METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY THEATRE

32150 Candlewood (at Ramon—1 blk. from Landau Bridge)
Cathedral City, CA
Tel. for Reservations: (760) 328-3591
Website: http://tinyurl.com/73wz2

CONTACT: Wendy Cohen  (760) 327-7949,  (760) 799-3117

For Immediate Release

Sunday, October 16, 2005

LOCAL PRODUCTION OF INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED PLAY

Brisk, Witty Social Satire to be Presented at the Metropolitan Community Theatre

From October 28 to November 19, 2005

 
Cathedral City, California —TIJUANA LADY, a two-act, internationally-produced play, will be presented at the newest theater in the Desert, The Metropolitan Community Theatre, and will open on Friday, October 28 at 8 p.m.

            TIJUANA LADY concerns Clytee de Khoont, an exotic and glamorous porn star who returns home for her father’s funeral in a small town in Arkansas. The only problem is when she left home a few years back her name was Clyde and she was a man. Now thanks to gender reassignment surgery, she is a dynamic woman who sets her home town on its ear. She quickly goes about righting a lot of wrongs done to her in the past by her greedy and hypocritical family and neighbors. If you are a fan of SORDID LIVES, you’ll love TIJUANA LADY. This is one sex change epic that blows the lid off of a certain small, southern town with hilarious consequences.   

The International Herald Tribune has this to say about TIJUANA LADY: “Jack Fitzgerald, the author of TIJUANA LADY, has an uncanny knack of capturing American types and speech. It is in their conversations and present-day mores that Fitzgerald’s talent shines. Fitzgerald is so adept with a pen he can make the improbable seem believable, utterly believable.”       

            Jack Fitzgerald, playwright and screenwriter, who retired from Los Angeles to Palm Springs five years ago, is a founding board member of The Desert Pride Center, the Coachella Valley’s GLBT outreach center. Fitzgerald is the author of the novel Contessa as well as many plays and screenplays. He resided for nine years in Paris where he established the only permanent English language theater there, The Paris English Theater. This past year an anthology entitled PARIS PLAYS was published and contains all nine plays of his which had their original production in Paris. TIJUANA LADY is one of those.

Fitzgerald was raised in Mississippi and comes from a family of writers, poets and historians. In addition to being a prolific playwright and screenwriter, he is also an actor, linguist and educator. He attended Mississippi State University, Middlebury College, Cambridge University, the Sorbonne and the University of Madrid. On TV he was seen in the series ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE and has appeared in many television commercials. He has acted in films and on stage in France, Mexico, Cuba and the USA and has written screenplays in both Paris and Hollywood. He sees life as a serious circus and in his writings, combines the deadly serious with the comic.

            TIJUANA LADY is directed by Wendy Cohen, the Artistic Director of The Metropolitan Community Theatre. Not only does she direct, she acts, sings opera as well as show tunes, choreographs, and "has done way too much puppetry." She's written and directed five children's plays and twelve puppet shows, as well as having written the music and lyrics for them. Recently in November 2004, she started the Metropolitan Community Theater, which is an outreach ministry of the Metropolitan Community Church. Last year she produced four plays and directed Last Summer at Blue Fish Cove, Oleanna and Agnes of God.  She was nominated by the Desert Theater League for Best Director for Blue Fish and Agnes. Three of the shows she produced last season have been nominated for Best Overall Production. Her most recent acting gig was playing the role of Sissy in Sordid Lives at the Palm Canyon Theater last year. After TIJUANA LADY, she's looking forward to directing Corpus Christi by Terrence McNalley, which opens in February, followed by Gertrude Stein and a Companion in the spring.

            All are invited to come and spend a fun evening of live theater at The Metropolitan Community Theatre located at 32150 Candlewood—at Ramon and one block from the Landau Bridge. Tickets are $15. Reservations at 328-3591 are suggested.

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