If there’s one thing we can all use right now it’s a little comedy. And Durango Arts Center delivers with its upcoming production of “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,” which will open Friday and run through July 27.
According to the DAC, the show, set in 1956, opens with The Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein having their annual quiche breakfast. As the “widows” await the announcement of the society’s prize-winning quiche, the atomic bomb sirens sound. Has the Communist threat come to pass? How will the “widows” respond as their idyllic town and lifestyle face attacks?
If you go
WHAT: “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,” directed by Sarah Alessandro; written by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood; with contributions by Sarah Gitenstein, Mary Hollis Inboden, Meg Johns, Thea Lux, Beth Stelling and Maari Suorsa.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. July 18, 19, 21, 24, 25 and 26; 2 p.m. July 20 and 27. Special Gala Performance, July 19, reception at 6:30 p.m., curtain at 7:30.
WHERE: Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave.
TICKETS: $25-$55. Available at https://tinyurl.com/mws2xx4t.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit https://tinyurl.com/mws2xx4t.
NOTE: Mature content, appropriate for age 16 and older.
The cast includes: Kelly Kassir as Lulie, Mikayla Rivas as Wren, Abigail Kubicek as Vern, Deidre Hiles as Ginny and Mary Quinn as Dale.
It’s written by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood, and directed by Sarah Alessandro.
Audiences should note that because of mature content, the show is appropriate for those 16 and older.
Monica DiBiasio, theater artistic and managing director, said the choice of the show came from a desire to celebrate the women of Durango.
“I was looking for something that was female heavy, and we have a lot of talented women in town, and so I thought I would do something that kind of honored that,’ she said. “I was looking through the catalog, and came upon the title, and I was like, that sounds interesting. So I read the play and I thought it was hilarious.
“With this show, I think my intent was to just have people come in and have some really good belly laughs and forget about the world for a while,” she said. “That’s the intent with this one. Come escape. This is pure entertainment.”
And the response to the call for actors was enthusiastic, DiBiasio said.
“It could have been ‘10 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,’ we have so many great people to choose from, that was not an easy choice for Sarah,” she said.
The long one-act play was a winner at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she said, which further helped her decide that this was the play to stage.
The show’s run will feature a Gala Performance Night on Saturday that will include a preshow champagne reception beginning at 6:30 p.m., live music, reserved seating, and a preshow meet and greet with the director and producer. After the performance, the audience will be treated with a champagne toast and cast talkback with the show’s actors.
Oh, and the best part? Audience members are encouraged to dress in their 1950s-era Sunday best for the evening (and DiBiasio said, really for all performances, adding that it’s unfair that “Rocky Horror” gets to have all the dress-up fun).
It’s the fun of the show that got Alessandro interested in taking the director’s chair for this run, she said.
“Last year, I directed a show with my own project and a couple of people who are involved with the DAC got to see that,” she said. “I’ve stayed in contact with them and I received an email from Monica a while back, asking if I would be interested. I said yes, seems like it would be a super-fun show to be involved in.”
Alessandro said the fun of the “Quiche” script is added to by the women of the cast, who take the show further with their improv skills and overall silliness.
While the show is a comedy, she said it also has a lot of heart and some really important messages, as well.
And, the story is timely, too, she said.
“I think it has only become more timely ... as things have been happening around the world, which was unintentional, obviously,” Alessandro said. “It is a very timely show, and it does deal with some pretty heavy concepts – trying to find yourself in a world where maybe your place isn’t carved out or historically there hasn’t been a safe place for you. So the women in the show ... really just embrace who they are in a way that’s really beautiful. And it is very relevant ... and I think very impactful.”
katie@durangoherald.com
