NEWS RELEASE — LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER PRESENTS “FOOL FOR LOVE” AT PART OF 2016 HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL

Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
Presents
As Part of the 2016 Hollywood Fringe Festival
FOOL FOR LOVE
By Sam Shepard
Directed by Will Bradley & Cecilia Fairchild
Featuring
Bradley Fisher, Burt Grinstead,
Charlotte Gulezian, and Roland Ruiz

Los Angeles LGBT Center has announced a new production of Fool for Love by Sam Shepard as part of the 2016 Hollywood Fringe Festival. There will be 11 performances only, beginning June 3 and running through June 26 in The Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre. [The complete performance schedule is at the end of this release.] This story of twisted lives and tormented loves will be directed by Will Bradley and Cecilia Fairchild, and the cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Bradley Fisher (In Bed with Roy Cohn, Aftermath), Burt Grinstead, (Hit the Wall, The Sexual Life of Savages), Charlotte Gulezian (Hit the Wall, Stupid Fucking Bird), and Roland Ruiz (Hit the Wall and the Oscar-nominated film Boyhood).

Fool for Love, winner of the 1984 Obie Award for Best New American Play and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, finds two former lovers holed up in a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert where they unpack the deep secrets and dark desires of their tangled relationship, passionately tearing each other apart. Beaten down by ill-fated love and a struggle for identity, they must decide whether it is ultimately possible to live with, or without, each other. The New York Times called it a “gut-clutching … full throttle cliffhanger.” Run time is 75 minutes.

The scenic design is by Burt Grinstead, lighting and sound design are by Matt Richter and costume design is by Brooke Gerson. The stage manager is Maggie Marx.

There will be four previews and seven regular performances of Fool for Love, beginning on June 3 and running through June 24. The complete schedule:

PREVIEWS
• Friday 6/3 at 8pm
• Saturday 6/4 at 8pm
• Sunday 6/5 at 7pm
• Tuesday 6/7 at 8pm

REGULAR
• Saturday 6/11 at 8pm [OPENING NIGHT]
• Sundays 6/19 & 6/26 at 7pm
• Wednesdays 6/15 & 6/22 at 8pm
• Thursday 6/16 at 8pm
• Friday 6/24 at 8pm

Preview seats are $10 and admission for regular performances is $15. Tickets are available online at http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/3751, or by phone at (323) 455-4585.

Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre is located at the 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038. Free onsite parking is available.

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05-10-16

 
^{L to R — Charlotte Gulezian, Burt Grinstead. Photo by Stan Mayer.}

NEWS RELEASE — LA LGBT CENTER/SIXTH AVENUE PRODUCTION OF “HIT THE WALL” WINS 7 STAGE RAW THEATRE AWARDS

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
and Sixth Avenue production of
HIT THE WALL
By Ike Holter
Directed by Ken Sawyer
WINS SEVEN STAGERAW.COM
THEATRE AWARDS

Hit the Wall, a play by Ike Holter, which was presented from September 2015 through January 2016 by the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center and Sixth Avenue, took home seven StageRaw.com Theatre Awards from the second-ever awards ceremony on Monday, April 25 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. It was the most wins for any nominated production.

The winners were Edgar Landa (Fight Choreography), Matthew Hancock (Leading Male Performance), Anna Waronker & Charlotte Caffey (Original Music), Ken Sawyer (Direction), Production Design, Ensemble, and Production of the Year.

The award-winning ensemble included (in alphabetical order) Jason Caceres, Burt Grinstead, Charlotte Gulezian, Matthew Hancock, Kristina Johnson, Kenneth Lopez, Maggie Marx, Dan Middleditch, Roland Ruiz, Shoniqua Shandai, Adam Silver, Donnie Smith, Jess Weaver, and Blake Young-Fountain.

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04-27-16

NEWS RELEASE — “A GENTLE REMINDER: MISS COCO PERU’S GUIDE TO A SOMEWHAT HAPPY LIFE”

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
Presents
A GENTLE REMINDER:
MISS COCO PERU’S GUIDE TO A SOMEWHAT HAPPY LIFE
Written and Performed by Clinton Leupp
Directed by Michael Schiralli

Fridays & Saturdays, May 13-14 and 20-21 at 8pm

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced the return of the legendary Miss Coco Peru. The YouTube sensation brings her latest solo show, A Gentle Reminder: Miss Coco Peru’s Guide to a Somewhat Happy Life, to the Renberg Theatre for four nights only — Fridays and Saturdays, May 13 & 14 and May 20 & 21. Curtain time for all performances is 8pm.

Ever since becoming a phenomenon on YouTube, Miss Coco Peru has been inundated with emails from people of all ages asking her the same question: “Coco, what is the secret to a happy life?” Being the giver that she is, Coco has written a new show in which, through story and song, she shares a step-by-step guide that leaves you prepared to enter the world again ready to create your very own “somewhat” happy life. Why just a “somewhat” happy life? Well, let’s face it, you wouldn’t want to be happy all the time because “happy” people make such a racket!

Storyteller/monologist Miss Coco Peru, aka Clinton Leupp, got his/her start as a downtown favorite in the New York cabaret world after he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his first show, Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret, 25 years ago. A veteran of numerous feature films (trick and the cult classic Girls Will Be Girls, among numerous others), and television shows (How I Met Your Mother, Arrested Development, Twins, and more). Leupp has received worldwide acclaim for his award-winning solo shows and his remarkable series of tributes to great performers, Conversations with Coco, in which she conducts live career-retrospective interviews with such luminaries as Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, and the late Bea Arthur.

Leupp has been honored by many organizations, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, for his long history of dedicated activism and unflagging support of the LGBT community. The Center is proud to present A Gentle Reminder, the sixth original stage show to be performed at the Renberg by one of our most beloved artists.

General admission tickets are $25 and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. Net proceeds from all 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 Renberg Theatre is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038. Free onsite parking is available.

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04-01-16

Miss Coco Peru. Photo by Andrew Putschoegl.