LEMON DURANG PIE Plays The Davidson/Valentini Theatre 11/5-12/5

Award-winning playwright Christopher Durang is celebrated for his outrageous and often absurd comedies. Lemon Durang Pie presents two of his hilarious one-act plays, performed by a cast made up of some of L.A.'s finest veteran and up-and-coming actors. A Stye of the Eye and For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls will be performed November 5-December 5 at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Davidson/Valentini Theatre, located at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza. Proceeds from the production will benefit the full range of free and low-cost services provided by the Center.

Heading the accomplished cast are Brian Foyster and Jack Heller, both lifetime members of The Actors Studio and both LA Weekly Award-winners for the Center's acclaimed production of The Lost Plays of Tennessee Williams. Joining them are two more Actors Studio lifetime members-Catherine Carlen and Lisa Richards-along with Alejandra Cejudo, Jackson Davis (LonelyGirl15, Latter-Day Fake) and Kenny Johnston (Scenes of the Crime, Los bastardos).

For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls is a parody of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, with the performances perfectly timed to provide some comic relief from the angst of the Mark Taper Forum's superb production of the original. In Southern Belle, the somber dysfunctions in Menagerie take a decidedly waggish turn, complete with "gothic gloom" and gender gymnastics.

A Stye of the Eye takes on Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, with extra, perfectly targeted shots aimed at such iconic melodramas as Equus, Agnes of God and Glengarry Glen Ross. In Stye, cowboy Jake is a rage-oholic who has probably killed his wife, while his feisty mother with a bad memory wishes her own husband were dead (he already is). Endless complications ensue-identities fracture, incestuous desires flare, and the dead don't always stay that way. No problems are solved, but a great deal of "meaning" hovers over everything.

Audiences unfamiliar with the original plays need not worry: The characters are so vivid and the dialogue so pointed that everyone will enjoy one of the sharpest, wittiest theater experiences of the year.

Christopher Durang's plays have been produced on and off Broadway, around the country and abroad. His plays are noted for their satire, dark comedy and penchant for the absurd. Among his more than 40 works are Beyond Therapy, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Baby wWith the Bathwater, A History of American Film, Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge and 'dentity Crisis. His plays have won three Obie Awards and a Tony nomination, and he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2006 for Miss Witherspoon.

Durang has been awarded numerous fellowships and high-profile grants. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and co-chair of the playwriting program at Juilliard. On May 17, 2010, he was presented with the very first Luminary Award from the New York Innovative Theatre Awards for his work Off-Off-Broadway. 

WHERE: The Davidson/Valentini Theatre (50-seat black box theatre)

L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
The Village at Ed Gould Plaza

1125 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles 90038

(One block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Blvd.)

Free parking

WHEN: November 5 - December 5
Fridays & Saturdays at 8 p.m. · Sundays at 7 p.m.
(No shows November 26-28)

TICKETS: General Admission: $20

Available on-line at www.lagaycenter.org/boxoffice or call 323-860-7300

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