IT ALL STARTED AT THE RADISSON INN To Be Presented At Orlando Fringe Festival 2021

Frequent Orlando Fringe show producer-collaborators, Wanzie Presents and D Squared Productions join forces once again to bring to the 2021 Festival Wanzie's most-recently-penned play for the stage, which is also the multi-award winning playwright's most unusual play to date; IT ALL STARTED AT THE RADISSON INN.

Wanzie wrote his "New Sexual Comedy" specifically to comply with the criteria for consideration in the juried 2019 Be Original Theater Festival contest thus contriving a premise and plot that would meet that Festival's submission mandate for "edgy" material with "subject matter not typically presented on stage" along with a call for manuscripts that would "challenge both actors and Festival attendees to think outside the box."

The play was selected for inclusion in the Be Original Theater Festival and as such was awarded two performances at the Jim & Alexis Pugh Theater at the Dr. Phillip's Center For The Performing Arts in September, 2019. Based on positive audience reaction and standing ovations the show received at that time Wanzie decided to enter the play into the lottery for Orlando Fringe 2020. Happily, the show was drawn early in the lottery and Wanzie intended to remount the play a Orlando Fringe 2020 with all three original cast members (Jake Rura, Mike Van Dyke , and Marina Magneli) reprising their roles, and with a few slight rewrites based on input from audience talk-backs at Be Original. However, Orlando Fringe 2020 was canceled due to health concerns related to the Covid-19 Pandemic and the project was shelved having only ever given two performances.

Feat Forward to 2021 and the play is one again slated to be presented at Orlando Fringe, however two of the original actors - Jake Rura and Marina Magneli - each moved to other states after being terminated from their roles at Walt Disney World during the pandemic-related park closures. Wanzie has replaced Rura with actor Zach Lane who previously performed at Fringe as PFC Dolan in Wanzie's IN CLOSE QUARTERS in 2017. Magnelli has been replaced with Lane's real life (They reside together) girlfriend, Dina Najjar. Lane and Najjar will bring their real-life chemistry to the project as they play a couple who are engaged to be married in IT ALL STARTED AT THE RADISSON INN marking the first time the couple will be sharing the stage together.

IT ALL STARTED AT THE RADISSON INN is a tale of a chance meeting between a handsome heterosexual guy named Brett - played by Zach Lane - and a charmingly persuasive gay man named Connor - played by Mike Van Dyke - who bond over the party drug ecstasy during a "mini-rave" taking place in a suite at at Radisson Inn. The unlikely pair become frequent role-play partners with foot fetishism and a master/slave fantasy scenario central to their encounters, which Brett strives to keep secret from his Fiancé, Julie - played by Dina Najjar. Eventually worlds collide and the fallout is not pretty.

IT ALL STARTED AT THE RADISSON INN is very tastefully presented in a way that ensures the unusual subject matter will be palatable to a broad range of theater goers. Unlike some of Wanzie's past Fringe shows there is no nudity in IT ALL STARTED AT THE RADISSON INN and everything seen on stage is character-driven with nothing being presented with an intent to shock. The play is one part drama and three-parts comedy with zero-parts raunch.

IT ALL STARTED AT THE RADISSON INN is a cerebral play which illuminates certain seldom-discussed sexually-motivated proclivities while at the same time being thoroughly entertaining. Wanzie promises Fringe patrons, "You will leave the Gold Venue feeling good, possibly somewhat enlightened, and definitely with a smile on your face".

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