About the Play
Gary hopes to re-connect with his estranged older sister Kay, who is visiting Kansas City, where Gary now lives, for an academic conference. Gary lives with Eytan, who was Kay’s high school best friend; now Eytan and Kay hate each other. Eytan and Gary write humorous songs which Gary sings as a character called Ovaria Strange. Kay considers drag to be misogynist: a caricature of women – a kind of minstrel show. Eytan considers Kay a humorless feminist spouting tiresome theory and jargon, ridiculously teaching African-American studies when she’s white, (which is also a kind of minstrel show, he argues), though Kay is married to Curtis, who’s black, and Eytan has a problem with Kay teaching Women & Gender Studies when (he contends) she’s too uptight and homophobic to talk to college kids about gender.
Directed by Lori Muhlstein
Produced by A. J. Campbell, Quarantine Players
Musical Director Mikayla Trimpey
Musical Arrangement: Matthew Scarborough
Our Cast
Sara Lucchini
(Kay) Sara Lucchini is an East Coast native who migrated West to the sun and sea of San Diego 8 years ago. She last performed on stage in La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival with Blindspot Collective’s Hall Pass, and has been grateful for the opportunities to continue to perform safely via Zoom in Quarantine Player’s Spooky Saturday, Wildly Successful Theatre Company’s Guilty Party, and others. Sara looks forward to returning to the stage and wishes everyone safety and sanity in the meantime!.
Trevor Butler
(Curtis) Trevor Butler is an alumnus of the School at Steppenwolf in 2014, and the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University in 2016. Being grateful is an understatement for him making his debut with The Quarantine Players as Curtis in The Politics of Fabulousness. AJ Campbell is a treasure of a producer, Lori Muhlstein is a prayer of a director, and Judy Klass is a blessing for this heaven-sent play he’s been gifted to be a part of.
Cameron Lee Conlan
(Gary and Ovaria Strange) Cameron Lee Conlan has been performing since the age of twelve when he starred as Lysander in his school play. Since then he has trained in musical theatre, Shakespeare, improv and stand-up comedy. Some of his credits include Dauntless in “Once Upon a Mattress”, Jack in “Into the Woods”, Iago in “Othello”, Frank-n-furter in “The Rocky Horror Show”, Rooster in “Annie” along with stand up appearances in NYC at the Greenwich Village Comedy Club, Broadway Comedy Club, and performing in the “YAS Queer Comedy Fest”.
Michael K. Young
(Eytan) Mike is very happy to be working with the Quarantine Players in The Politics of Fabulousness. He really enjoys playing an argumentative asshole in this show, a part he plays all too often in real life. Mike has decades of improv theatre experience and has performed with a number of community theaters in Virginia. Mike has previously been seen in Diamonds to Die For, Dead Tuesday, Fatal Error, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Urinetown The Musical.
Director’s Notes
I was drawn to this play because while it explores the necessary and critical issues of our time, it all comes down to the need for family, acceptance, understanding, and love. These are things basic to every human experience and the characters in this play are no exception. It also shows us that like people, relationships are complicated and flawed and sometimes don’t work out the way we hope. You’ll learn a lot from the dialogue, you’ll be touched by the humanity of the people (and wonderful acting by our players), and thoroughly entertained by Ovaria Strange. Thank you Judy and Quarantine Players for entrusting me to direct this reading. Thank you, Cameron, Sara, Mike, and Trevor for your talent to bringing it to life. About Judy Klass Eight of Judy’s full-length plays have been produced. One, Cell, was nominated for an Edgar and is published by Samuel French/Concord. Country Fried Murder won the S.O.P.S. competition and was produced at the Shawnee Playhouse in Pennsylvania. Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One won the Dorothy Silver Award. Thirty-six of her one-act plays have been produced, many with multiple productions, all over the country, and a few have gone up in the UK and Ireland. Three are slated to be produced in Canada. Three of Judy’s short plays are published, each as a stand-alone script, by Brooklyn Publishers. Some of her short plays have become podcasts. Filmed versions of several can be viewed on the Shelter Plays platform. Her plays have been published in Seven Hills Review, the Rockhurst Review, The Courtship of Winds, The Art of the One-Act — and one is in press in The Best New Ten-Minute Plays 2021. Website: http://www.judy-klass.com NPX: https://newplayexchange.org/users/534…
About the Quarantine Players
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We can all sit around and list off the problems with modern theater so I won’t bore you with a recitation of facts we all largely agree upon. The Quarantine Players are a scrappy theater start-up that is in a position to break all the rules. We were told we can’t put out new work all the time. Yes, we can you just have to treat playwrights like we matter, make them part of the process, and value our input. We are your source for new plays from amazing playwrights. Each week we choose a new play to read for you. We are different because we involve the playwright in every step of the process. Most of our writers will attend all the rehearsals and provide feedback along the way. We don’t just honor playwrights by waiting till their work goes into the Public domain so we don’t have to pay them. We prefer our playwrights to still have their pulse.
Quarantine Players 