Wendie Malick & Robert Forster to Lead Celebration Theatre's A KIND OF KIND Benefit Reading, 11/25

Celebration Theatre has announced a benefit reading of A Kind of Kind, a world premiere play by Miles Brandman, starring two-time Emmy Award nominee Wendie Malick and Academy Award nominee Robert Forster on Monday, November 25 at 8pm at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles. Directed by Ovation Award-winner Michael Matthews, proceeds from the reading will go to support Celebration Theatre.

A Kind of Kind: When two liberal parents learn that their adult son has been hiding his homosexuality from them, they engage in a hunt for any clue as to what could have caused their son not to trust them. Now suspecting each other guilty of the same discrimination they've spent a lifetime looking down on, they must reconcile their own transgressions to save the family.

Wendie Malick starred on the smash NBC comedy series Just Shoot Me from 1997-2003, earning two Emmy Award nominations for her work. Currently one of the stars of TV Land's wildly popular Hot in Cleveland, Malick is also well known for her many guest starring appearances on such shows as Frasier, Reba, Seinfeld, Cybill and Jake in Progress among many others.

Robert Forster is perhaps best known for his film performances in Medium Cool and Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, which brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Featured Actor. Also acclaimed for his performances in such films as Reflections In A Golden Eye, The Stalking Moon and Mulholland Drive, he has most recently been seen in The Descendants and Olympus Has Fallen.

Playwright Miles Brandman is a writer and director for film and theatre. In the fall of 2010, Brimmer Street Theatre Company produced the world premiere of his play Summer in Hell at studio|stage in Hollywood. Brandman also wrote and directed the independent feature film Sex and Breakfast. Other plays staged in Los Angeles include Ladies of the State, An Old Problem and All Your Hard Work (also produced by Brimmer Street).

Director Michael Matthews is Co-Artistic Director of Celebration Theatre, where he helmed Celebration's most recent production, the West Coast premiere of The Homosexuals by Philip Dawkins, now running at the Atwater Village Theatre through December 21. For his work on Celebration's production of The Color Purple he won the Ovation Award for Best Director of a Musical. His most recent directorial credits include Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers at The Blank Theatre, Funny Girl for 3-D Theatricals and Rabbit Hole for McCoy-Rigby Entertainment.

Now in its 31st season, Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer experience. The theatre endeavors to challenge society's perception of the community and give a vibrant voice to its evolving identity.

The benefit reading of A Kind of Kind is being produced for Celebration by Michael C. Kricfalusi, Rebecca Eisenberg and Todd Milliner. Tickets are $35 each, and may be purchased online at www.celebrationtheatre.com or by phone at (323) 957-1884. There will be a reception immediately following the reading. The Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Avenue, in Los Angeles.