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Scene: Los Angeles (Fall 2007)

“Scene” is AfterEllen.com’s monthly (usually) series of articles focusing on the lesbian happenings in a town near you – and now with quarterly trips to Los Angeles. For previous installments, go here.

When you think of Los Angeles, brush fires, striking screenwriters and gridlock may be the first few things that come to mind these days. But none of that is enough to slow down the endless pursuit of glamour, good times and, yes, sometimes even meaningful art in our sunny city. This month we check out a slew of premieres, performances and parties at which bi and lesbian women take center stage.

Scene 1: Premiere of Season 3 of Dante’s Cove Regent Showcase Theater, Oct. 16

The third season of here! TV’s supernatural soap Dante’s Cove was celebrated in Los Angeles with a star-studded premiere, complete with red carpet and paparazzi. You may be thinking, “A red carpet event centered around a television show? Really?” But trust me, it worked. And would the gays have it any other way?

Series stars Thea Gill, Michelle Wolff, Jenny Shimizu, Jill Bennett and Tracy Scoggins were in attendance and no doubt basked in the love – and light razzing for all of the campy badness – from the screening audience. While in previous seasons the show has focused much more on male characters, the third season features lesbian characters, lesbian treachery and yes, even some lesbian sex!

The audience adored Scoggins for playing the role of disgruntled witch Grace to the hilt (think Gina Gershon as Cristal in Showgirls), but appeared to be a bit baffled by the unlikely pairing of Wolff and Shimizu as lovers. And there was enough eye candy to go around for all, with Skinemax-like sex scenes (mostly between the guys) lurking around every corner of the episode. The crowd that night loved the trashtasticness of it all, and howled its collective approval as the credits rolled. At the premiere, I also talked to Cathy DeBuono (Exes & Ohs, Out at the Wedding), who is currently shooting indie lesbian film And Then Came Lola with Bennett. After waxing poetic about the pleasure she took in seeing her co-star (and poker nemesis) in demonic contact lenses in the Dante’s premiere, she gave me an update on the production of Lola.

“We shot a few exteriors in late October and we’re going back to San Francisco to shoot the interiors in the last week of November,” DeBuono said. “That’s when the bulk of my work will happen. Things have been changing and evolving, and one thing about writers/directors Megan [Siler] and Ellen [Seidler] is that they have been wide open to input from the actors since day one. That’s been nice. It’s left us room, as actors, to find what might be there organically and not just married to the page.” Since DeBuono last spoke with AfterEllen.com, she has also taken on the role of associate producer for the short film The Touch (based on the true story of English poet Renée Vivien’s love affair with the Muslim wife of a Turkish diplomat), which opened at the Northampton Independent Film Festival in early November.

Also at the premiere was South of Nowhere star Maeve Quinlan, who said of the episode of Dante’s that we had just seen: “It was fun and campy and fantastic. The only negative thing was that Jill had her clothes on the whole time. Though as one of the only straight women at this premiere, even I haven’t seen that much naked willy in my whole life! But it’ll be my new guilty pleasure … and my new favorite show to base a drinking game on.” While South of Nowhere is currently on hiatus, Quinlan has been busy with other projects, including a new lesbian web pilot 3-Way (see The Bad Seed section below for more info), the Lifetime movie Primal Doubt with Janine Turner (which airs in December), and the feature film Not Easily Broken with Morris Chestnut (Boyz n the Hood) and Taraji P. Henson (Hustle & Flow). So you’ll have to savor your dose of Maeve via “television for women” until SON returns in February 2008.

The splashy after-party for the premiere was held at the club Eleven in West Hollywood and featured some very flexible go-go dancers and nifty gift bags. People lined up in droves to snatch up the commemorative Dante’s Cove underwear!

Scene 2: Wrap party for The Bad Seed Burbank Moose Lodge, Nov. 3

You’ve probably seen the movie, you probably haven’t seen the play, and you definitely haven’t seen anything like the very gay version of the camp classic produced by the Buzzworks Theater Company in Los Angeles.

