NEWS RELEASE — D’Lo in “D’FunQT” at LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER’S DAVIDSON/VALENTINI THEATRE — OPENS APRIL 3 AT 8PM

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
Presents

D’Lo
in
D’FunQT
Written and Performed by D’Lo
Directed by Ken Sawyer

OPENS FRIDAY, APRIL 3 AT 8PM
FOUR WEEKS ONLY THRU APRIL 26
NOW EXTENDED THROUGH MAY 3
★ FINAL PERFORMANCES ADDED: SATURDAY 5/16 & SUNDAY 5/17 ★

At The Davidson/Valentini Theatre

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced the LA premiere of D’Lo in D’FunQT (pronounced Defunct) at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre. Written and performed by acclaimed political theatre artist, writer, director, comedian, music producer, and queer transgender Sri Lankan-American D’Lo, and helmed by award-winning director Ken Sawyer (The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later/The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?), D’FunQT will play two preview performances on April 1 and 2 at 8pm. Opening is set for Friday, April 3 at 8pm.

D’FunQT shares hilarious and poignant snapshots of the worlds that have shaped who D’Lo is today. Written and performed Leguizamo-style, D’FunQT celebrates the joy of survival in an often intolerant world. As a queer boy/stud/trans person, D’Lo unapologetically uses his fluidly morphing form and spot-on timing to bring the fierce with the funny.

D’Lo is also the creator of the Coming Out, Coming Home writing workshop series, which has taken place with South Asian and/or immigrant queer organizations nationally. D’Lo‘s poetry and short stories have been published in various anthologies and academic journals including, most recently Desi Rap: Hip Hop and South Asia America, Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic, and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics. Along with touring colleges and universities with D’FaQTo Life, D’Lo tours Ramble-Ations: A One D’Lo Show, directed by Adelina Anthony, which received the NPN Creation Fund Grant inclusive of residencies in nine US cities with additional support from the Durfee Foundation Grant. D’FunQT has toured internationally (SF, NY, Manchester, UK, and a seven-city tour in India and Sri Lanka).

Performing Girl, a documentary by Crescent Diamond based on D’Lo’s life and work, won the best short documentary award at Outfest 2013. D’Lo was a lead character in the short film LIT, currently appears in the new HBO series Looking as Taj, and performs in Mikki del Monico’s film Alto. For more information, visit http://dlocokid.com/.

D’Lo in D’FunQT is set to open on Friday, April 3 at 8pm. General admission tickets for are $15 for previews and $20 for regular performances and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. The performance schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm through April 26 only Now Extended Through May 17. Net proceeds from ticket sales will support the full range of free and low-cost programs and services offered by the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Davidson Valentini Theatre is located at the Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood. Free onsite parking is available.

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03-09-15

PRESS RELEASE — LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER PRESENTS EDWARD ALBEE’S “THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA?” — OPENS FRIDAY, SEPT. 19

LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER’S
LILY TOMLIN/JANE WAGNER CULTURAL ARTS CENTER
PRESENTS
THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA?
BY EDWARD ALBEE
DIRECTED BY KEN SAWYER

DAVIDSON/VALENTI THEATRE IN HOLLYWOOD
OPENING SET FOR FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 AT 8PM

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center is set to present Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?, with opening set for Friday, September 19 at 8pm. (There will be two preview performances on September 17 and 18 at 8pm.) Directed by Ken Sawyer, the production will run through November 23.

The cast of The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? will feature (in alphabetical order) Matt Kirkwood, Spencer Morrissey, Ann Noble, and Paul Witten. The set design is by Robert Selander, lighting design is by Matt Richter, costume design is by Paula Higgins, and sound design is by Ken Sawyer. Assistant director is Shaunessy Quinn, fight choreographer is Edgar Landa, and the stage manager is Kathleen Jaffe. The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? is produced by Jon Imparato, artistic director of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center.

Winner of the 2002 Drama Desk and Tony Awards for Best Play and a 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? is the tale of a married, middle-aged architect, Martin, his wife Stevie, and their son Billy, whose lives crumble when Martin falls in love with a goat. The play focuses on the limits of an ostensibly liberal society, challenging audience members to question their own morality in the face of other social taboos including infidelity, pedophilia, and incest.

Said Jon Imparato, artistic director of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, “I’ve been haunted by this play ever since I saw it on Broadway more than a decade ago. It is without question Albee’s most daring, brave, and thought-provoking work. We are honored that Mr. Albee has allowed the Center to produce this play.”

Since 1969 the Los Angeles LGBT Center has cared for, championed, and celebrated LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Today, its health center, shelters, performance stages, and classrooms serve more LGBT people than any other organization in the world. The Center is an unstoppable force in the community’s fight against bigotry and the struggle to build a better world — a world in which LGBT people can be healthy, equal, and complete members of society. For more, visit at www.lagaycenter.org.

There will be two preview performances of The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? on Wednesday, September 17 and Thursday, September 18 at 8pm. Opening is set for Friday, September 19 at 8pm. The engagement will run through November 23 with performances on Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm. Preview seats are $20 and admission for regular performances is $30. [All tickets purchased online before August 19 receive a $5 discount.] Tickets are available online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre, or by calling (323) 860-7300.

The Davidson/Valentini Theatre is located at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood. Free onsite parking is available.

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08-07-14

Announcing: Extension of “Deathtrap” Canceled Due to Revocation of Performance Rights

L.A. GAY & LESBIAN CENTER’S ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION
OF IRA LEVIN’S “DEATHTRAP”
WILL NOT RETURN IN SEPTEMBER
DUE TO PERFORMANCE RIGHTS BEING REVOKED

Due to a last-minute revocation of performance rights, the much acclaimed, ‘Ovation Recommended’ production of Ira Levin’s classic comedy-thriller Deathtrap will be unable to return to the Davidson/Valentini Theatre at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center in September as previously announced. Net proceeds would have benefitted the entire array of the Center’s free and low-cost programs and services.

Directed by eight-time Ovation Award-winner Ken Sawyer, the Center’s production of Deathtrap enjoyed a ten week sold-out run in the spring of this year. Due to the original engagement’s runaway success, the Center planned to remount the production, but the Estate of Ira Levin that controls the performance rights abruptly revoked them, citing a brief moment of onstage nudity.

Following an impassioned appeal by the Center, rights were once again granted, but this time with very strict guidelines prohibiting any onstage behavior that portrayed the two lead male characters having a physical relationship—this despite the fact that in the play the characters are involved in a full-blown affair.

Deathtrap’s famously complex script provides genuine, edge-of-your-seat thrills, and is known for the jolts and surprises that occur along the way. The Center has decided that re-mounting the show with the imposed restrictions would force the play’s central relationship back into the closet, thus compelling the Center to compromise both its mission and its integrity. It would also result in a very different and less effective production than the one audiences had been lining up to see. Therefore the Center has been forced to cancel.

The entire original cast was set to return. They are (in alphabetical order) Brian Foyster, Cynthia Gravinese, Burt Grinstead, Elizabeth Herron, Carl J. Johnson, and Stephen Mendillo. The design team included Joel Daavid (set), Luke Moyer (lighting), Paula Higgins (costumes), and Ken Sawyer (sound). Deathtrap was produced by Jon Imparato, artistic director of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center.

Patrons who had already purchased tickets for the extension will receive full refunds. The Center’s box office personnel is in the process of contacting all ticket buyers. The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center is located at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood.

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08-23-12