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

NEWS RELEASE — “THE MISMATCH GAME” RETURNS TO LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER FOR 2 NIGHTS ONLY — 3/14 and 3/1

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
and Dennis Hensley
Present

The MisMatch Game
WITH HOST DENNIS HENSLEY

AT LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER’S RENBERG THEATRE
Saturday, March 14 at 8pm
Sunday, March 15 at 7pm

It’s time once again to “get ready to match the stars with a new edition of Dennis Hensley’s The MisMatch Game, the show the Los Angeles Times calls, “witty, ribald … an adventure in surrealist era bending.” The perennial LA cult favorite returns to the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre for two hilarious nights only, Saturday, March 14 at 8pm and Sunday, March 15 at 7pm.

Producer and host Dennis ‘Gene Rayburn’ Hensley will be joined onstage by a panel of some of LA’s most creative, hilarious, and demented comic minds. Fractured celebrity impersonations include such luminaries (living and otherwise) as Zooey Deschanel, Bea Arthur, Harvey Fierstein, Cher, Ricardo Montalbán, and Tim Gunn. The casts for Saturday 3/14 includes Willam Belli as Jessica Simpson, Rachel Butera as Wanda Sykes, Danny Casillas as Reba Arriva, Drew Droege as Tanya Roberts, Sam Pancake as Lucille Ball, and Tony Tripoli as Charles Nelson Reilly. On Sunday 3/15, the cast will be Jackie Beat as Bea Arthur, Maile Flanagan as Danny Bonaduce, Nadya Ginsburg as Cher, Tom Lenk as Zooey Deschanel, Felix Pire as Ricardo Montalbán, and Marc Samuel as Bill Cosby. Cast members subject to change. Hensley and company are once again generously donating the proceeds to benefit the Center’s array of free and low-cost services.

The MisMatch Game regularly fills the house at its irregularly scheduled gigs at the Renberg Theatre. Audiences keep coming back for the razor’s-edge improv (the panel has no clue what the questions will be) and the sassy, racy, and decidedly un-PC wit and wildness. The Advocate honored The MisMatch Game with a “10 Best Theatre” citation, saying, “This recurring Los Angeles happening re-imagines the ‘70s TV game show The MisMatch Game with full-camp press and excellent sub-lebrity impersonations.” With kitschy prizes for volunteer contestants pulled from the audience, it’s time to dig out that leisure suit for a racy, irreverent, side-splitting parody of ‘70s game show insanity.

The MisMatch Game will be played on Saturday, March 14 at 8pm and Sunday, March 15 at 7pm. General admission tickets are $15. All seats 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 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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02-24-15

NEWS RELEASE — LALGBT CENTER PRESENTS ‘CONVERSATIONS WITH COCO’ WITH SPECIAL GUEST ALLISON JANNEY — SAT 3/7 AT 8PM

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

CONVERSATIONS WITH COCO
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
ALLISON JANNEY

A BENEFIT EVENT
AT THE LGBT CENTER’S RENBERG THEATRE
Saturday, March 7 at 8pm

For the ninth installment of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s ongoing series Conversations With Coco — Miss Coco Peru’s series of live, unscripted interviews with celebrated performing artists — the LA drag legend welcomes the multiple award-winning actress Allison Janney to the Center’s Renberg Theatre on Saturday, March 7, at 8pm. Miss Coco’s previous conversations have included those with Liza Minnelli, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Lainie Kazan, Charles Busch, Lesley Ann Warren, Karen Black, and Bea Arthur. Miss Coco has prepared a multimedia presentation featuring highlights of Ms. Janney’s brilliant career, as well as ample opportunity for the kind of casual yet in-depth conversation audiences have come to relish.

Allison Janney is a six-time Primetime Emmy Award-winner for her television work (The West Wing, Masters of Sex, Mom). She won the Outer Critics Circle and Clarence Derwent Awards for her performance in Present Laughter on Broadway and also received Tony Award nominations for her work in A View from the Bridge and 9 to 5. She is a multiple SAG Award-winner and has received countless other nominations and awards across all disciplines of entertainment.

Blending fascinating discussion, revealing stories, and a multimedia survey of her guests’ careers, Conversations With Coco has proven to be among the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center’s most popular offerings. “In case you are unaware,” says Miss Coco, “Conversations With Coco is similar to Inside The Actors Studio only it’s much more fun and I’m prettier than James Lipton — sort of.” For more information about Miss Coco Peru, visit www.misscoco.com.

General admission tickets for Conversations With Coco with Special Guest Allison Janney are $50. VIP tickets are available for $250 which include reserved orchestra seating, a pre-event cocktail hour, and a post-event reception with Miss Coco and Ms. Janney. Tickets may be purchased online at http://coco-allison-janney.eventbrite.com or by phone at (323) 860-7300. 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 Renberg 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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01-27-15