PALM SPRINGS YOUNG PLAYWRIGHT’S FESTIVAL Announces Call for Submissions
by Kay Kudukis - Oct 8, 2025
The Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival (PSYPF), which promotes and encourages theatrical creative writing among elementary, middle, and high school students within Riverside County, has announced that it is now accepting submissions for the 9th Annual Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival.
The Bent 2025/2026 Season Announced
by Kay Kudukis - Jul 31, 2025
Against a backdrop of cultural tensions and renewed challenges to LGBTQ+ rights nationwide, The Bent —one of only a handful of exclusively LGBTQ+ focused theater companies in Southern California—announces its 25/26 season: a rich tapestry of plays, musicals, cabarets, and staged readings that shine a light on the complexity, resilience, and vibrancy of queer life.
Review: THE INHERITANCE PART I at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - May 19, 2025
There is universal and personal anguish for all of us who can remember the frightening AIDS epidemic in the 80s. No one was left unscathed, and many families and friends were devastated with a feeling of fear and uncertainty about the enduring impact it would have for future generations.
Review: PERFECT ARRANGEMENT at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - Feb 7, 2025
Sometimes I get to see a very good production of a very good play, and I go home feeling satisfied. As a reviewer, I sometimes have to see that same play again at another theatre with an entirely different cast and an entirely different directorial approach. It’s a bit like the remake of a classic. At first you wonder why it needs to be remade, and then having already seen what you consider the gold star, the outcome is less satisfactory.
Review: SKIPPY AND BITSY’S ALL-STAR TV CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - Dec 18, 2024
It’s all in good (and a little naughty) fun at Skippy and Bitsy’s All-Star Christmas TV Extravaganza on “live television”. This is a tv special you might have run across while surfing cable access tv, or in an SNL Christmas skit from the 1980s where it’s live and it’s a trainwreck, and there ain’t nothing you can do about the disaster happening around you except punt and hope for the best.
Previews: I’LL EAT YOU LAST: A Chat at With Sue Mengers at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - Dec 3, 2024
Palm Springs’ THE BENT presents Academy Award® nominee Cathy Moriarty as the ruthless Hollywood powerhouse talent agent Sue Mengers in John Logan’s one-woman, one-act play, “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers,” directed by Steve Rosenbaum.
Review: F**KING MEN at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - Oct 16, 2024
Joe Dipietro’s play explores the different dynamics between men and the thrill of anonymous sex. The comic throughline of “Why do we bang strangers? Because it feels fantastic!” propels the action, and comedy carries the night but buried underneath are some deeper emotions, and complicated situations. When the opportunity to have a meaningless encounter occurs, there is always discussion leading up to it, but there is always an encounter because… see title.
Review: THE LINCOLN DEBATE at The Bent
by Kay Kudukis - May 8, 2024
The Lincoln Debate, an original play by Terry Ray, is a great concept: Debate the long bandied about “rumor” that Abraham Lincoln was gay or, at very least, bi-sexual, and throw in some comic re-enactments.