Dialogue With Three Chords Concludes Tenth Season Of Indie Theatre Online With A HARD LIFE IS A GIFT FROM THE LORD

Dialogue with Three Chords concludes their tenth season of indie theatre virtually with "A Hard Life is a Gift From the Lord." It's the final installment of their ongoing series "The Apocalypse Survivors Club." Season ten showcases virtual plays on a monthly schedule, all written by Stephen Gracia and directed by Michael LoPorto.

"A Hard Life is a Gift From the Lord" premieres on May 27th at 8pm EST on the D3C Youtube channel, where the audience can chat live with the cast and crew while they take in the show.

Over ten years the group has staged live, and now virtual, readings of 150 original works. "A Hard Life is a Gift From the Lord" marks their 151st play and finds two sets of parents, both of whom have lost a child, desperately waiting for the end. One couple hopes for a reunification and one hopes for a reckoning. We also meet a woman who has begun to doubt the end times prophecies she was raised on and has driven to this bar hoping to find love in her final moments.

"A Hard Life is a Gift From the Lord" concerns "lives wasted in hatred and ignorance and the tragedy of addiction and shame, and how, even with the end of the world at hand, we can still change," says Gracia. "We can still grow and find the strength to carry on when the Apocalypse doesn't arrive," he explains, "and find joy and revelation in waking up to just another normal day."

"This feels like the right play to close out our tenth season - a season like no other," LoPorto said. "I'm grateful we've been able to continue sharing our work with folks during this strange year and that our audience has embraced our online content." He notes this final play is actually a new version of a work that closed their last season of live, in-person theatre in 2019 at Von Bar in lower Manhattan. "This play deals with people's ability to grow and the need to connect," he mused, "and that sums up our tenth year for sure."

Throughout their tenth season, D3C has added bonus features to their virtual offerings. LoPorto and Gracia, as "The Sellout Jackets," have completed an album of original songs based on each of the plays available on the D3C Bandcamp page as a free EP of apocalypse-themed folk/punk songs.

D3C also launched an Instagram Live interview series, "Keeping the Ghost Light On," at the beginning of this virtual season. Featuring discussions with the actors from "The Apocalypse Survivors Club" series, the interviews highlight their experiences during the pandemic, and how they sustain their creativity in the absence of live performance.

"A Hard Life is a Gift From the Lord" features: John Caliendo, Ramona Floyd, Deborah Linehan, Victoria Meade, Edie Nugent, Mickey Ryan, and Maia Sage.

Dialogue with Three Chords can be found at their Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram pages.

Dialogue with Three Chords was founded by Stephen Gracia and Michael LoPorto and applies the do-it-yourself philosophy of punk to the stage and features short plays and live music. Their work has also been produced at HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, The SOHO Gallery of Digital Art, Sargent Theatre, Makor Theater, DUMBO Theatre Exchange, Levenson Hall at Brooklyn College, and the Theaters at 45 Bleecker.

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