The cast included three out lesbian actresses who’ve worked consistently in the Los Angeles theatrical community for years: Maile Flanagan and Melissa Denton (both playing the role of as Miss Fern on alternate nights), and Linda Miller (as Mrs. Breedlove). On some nights, the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Daigle were played by Mo Collins of Mad TV fame. (Mr. Daigle was actually a sock puppet, just in case you’re wondering how she pulled off that feat.)

While the original play (based on a novel) wasn’t specifically written as a gay production back in 1954, it was banned by the Legion of Decency for gay references and allusions to Freudian theory that made many people then a little bit, well, nervous.

This version, however, was decidedly queer. Rhoda Penmark, the Bad Seed herself, was played by a man, Danny Schmitz, and the other actors took full advantage of opportunities to play their scenes gay (and bawdy!) at every turn. Denton wore a Girl Scout uniform and decidedly butch wig in her part, while Miller told me, “My first priority was to have a camel toe, because every lesbian should have one.” For her part, Flanagan said she “shoved [fellow cast mate] Andrea Hutchman‘s hands down my pants. That’s pretty gay, right?” At the wrap party for the show – held at the very glamorous Burbank Moose Lodge – I caught up with Flanagan, who last year won an Emmy for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for her work in PBS’ Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks.

I asked her what she had been up to lately, and I’m happy to say that she just may be the James Brown of lesbian entertainment (in terms of her being the hardest working lesbian, not in terms of her wearing a cape or doing any particularly fancy footwork). She told me that she had been nominated for an Emmy again this year but had lost to Eartha Kitt (“If I’ve gotta lose to somebody, I’m happy it’s Eartha Kitt”), and she also appeared in the films Evan Almighty and The Number 23.

Flanagan was all over the tube too. She had a recurring role on The Class (“That was a fun show; it should have never been cancelled”), appeared in a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, and can soon be seen in the new season of Comedy Central’s genius Reno 911! She said of the Reno gig: “I play a very hostile owner of a strip club. It was so hard to keep a straight face with those guys, they’re all so brilliant.”

She’s currently filming the new Jim Carrey flick, Yes Man (“On the set I met Julie Andrews. She was very nice and asked me if I’d like a cup of tea. So I can pretty much retire now”), and she recently shot a TV pilot, Men and Wife, that also stars out actor Jane Lynch.

Men and Wife is an improvised comedy created by the same beautifully twisted folks who gave us Lovespring International (R.I.P.), and the producers will soon be shopping it around to the networks. With that pedigree, I’m already crossing my fingers that the show will get picked up. Flanagan, Miller and Denton can be seen together again in the upcoming production of the annually produced (and notoriously inappropriate) comedy Bob’s Holiday Office Party, which opens in Los Angeles Nov. 29. Flanagan told me that they will play incestuous triplets – or more specifically, incestuous lesbian triplets, because “the more we drink, the gayer we get.” Eww.

Out writer/producer Nancylee Myatt (formerly of South of Nowhere), who arrived fresh from a costume party decked out in full Tonto regalia, was the lucky winner of the raffle prize: a PlayStation 2 and 10 random games. She collected the booty and said: “This will come in handy now that we writers are on strike. We’ll be PlayStation experts when it is settled … if we don’t hock it on eBay for beer money.” After the excitement of the video haze had faded, I spoke to her about what she’s been doing since her tenure at South of Nowhere ended. She told me: “Going to the track and betting away my unemployment check. Oh wait, you mean work? Well, I sold a pilot to ABC Family with Ralph Macchio – you know, the Karate Kid!”

She was most excited about her latest endeavor. “We just shot a web pilot presentation that I’m co-producing and writing called 3-Way, starring Maeve Quinlan, Jill Bennett, Maile Flanagan and Cathy Shim,” she reported. “It’s a comedy – a lesbian Three’s Company – and we’ll be rolling it out in January. It’s a presentation for advertisers and networks. If we can get an audience to show up now, we’ll have a shot at producing the series and hopefully jumping to a network. So we’ll let you know when we have something to see.”

