TO T OR NOT TO T? Comes to The Los Angeles LGBT Center

 

The Los Angeles LGBT Center's Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced the LA premiere of a new solo show, To T, or not To T?, written and performed by D'Lo, the acclaimed queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor/writer/comedian. Directed by award-winning director/author/actress Adelina Anthony, there will be one preview performance on Thursday, October 3, at 8pm and opening is set for Friday, October 4, at 8pm. The run will continue through October 27 in the Davidson/Valentini Theatre.

In a hilariously intimate reflection on taking T(estosterone) and his experiences transitioning, D'Lo shares his confusion with, and pushback to, what is expected when one passes as a cisgender, straight, man of color. Fusing stand-up comedy and storytelling, To T, or not To T? confronts D'Lo's quest to embody a beautiful masculinity that upholds his queer and feminist politic.

All seats are general admission ($20 for the preview on 10/3; all other performances $25). The regular running schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm. There will be no performance on Saturday 10/19. Tickets may be obtained online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by calling (323) 860-7300. The LGBT Center's Davidson/Valentini Theatre is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038. Net proceeds from all ticket sales will support the full range of free and low-cost programs and services offered by the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

D'Lo is a queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor/writer/comedian whose work ranges from stand-up comedy, solo theatre, plays, films, and music production to poetry and spoken word. He is a co-producer of DisOriented Comedy (a mostly female Asian-American nationally-touring stand-up comedy showcase). He is currently in development at BTR Media and Paul Feig's Powderkeg Media for a scripted series based on his life. Performing Girl, a documentary by Crescent Diamond based on D'Lo's life and work won the best short documentary award at Outfest 2013, and he was part of the Emmy Award-nominated mini-doc series This is Me produced by Rhys Ernst and Zackary Drucker. His television and film credits include the HBO series Looking, the Amazon series Transparent, the Netflix series Sense 8, USA's Mr. Robot, and Adelina Anthony's feature film Bruising for Besos. He also appears in Buzzfeed and Fusion videos, on the web series Eastsiders and Dyke Central, and the Issa Rae/Project Greenlight produced Minimum Wage. He has also been featured in The Guardian and The Advocate. He is working on his own web series Private Dick.

Aside from touring and facilitating workshops on the university/college circuit, he has also been touring his solo shows. The first, Ramble-Ations: A One D'Lo Show, received the NPN Creation Fund Grant inclusive of residencies in nine US cities with additional support from the Durfee Foundation Grant. His full-length stand-up storytelling show D'FunQT has toured internationally (SF, NY, Manchester, UK, and a seven-city tour in India and Sri Lanka (with additional funds received through the Ford Foundation to host workshops for queer and trans theatre artists in Chennai, India). In 2017, Dixon Place Theater NYC commissioned his latest solo piece with additional funds from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Santa Monica Artist Fellowship Award. His work has been published in various anthologies and academic journals including Desi Rap: Hip Hop and South Asia America and Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.

D'Lo is the creator of the Coming Out, Coming Home writing workshop series which has taken place with South Asian and/or immigrant LGBTQ organizations nationally, providing a transformative space for participants to write about their personal narratives and share their truths through a public reading. These workshops are specifically designed to provide emotional and spiritual support for individuals working through the complexity of their intersecting identities. He also holds a BA from UCLA in Ethnomusicology and is a graduate of New York's School of Audio Engineering (SAE). He has an ongoing relationship with the World Arts & Cultures Department at UCLA and was selected for the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange (APPEX), an international three week intensive residency in Bali with a particular focus on American and Asian artists through UCLA's Center for Intercultural Performance. For more, go to dlocokid.com.

 

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