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by Jim Farmer
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May 24, 2013 00:00 |
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Luck of the draw determines the participants in the Atlanta Fringe Festival. As fate would have it, two of the shows in the upcoming event have LGBT themes.
The mission of the Fringe Festival is to provide a platform for indie, underground playwrights doing edgy work. In all, the second annual Atlanta Fringe festival, opening June 5, spotlights 24 shows, but the offerings are not chosen in traditional manners.
Applicants are placed into a hat and drawn, says Diana Brown, the company’s artistic director, although the company does reserve the option of saving a few spots at the end to make sure the event is balanced.
“We don’t want to have 20 solo shows or shows just about white people,” she says.
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by Jim Farmer
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May 10, 2013 00:00 |
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A gay character is part of the ensemble of the new “The Book Club Play,” opening next week at Horizon Theatre.
Save for a young woman who is in her ‘20s, the characters here are all pushing 40 and dealing with that challenge. At the heart of the comedy is Ana (Wendy Melkonian), a control freak of sorts who is a features writer for a newspaper and a passionate founder of her book club.
The other two founders are her husband, Rob (Bryan Brendle), who is more into the social aspects of the club than the reading, and their historian friend Will (John Benzinger). Others in the club are Ana’s friend Jen (Maria Rodriguez-Sager), Ana’s young protégé Lily (Danielle Deadwyler) and Alex (Dan Triandiflou), a comparative literature professor who challenges the group with a notion that to be part of culture, they need to embrace the Beyonce along with the Bach.
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by Jim Farmer
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April 26, 2013 00:00 |
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Although LGBT-themed productions are something of a rarity the next few months in the ATL, the upcoming theater season nonetheless has some snap to it.
One of the plays with a gay character in it is Horizon Theatre’s “The Book Club Play” (May 17 – June 23) by playwright Karen Zacarias, in which the leader of a book club discovers that she and the members of the group — including a gay man — are being featured in a documentary, and the camera is always running. Directed by Jeff Adler, the comedy has a great cast including Wendy Melkonian.
Several of Atlanta’s popular LGBT directors are busy this season. Heidi S. Howard, the openly lesbian new artistic director of 7 Stages, is directing “Lady Lay” (April 25 – May 19).
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by Jim Farmer
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April 12, 2013 00:00 |
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When openly gay actor Spencer G. Stephens was approached about directing “Brer Rabbit & Friends” at the Center for Puppetry Arts, he wasn’t sure how to react. Yet it didn’t take him long to say an enthusiastic “yes” to the project.
As part of the acting ensemble of the last two versions of the show at the company, in 2005 and in 2008, Stephens feels his experience was one reason he was asked to helm the current take, even though he had never directed before.
“I know the structure, how the show should be done,” he says.
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by Jim Farmer
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March 29, 2013 00:00 |
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Christopher Renshaw first got involved in the development of the stage musical “Zorro” back in 2001. Next week, he finally gets a chance to bring it to the United States when it premieres at the Alliance Theatre.
Renshaw, who is gay, is directing a new version of the production, which he originally envisioned as being the first flamenco musical. He and author Stephen Clark approached the Gipsy Kings, known for their flamenco-rumba music, to get the first staging up and going.
That was back in 2008, when “Zorro” opened in London and played a year. Since then, it’s toured around the world, save for America.
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