Myatt said she hoped that lesbian viewers will support the show. “It’s hard to get lesbian content on the air,” she pointed out. “We need to prove there is an audience.”

Scene 3: The world premiere of Park ArcLight Hollywood, Oct. 30

You know there are slim pickings when it comes to lesbian representation in film and television if (1) you read AfterEllen.com, and/or (2) the premiere of an indie film featuring a character who is just barely a lesbian is a Big Deal.

That indie film, for which AfterEllen.com was invited to the red carpet premiere, is Park, a slice-of-life ensemble piece featuring Ricki Lake and Cheri Oteri as Peggy and Claire, best friends and partners in vengeance against Peggy’s obnoxious cheating husband, Dennis. They spend most of the movie in Peggy’s car, watching Dennis rattle around in his so-large-it-must-be-because-he’s-overcompensating SUV with a Polish nymph and wondering why both of their love lives are so disastrous.

Claire suggests that maybe their relationships with men aren’t working because they’re lesbians, so they kiss each other in order to test her theory. One of them feels the love and is soon embarking on a journey to West Hollywood to find a gay bar and maybe even a girlfriend. It’s kind of like Thelma and Louise – if they had just parked the convertible and made out instead of going on a crime spree and killing themselves.

At the premiere, I shoved my way in amongst the paparazzi (a grumpy lot who, for what it’s worth, started the shoving in the first place) and snapped photos of stars Ricki Lake, Cheri Oteri and – my personal favorite – Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman. (I have no idea why he was there, but I’m glad that he was. And I’m proud to say that I resisted the urge to say to him, “I know you are, but what am I?” for the sake of my professional reputation.)

I want to take this opportunity to say that Ricki Lake is a hottie! I had no idea. She looks great and was very gracious with the press. Of course, I may be biased because she will always be little Tracy Turnblad from the film Hairspray (the original version – the good one!) to me. But don’t take my word for it; check out the photos from the premiere. The premiere was entertaining and the movie was actually pretty good, but my adventures in journalism were interrupted several times by surly security folks who kept pulling me out of the ranks, asking for my credentials, and eyeballing my AfterEllen.com business card as if I were a 16-year-old trying to buy a bottle of Boone’s Farm. Each time they returned with my increasingly rumpled little card in hand, saying, “OK, you’re cleared.”

A couple of nights later, the ArcLight hosted the red carpet premiere of Lions for Lambs, starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and Tom Cruise. For some reason, I wasn’t invited. But I’m sure it would have been a different story if they had gotten a look at my business card.

Scene 4: Parallel Lives The Complex, Nov. 4

Back in 1991, when the feminist comedy Parallel Lives – written and performed by openly bisexual actor/writer Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney – made its debut, the George Bush era political climate was still rather grim for LGBT people.

It was well before there were multiple celezbian comings out (Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, Ellen DeGeneres), and lesbian characters and story lines were, for the most part, a rarity on network television and in feature films. (Hmm, maybe the times aren’t so different now after all.) Which is what made Parallel Lives such a clever little treat of a play.

And it still is. A revival of the play by the Bridge West Theater Company opened this month, and it handily maintains the irreverent spirit of the original. In a series of vignettes, Parallel Lives examines the impact of gender roles and sexual stereotypes on everything from relationships to religion, and in a variety of settings ranging from Heaven to Denny’s.

The actors in this two-woman show, Gioia Marchese and Emily Schweitz, attacked the roles with zest, bringing a wonderful physicality to the stage. Each played a diverse group of characters (little girls, teenagers, senior citizens) and brought savvy and compassion to their roles.

