Fresh Fruit Festival to Salute 'NELL DASH' Playwright Doug DeVita

The Fresh Fruit Festival, presented by All Out Arts, now in its 15th year celebrating the LGBTQ community's unique perspective, creativity and diversity, and to build links between the LGBTQ artistic communities on local and international levels, will host its annual Fresh Fruit Awards of Distinction at The Bowery Poetry Club on April 24 at 7:00 p.m.

A conspicuous winner is playwright Doug DeVita, whose comedy, The Fierce Urgency Of Now, garnered FOUR Awards:

Outstanding Play [Doug DeVita]
Outstanding Production [Dennis Corsi]
Outstanding Supporting Performance [Terri Kelsey and Carole Monferdini]

The announcement timing is advantageous for DeVita as - one week ago - his play, The Phillie Trilogy received standing ovations at the opening of the Great Griffon Reading Series, and tomorrow (February 28) his latest work begins its run.

THE GRUESOMELY MERRY ADVENTURES OF NELL DASH, AN IRREPRESSIBLY SENSIBLE CAPITALIST WITH A VENGEANCE (Tuesday, February 28, 6:15 PM; Saturday, March 4, 8:30 PM; Sunday, March 5, 1:30 PM; Hudson Guild Theatre, 441 W. 26 St. (btwn 9th/10th), a merry mash-up of some of Victorian literature's most memorable characters. Award winner, Dennis Corsi, returns to direct Billie Aken-Tyers, Erika Amato, Chris Dunlop, Rob Maitner, Carole Monferdini, Sean Barry Parsons, Doug Hussein Rossi, and Jessica Vera in this literary mash-up of melodramatic musings.

Imagine the Artful Dodger growing up to be Mack, the knife; Nancy is actually Marianne Dashwood; her sister, Elinor... or Nell (our heroine) becomes the widow, Mrs. Nellie Lovett, and they ALL get themselves into trouble with Bill Sikes and Sweeney Todd!