Lindsay Harris Friel's TRAVELING LIGHT Set for Philly Fringe, 9/6-14

By: Tyler Peterson Jul. 26, 2013

London's "Summer of Love" comes to Center City in the Philly Fringe with the Philadelphia premiere of "Traveling Light" by Philadelphia playwright Lindsay Harris Friel. The play is directed by Liam Castellan and produced by Liam's Sofa Cushion Fortress in The Skybox at The Adrienne Theater, September 6-14, 2013. Tickets are $20 ($10 preview tickets available for the 9/6 performance) and can be purchased at the door or through the FringeArts Box Office at www.fringearts.com.

"Traveling Light" tragicomically explores the connections between acclaimed playwright Joe Orton (Doug Greene of Center City) and Beatles manager Brian Epstein (Bob Stineman of South Philadelphia), as well as the overlap between death, life and sex, rock and roll and theatre. They meet in a graveyard late at night in the summer of 1967 and break each other down over a script Epstein contracted Orton to write for the Beatles' next movie. Both men were homosexual (in varying degrees of openness) at a time when it had only just been decriminalized in England and spend much of the play evading or confronting the police (Kyra Baker of South Philadelphia as WPC Foster and Terence Gleeson of Wenonah, Gloucester County, NJ as Constable MacDonald). Within a few weeks, Orton would be bludgeoned to death by his lover and Epstein would be dead of an overdose.

"It's a play that deals with big ideas in a very fun way," said director Castellan. "Lindsay takes two historical figures who pushed the envelope in their respective fields, and builds on their real connection to talk about being gay in London, what the sixties were and what the sixties could have been." In recent years, diaries and papers have been discovered which indicate the possibility that Orton and Epstein may have had more than a passing connection. This play explores that possibility, and also loneliness and love.

"Traveling Light" was developed by Philadelphia Theatre Workshop in 2009 and was produced to critical acclaim in Minneapolis, Minnesota by Theater Pro Rata in 2010.

Lindsay Harris Friel is an MFA Candidate in Temple University's Playwriting Program. Her short plays "Seven Margaritas" and "Hanging" began life in the Philly Fringe and moved on to productions in Maine and Nebraska, respectively. She has studied with Doug Wright, Michele Volansky, and at the Great Plains Theatre Conference with Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Romulus Linney, Will Eno and Dr. David Crespy. She has served as a script reader for the Literary Departments of the McCarter Theatre and The Wilma Theater, and maintained a weekly reading and discussion workshop for playwrights at the Brick Playhouse. She lives and works in Philadelphia with three cats, two dogs, and her crime-fighting rock star husband.

Liam Castellan is a director and producer based in Philadelphia. He has directed for Plays & Players Theatre, the Walking Fish Theatre, and Hedgerow Theatre among others. His credits with the Philadelphia Dramatists Center including producing and directing the world premiere of "A Cuckold's Tale" by Paul Leeper in the 2005 Philly Fringe. He is a Company Member of Curio Theatre Company, where he has directed multiple productions including Joe Orton's "What The Butler Saw". He is currently directing "Corpse!" For Hedgerow Theatre, running during and after the Fringe.

Photo Credit: Kyle Cassidy

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