There were several standout moments for me in the play, including the vignette “Hank and Karen Sue,” about a woman avoiding her life by hiding out in a honkytonk with a barfly guy who both vexes and amuses her (“You look very, very pretty tonight … Tell me something, sweetmeat. When you gonna leave that old boss man and marry me?”).

Another favorite was the vignette “Las Hermanas,” about two senior citizens who go on a field trip to an all-natural restaurant with their women’s studies class and experience some unintentionally hilarious lesbian-feminist performance art (“Sister Woman Sister!”). The writing is top-notch and has successfully withstood the passage of nearly two decades, and I was shocked by how many of the lines I remembered from seeing the show back in 1991 on cable TV. At the time, it was like nothing I had ever seen on television before, and the feminist sentiments espoused in it are still not often heard in the realm of entertainment today.

Unfortunately, since the political atmosphere has once again taken a turn that is decidedly conservative, the themes of the play are as relevant today as they were in 1991. Director Elina de Santos told me: “It speaks to everyone, including gay and lesbian audiences, and makes some heterosexuals say, ‘what’s wrong with you?’ if they have any negative feelings [about gay people]. It’s a good wake-up piece.”

The show runs through Dec. 9 and benefits the East L.A. Domestic Violence Shelter. For more info, visit the Parallel Lives MySpace page.

Scene 5: Promising Writers Series A Different Light Bookstore, West Hollywood, Nov. 7 The Promising Series, held at A Different Light Bookstore in West Hollywood, is the only reading series in Los Angeles that exclusively features LGBT writers. This month, host Noël Alumit (Letters to Montgomery Clift, Talking to the Moon ) welcomed a standing room-only crowd to hear work read by Terry Wolverton, Don Cummings, Collins Carter and Carlos Cabrera.

Terry Wolverton, representing “established” out women writers that night, is the author of six books (Embers, Insurgent Muse, Bailey’s Beads, Black Slip, Mystery Bruise and Shadow and Praise) and the editor of 14 literary anthologies (including Mischief, Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies). She is also the founder of Writers at Work, a creative writing center in Los Angeles where she teaches fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry.

For the series at A Different Light, Wolverton read “Waste,” a meditation on garbage from a book of essays about “the spiritual dimensions of our social problems.” Later, she told me about her forthcoming novel, The Labrys Reunion. “It gathers together feminists who were young and active in the ’70s with a group of young women in the mid-1990s,” she said. “They come together over a tragedy – a young woman is raped and murdered. There’s kind of a collision of values around how they want to respond to what’s happened. And it looks at the difference between the perceptions of the generations at that period of time.”

Collins Carter, the “up-and-coming” out woman writer of the evening, is a former actress, stand-up comedian and morning show host for an alternative radio station. She’s working on a collection of short stories and preparing her “psychological literary novel,” Eating the Apple, for publication.

Carter read an excerpt from Eating the Apple, which is set in Manhattan in the 1930s and explores a love triangle between protagonist Muriel Weston, her partner Evie and young writer Claire. I asked Carter why she set her novel in the 1930s, and she told me: “I think that era is very similar to today, but it’s much more honest in its subversiveness. It’s not so politicized. It wasn’t shrouded in secrecy, so everybody knew what was going on. There wasn’t that diplomacy, that political correctness, that really veils the honesty and some of the malicious intent with some of the rhetoric that goes on.

“So I really wanted it to be an era that I thought was wild and had the same type of behavior that we have today, but that wasn’t shrouded in secrecy. All the great writers that I respect came out of that era – Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Djuna Barnes, all those people that broke down barriers. The next big era was the beat era, but they all looked to those people.”

I don’t know if it was the subject matter or Carter’s impassioned reading, but as I listened, I kept thinking that Eating the Apple would make a great movie. Yeah, yeah, I know that we’re already up to our ears in quality lesbian cinema, but 1930s-era costumes and music combined with a lesbian love triangle? Think Anaïs and June, but set in New York City. And with another girl. See what I mean?

And you thought L.A. was only about starlets.

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