'Sex' Writers Talk CEDAR CITY FALLS with the New York Times

It has been nearly five years since former Sex and the City writers Liz Tuccillo ("Sex and the City," He's Just Not That Into You), Cindy Chupack (Emmy and three-time Golden Globe winner as a writer and producer of Sexand the City), Elisa Zuritsky, and Julie Rottenberg (Emmy nominated) have collaborated on a project.  Fortunately their newest venture, Cedar City Falls, showcases what the four talents do best: bring juicy, comedic soap opera to life in a series of weekly episodes that will be presented live by the LAByrinth Theater Company at the Cell Theater beginning October 6 for four weeks (through October 27) and at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn for a final four weeks (November 4 - 24).

Cedar City Falls tells the story of a small peaceful town filled with hard-working, God-fearing folk who, due to a series of unfortunate incidents and petty squabbles, gets plunged into full-scale civil war. It's a parable (and parody) of conflict escalation, war, activism, peace and redemption. With traditional "Soap Operas" being canceled or on the chopping block, the innovative former writers from "Sex in the City" look to take the genre to a whole new -old-school level- live and in front of a theatre audience.  In place of meticulously built costumes and scenery are rapidly written scripts and a limited number of powerhouse rehearsals to ensure that the content is raw, spirited and fresh. 

The four ladies spoke to the New York Times about their endeavor and the inspiration for it.  Says Chupack to the New York Times: "We're all just very close friends in addition to trusting each other's instincts in our personal lives and definitely in our professional lives...And I've never written theater before...so the idea of getting to write theater in this safe of an environment with people we love and for people we love was - how do you pass this up?"

Offers Tuccillo on her desire to resurrect episodic theater: "I missed that sort of inspiring, passionate, raw feeling of being so immediately connected to my own material and actors and just putting something up and really everybody coming together to do something because they love to do it."

Read the full report in the New York Times here.

Each week offers the opportunity to get up-close and personal with the ever changing residents of Cedar City Falls as weekly guest stars including the first week's narrator Jesse L. Martin (Rent, "Law & Order") other guest starts include: Talia Balsam ("Mad Men"), Nadia Dajani ("Delocated"), Kate Jennings Grant (Guys & Dolls), Daphne Rubin Vega (Rent, Film:Wild Things, Flawless), Grant Shaud ("Murphy Brown"), John Slattery ("Mad Men"), and Joyce Van Patten (Marley & Me, "Desperate Housewives"). Musical direction by Allison Leyton Brown.

Tuccillo, Chupack, Zuritzsky and Rottenberg are aided by writers Craig Carlisle and Jacquelyn Reingold on the project.

All box office proceeds go to a different human rights charity every week, such as Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders, and Center for Constitutional Rights.

Cedar City Falls - A Midwest Conflict plays October 6 - 27 at The Cell Theatre (338 West 23rd Street) on Tuesdays (6th, 13th, 20th, 27th) at 7 & 9:30pm.  The production will move to Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn (16 Main Street, Brooklyn) and play Wednesday, November 4 - 24; Tuesdays, November 10th, 17th, & 24th at 7:00pm & 9:30pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at www.smarttix.com. More info and extras at www.cedarcityfalls.com.

 

 

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