Purple Rep Presents THE ALL-AMERICAN GENDERF*CK CABARET 4/8-30

Purple Rep will present the revival of Mariah MacCarthy's sexual revolution, THE ALL-AMERICAN GENDERF*CK CABARET (which previously received a sold-out run at UNDER St. Marks in 2010), April 8-30 at The Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) running in rep with Larry Kunofsky's The Un-Marrying Project, as part of Purple Rep's inaugural project, Gay Plays for Straight People (and also gay people). The production will be directed by Heidi Handelsman and will feature Esteban Benito, Kim Gainer*, Yeauxlanda Kay*, Jamahl Garrison-Lowe, Lauren Hennessy, Catherine Lefrere, Lindsay Naas, Jordan Tierney, and Wes Urish*. The creative team will include Lighting Design by Lois Catanzaro, Set /Properties Design by Tim McMath, Costume Design by Polina Roytman, Sound Design by Jay Spriggs, and Choreography by Brandon Scott Whited.

Eight gender stereotypes, countless dance breaks, one intimately outrageous cabaret, and one androgynous omnipotent emcee to guide them all. A story about back-alley fights, The Pussies of America, sexting, acquaintance rape, infidelity, and the ass-backwards ways we seek affection. Welcome to the Genderf*ck.

"A great artist provokes without malice, evokes feeling and understanding, and perhaps plants the seeds of change. MacCarthy succeeds...one of the best off-off-Broadway productions I've see."
Le-Ann Garland, Theatre is Easy

"Genderf*ck for the Y Generation is what Reality Bites was for the X Generation"
Grace Moon, Velvet Park

The production, presented by Purple Rep will run in rep with The Un-Marrying Project at The Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery). Performances are April 8, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 26, 28, & 30 at 8pm and April 10, 23, & 24 at 2pm. Tickets ($18) may be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

*Appearing courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association

MARIAH MACCARTHY (Playwright) is a playwright and sometimes director/dramaturg/producer/blogger. She writes plays about the intersection of sex, gender expression, and the Kinsey scale, among other things. Her plays include A Man of His Word (San Diego Old Globe with Playwrights Project), a neo-noir about sexual obsession; Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story (Looking Glass Theatre, winner of 20 Looking Glass Forum Awards), a modern, cynical Romeo & Juliet with a girl as Romeo; Detained (Left Hip's "From the Hip" Festival), which is sort of like Deathwatch with lesbians; Bachelor/Bachelorette (a radio play with Co-Op Theatre East), which is about androgyny and bachelorette parties; Dismemberment (Player's Theatre), about a skeleton marionette's friendship with a lovestruck actor; The Foreplay Play (FullStop Theatre Collective), about a straight couple and a lesbian couple trying to all have sex with each other; and The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret (sold-out run with Rapscallion Theatre Collective). She's also working on a new play, Magic Trick, in which a hot 20something paraplegic leaves her boyfriend and becomes a burlesque dancer. She has a blog, A Rehearsal Room of One's Own, and contributes to 2amtheatre.com on occasion. She is also a member of the Dramatist's Guild.

HEIDI HANDELSMAN (Director) is a New York-based freelance theatre director, specializing in new work and playwright collaboration. Heidi recently directed two new plays in the New York International Fringe Festival: Group, by Daniel McCoy, and The Battle of Spanktown, by Jeffrey Pfeiffer. Last season, she directed the world premiere of Kate Marks' Bird House, a coming-of-age fairy tale about two women who should have already come of age, at Theatre 3, and a new production of Cindy Lou Johnson's Brilliant Traces at TheaterLab. Other credits include Mary Brigit Poppleton is Writing a Memoir (NY Fringe and Fringe Encore Series), Janey Miller's World Tour (Manhattan Theatre Source), and Flyers and Other Tales (Midtown Theatre Festival). She has directed numerous short plays in the Samuel French Festival and the Estrogenius Festival, and with Youngblood/EST. She has developed new work with New Georges, Ma-Yi Theater Company, the Woodshed Collective, the Tank, New York Theatre Experiment, and the NYU/Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing. She was awarded an SDCF Obervership with John Rando on The Toxic Avenger. Heidi is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and a Resident Director at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Heidi also hosts and curates the Potluck (a play-reading series) from her living room.

PURPLE REP was founded by playwrights Larry Kunofsky and Mariah MacCarthy in order to produce their work in rep, so that when their plays are presented together, a larger story can be told. Over time, Purple Rep will expand in order to include other playwrights in our repertory model. We are committed to plays that provoke, plays that crack you up and crack you apart so that you can put yourself together again, plays that make you see red and hear the blues...until it all mixes in your mind's eye into a purple rush.