Dezart Performs Wins Nine Desert Stars Awards
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Dezart Performs Wins Nine Desert Stars Awards
Maytag Virgin scores seven including Outstanding Production Comedy Professional,
Best Director and Best Actor & Actress
Awards also for Perfect Arrangement and Church & State
12th Season for Dezart Performs Opens November 8 with Hand to God
14 October 2019 – Palm Springs, CA: Heading into its 12th landmark season, the acclaimed Dezart Performs won nine Desert Star Awards at last night’s 32nd Annual Desert Theatre League Awards. Of the nine, including the categories of Outstanding Production Comedy (Professional), Director, Lead Actor and Actress, and Set, Sound and Lighting Design, Audry Cefaly’s Southern romantic comedy Maytag Virginracked up the majority with Dezart Performs also winning Best Lead Actor in a Drama (Professional) for its production of Church & Stateand Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Professional) for Perfect Arrangement. In three weeks, Dezart Performs will open the season with the raucous Tony Award nominated dark comedy Hand to God by Robert Askins (November 8 – 17).
“Love won,” laughed Dezart Performs Founding Artistic Director Michael Shaw referring to last season’s unabashedly romantic Maytag Virgin. “Plus, political debate with a touch of levity and a comedic take on the ‘lavender scare’ of the 1950s rounded out a winning season for us. We’re so grateful to the incredible talents that made all this possible: onstage, backstage and in our audience.”
The complete list of Desert Theatre League / Desert Star Awards winners for Dezart Performs are as follows:
Outstanding Production – Comedy – Professional
Maytag Virgin
Outstanding Director of a Comedy – Professional
Deborah Harmon, Maytag Virgin
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy – Professional
Joel Bryant, Maytag Virgin
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy – Professional
Kay Capasso, Maytag Virgin
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy – Professional
Yo Younger, Perfect Arrangement
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama – Professional
Beau Marie, Church & State
Outstanding Set Design – Professional
Thomas L. Valach, Maytag Virgin
Outstanding Sound Design – Professional
Clark Dugger, Maytag Virgin
Outstanding Lighting Design – Professional
Phil Murphy, Maytag Virgin
Dezart Performs, one of the Coachella Valley’s preeminent theatre companies, recognizes that the performing arts enrich the life and culture of a community, promote greater understanding and provoke insightful discussion. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit theatre company, its mission is to provide an artistic home for bold and cutting–edge plays, creating an atmosphere of artistic growth for actors, writers, and directors who uniquely contribute to the diverse theatrical environment in the Coachella Valley.
Season package prices: (4-Show Season Packages $124-164; 3-Show Season Packages $96-126)
All performances take place at the Pearl McManus Theater (at the historic Palm Springs Woman’s Club) 314 S Cahuilla Road, Downtown Palm Springs. Tickets may be purchased online at www.dezartperforms.org, or by calling (760) 322-0179.
12th Dezart Performs Complete Season Listing
HAND TO GOD
Written by Robert Askins
Directed by Michael Shaw
Dark comedy
November 8-17, 2019
The Tony-nominated Broadway hit comedy, where The Exorcist Meets Sesame Street! “HAND TO GOD is so ridiculously raunchy, irreverent and funny it’s bound to leave you sore from laughing. Ah, hurts so good.” —New York Daily News
After the death of his father, meek Jason finds an outlet for his anxiety at the Christian Puppet Ministry in the devoutly religious, relatively quiet small town of Cypress, Texas. Jason’s complicated relationships with the town pastor, the school bully, the girl next door, and—most especially—his mother are thrown into upheaval when Jason’s puppet, Tyrone, takes on a shocking and dangerously irreverent personality all its own. (note: for mature audiences)
* * *
DANIEL’S HUSBAND
Written by Michael McKeever
Drama
January 10-19, 2020
Off-Broadway’s Latest Hit Drama! One of The New York Times plays to see! “A profound look at love and commitment.” —The Daily Beast
Daniel and Mitchell are the perfect couple. Perfect house, perfect friends – even a mother who wants them married. They’d have the perfect wedding, too, except that Mitchell doesn’t believe in gay marriage. A turn of events puts their perfect life in jeopardy, and Mitchell is thrust into a future where even his love may not prove to be enough. DANIEL’S HUSBAND is a bold reflection of love, commitment, and family in our perilous new world. Starring WHITE GUY ON THE BUS’ David Youse and Dezart Performs Artistic Director, Michael Shaw.
* * *
SWEAT
Written by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Michael Shaw
Drama
February 28-March 8, 2020
Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize. SWEAT exposes the collapse of the American working class in the new millennium. “Sharp and threatening as a box cutter blade…ferociously engrossing…SWEAT never feels less than authentic—and crucial.” —Deadline.com
It’s the year 2000 in Reading, Pennsylvania and a group of friends go to work at the steel mill and then decompress at the bar like they’ve been doing for over 20 years. But, unbeknownst to them, their lives are about to be uprooted. Their steel mill is making some changes and the blood, sweat and tears of generations of loyal workers don’t seem to amount to much. SWEAT dissects the insidiousness of privilege and entitlement, reminding you that there’s always someone on a lower plane to blame for your troubles, and there will always be someone who stands to profit from your loss.
* * *
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
Written by Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe
Directed by Deborah Harmon
Comedy/Drama
April 3-12, 2020
“A heart-wrenching, hilarious play…One of the funniest plays you’ll ever see about depression—and possibly one of the funniest plays you’ll ever see, full stop!” —The Guardian
You’re six years old. Mom’s in the hospital. Dad says she’s “done something stupid.” She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Burning things. 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose. 5. Construction cranes. 6. Me. You leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling. Soon, the list will take on a life of its own. A play about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love.