Rainbow Theatre Project to Present Paul Rudnick's JEFFREY, 5/16

The Rainbow Theatre Project's 2015/16 Generation Q Staged Reading Series closes with a presentation the award-winning Jeffrey by Paul Rudnick. The reading takes place Monday, May 16, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. at Source in the District.

Jeffrey, a gay actor/waiter, has sworn off sex after too many bouts with his partners about what is "safe" and what is not. In gay New York, though, sex is not something you can avoid. Whether catering a ditzy socialite's "Hoe-down for AIDS" or cruising at a funeral; at the gym or in the back rooms of an anonymous sex club; at the annual Gay Pride Parade, or in the libidinous hands of a father-confessor, Jeffrey finds the pursuit of love and just plain old physical gratification to be the number-one preoccupation of his times - and the source of plenty of hilarity. Suddenly, just after he's reconciled himself to celibacy, Jeffrey's flamboyant friends introduce him to the man of his dreams, who also happens to be HIV-positive.

For Producing Artistic Director, H. Lee Gable, Jeffrey is a play that marked an important shift in the LGBTQ community: "The early 1990s were a pivotal time. We had been living under the cloud of AIDS and right wing persecution for over ten years. After being ignored by our government, our community banded together to take care of ourselves, and each other. People were no longer thought to be 'dying from AIDS,' but rather 'living with AIDS.' Living - with all the tears and laughter that come from a community rallying around itself. That's what we did. That is what Jeffrey is about."

Robert Mintz makes his Rainbow Theatre Project directing debut with Jeffrey. Mintz, a prolific musical theater performer up and down the east coast, has been seen locally at Arena Stage, Olney Theatre Center and with RTP last season in YANK!

Jeffrey features some of the DC-area's busiest performers including Sam Ludwig (Olney Theatre Center, Signature Theatre) and Elan Zafir (Ford's Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company), who make their RTP debuts as Jeffrey and his would-be lover, Steve. Joe Peck (Olney Theatre Center, Signature Theatre) and Mark Chandler (Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre) play Jeffrey's friends Sterling and Darius, while Jay Adriel (Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company), Maria Elger (Ford's Theatre, Signature Theatre), Jobari Parker-Namdar (Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center) and Ethan Watermeier (Olney Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company) round out the cast.