FERNDALE –
Who Wants Cake? and The Ringwald Theatre recently announced the return of its wildly popular Gay Play Series (GPS). Last year's inaugural outing was attended by hundreds of people over a single weekend. This year the festival will run over 10 days with additional programming and added festivities from June 17 through June 27 once again at The Ringwald Theatre in downtown Ferndale.
"After such a great first year, we are so pleased to be able to expand our GPS festival. We're producing more original plays, offering some staged readings, an opportunity to get to know some of this year's featured playwrights and, of course, another edition of the MisCast Cabaret," said artistic director Joe Bailey.
The 2011 GPS will kick off at 8 p.m. Friday, June 17 with the opening ceremonies that will include light food and drink and a special performance of "Streep-Tease/Penn-ography." "Streep-Tease/Pennography" features men performing monologues from Meryl Streep films, while the ladies will be performing Sean Penn monolgues. Featured performers on opening night include Joe Bailey, Joe Plambeck, Jamie Richards, Jamie Warrow, Melissa Beckwith, Matthew Turner Shelton, Vince Kelley, Suzan M. Jacokes, Dyan Bailey, Lisa Jesswein, Christa Coulter, Bryan Lark, Mark Sobolewski, Richard Payton, Caroline Price, Tony Gross and Cara Trautman.
The original One-Act Festival includes nine new plays and will be performed in two blocks over four days with one additional day being reserved for all nine plays to be presented marathon-style.
Block A
"Our Little Lezzie" by Allison Fradkin
"My Cup Bearer Runneth Off" by Ron Morrelli
"Reluctant Hero" by Matt Heftler
"Love, Liza?" by Anson Mount
"What Happened When" by Daniel Talbott
Block B
"Intervention" by Dyan Bailey
"Vowed & Wowed" by Rich Orloff
"I Had to Meet You Like This Here (Again) (One More Time)" by Brian Walker
"A Few Survivors" by Jason Sebacher
Block A will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 18 and Friday, June 24, and 1 p.m. Sunday, June 25.
Block B will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 19, 8 p.m. Saturday, June 25, and 5 p.m. Sunday, June 26.
Once again, audiences will be asked to vote for their favorite play. The winning production will be given a special encore performance at 8 p.m. Monday, June 27 and will receive a full production at The Ringwald
Theatre during their 2011-2012 season. This year, awards will also be given for favorite director and favorite performance.
