OTHER DESERT CITIES Starts September 22 at City Lights in San Jose

It's Christmas Eve morning, 2004. Politics are polarized in the U.S., and especially so in one affluent Palm Springs home, where the Wyeth family has gathered for the holidays.

Seasonal cheer quickly dissolves when daughter Brooke announces she's publishing a memoir that dredges up a tragic event from the family's past, a wound no one else wants reopened. Soon, ideological differences, all-but-forgotten slights and painful memories become near-lethal weapons in a war of wit and words that threatens to shatter the entire family.

This fall, Jon Robin Baitz's compelling drama Other Desert Cities comes to City Lights Theater Company's intimate stage, helmed by veteran director John McCluggage. Performances are Sept. 22- Oct. 23 at 529 S. Second St. in San Jose's SoFA arts district. For details and tickets, go to cltc.org or call 408-295-4200.

Other Desert Cities, first seen as a staged reading at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in 2010, debuted on Broadway in 2011. There, its cast included Judith Light, who won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play; and Stockard Channing, nominated for Best Actress in a Play. Other Desert Cities was also nominated for Best Play, and, in 2012, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

"All family reunions should be this satisfying," pronounced the New York Times' Ben Brantley, naming the production a Critics' Pick.

The City Lights production is led by John McCluggage, directing here for the first time. McCluggage was Associate Artistic Director at San Jose Repertory Theatre from 1989 to 2006, founded Red Ladder Theatre Company in 1992, and now produces and directs ShakesBEERience, a quarterly, free, informal staged reading held at Café Stritch in San Jose. He has more than 30 years of experience as a director, actor and teaching artist.

Cast: Lauren Tothero (Brooke Wyeth), Mary Gibboney (Polly Wyeth), Jeff Kramer (Lyman Wyeth), Karen Dehart (Silda Grauman) and Sean Okuniewicz (Trip Wyeth).

Designers: Ron Gasparinetti (Scenic), Amy Zsadanyi-Yale Chase (Costumes), Nick Kumamoto (Lighting), George Psarras (Sound Design), Miranda Whipple (Props).

For tickets or more information, go to cltc.org or call 408-295-4200. The theater is wheelchair-accessible.