Rainbow Theatre Project Opens Sixth Season With IN THE CLOSET

Rainbow Theatre Project will open its sixth season with Siegmund Fuchs' In the Closet. Presented as a join world premier with Cleveland's Convergence-Continuum, In the Closet will run from August 16 - September 15, 2018 at the District of Columbia Arts Center.

"I can't underscore enough how important a play In the Closet is to me and, by extension, to Rainbow Theatre Project. A joint world premiere with Cleveland's Convergence-Continuum, this is our first full production of a new play. It is also a play that speaks to all gay men, from remembering entering that first gay bar to dealing with our place in our community as we age," said director and Rainbow Theatre Project Artistic Director H. Lee. Gable. "I personally identify with this play a lot. In many ways, this is my life. These four men are me. The eighteen year old who is terrified of what his family is going to think when they find out he is gay. The guy in his late twenties who finds out not everyone in the community is supportive or kind. The man turning forty-five who is lonely and feels that he has missed his chance at love. The gay senior citizen who looks back on his life and wonders if he still has a place in our community."

In the Closet follows four men, each living during a different time period, as they look at their lives in the place where all gay men begin, in the closet. John is an eighteen year old who just had gay sex for the first time. The next morning he runs out of the bedroom and into the closet where he meets three other gay men of different ages all going through individual crisis's of their own. John journeys through this metaphysical comedy guided by his three fairy godmothers as they help him find his way out of the closet.

"I am thrilled to be working with D.C.'s premier LGBT theater company for the world co-premier of In the Closet, which explores important issues like abuse, aging in the gay community, and self-acceptance," shared playwright Siegmund Fuchs. "I hope the D.C. audience enjoys the show as much as I did writing it."

First presented as a workshop production by the Baltimore Playwright's Festival at Fells Point Corner Theatre in 2016, In the Closet received the 2016 The Carol Weinberg Award for Best Play.

In the Closet will be directed by Rainbow Theatre Project Artistic Director H. Lee Gable and star Tim Caggiano at Man #1, Zachary Dittami as Man #3, Christopher Janson as Man #2, and Patrick Joy as Man #4.

SIEGMUND FUCHS (Playwright) is originally from Cleveland, Ohio, but now lives in Washington, D.C. His first play, Never Turned Out to Be Four Months, premiered at John Carroll University in 1998. His second play, A Night Out at the Movies, was workshopped in 2002. He has been practicing law for the last fifteen years and currently works as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice. His latest play, In the Closet, completed in 2015, is his first script in over ten years.

H. LEE GABLE (Director) has worked in the Washington theatre community for over twenty-four years. He has worked administratively for the Kennedy Center, Washington Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, and the Helen Hayes Awards. Artistically, he was the founding artistic director for Phoenix Theatre (1996-2000) and the resident assistant director/producer for Washington Shakespeare Company (2004-2006). He also served as Managing Director for Washington Shakespeare Company for the 2006-2007 season. He directed The Night of the Iguana, The Children's Hour, and Private Lives for Washington Shakespeare Company; Inside/Out, The White House Murder Case, and 3 by Sylvia for Phoenix Theatre; God of Hell for Didactic Theatre; and Ballycastle for the Source Theatre Festival. Lee is the artistic director of Rainbow Theatre Project.

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