Pride Films & Plays Features the Work of Terrace McNally this August

Pride Films & Plays presents their next reading series, THE GREAT PLAYS OF Terrence McNally, a survey of his works written between 1975 and 2006.

One of the most beloved and important American dramatists of the last 50 years, Terrence McNally has written many works with GLBT themes that have had an impact on cultural identity. From his early off-Broadway successes through his prolific list of major works such as The Lisbon Traviata (1989) and Master Class (2006), his books for classic musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992), Ragtime (1996), and The Full Monty (2000), and the opera Dead Man Walking (2000), McNally stands as a giant in America's literary heritage.

In THE GREAT PLAYS OF Terrence McNally, Pride Films & Plays presents the Chicago premiere of Some Men, and revisit Corpus Christi; The Lisbon Traviata; Love! Valour! Compassion!; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; and conclude with The Ritz, featuring Alexandra Billings.

Tickets for all performances are $10, with $5 tickets for students and film and theater industry professionals. The August and October readings are at 7 p.m. at Stage 773, 1225 West Belmont. The September readings are at 6 p.m. at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark Street. For tickets, call Brown Paper Tickets, 1800 838 3006 or online at www.brownpapertickets.com.

The schedule is as follows:

The Chicago premiere of Some Men, directed by Andrew Souders, Sunday, August 29, at 7 p.m. at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont. Celebrity Host is 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack.

Often funny and touching, Some Men features a series of interlocking vignettes set between 1922 and 2007 that touch on important events and themes in gay culture. With scenes considering long-term relationships and one night stands, the Army and AIDS, bathhouses and piano bars, and marriages of all kinds, McNally explores gay life and love against a background of events that shaped the last century. Some Men premiered in 2006.

Lips Together, Teeth Apart, directed by Jonathan Verge, Sunday, September 5, at 6 p.m. at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark Street. Celebrity Host is Hell in A Handbag's Artistic Director David Cerda.

Two straight couples are discovered lounging poolside, staring out to sea, in a house on Fire Island inherited from a gay brother who has died of AIDS. Amidst the seemingly mundane activities of Fourth of July weekend, the complex relationships among the quartet and their attitude towards the gay neighbors partying on either side of them becomes hilariously and painfully clear. Lips Together, Teeth Apart premiered in 1991.

The Lisbon Traviata, directed by Goodman Theatre's Steve Scott, Sunday, September 12, at 6 p.m. at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark Street. Celebrity Host is Roosevelt University's president Charles Middleton.

The Lisbon Traviata is beloved for the fussiness of Mendy, a ferociously dedicated opera buff who begs and cajoles his friend Stephen to let him borrow his copy of the pirated Maria Callas recording of La Traviata. Their hilarious banter in Act 1 segues into a second act in which cold reality reaches a climax of operatic proportion. The Lisbon Traviata premiered in 1989.

Love! Valour! Compassion! directed by Roosevelt University's Michael Lasswell, September 19, at 6 p.m. at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark Street. Celebrity Host is Illinois State Representative Harry Osterman.

At a lakeside vacation house, eight gay friends spend the three major holiday weekends of one summer together - Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. The house belongs to Gregory, an aging Broadway choreographer and his blind 20-something lover, Bobby. Guests include business consultants Arthur and longtime partner Perry, costumer and musical theater fanatic Buzz, a sour Englishman John Jeckyll, his twin brother James, and John's lover Ramon. Infidelity, flirtations, soul-searching, AIDS, truth-telling, and skinny-dipping, along with monumental questions about life and death, mix with a wacky dress rehearsal for Swan Lake performed in drag. Love! Valour! Compassion! premiered in 1994

Corpus Christi, directed by Jeff Award-winner Patrick Rybarczyk, Sunday, September 26, at 6 p.m. at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark Street. Celebrity Host is gay journalist Fausto Fernos.

The most controversial and talked-about play of the 1998 theatrical season begins: "We are going to tell you an old and familiar story." But from that point on, nothing feels quite familiar again as McNally tells a story about Joshua, a gay man coming of age in Corpus Christi, Texas, that parallels the story of Jesus' birth, disciples, death, and resurrection in a remarkable and unforgettable evening that deals with love, faith, marriage, and more.

The Ritz, directed by Glitterati Productions Artistic Director John Nasca, Sunday October 24, at 7 p.m.at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont. The Celebrity Host is the one and only Honey West.

At the Ritz, the rates are low, the decor is rococo, and the clientele is congenial. Gaetano Proclo reasons this all-male bathhouse is the perfect place to hide from his murder-minded brother-in-law Carmine. But what Gaetano and his fellow bathhouse patrons get is an exercise in wild, manic mayhem as he eludes chubby chaser Claude, and off-beat entertainer Googie Gomez. Other participants in the mayhem are The Ritz' gatekeeper Abe, habitué Chris, go-go-boys Tiger and Duff, detective Michael Brick, and his wife Vivian. The Ritz premiered in 1975.

THE GREAT PLAYS OF Terrence McNally follows Pride Films & Play's initial reading series FIVE DECADES OF GREAT GAY PLAYS, which surveyed works from the 1960s to the 2000s, including Mart Crowley's Boys in the Band, Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July, William M. Hoffman's As Is, Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing, and Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out.

Upcoming reading projects include works by Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner, gay plays from Wilde to Williams, and classic lesbian plays.

 

For more information about Pride Films & Plays, please visit www.pridefilmsandplays.com

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