highly entertaining stage plays, presented at the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annenberg Theater, as well as the return of much-anticipated free Play Dates staged reading series. The Coyote StageWorks season will open with a performance of Dirty Blonde for nine performances, running February 2 - 11, 2018. This will be followed by the production The Cocktail Hour, running March 23 - April 1 for nine performances. The Play Dates series will run on selected Sundays from November through June at the Camelot Theater, part of the Palm Springs Cultural Center.

"This year we are offering two outstanding productions that will be sure to resonate with our local audiences," said Chuck Yates, Founding Artistic Director of Coyote StageWorks. "Both productions are a little cheeky, which our company is known for and does best. We are delighted to once again offer these productions in the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annenberg Theater and even more delighted that we will once again produce five free Play Dates staged readings at the Camelot Theater."

Coyote StageWorks will start the 2017-2018 season with a full production of Dirty Blonde by Claudia Shear, featuring an original score by Bob Stillman. The play with music will run for nine performances, February 2 - 11, 2018 and portrays two fans of Mae West who discover their shared passion for her, and for each other. Conceived by Shear and James Lapine and featuring songs from the films "I'm No Angel" and "She Done Him Wrong," it explores the phenomenon of the legendary Mae West, one of America's most enduring and controversial pop culture icons. The play, which draws its title from the West film quip "I made myself platinum, but I was born a dirty blonde" tells the story of Jo, an office temp and aspiring actress, and Charlie, who works in The New York Public Library's film archives, both lonely and obsessive West fans who meet at her grave and form a unique relationship as they swap stories about West's career highlights and eventual decline. When it debuted in 2000, the play was nominated for the Tony® Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play. It won the Theatre World Award and was one of the few in Broadway history to have its entire cast nominated for a Tony® Award.

The season concludes with a performance of The Cocktail Hour by A.R. Gurney. Running March 23 - April 1 for nine performances, this witty and perceptive play blends acerbic humor with moments of emotional poignancy. Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award as Best Off-Broadway Play, this long-running New York success tells the story of a playwright who returns to his family home. He has written a new play about his family, and now seeks their approval to produce it. His wealthy, very proper parents and sister are concerned by their portrayal, which leads to a comical and intense discussion during the ritual of the cocktail hour. As the martinis flow so do the recriminations and revelations, both funny and poignant. When reviewing this play, The New York Daily News wrote "...when I watch Gurney at his best, as he is here, I laugh through the tears."

This season, Coyote StageWorks will bring back its popular Play Dates community and educational outreach program, designed to bring free, compelling staged readings and theatrical events to everyone in the Coachella Valley. Featuring education through entertainment, all Play Dates will be presented at the Camelot Theater. The dates are Sunday, Nov. 19 (Dada Woof Papa Hot by Peter Parnell), Sunday, Dec. 10 (Our Mother's Brief Affair by Richard Greenberg), Sunday, April 16, Sunday, May 20, and Sunday, June 10 (play titles to be announced). All performances will be at 2 pm.

Tickets for Coyote StageWorks' staged productions are $45 - $55 for matinees and $50 - $60 for evening performances. A Q&A session with cast members will follow Thursday matinees and after each Play Date. To purchase individual tickets or subscriptions, call 760http://coyotestageworks.org-325-4490 or visit annenbergtheater.org. For group sales, call 760-318-0024.

Voted "Best Live Theater" by the readers of Desert Magazine in 2013 and 2014, Coyote StageWorks has won 65 Desert Star Awards from the Desert Theatre League, a theater support group that promotes theater in the Coachella Valley and Morongo Basin. It was recently nominated for 13 awards for its performances of Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks and The Lady With All The Answers in the previous season. Last year, the company received 3 awards for its performances of Art and Agnes of God.

The 2017-2018 Coyote StageWorks season is generously sponsored by David Lee and Annette Bloch. Earlier this year, David Lee also issued a $30,000 challenge grant that doubled any donation the company received.

Coyote StageWorks is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 company dedicated to advancing theatre as a vital art form in the desert communities of the Coachella Valley. It is their mission to provide a forum for thought-provoking, entertaining, and culturally significant works in an environment that nurtures the creativity of the individual and the enrichment of the community. These shows are not Palm Springs Art Museum or Annenberg Theater presentations. For more information about Coyote StageWorks, please visit coyotestageworks.org.

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